The Lion and the Cub

I was walking to the corner store. I knew Leo would yell at me if he found out I was by myself plus it was nearly midnight, but I really didn’t care much. Our neighborhood was pretty tough, so Leo always wanted me to have someone with me wherever I go, especially at night. Louis’s was only a couple of blocks away from the apartment. I was pretty sure that nothing would happen to me. Louis’s was the only place where a sixteen year old could get a wine cooler without having to flash an ID, mainly because Louis was my chilled-out uncle. He didn’t really care what I did as long as I didn’t blame him if the boys caught me with anything. I had a no-snitching policy so it really wasn’t a hard promise to keep.
I put my money on the counter when I went in and grabbed a wine cooler out the refrigerator.
“You’re very disrespectful mìjo.” My uncle began preaching. “Whenever you come into my store you put your money on my counter and get your cooler. No ‘hello’ or ‘Hey Uncle Louis. How’s it going?’ Jeesh kid. Don’t you have any morals?”
I started laughing, “Tìo, we go through this every time I come in here man and nothing ever changes. That says something about my morals.”
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
I smiled, “I have none.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Hey mijo I’m watching a Yankees game. Why don’t you stay here for a little and watch with your uncle Lu, eh.”
My curfew was twelve and when I looked at my watch it read twelve-ten. I was already gonna get chewed out by Leo and my old man. So I figured why not. “Yeah, I’ll stay. But you gotta explain to papi.”
“Oh don’t worry about it mijo. I’ll explain to Hector.” Hector’s my old man. He was pretty hard on me especially when it came to curfews. He didn’t want me hanging out with bad company so often times my uncle bailed me out by telling my old man I was with him whenever he asked even when I wasn’t really with him. “He still owes me my shape-up. See my hair, mijo, is like a woman. I leave it untouched and it goes crazy.”
I laughed just to make him feel good. His jokes were never funny but for some reason he thought he was the next Katt Williams or something.
“Hey how come you not with that kid, Leonardo or whatever his name is mijo?”
“It’s Leonard, tio. And he’s visiting his father in Brooklyn. He won’t be back ‘till tomorrow.” Leo is my best friend. He only had two years on me but had the wisdom of a forty year old man. I respected him more than my own old man. He was smarter and more understandable than him too. Actually, Leo was the only person my old man trusted. Reason being that, my brother, Clyde, was Leo’s best friend but after Clyde got gunned down by some carjackers in Riverdale, Leo felt it was his duty or something to take up where my brother left off and protect me from the city. My old man thought that was pretty noble of him so he said I could hang out with him whenever I wanted. I didn’t object to that. “Why’d you ask anyway?”
My uncle shrugged his shoulders and got a beer. I opened my wine cooler and poured it down my throat. I was thirsty from a handball game I had earlier in the park. I’m not very athletic and since handball was the only sport I was good at so it was the only one I played. Pretty lousy if you ask me. Anyways the game just ended with the Yankees beating the Braves of course. Not much of a surprise I looked at my watch; it was getting pretty late now- almost two.

First may i say that it is not finnished and this is my first story ever.

