On the Come Up

by Angie Thomas

See, last year a kid was murdered by a cop just a few streets away from my grandparents’ house. He was unarmed, but the grand jury decided not to charge the officer. There were riots and protests for weeks. Half the businesses in the Garden were either intentionally burned down by rioters or were casualties of the war. Club Envy, the usual Thursday nightspot, was a casualty.

That’s when I learned that when people die, they sometimes take the living with them.

All these folks I’ve never met became gods over my life. Now I gotta take the power back.

This a temporary setback for a major comeback. We ain’t letting it stop the come up.”

Anyway, I recently read this book about these two guys who fall for each other over email.

I’m more of a “yes, people exist, but that doesn’t mean I need to talk to them” person.