"So, where'd you move from?" DeShaun asked, trying to make conversation.

"Kansas city." Marshall said, looking at the ground and kicking a small peice of broken cement.

"Cool." DeShaun nodded.

"Yeah. So do you guys always walk home this way?" Marshall looked at Lataya and then at DeShaun.

"No. Sometimes we take the bus." Lataya answered. "But we ate lunch today so we have to walk." She joked, even though it was the truth.

"Yeah." DeShaun laughed. "Its good though, I need the excercise."

"Damn right." Lataya said teasingly. "Maybe Monday we can show you how to get home by bus."

"I know how to take a bus." Marshall smirked.

"Not the right ones, at the right time, and you dont know the stops yet, do you?" DeShaun looked over at him and he shrugged. "See? You better watch it, you dont wanna get stuck on the same bus as Darnell, D'Angelo or-"

"Kim." Lataya groaned.

"Well, I was gonna say Dom, but yeah, Kim too I guess." DeShaun shrugged.

"Whos Kim and Darnell?" Marshall asked. He knew D'Angelo and Dom, but he didnt know anyone named Kim, or anyone named Darnell.

"Well, Darnell goes out with Kim. Hes really an asshole sometimes. Hes on the basketball team. Hes really popular." DeShaun explained. "We, arent." He gestured to Lataya and then back to himself. "But you dont wanna piss Darnell off. If he sees anyone even GLANCE at Kim, he gets protective and will whoop your ass so fast..."

"Oh." Marshall made a mental note to remember that.

"Kims a bitch. So her and Darnell deserve each other." Lataya mumbled.

"Kim, and Lataya, dont get along." DeShaun said carefully.

"I see." Marshall nodded.

"Shes such a hoe." Lataya sighed and looked down. "Did you se her?"

"What?"

"Kim. Did you see her? I was fighting with her back there."

"Oh." Marshalls heart nearly skipped a beat. The girl that he had seen this mornng outside of school and the girl that had been yelling at Lataya was Kim. "Yeah, I saw her. I didnt know that was Kim though."

"It is. She looks like a skank though, huh?" Lataya asked.

Marshall raised both hs eyebrows and hesitiated. "I uh, well..."

"Its aight man. You thought she was hot?" DeShaun laughed.

"Yeah." Marshall said bashfully. Lataya exhaled loudly and rolled her eyes.

"Its aight, we all think Kims hot." DeShaun nodded and licked his lips. "But we aint tell Darnell I said that, aight?"

"Okay." Marshall laughed. DeShaun seemed cool, Lataya too. He really felt bad for that day at the playground back in the day.

"Ugh. I will never know what you guys see in her. You like a girl whos a complete bitch?" Lataya asked as they turned a corner into an alley behind a dry cleaning store.

"If she looks that good..." Marshall trailed off.

"EXACTLY! She got to look good." DeShaun agreed.

"You guys." Lataya laughed and shook her head.

"It good, see, now he knows what Im talking about." DeShaun laughed. "I usually just hang around with Lataya, so its good, talking to another man."

"Boy." Lataya corrected.

"Shut up." DeShaun laughed.

"Ah, Marshall? Where do you live?" Lataya asked as they came out to a busy street.

He told them, and Lataya said they were gonna walk right down that way anyway, so they would show him.

"Im glad its the weekend. I hate school." DeShaun sighed.

"Yeah. Me too." Lataya agreed. Marshall nodded his agreement. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, they came to a stop in front of a big blue house. The porch looked like it was rotting away and a window on the front door had a crack doing through it. There was a rusted red car in the driveway, and broken beer bottles were strewn about the front and side yards.

They all looked up at the large house in front of them. Lataya sighed, there was something in her eyes Marshall couldnt quite make out. Fear maybe?

"DeShaun." She gulped. "My dads home."

Latayas dad wasnt very nice to her, or her mother. Her mother was the main supporter of the household, her dad juggled minimum wage jobs because he never finished high school. He was drunk all the time and took most of his anger out on Lataya. Lataya wasnt just physically and verbally abused, she was also sexually abused and that hurt more than the other two put together. Not many people knew that, her mom definatly didnt know or really anyone else, because her dad had threatened to hurt her if she told anyone.

