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Ghetto Gospel : Novel-In-Process; CHAPTER TWO OUT!!!!!!!!
Topic Started: Jun 11 2005, 08:37 PM (251 Views)
Aislynne
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Here's chapter two. Not as great as the first, in my opinion, but much faster. Uhh... Hope you all like it. I actually wrote this thinking there'd be another half of the chapter. Then I decided to leave it off where I left it off.

Chapter Two - Shift


"You can't shake hands
With a clenched fist."
- Indira Gandhi


"I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm going to go to work then back to the studio to wrap up the rest of the song." Deshaun's heavy arms hung on my sagging shoulders as I watched the vibrant colors of the sky change like the Aurora Borealis. Of course, it’s impossible to see that in New York City.

“I though you were going to Jon’s.” Groaning inwardly, I was about to smack my head on the cracked concrete below my feet. Instead, I reminded myself that when it comes to music, Deshaun has a tendency to let others down.

“He’ll understand.”

“No, Deshaun, I’m sick of this.” My voice cracks as I struggle to keep my tone calm. “You make plans everyone looks forward to, and then you send the whole thing tumbling down because you’re too busy to spend time with us, your friends!”

Silence.

Deshaun withdrew his arms from my shoulders like I had just bit him. Seconds later, I watched my best friend in the whole world stomp away in anger, leaving me in the darkening streets of danger.

What? Excuse me, mister sensitive!

Maybe I should start thinking before speaking. Heh, it works for other people.
It’s not like what I said was even that bad. I only hinted that he’s a horrible friend and hates those who care about him. Of course, that’s not true, but it probably came across that way to him.

I see why he’s walking away now.

And it hurts.

Like hell.



I fiddle with the keys to my apartment for around three minutes. Seems like someone actually locked the fifth lock. Either that or the sudden shock of Deshaun’s sensitivity distracted me. I realize it’s a combination of both and I push the door open with my foot and find my sister yanking down her sleeve and sitting up quickly from the couch.

I haven’t seen Carmen in about two weeks. Why is she home and what is she doing?

“Hi Carmen,” I muttered as I walked in and shut the door behind me.

“Hi Shay.” Carmen usually seems perfect to me; hair neatly in place, shining, her dark eyes sparkling, and all in all, just looking like she took care of herself. But this is a different story, though I don’t know what the story is just yet. Her long, mahogany hair is frizzy and unkempt, her eyes don’t focus; they dart around the room and look hollow and soulless. And the fact she’s wearing a neon yellow long-sleeve shirt in 90 degree weather with blue sweatpants trashes the idea she may have a sense of style.

“Why are you here?” I’m so polite, eh?

“Evan and I, we broke up.” Her apathetic tone shocks me more than the actual news, even though the two had been together for two and one-half years. They always acted like newlyweds, feeding each other publicly and scenes of PDA.

“Oh my God, what happened?” The fact that she used to always cry over other boyfriends also contributed to my curiosity.

“Stupid crap, really.” Carmen’s hands begin to shake a little.

“Are you okay?” I’m about to panic here, and the most Carmen can do is nod her head.

“I’m fine, go in your room. I wanna’ talk to Mom when she gets back from work.”

“But you feel warm,” I say, placing my palm on her sweaty forehead.

“It’s okay! Mom’s here anyway.”

“How do you know?”

“Does any other car on this street sputter, backfire and squeak at the same time?”

“You have a point.” Our car is a true piece of crap. It’s as low on the car-chain that you can get. It’s below the ‘86 Honda Civic with three multicolored doors and the rest of the car one color. It’s below the ‘32 Chevy pickup missing half of what it began with in the first place. In fact, our car is such a piece of craptastic plastic, the backseat was stolen. Apparently it was the most valuable thing in the car. We’re lucky the doors don’t fall off their hinges.

I left it at that and popped open a "Coke" from the Dollar Store. Then I disappeared into my room for the night, trying to convince myself that Deshaun will forgive me eventually. In the meantime, I'll just wallow in my room.


The bus stopped in front of Jon's apartment in mid-afternoon the next day. When I flopped down on the couch in Jon's living room, I noticed Deshaun wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Where's Deshaun?" I asked, watching Jon scribble on the piece of paper he had. He didn't bother to look up at me.

"He's at the recording studio, last I heard."

"When's he coming over?"

"I don't know. But some of my other friends are coming over."

"Oh really? Who?" I hate meeting new people. Call me antisocial all you want. Last time I approached a stranger my age, I was nearly punched in the jaw.

"My friend Manny, Saleem and this girl named Kin. She's going to be in our rap group. The first lady."

