Page 71 of Falling Into Gravity

“A keeper, cuh.”

“I snuck out,” Malik revealed.

“Nigga what?!”

“I ain’tsneak, I—” he sighed. “Yeah. I dipped.”

“Why?”

Malik’s voice dropped. “’Cause I ain’t used to that kinda peace cuz. She was layin’ there all soft and still, like she trusted me with her dreams or some shit, and I couldn’t breathe, Z. That shit scared me.”

“Man, she rock with you…saw that shit in her eyes...even before y’all got close, she said you had this…gravity to you.”

“Yeah,” Malik said quietly. “She said that same shit to me once.”

Zaire got real serious. “So don’t fumble it.”

“She ain’t text back.”

“She will. You just gotta mean what you say when you show back up.”

Malik nodded even though Zaire couldn’t see him.

“You think I should go to that meeting?” he asked after a long pause.

Zaire didn’t hesitate. “I think you should walk in that room like a storm. Show up in your blue hoodie, ghetto tatts, and Chucks…remind them what legacy looks like.”

Malik’s jaw flexed.

“Set your terms,” Zaire added. “But don’t stay small just ‘cause you started in a dark place.”

Click.

Malik hung up.

The streetlight outside flickered again, like it was agreeing with everything just said. He looked at the phone once more. Still no text from Aku. Still that weight in his chest.

But now there was something else too.

A small, burning thing.

Hope…Fear…Joy ..Pain…

He got up, picked up the pill bottle, and slid it back into the drawer without taking one.

Instead, he grabbed his laptop and opened the folder labeled Plugged In Build V3.

Maybe it was time…time to walk in rooms they told him he ain’t belong in…time to be his own blueprint.

Time to make sure Pharaoh’s name stayed in the code,

Time to make sure Jules lived on,

Time to show Aku he didn’t just dip…

He just needed to gather his gravity.

chapter 13

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