Lataya had, however, told DeShaun, about everything. DeShaun was her best friend, they understood each other and took care of each other, and she told him everything. She trusted him. They didnt have many other friends, only aquiantences. They were loners.

"Uh, do you think you should crash at my house tonight?" DeShaun asked nervously.

"Yeah, I dont know if my moms coming home tonight or not." She nodded. "Um, let me just leave a note that Im at your house. Incase she comes home."

"Aight." DeShaun nodded.

"You guys wanna come in for a few minutes, or," She looked around at the nieghboring houses and parkinglots. "Take your chances out here?"

"Um, maybe we should, go with you?" DeShaun asked, hinting at her. She nodded and let them into the house. DeShaun wasnt worried about being outside, it was just that she was going into her house with her dad, all by herself when it really wasnt nessecassary.

Marshall looked around the huge house, the stairs that led upstairs, the livingroom with a could that looked older than he was. There was no tv, just the couch and a few books in a bookcase in the corner.

Lataya started up the stairs and DeShaun followed her, Marshall behind them. At the top of the creaky steps Lataya looked into one of the rooms and sighed. DeShaun and Marshall looked over her shoulder at a atall man, lying in bed, fast asleep. Lataya stepped forward slowly and quietly shut the door, so he wouldnt wake up, and the 3 continued down the hall. Marshall guessed that was her dad.

When they got to Latayas rom, she opened the door, and let them inside and closed it behind them. "Im not supposed to have people over." She said quietly as an explanation. Marshall and DeShaun nodded.

Latayas room didnt look like Marshall thought it would. He figured it would be neat and perfect and colorful, like any other girls room, but this room was a mess. Clothes were strewn about on the floor, paper and school books mixed in with it. You could barely see the floor. Posters covered the wall, Ice T, NWA, 2 live Crew. Her bed was a mattress on the floor in the corner, a window beside it. The blankets were rumpled and the sheets were unmade. Her dresser drawers were open, cloths hung out of them.

"Oh good, you cleaned." DeShaun said sarcastically, throwing himself down on the bed.

"I dont think anything lives in here besides me." She joked.

"Looks like my room." Marshall said, stepping over piles of clothes.

"Hah. Please. My room is far worse I bet."

"Worse than mine, thats for damn sure." DeShaun said dryly, propping himself up on his elbows and laying back comfortably.

"You, shut up." Lataya pointed at DeShaun, who grinned and held up his hands in surrender. She laughed. "Let me just write a note for my mom and get some shit together."

"LATAYA!" A male voice yelled loudly from the hallway. They all looked at each other.

"Shit. Hes awake, get behind the door or something." She ordered. DeShaun jumped up and pushed Marshall behind the door, just as it opened.

"Lataya, your home?" Her dad asked drunkenly.

Lataya looked around. The answer was kind of obvious but, "Yeah."

"Okay. I want you to come to my room in a few minutes, you understand?" He asked, falling against the door as it pushed against Marshall and DeShaun.

"Yeah dad." Lataya blushed a bright red, but nieher of the boys noticed.

"Okay. Give me a few minutes." Her dad said, stepping out of her room and retreating down the hall. Lataya took a deep breath and closed the door behind him.

"Damn, that was uncomfortable." Marshall stepped away from DeShaun and rubbed his shoulder.

"Sorry guys." She apologized quietly.

"Um, maybe you should get that note for your mom and stuff, and then we leave?" DeShaun said, she nodded and got a pen from the top of her dresser, and a peice of paper.

She quickly wrote a note telling her mom that she was at DeShauns house, and that she would be back whenever, and then folded it and put it in her pocket.

"Here, let me get my shit together and then we can go." She said, taking her backpack and dumping the contents of it on to her bed. Papers and books crashed onto the matress and she tossed the bag down on top of them, before walking over to the dresser and pulling a few changes of clothes out and putting them in the bag.

Marshall watched. "Your allowed ot sleep over at his house?" He asked in disbelief.

"What?" She looked up, then at DeShaun and then back at Marshall, giving him a look like he was insane. "Yeah, why not?"