"The first lady of what? You don't even have a name for your group."

"Where planning on it."

"Don't you need a name to perform?"

"Not a group name. We need emcee names. I'm MC Saw, Kin is MC Kinetic, and Deshaun... doesn't have one yet."

"How about MC Void." I almost laugh as I straddle the chair to look out the window onto the streets below.

"Huh?" I glance back at Jon. He's thoroughly confused.

"Because he 'avoids' his friends." I snort in spite of myself.

"Are you alright?"

"Never."

"That's what I thought."

I flip the television on and watched the Yankees game against the Red Sox. Half of New York City is about ready to toss their televisions out the windows since the Red Sox are ahead six points with two innings left.

"So what song are you working on?"

"Not sure yet." Jon is confusing like that. Then he added, randomly, "How about Harlem Harmony?"

"Huh?" I ask, confused.

"Or Bronx Blues."

"What?"

"Or Manhattan Melodies."

"What?!"

"For the band name."

"Oh. Homegrown in Harlem is a good one." Jon nodded, before processing my sentence. Then he nearly jumped.

"That is good." He wrote it on the sheet of paper and there was a knock on the door. "Come in!"

Three people, who I suspected where Saleem, Kin and Manny walked in.

"Hey, hey, hey," Kin gave Jon a high-five, like they were best friends.

"Everyone, this is Shay, Shay, that's Kin," He motioned to the girl. She is Asian, with deep, coffee color skin and an amazing sense of style. "That's Saleem." Saleem happened to be a heavy, older teen with a large afro and a tattoo of a Marijuana leaf on his shoulder. "And there's Manny." My knees would have buckled if I had stood up.

He has tan skin, a small afro and dark, hypnotic eyes. I nearly got lost in those mahogany pools. He smiled and I felt a tingle down my spine. Dimples and a set of sparkling white teeth donned his mouth. He has a baby face, but there's a maturity in him that stands out.

Manny's hands are shoved in his jean pockets, wearing a black, loose beater, baggy jeans and white G-unit sneakers.

"H-hi," I choke ridiculously. Because guys just love girls who stutter in their presence. He nodds and collapses on the couch, a good three feet from me. But it was too far.

Saleem strode into the kitchen for a drink, and Kin sat next to Jon, analyzing his lyrics on paper.

"I've been thinking about group names," Jon began, directly to Kin and no one else, though I couldn't help overhearing, " how do you like Homegrown in Harlem?"

"You've been thinking?" I cut in, everyone's attention now focused on me. I could feel their eyes like lasers on my body. "I came up with that."

"Yeah," Jon confessed, rubbing his neck. "But I still like it."

"Yeah, it's good with me. Now we just need to see how Deshaun is with it."

"Kin, you don't even live in Harlem." Manny laughed, and I felt shivers down my body. It's a laid-back, light-hearted laugh. His voice is as smooth as honey; slightly deep but clear and heavy.

"I was born in Harlem, though." Kin catches my confused look and she laughs. "I live in Manhattan now."

"It's all New York City to me." I chuckle, slouching in the couch to achieve a more laid-back look. Instead I looked bored and tired. Manny grinned.

"Good philosophy." I'm so flattered I don't process that Manny may just be a complete idiot. One part of the city was so much different than another; they might as well be different cities.

"That sounds like too many syllables to me," the all-knowing Saleem declares, leaning on the wall of the living room.

"What do you know? You don't even know what a syllable is." Manny grins with an awkward, goofy smile. Saleem looked a bit stuck.

"What? Like you do?" He glared daggers at Manny.

"Yeah."

"Then what?"

"It's like... something that says something about another thing." Manny made confusing gestures with his hand.

"That's an adjective, you nimrod!" Kin practically shouts, chucking her pencil at Manny, who ducks easily.

"Well what's a syllable then, you goddamn genius?" Manny turns to me and whispers, "She goes to a private school. They teach those kids everything."

"Yeah, Manny, they teach us everything we don't need to know in life." Kin grabs her pen from Manny and continues, "A syllable one sound you make with your mouth." Kin claps her hand once and says, "New." Then she claps four times while saying, "New York City. 'New York City' is four syllables. 'New' is one syllable."

So I sat on the couch, witnessing three people explain what a syllable is and their confusion by it. Eventually it became boring so the only thing keeping me on the couch was my desperation for Deshaun to waltz through the door any minute and the fact that one of the sexiest teenagers I have ever seen is sitting next to me.

