Troy walked into the modest apartment of the newest Saint, who went to the kitchen. Looking around, he moved into the living room area, sitting on the couch as Sasha went to pull out some fruit from the fridge.
A beautiful home he would say so himself. A warm smell of vanilla hit his nose as he sat there on the couch, taking it all in. A few windows scattered throughout the part of the apartment, covered with short silk white curtains.
Bronze wallpaper in the living room, with brown hardwood floors so shiny he could vaguely see his reflection. There was a black rug his feet were on, covering the couch to the decent size TV. In the living room, a black bookshelf rested on the wall next to a hallway that led to the bathroom and 2 bedrooms. The couch he currently sat on was a mixture of firm and soft, which Troy prefers to compare to Aisha's plush couch in her apartment when Johnny drags him over.
Two couches mirrored each other from across the room as the TV sat in front of the kitchen counter, where she currently was pulling out fruit and other items from the fridge. In the kitchen was white tile on the floor and a soft marigold colored wall to complete it. He was curious about what she was doing but decided to play it safe.
Sitting on the couch, he glanced at the many magazines scattered across her wooden coffee table. He tried to see if there was a name attached to it, but all the tags were ripped off. His eyes searched across the room, trying to find some information about the new girl.
There were pictures scattered across the living room of various people. There were a few pictures together that surrounded the one picture of Sasha.
'Must be some family members, I'll have to note that later.' He mentally reminded himself, looking at a younger picture of the family. She seemed happy in the majority of these photos and seemed to be holding quite a lot of children as well.
There was a man, most likely her father, holding her in one photo and her mother who looked like an exact copy of her in another. And there was another picture of a young child and the new Saint, holding each other in a warm embrace.
'Could be her brother? Or some childhood friend?' he thought as he studied the picture.
The sound of a knife hitting a cutting board was heard as Troy looked over the counter to see Sasha mixing a blend of fruit into a blender.
She had both hands on top of the lid, making sure it was tightly secured. The tip of her tongue slightly sticking out as her eyes were focused fixedly on the blender. Troy chuckled at the childlike action, watching her deeply focuses on blended fruit.
Troy would be a fool not to notice how beautiful the young woman is. How wide her eyes get when Johnny offers an inappropriate comment, when she scrunches up her nose when Dex corrects them, or the excitement of getting to hang with Aisha as he overheard her talking on the phone to someone.
She's smarter than most of the female and male recruits, eager to learn, and seems to believe in what Julius says. But when she gets around him, she seems tolerable of the man but annoyed as well.
'Guess I should stop with all the questions. Might make her suspicious of me, which I def don't need.' He made a mental note to dial back on the questions around her. Subtly was the key, as the Chief always said.
The blending noise came to an end, which Sasha remove the lid and began to pour the smoothies into glass cups. Troy watched her move with grace as she came over with the two glasses in hand, a friendly look on her face.
Sasha handed him the glass of drink, which he accepted with gratitude. She sat down next to him on the couch, turning on the TV as well.
"I hope you aren't allergic to anything, I forgot to ask you if you were." She said to him, an apologetic look on her face.
"Nah you good, not allergic to fruit thankfully. But this is pretty good, never had Dex or Johnny offer me anything other than beer or water." He joked to the new Saint. She rolled her eyes playfully as they made conversation while sipping their fruit smoothies.
Both Saints were caught up in watching 'Bobby and Amber' and making snark comments as the evening pass. Despite earlier, Sasha was slowly getting used to Troy. She was wary of the questions he asked but ask long as she gave him vague answers, she should be fine.
Sasha watched as he laughed at Bobby's shenanigans on the screen, noticing the man for the first time.
To Sasha, he had a simple farm boy look with the stubble added in. Nice blue eyes, a simple haircut, and a nice smile as well. He would look even better if he would stop smoking those damn cigarettes, she thought to herself.
She looked over to her wall clock and saw it was 11:00 pm. Dex had wanted her and Troy to meet up at Friendly Fire tomorrow to deal with Los Carnales. And knowing Dex, he hated waiting for people if they aren't on time.
Sasha groaned, knowing she'll have to go to bed soon if she wanted to have some energy for tomorrow. Troy gave her a questioning look at her groaning and looked over at the clock as well.
"Oh, uh guess we should try to get some rest for today. Dex will bitch about us being late." Troy spoke up, noticing the time. Sasha nodded her head in agreement and got up, turning off the tv.
She proceeds to show Troy the extra bedroom that was across from hers. Thanking her for letting him crash at her place, she told him goodnight and went to her room. Troy closed the door, removing his shirt, pants, gun, and shoes in a neat pile on the floor.