"Its just, hes a guy." Marshall said blankly.

"Well, my mom doesnt care, just as long as she knows Im ok, and Im not in jail, or anything thats going to cost her money, she doesnt give a shit what I do. And its not like we DO anything." She looked over at DeShaun and grinned.

"Yeah, plus my parents dunno shes there. They figure she leaves late at night or some shit." DeShaun shrugged. "We been doing this for years, summer of 5th to 6th grade, right?" He looked over at Lataya who nodded.

"Its perfected now." She said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah." DeShaun laughed, remembering the last time she had slept over. His big sister Sharonda had walked in at midnight to ask where the phone was. Of course, DeShaun didnt have the phone, but Sharonda had caught him and Lataya. They were only playing video games, but Sharonda had threatened to tell DeShauns panrets that he had a girl in his room after midnight, if DeShaun didnt do shit for her.

"Lets go." Lataya grabbed the bag from the bed and they walked into the hallway.

"Dont you have to go to your dads room before you go?" Marshall asked as they started down the stairs.

"Um, no." She said slowly, taking the note from her pocket and dropping it on a table at the bottom of the stairs. Marshall didnt think anything of it, and they left the house in a hurry.

"You guys are lucky." Marshall said as they turned off Latayas street.

"Whys that?" DeShaun asked.

"Because, my mom is always kickin me out of the house, and your parents actually care where you are. All she does now is fuss over Nate, like Im shit to her." He looked down at the ground.

"Whos Nate?" Lataya asked, looking over at Marshall.

"My little brother." He didnt look up.

"Ohh, how old is he?" She asked with interest.

"Like, almost a year." He shrugged. "All she does now is make a huge scene about him. And if I say something to her at the wrong fucking time she kicks me out. Then she wants me to come back home when she needs something, sends me up to the corner store to buy ciggarrettes for her, and I aint even old enough to buy 'em yet, so if I get busted Im in deep shit."

"Whoa." Lataya blinked. She shook her head. "That really sucks, Im sorry." She stared at him out of the corner of her eye. He was opening up to them, that was a good sign. Maybe he wasnt as bad as she had thought he was. He seemed quieter, but not so much at the same time. It was weird. But something about him, she liked alot. She shook her head, getting mad at herself for thinking that. She barely knew him, and the last time that she liked him she ended up heart broken. Or, as heart broken as a 10 year old could get.

"Yeah, its alright though. Shes a bitch. Theres nothing anyone can do about it." He shrugged.

"Wheres your father?" DeShaun asked. He cleared his throat as Marshall looked at him blankly.

"The asshole skipped out on us when I was a baby. Never met him. Never even seen a picture of him. I dont want to either. I dont want anything to do with him." He sighed. He had written his father letters, he had tried to get in touch with him, but it seemed his father didnt want anything to do with him. So why should Marshall waste his time trying to get in touch with his father? Like he had nothing better to do? He didnt ask his mom anything about his father, he truly didnt want to know. He wouldnt know that his fathers name was Marshall if it wasnt for him being Marshall the third.

"Oh. Sorry." DeShaun said quietly. Lataya was silent. She was just staring at Marshall. She felt bad for him, she wanted to just hug him, but that wouldnt exactly be appropriate.

"Uhm, this is your street, right?" She said as they stopped at the corner of a street.

"Yeah." He mumbled, looking down it with dread.

"Yo, I live like, the next street over, that way." DeShaun pointed straight ahead. "Our backyards are probably close together."

"Cool." Marshall grinned.

"Maybe we'll see you around this weekend." Lataya said, hoping that would happen. Marshall nodded.

"Thanks for showing me the way home guys." He looked up. "I'll see you guys Monday right? If not sometime this weekend." He grinned at them and they both nodded.

"Bye Marshall." DeShaun said.

"See ya." Lataya said as her and DeShaun started walking, and Marshall started down his street.

"Bye." Marshall sighed and looked back at the ground as he walked. He was glad that he had run into Lataya and DeShaun. He really liked them alot. He had a good feeling about them, and for the first time in his life, he almost couldnt wait to go to school and see them again on Monday.