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stepping forward and placing his hand on Tyrel’s shoulder.
    His eyes still fixed on Will, Tyrel said, “This nigga said your name, son.”
    Brian looked at Will. “I know, man, but I ain’t the only Brian around here. It was fuckin’ stupid, but it’s cool. It ain’t worth getting into no shit over.”
    Will and Tyrel continued to stare one another down.
    â€œCome on, son. Let him go. That’s your boy.”
    Tyrel gritted his teeth, and then, after a few tense seconds, let go of Will’s collar. “Yeah, a’ight.” He looked at Brian. “We boys,” he said. Then he turned back to Will. “Nigga, don’t ever pull some shit like that again, you feel me?”
    â€œI feel you,” Will said regrettably. Then he looked at Brian. “Yo, my bad, son. It just slipped out, for real.”
    Brian nodded, then reached out and gave his boy a pound. “It’s cool,” he said.
    â€œMake sure nothin’ like that slips out again,” Tyrel said.
    â€œYeah, a’ight,” Will replied. “My bad, for real, son. I was trippin’. We cool?”
    Tyrel looked at him for a short second, and then nodded. “We cool.”
    The two friends exchanged a one-armed hug.
    â€œA’ight,” Tyrel said when they parted. “Let’s count this shit and be on our way.”
    After splitting $500, far less than what Tyrel had promised, they all went to Shawn’s party, where Carla, who had found a way to get out of going to church with her mother, was waiting for Brian.
    Frustrated over the stress they’d gone through for that little bit of money, Brian was glad to see her. He moved away from Will and Tyrel, and approached her. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, as Jay-Z blasted from the speakers.
    Carla looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Hello to you too.”
    Brian smiled. “My bad.” He pulled her close and gave her a kiss with a lot of tongue. “Hello,” he said after a few seconds.
    Carla smiled. “That’s better. So what you wanna leave for? You just got here.”
    â€œI’m not in the mood,” Brian answered.
    â€œYou don’t wanna dance?” Carla asked.
    â€œNah,” Brian said flatly. “I just wanna chill.”
    Carla looked into his eyes and could see that something was bothering him. She knew he got into things from time to time with Will and Tyrel, but she never asked for specifics. “OK,” she said, taking his hand. “Let’s go. My mother will be at church for at least another two hours.”
    Brian smiled and stirred in his jeans. “Sounds like a plan,” he said.

5
    Deahnna opened her eyes, stretched, and then took a glance over at her alarm clock. As was always the case, she was ahead of the alarm by fifteen minutes. She stretched again, feeling her calves and shoulders pop, and then reached across her night table and flipped off the switch on her clock. Her body’s internal clock always woke her every morning at 6:00 A.M ., no matter what time she went to bed. Setting the alarm clock—a clock she’d paid too damned much for—hadn’t been necessary, but on the off chance that her body demanded more sleep, she continued to do it.
    She took a final stretch, and then swung her legs off of the bed. It was Saturday. Her cleaning day. Her two-bedroom apartment was never really messy, but because she spent the majority of her weekly hours going between two jobs, she had just enough time—and, more importantly, energy—to tidy during the week. Just as they had been for her mother, Deahnna always devoted Saturday mornings to cleaning from top to bottom. Sweeping, dusting, wiping, vacuuming, washing, scrubbing, scraping; dust, mold, grease, and grime were all dealt with in a major way.
    Deahnna yawned, and then rose from her queen-sized bed, grabbed her silk kimono from the hook on her closet door,