He looked around the decent size guest room that he was staying in for the night. The room looked as someone spent a good amount of time in it as various posters of hip-hop artists, magazines, and scattered clothes on a lime green chair in the corner.
The black plush carpeting complemented the frost color walls in the room, he noted. He turned off the light, making his way into the queen size bed that was near the wall. The queen-sized bed he currently sat on was quite soft and comfortable. The large dark blue blankets and pillow had a smell of jasmines and honey, an overpowering scent that enters his nose.
Troy didn't realize he was curled up underneath the blankets, inhaling the scent of the room. Embarrassed by his actions, he stopped and folded his arms underneath his head.
The apartment was quiet, besides the ac blowing air in the home. He could see the moon shining brightly out of the silk curtain from the window.
'Man, the Carnales is making a move on us. Lin still hasn't gotten much info on the Rollerz and waiting for the Vice Kings is taking way too long.' He thought, frustrated at everything revolving around gangs.
When the chief asked if he wanted to go undercover, Troy jumped at the chance to do it. As a rookie, he thought it was gonna be a breeze on busting criminals but a year and a half later, it got different.
Julius had a solid idea but still was illegal as the activity the Saints do is no better than the other gangs. True they were a smaller gang and honestly weren't in the drug or other illegal businesses but with the new kid around things have changed.
Taking down the Carnales first wasn't going to be a walk in the park but it seems like the new kid put a spark in Julius. They were making some headway with some gangs and more motivated as well. Troy gave a small proud smile in the dark but had lingering guilt on what would happen to the gang after everything is done.
Troy closed his eyes, sleep coming to him fast. The scent of jasmine and honey lulled him into a comfortable sleep.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
Troy jumped up out of his sleep, holding back the pillow as a weapon. The light turned out which made him groan in the displeasure of his sleep being interrupted. His eyes still blurry but he could see the form of Sasha in front of him, an unhappy expression across her face.
She had a du-rag on her head, a purple tank top, and shorts with pink bunny slippers on her feet. Sasha looked very unhappy as her arms were on her hips, waiting for Troy to get up.
"Dex bitched at me to tell you that we need to head over to Friendly Fire. He has a hookup who works there late at night. We gotta get up now to meet him." Sasha tiredly said, yawning for extra measure. Troy, stilly blurry-eyed nodded and checked his phone messages that showed various messages from Dex.
Yo, wake the fuck up!
You forget the mission!?
No way in hell you both are magically sleeping.
I get she's cute or whatever but mission Troy!
Hello? Don't tell me you slept with her?
Mission first, pussy later.
Bring ya'll asses down to FF, asap!
Don't become a Johnny, man.
Troy got up and stretched, then went over to the chair he sat his clothes. He saw out the corner of his eye Sasha going through a chestnut dresser to find clothes as well.
"Um, shouldn't you change in your room?" He asked as he slipped on his t-shirt from yesterday. Sasha switched her tank top to a black plain t-shirt (Troy covered his eyes until she finished) and rolled her eyes at him.
"Seeing as this is my room also, I am. It's not like you never seen breast before." She countered back to him as she put on some old jeans.
"I mean I have but-"
"Troy relax, it's like 2:00 am I'm just messing with ya." She gave him a flirty look as he blushed. She laughed as she slipped on some old shoes from under the bed.
Troy was ready to go, wanting to get this over with. Sasha and Troy walked out of the apartment, making sure all the doors and locks were secured. As they went into the elevator, Troy noticed something about Sasha and decided to point it out.
"You gonna wear that on your head?" he questioned as he pointed to her du-rag. Sasha glared at him and smacked his hand away.
"Yeah, gotta problem with that?" she questioned back, a bit with her tone. They were close to the ground floor, which she hoped the conversation would stop.
"No, no problem, just uh wonder why some of you were? Dex never gave me a straight answer." He confessed to the new Saint.
"It's for our hair, mostly to protect it while we're asleep." She gave him an answer, hoping he'll be satisfied with her answer which he was.
The elevator dinged and the two made way to the parking lot. Sasha walked them to her silver Vegas car, letting Troy drive them to Friendly Fire.
The drive wasn't long as neither had much to say, which was nice. Troy parked the car in front of Friendly Fire where Dex waved them in angrily.
A blonde white woman at the counter greeted him and pulled out a sniper rifle. Sasha was startled as the lady pulled it out but Dex let her explain the use.
"This is the "McManus". As you see, it's fully collapsible and comes in a stately black attaché. The 18" cryogenically treated stainless steel bull barrel gives this rifle a guaranteed accuracy of .2 minute of angle at 600 yds with match grade ammunition. With its hand reamed chamber and match-grade trigger, the "McManus" is designed for the marksman who wants to reach out and touch someone at a moment's notice." The saleswoman explained to the group of Saints.
