Charles Finster

August 29th, 2009

"You ever thought of going to college, Chuck?" Carter says after pulling the freshly rolled blunt from his lips. We're sitting on his rooftop, looking at my house across the street and the sun is finally dipping below the huge ass hills that Cali is known for. The sky is just about red, but there's a million shades of yellow, orange, and blue between them, blended so deep you can hardly distinguish them. I love sunsets like this.

Carter and I have been chilling all day long. Or should I say working? It doesn't even matter. We always seem to make this shit fun when we're together. Basically, we've been doing runs. Dropping shit off at different places around the Los Angeles area. Carter hardly ever does this small scale shit. The dealing is my job, along with a few other bums who're always just barely scraping by the numbers Carter wants. We'll call it the quota. Carter deals with the bigwigs. The importers. The higher ups. Tony Montana-like dudes. It's dangerous business, since it involves gangs and all that. But Carter's not only book smart these days, he's also street smart.

He has an older brother who was incarcerated with lots of gang bangers from outta Compton: Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, all of that. He was particularly well liked too, which worked out for Carter, getting him connections to bigger operations. By bigger, I mean that these operations have more product. More exclusive shit. The finest tree produced from secluded greenhouses in the mountains, the purest Colombian cocaine... ever, the safest stamp bags on the streets... all of that.

He's way careful too. He doesn't deal out the good shit to everybody. Just people he trusts. Most of the time, we sell decent reg, alright coke... we don't fuck with heroin too much, rave shit like ecstasy, acid, and molly... but that's rare too. When we get regular customers that aren't hard-up druggies, we start putting them up to better shit. Nothing that'll have them running home to mom, but good enough to keep them coming back. If a bunch of people know how good our product is, they'll go around squealing. Other operations will hear about it, the cops will hear, and it just won't turn out good for us.

So yeah, we're not making as much as we could be. But it's basically a safety precaution. The bigwigs are the ones that wind up getting killed and locked up. The ones icing themselves out, covering their families in designer shit. We just get enough cash to provide for ourselves. Of, you know. Regular shit. Drugs, video games, clothes, food. So, when Carter asks me about college, I start wondering, like.. what's the use? We're already making enough cash. So why would I ever waste four years of my life slaving over a degree, you know?

I take a sip of my 40 and ponder his question one last time. "I've thought about it a few times, of course. It just kind of seems like a waste of time though."

Carter takes another hit from the blunt and gives me a funny look before passing it my way. "Man, what? College is a way out. You gotta think bigger and better than just getting a simple job and living the rest of ya life where you're at. You're capable of better, Chuck." He says. I want to let the conversation die there, but now he's off again on a rant. "I only fuck with the drug game for my education. I wanna better myself."

And I nod my head. It's true. The only reason Carter deals is to save for college. He doesn't need any extra money. In fact, Carter needs the money as much as I do. His father has a pretty successful TV show, so they rake in a lot of dough from that, but his dad hasn't been saving for anybody's schooling. He apparently finds it unfair, since he didn't save money for the older kids and Carter is currently one of a total 5. He's the second youngest. Suzie is just a little bit older than him.

"I hear you man. I just wanna think it over more. I don't even know what I'd want to study. Something I'd be good at. But the only thing I'm good at right now is... dealing, I guess."

Carter shakes his head furiously. "Nah, man. Nah. Don't think like that. You gotta delve into your interests more." He pats my back and I hit the blunt a few more times before I pass it back to him. "Like... when you're at school, try to figure out what you enjoy. Not just the stuff you're good at. There's a huge difference." I'm guessing that he notices the look on my face because a coy type smile peel his features back. "Alright, I'm done. Just a bit of advice."

"I hear you, man." I say, watching him face the rest of the blunt.

I'm feeling pretty high when I look down at the pavement and see no one other than Maya walking across the street to Lily and Phil's house. I smile and shout her name from the rooftop and flag her over. "Maya! Hey!"

As soon as she sees me, she laughs out loud, stands on her toes and shouts "Well, hey!" and she switches direction over toward us. Once she finds herself in the yard, she puts her hands on her hips and looks up at me. "What are you doing way up there?"

I smile down at her. "Way up there is right." and I make my hand out like a plane and aim it at the setting sun. "I'm just chilling with Carter for today. We got some shit done so we're just hanging out," and I point a thumb at my boy who I notice has all of a sudden fallen shy. I can't help but laugh when I watch him wave. "What's the matter, man?"

But he acts like he hasn't heard me and he smiles at her. "What's up? How are you?"

"I'm alright, man. How about you?"

And just like that, the two of them are engaged in conversation; introductions and all that. And that's when I see Lily walking off her front porch with two forties in each hand. She's wearing a pair of tie-dye denim shorts and a tank top that's been cut up into fringes and beaded at the bottom. Her hair is done differently, but I can't exactly figure out what it is.

"Hey guys!" She yells and soon enough, she parades her way over to the front yard as well. Carter's attention shifts to Lil in an instant.

"What's everyone up to tonight? Are you guys gonna be busy?" She asks him and Carter says no. He asks her what's on her mind and she smiles, wrapping an arm around Maya and offering her one of the 40s to which she shakes her head in a modest refusal.

"I was thinkin' we could all hang out at the beach tonight. Someone's trying to hook up a fireworks show down there. As like, an end of the summer thing." And she shrugs.

Carter sucks his teeth and smiles. "Damn, didn't y'all get enough partying at Tommy's? Besides, tomorrow's the first day of classes. You really want to be burnt out when we're going to class?"

And Lil smiles up at Carter and I watch her lick her lips at him. I'm a little bit taken aback by what's going on, but I don't say a word. In fact, I look over at Maya to see if she's catching onto any of this, but she's on her cellphone, texting someone I guess. "Aw, come onnn," Lil drawls. "We won't be out long, I promise. The fireworks end at 10 anyway. And we can invite more people. Maybe Tommy can tag along or something."

This is when Maya looks up. It's quick too, because her curls flick straight into her face and back when she looks at Lil. And Lil... she doesn't even take a second from making eyes at Carter to look back. So then, Maya looks at me and I just shake my head. Hey. If Lil isn't worried, then there's no use sweating her. We both affirm this and shrug almost simultaneously.

"I kinda wanted to go down and take some pictures." Maya says.

Carter's eyebrows raise. "She does that photography shit? That's awesome. Sorta like Tommy, huh?"

"Yeah, man." I chuckle, gathering myself up from the roof. "Except Tommy does film, remember?"

And Carter gets this lazy ass look on his face. He shrugs his shoulders and laughs. "Man... sure. I guess, shit. I'm high."