I was walking to the corner store. I knew Leo would yell at me if he found out I was by myself plus it was nearly midnight, but I really didn’t care much. Our neighborhood was pretty tough, so Leo always wanted me to have someone with me wherever I go, especially at night. Louis’s was only a couple of blocks away from the apartment. I was pretty sure that nothing would happen to me. Louis’s was the only place where a sixteen year old could get a wine cooler without having to flash an ID, mainly because Louis was my chilled-out uncle. He didn’t really care what I did as long as I didn’t blame him if the boys caught me with anything. I had a no-snitching policy so it really wasn’t a hard promise to keep.
I put my money on the counter when I went in and grabbed a wine cooler out the refrigerator.
“You’re very disrespectful mìjo.” My uncle began preaching. “Whenever you come into my store you put your money on my counter and get your cooler. No ‘hello’ or ‘Hey Uncle Louis. How’s it going?’ Jeesh kid. Don’t you have any morals?”
I started laughing, “Tìo, we go through this every time I come in here man and nothing ever changes. That says something about my morals.”
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
I smiled, “I have none.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Hey mijo I’m watching a Yankees game. Why don’t you stay here for a little and watch with your uncle Lu, eh.”
My curfew was twelve and when I looked at my watch it read twelve-ten. I was already gonna get chewed out by Leo and my old man. So I figured why not. “Yeah, I’ll stay. But you gotta explain to papi.”
“Oh don’t worry about it mijo. I’ll explain to Hector.” Hector’s my old man. He was pretty hard on me especially when it came to curfews. He didn’t want me hanging out with bad company so often times my uncle bailed me out by telling my old man I was with him whenever he asked even when I wasn’t really with him. “He still owes me my shape-up. See my hair, mijo, is like a woman. I leave it untouched and it goes crazy.”
I laughed just to make him feel good. His jokes were never funny but for some reason he thought he was the next Katt Williams or something.
“Hey how come you not with that kid, Leonardo or whatever his name is mijo?”
“It’s Leonard, tio. And he’s visiting his father in Brooklyn. He won’t be back ‘till tomorrow.” Leo is my best friend. He only had two years on me but had the wisdom of a forty year old man. I respected him more than my own old man. He was smarter and just more reasonable than him. Actually, Leo was the only person my old man trusted. Reason being that, my brother, Clyde, was Leo’s best friend but after Clyde got gunned down by some carjackers in Riverdale, Leo felt it was his duty to take up where my brother left off and protect me from this harsh city. My old man thought that was pretty noble of him so he said I could hang out with him whenever I wanted. I didn’t object to that. “Why’d you ask anyway?”
My uncle shrugged his shoulders and got a beer. I opened my wine cooler and poured it down my throat. I was thirsty from a handball game I had earlier in the park. I’m not very athletic and since handball was the only sport I was good at, it was the only one I played. Pretty lousy if you ask me. Anyways the game just ended with the Yankees beating the Braves. Not much of a surprise I looked at my watch; it was getting pretty late now- almost two.
“Well I’m outta here uncle Lu. Catch you later.”
“Alright mijo. Oh yeah and tell your pops I’m coming for a shape-up sometime this week.”
I nodded my head and walked out. My uncle never left that store. He lived there, literally. He only slept five hours of the day on the bed in the basement and the rest of the time he was running off of red bull and monsters and the rest of those stuff that kills you slowly while working the cashier. His fault for not wanting to hire anyone else I guess, but I didn’t have time to think about all of that. All I was worrying about was getting home without getting killed on the way there.
My house was seven blocks away and in a neighborhood like mine, it might as well have been twenty. Actually, my neighborhood wasn’t that bad at all, except for the pride and joy of New York City, The High Class Chaps. Or at least that’s what they called themselves. I called them Salesmen, because they were the biggest sellouts in NYC. See there used to be a huge gang called Untouchable Rebel. Leo and my brother Clyde ran it. They were the biggest delinquents that the streets ever seen. They robbed stores, jacked cars, buy and sell hot stuff. You know, the usual crazy things that hoodlums do. But there was another high ranked member of the gang. His name was Andrew L. Cunningham, but just Drew at the time.
Drew was one of the roughest kids in the gang. He did crazy stuff that no one would ever even think of doing. Once there was a blackout that hit like half the city, so Drew thought it was the perfect time to do a little gang advertising. He poured a whole tank a gasoline in the middle of the street so that it spelled out “Untouchable Rebel.” Then he lit it on fire. After that, everyone feared him. But sometime after that Drew’s grandfather died and left him a bunch of money that made Drew believe he was now above the gang and the only way he would stay was if he became leader. Let’s just say that he left the gang. A week after he left, my brother was killed and a week after that, Untouchable Rebel was no more and a new gang called The High Class Chaps were formed. Soon after, me and Leo became close and watched each other’s back.