Crazy for Me (Under Heavy Editing!), V.A. Monaghan [reading in the dark .txt] 📗

she would. This girl had kept me up all night though. But it wasn't her touching me or anything. This girl snores. Not really loud but loud enough to keep me up. I thought it was kind of funny though. Who knew a sound so bad could come from a girl so pretty.
I struggled to get up and to the bathroom. When I did get there, Natalie was hoggin up the bathroom. She was all bouncy and happy and stuff. How did people do that? The sun wasn't even up yet.
“Just go. Pretend like I'm not even here. I have to keep straitening my hair otherwise it's gonna be crazy.” she told me.
So, being the half asleep idiot I was, I dropped my drawers with her still talking to me. I hadn't realized what I had done until it was too late and I didn't wanna seem like a fool. I played it off like I did on purpose. She did a double-take and she blushed a little bit. Then she turned back to the mirror and began talking to me about finding a job.
“Don't bother. I'll pay my mom for you. Just focus on school. You have four months till you graduate.”
“Tate...it's fine-” She started.
“No. I'll cover your rent. I don't want you getting caught up in your work and droppin out like I did. Dumbest thing I've ever done...and I've done a lot of bad things. Chapter 4

Natalie's POV

I woke up before my alarm went off. Tate was sprawled on the full sized bed beside me. I thought that I'd get my own room but I was okay with this. I looked at his body as he slept peacefully. The scar on his face wasn't as strained. There was a thick barbed wire tattoo around his right bicep and a cross with the name Tracy on it on the left side of his chest. His body was toned, that's for sure. Too bad it was always covered by one of his baggy shirts. His hair was a dark brown, darker than mine even, and it was cut short...kind of in a preppy boy fashion. I couldn't help but giggle a little, thinking of him as a preppy little kid.
I glanced at the clock and realized I had to wake him up in 10 minutes. I jumped up and grabbed a dark purple tank that said Fox on it in big sparkly letters and a black, pleated mini skirt. I put in all on in record time and changed into a lacy pair of undies from the boy shorts I had been wearing.
“Tate...Tate!” he grumbled a little bit from being woken up, “It's time to get up. Remember...you have to take me to school.”
He finally opened his eyes all the way even though he was obviously still half asleep. I went into the bathroom and put on my make up and had just started to straighten my hair when a still tired Tate walked in.
“I gotta take a piss.” he mumbled
“Just go. Pretend like I'm not even here. I've gotta keep straightening my hair otherwise it's gonna be crazy.”
Instead of walking over and standing at the toilet with his back to me like a normal guy, he dropped his shorts. I was in shock and could help but look at him up and down. I could feel my mouth fall open. I felt myself blush really bad but I blew it off when he seemed not to care. Even though I'm a bad ass, I had never seen any of a guys...business. I wanted to save my innocence for the right moment. Tate had kind of half ruined it. If whoever my first time was with had one that size, I'd be freaked out of my mind.
Trying to change the subject, I started babbling about getting a job. Tate basically told me to shut up. He said he'd pay his mom and for me to focus on school. He doesn't understand that I've focused on school for my whole life. I'll be graduating a year early and I declined when they offered to have me skip my freshman year too. I had a scholarship from NYU waiting for me and I was only going to school right now to get some of my prerequisites out of the way. I tried to get him to understand but he didn't listen. Whatever. He just needed to hurry up and get ready.
We finally got out the door with 15 minutes for me to make it to school. He opened up my door for me and then got in. With his driving, we made it there within 10 minutes. People stared as he got out and opened my door.
“If your brother shows up, call me.” He said in a low voice.
“Alright, but I don't have your number...” I said hinting.
He grinned at me and said, “ I put it in there already .”

I smiled back at him and turned to make my way to Albany Central High School. People still stared at me when I walked through the doors. They were in shock and I couldn't blame them. I was loner. I had no friends and I was quiet. I was okay looking but I knew they were wondering how I got it in with a guy like Tate. He was good looking and he repped. Of course I was wondering the same as them...