I became the bystander of a debate ranging from syllables, to Michael Jackson, to music, to George Bush, to accents. Time crawls by, and the fact that Deshaun isn't showing any signs of showing up anytime soon, I almost want to sink into the chair in boredom. I overhear Kin and Jon planning out a verse to a song. It appears they already know about Deshaun's verse that he rehearsed yesterday, since they keep repeating it to follow the flow for the next verse.

Kin eventually clears her throat and Manny catches my eyes to see what I'm looking at. She downs a sip of water and begins the second verse.




"Growing up, I was social but, never was the type to open up,
So my closest friends were never close enough,
I suppose to them I was emotionless...,
So, my headphones were my constant companions,
Around my neck they were constantly hanging,
And late at night when I'm haunted by phantoms,
The songs I would jam would subconsciously ban them,
And damn,
I know it's just lyrics and beats,
But lyrics to me are like infinite peace,
And peace,
Is what hip hop had brought me,
Strumming my pain like it was 'Killing Me Softly',
Killing me, but what a way to die,
Overdosed on flows, comatose on rhymes,
And I,
Wanna drift away,
Staying conscious enough just to hit replay, okay...."



A small burst of applause between the audience of four broke out and Kin blushed and read over the lyrics once more.

I, frankly, am too shocked to do anything but gape like some crazed lunatic. Kin glances at me. She completely amplified what Deshaun was trying to say in the first verse, just in a more personal way. She also delivered each line with such intensity and force I nearly felt my lungs rattle in my chest.

"Are you okay, Savannah?" I smile shyly.

"Uh... yeah. That was really good."

"Thanks." Kin hands the lyrics to Saleem to be reviewed before turning to me again. "Deshaun called me last night and he was like, 'Kay, you have to do a second verse for this song. It's about loving hip-hop and how it helps us.' He played the beat for me and did the rap."

"Well, you definitely stuck with the message."

"I couldn't explain how much it's helped him though. You obviously know what he's been through, you're his best friend." I say nothing, heading off into my own thoughts.

Since Deshaun had become involved in the whole music scene, he never really opened up to me. Everything was music this, music that. Maybe a lot of stuff had actually happened. Maybe he came to my house so he could write lyrics, not to spend time with me.

Maybe he's not as strong as I thought he was. Maybe I was never the one helping him through it all. Maybe music was keeping him sane all along.
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~*Dani*~
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Wow. This is getting interesting. I love it. Your descriptions of Manny are especially good. :)
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Aislynne
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Hehe *giggles*. He plays an important role. And I'm glad you like where this is going. It's not the greatest chapter in the world or anything. XD
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~*Dani*~
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you dont think the chapter is the greatest thing in the world, and i would have to agree. it probably isnt. But i still love this story and it is currently the most interesting thing i have ever read. Plus, i have a feeling that the introduction of a few new characters will be important to the rest of the story...?
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Aislynne
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Quote:
 
you dont think the chapter is the greatest thing in the world, and i would have to agree. it probably isnt.


I appreciate your honesty so, so much.

Quote:
 
But i still love this story and it is currently the most interesting thing i have ever read.


Thanks so much. That makes my day more than anything else. :D

Quote:
 
Plus, i have a feeling that the introduction of a few new characters will be important to the rest of the story...?


Yep. I can't only have Deshaun and Shay. It'll obviously get boring since through the first few chapters, you'll pretty much know everything about them. I'll even be bored. Plus... these characters symbolize a lot of negative stuff. Well, Kin doesn't, but you'll read into that later, I guess ^_^;
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~*Dani*~
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This is the kind of story that will keep me hooked, a kind of story that will leave me cheering at new chapters. Not too many stories do that for me.
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Aislynne
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Thanks! That'll get me typing a little bit faster, eh?
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~*Dani*~
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Don't worry about typing faster, just worry about putting your story together in a way that you love.
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Lustre
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Your story is awesome Aislynne. I liked the chapter. There has to be some introduction and transitions at times. Well written. Looking forward to more. :)

BTW, love the Gandhi quote at the beginning.
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Aislynne
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Thanks, Lustre ^_^; I love what that quote symbolizes. I may have put it in the wrong chapter, but we'll figure that out, eh? Thanks for the review, I'm so glad you liked it.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be in this tense. Most stories are in past tense. I don't remember reading something in this tense. Maybe I'm writing it wrong....
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Alpha
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aahg my english is to bad to read it =( sorry =(
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Garbonzo
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wow, thats a really great story the character descriptions are really descriptive.
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Aislynne
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Mimsy, don't worry about it XD

And Garbonzo, thanks. I'm glad you like it. I heard that I'm a bit too descriptive. Whoops ^_^
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