Avriel Baptiste | 9 | CB

I fell in love with April.

when i was a kid, rainy days meant
puddles and rainboots and
splashing the shit outta bills on
the way to school.

but i couldn't splash duke.
he woulda called the cops on me
i think.

he's a good kid, i'm not.

i did well in school but not.
my grades were high but
my mouth too fast, my
grins mistaken for smirks.

a rotten egg, not like
bills not like
duke.

"Smarten up, Avri, you're
the eldest, you've
got to set an
example."

i liked numbers and
figures and figuring
things out.

i liked taking things
apart to see how they
ticked.

bills liked to
put them back
together.

maybe there was always
something about
me.

they disappeared in the
spring and the whole house
smelt like cherries.

i didn't tell duke where.
i didn't tell bills where.

mom had warned me,
don't get involved with
gangs, Avri.

but they got involved with me first.

the serpents, they called themselves,
"hey kid, we've heard about you,
you can open anything right?"

my mom told me, don't.

i found them at home, laid out
in bed, throats slit, I
was skipping
class
again.

a note, pinned to my
mother's chest:

your brother and
sister are gonna
be next.

a voice in the dark,
it whispered soft and
sweet like lightning.

a cherry pie was burning in the oven.

i didn't know what
to do, how to do, how to.

my mouth found my lungs,
misplaced for moments and
a scream came out, loud and piercing, the
streets, i took them, and
laughed, crazy.

she told me not to get involved
in gangs, my mom and I listened.
(i listened.)

but

they got involved with me.

in april, i promised myself
in april, i picked up a gun
in april, i killed avriel.