Tate's POV

I waited until she was just about to walk through the doors before getting back into my car. I knew people were starin at us. They always did. It didn't help that we're not the same color. But the fact that a few of the guys that go here were under my control made me feel okay with leaving her here with her brother runnin the streets. I could send out a hit. If he gets within 10 feet of her, he'd get some ballistic therapy.
My phone went off. It was Jonjon's ringtone. I sighed but answered anyways. Nobody ignores Jonjon.
"Ay boss. What's up?"
"Haha I didn't think you'd be up yet. I thought you'd still be in bed with that girl from last night. Hahaha." He joked.
"Naw man. She moved in with me. He brother's beatin on her.

I needed to know what he wanted. I had to call around and make sure we had people watching Natalie and I had to call my man at the police department to tell me if her brother ever tried, or tries, to call me in.
“Anyways, we got some cold footers down on Bay Street. Go down there and warm them up a bit. If they still don't wanna run with us, take care of it.”
“Check.” I said before hanging up.
I never liked dealing with cold footers. Most of them were around 13 or 14. They were just boys lookin for something stable. Honestly, no matter what the police and school tell you, being in a gang is stability. Well it is as long as you do what your told. Now if you go snitchin to the cops or another gang, you got trouble. Sometimes it isn't till you're already in lock up, but it's even worse there cuz then your stuck with them everyday unless you or them get moved. Most of them got it worse than me. Their parents beat up on them, their parents did drugs, they didn't have parents, their step parents or aunts or uncles molested them...I had it good compared to them. I had problems with my family, everybody did. Mine just weren't very bad. Dad left me, my mom, and my sister for some skank he was screwin on the side. So instead of living in a neighborhood like Natalie's, like we used to, mom, Tracy, and I moved here, to the ghetto.
I went to our meeting house on Bay Street. Nico and Joshie were sittin outside smokin. I hated it when I used to have to “smoke”. All smokin meant was that you sat outside and looked for anything funny. It wasn't the part where you'd have to be outside in any weather to watch. It was the smoking part. Even the sight of smoke would make me nauseous. But we all had to do it. It was somethin you did when you'd been in for a little bit, but not long enough to be trusted with business.
They nodded to me when I walked up and opened the door to let me in. I went into the living room where five rooks sat there lookin scared shitless. When they saw me, they looked confused but even more scared. Neither reaction surprised me. They were confused cuz I was white and they were scared cuz of how big I was. I sat down in the recliner and leaned back.
“Any of you boys hungry? No? Okay...Nico!” I called.
Nico came jogging in.
“Yeah boss?”
“Go get me a box of them damned ho-ho's you got me hooked on.”
Nico tried not to grin and walked away, towards the kitchen.
“Now,” I said turning to the boys, “I heard you boys are getting cold feet. That right?”
One of them nodded a little bit but the others looked at me like they just peed themselves.
“Don't worry about it. We all do at one point. I was sittin in this same room a few years ago. Jonjon, you'll call him boss, was the OG back then. He was the one who came and talked me and a couple other guys into staying. It's more than you realize right now. It's a brotherhood, a family. A family who sticks with you through all the shit."
Nico walked back in with the box of ho-ho's.
"Even ask Nico. He's not all the way in yet but when some niggas at school started giving him shit, they ended up in the hospital. We protect ours."
I finally got a reaction out of them. They were going to start the process tomorrow.
When I showed up to the school to pick Natalie up, I couldn't find her. I looked through the sea of multi colored faces but still couldn't spot her. Getting out of my car, I walked into the school.
"Ay," I said to a brother wearin our colors, "You seen Natalie?"
He nodded and pointed to a door down the hall.
I walked up to the door, but before I could walk in, I started listening to the noises coming from inside. Instead of silence, I heard a beautiful voice. It was Natalie's. The only reason I knew that is because i heard her tell people to stop. She critiqued whoever was in there and then began again.
The song sounded like something I'd hear on the radio or something but it was still one of the most beautiful things I'd ever heard.