Clipped

Repercussions

Bryan Harry was going to break his lifting record. He wanted it bad. It gave him something to shoot for. Not much to do when you been locked up.

Bryan pushed the bar off his chest and searched for motivation. That AAU coach who said he wasn’t good enough to shine his shoes. The busted-ass crackhead that popped him in the eye when he didn’t spot the guy drug money …One… Asshole. How come people gotta be stupid all the time for? Like on the first day of 6th grade, when those guys jumped him for rollin’ up on them at the wrong time …Two… “Fuck that shit,” he thought. “Fuck this shit. This is all shit. Fucking jail! …Three… Guards here aint do jack. Mad heads get run of the place …Four… Nate …Five. Done. Good… He grunted loudly and racked the weights.

“Yeah son,” Bryan thought to himself. “That’s the shit I’m talkin’ bout.” His mind wandered as he made his way to the basketball court. “Nate,” he thought. “Fuck that nigga. Guy needs to slow his roll. He’s had it in for me from the beginning.” Which isn’t sayin heads rolled out the red carpet. You don’t have friends in jail. There’s peeps you cool with and peeps you aint feelin’. Nathaniel Jones was someone he wasn’t chill with. “Guy got his boys on me first night. Whatever. They haven’t shit on me in a while. I’m hard now.” He spotted Jay on the court. Jay was someone Bry was down with. He went over. “Sup money? How you be? Lemme in this shit.”

Jayson Garrett was his dog. As well as you could be in the pen. Jay had shown Bryan the ropes. How to get shit you need, how to keep it once you got it, and how to be around to enjoy it. Quality info, but Bry wanted a friend. He had to respect Jay’s space, and find some things out for his self. That made him jones for Adam and Seth more than ever. He started shooting around. He wondered what Seth was up to. “Hope niggs has done transferred from Hofstra by now,” he pondered. “Sucks for them if he did …Swish… Heard he was tearin’ shit up. Got ‘em to the tourney …Bank… Takes more than one player to get anywhere though …Rim… There were three of us, but that’s done with. Can’t get caught up in that shit, Bry. It’s bad for you …Water… We were good though. With me at the point, Seth on the wing, and Adam holding things down wherever he was needed, we could take anybody ...Money… For serious. Before that asshole ditched us …Off… Sold out for a fucking Big East scholarship …Airball. Fuck… At Hofstra, me and Seth still almost took Duke. He was lighting it up and I kept finding ways to get him the ball. I musta had 18 assists …String music… Damn. For all the shit he pulled, Adam was still one of us. We played together since 6th grade, back when we was mad small …C’mon, c’mon gimme the roll… We were gonna take D-1 by surprise. All part of the plan. Then he had to go and do that shit man …Brick… Broke the deal. Whatever.” The game was starting up.

Bry took the inbounds pass and started upcourt. Keeping things slow he dribbled across halfcourt, took three steps to the right, went between his legs, spun back right, and threw a no-look pass to a cutting teammate. The throw-down echoed through the exercise yard. “Yeah. I still got it,” he thought. “Wish some of these boys did, though. Shit happens. Gotta stick with it. Gives me something to do right?” He stripped his man and started sprinting upcourt. Easy lay-in on the break. He found his flow and eased into the game.

Bryan’s sqaud had point game. Coming back from 7 down, the game had worn on both teams. Nate had come in halfway through and led the other team on an 11-4 run. But Bry’s team clawed back and took the lead on a wicked alley-oop. Bry got the ball and dribbled upcourt. “I gotta get this shit,” he told himself. “Right here. End this now.” He blew by his man and drove up the middle. “Gotta put it in. Lift off.” He went up to lay in the finger roll. “Money in the bank. Oh Shit!” Nate undercut him, and Bry caught a headbutt to the chin. His legs flipped out from under him and he fell to the concrete, leading with his head.

Woozy, Bryan could feel himself being dragged off of the court. He wished he could get up. “I’ma kick the shit out of Nate,” he thought. “Fuck that nigga. Where’s Jay? Ditched me? Fuck all these niggas. I’ll wax all of ‘em. Yeah right. They’d snuff me in two seconds. This is just the shit you gotta put up with after killing your best friend.”