Dex happy with her explanation spoke up and said "I'll take it."
"Lovely. Would you like it to gift wrapped?" She asked with way too much perk at 2:30 is.
"No, that's okay," Dex replied to her, a smile on his face. Both Troy and Sasha rolled their eyes at this.
"Great, let me run this." She went to the counter away from them to ring it up. While she was busy, Dex turned towards Sasha.
"Tight job on that lab, dawg. We found a memo sayin' that Hector is meetin' with the Colombians tonight. With the amount of firepower that's going to be there, just showing up and rushin' 'em would be suicide. Take "McManus" here and get to the docks. Find a nice tall building and wait. When Hector makes his move with the Colombians, take your shot." He explained to Sasha, who nodded, a focused look on her face. Troy then chimed as well.
"When it all goes down, the first place the Carnales is gonna look is right at the Colombians. They're gonna think they got fucked bad. Aight. You should have no problem sneaking out in the confusion." Troy added along to his fellow lieutenant.
Sasha was preparing to go ask the clerk gave her the gun. She gave a goodbye to the men and headed out the door. Before she left, Dex called out while going out of the store.
"Just the same, I'd get the fuck out of there. Who knows what could happen." He warned her which she nodded and drove off towards the docks.
Dex gave a ride to Troy towards his apartment, located in Chinatown. Dex thought it was a little weird he lived there but Troy explained the cheap rent which Dex brought. Lin wasn't too far from him and they had great food as well and a local gym.
"So, what took you too so long?" Dex inquired his fellow Saint, who had his seat leaned back.
"Fell asleep, not together with your ass. Just the last few days probably got to us." He answered, mind still heavy with sleep.
"And this wasn't after any wild sex or anything?" he hinted again at Troy. Troy rolled his eyes at the questioning.
"And I thought you hated questions?"
"Only when you ask."
"Fair enough, but no man I didn't sleep with her. Jesus, we don't even know her name or age."
"But saying if you did, would you?"
"I mean, she's hot, pretty smart, and doesn't care about getting dirty. But her shooting is shit though." Troy sheepishly admitted. Dex laughed at his confession, making a left turn at the light.
"She is pretty hot, not in a chickenhead way. Especially when she wears those shorts, right?' Dex goaded him, which he laughed in agreement.
"Okay yeah, but for real man, it'll be bad trying to attempt something with her. I don't know her name and age, better safe than sorry." He said back, wondering how old she was.
"True, you might catch a case dawg and we def don't need that action," Dex responded. Troy felt a pang in his heart when he said that, trying to push it away. How ironic it would be for him to go to jail while undercover all because of some girl.
Dex looked over to his fellow lieutenant, noticing the shifting mood that had happened. Troy leaned back in his seat, hands underneath his head.
"Don't tell me you fallin' for this girl? We barely know her!" Dex scoffed at him.
"NO, it's not that! Like we don't know her name or anything about her! I'm just curious about her." Troy explained his reasoning to Dex. Dex rolled his eyes at him as they started to pass by some familiar restaurants towards his apartment.
"Uh-huh man whatever, just make you stay focus. Julius needs all of us. Lin is MIA which leaves us and Johnny." He rolled his eyes at mentioning his fellow Saint. Troy laughed at Dex's displeasure of having to share reasonability's with Johnny.
Finally, they arrived at Troy's apartment, his second-floor apartment above a Chinese restaurant. It was still dark outside with a few people walking to their destination in the early morning.
'Wong Moon' was the name of the restaurant, the red closed sign flashing at the men in the car, reflecting off Dex's car. Troy sometimes picked up some food from there and shared it with the Saints. Johnny always complained about how shitty the food was compared to Korean food but still ate it. Lin always loved when Troy brought her extra spicy prawn soup while Julius always made him do runs if he was in a food mood. Dex was indifferent, as always but still thanked the man for buying it.
Dex and Troy gave each other the secret Saint handshake as Troy got out of the car. He waved goodbye to him as the black male drove off into the early morning. He walked over to the front door beside the restaurant, thankful the door was unlocked. Troy walked up the stairs until he reached his apartment at the end.
Before he went inside, he thought about sending a text to Sasha (her name Playa) but decided against it. It would seem like he was favoring her and he wanted to keep his distanced from her, and not been seen as a creep also.
Troy sighed as he kicked off his shoes in the apartment, stripping down to his boxers. After being interrupted by his sleep, Troy decided to crash on his ratty couch from college.
He put his phone on the ringer just in case business from both ends called. But before he fell asleep, one thought crossed his mind.
'I wonder if she likes Chinese food?' he pondered as he drifted off into sleep.