Keyshia and Clyde Read Online Free Page A

on a fucking ice bike.”
    â€œFuck you, Sonny, at least I got a job. I ain’t sticking people up. ”
    Sonny chuckled and said, “Nigga, please, you call that a job? You make what . . . twenty, thirty dollars a day at most?” He laughed again. “And don’t think for a second that I don’t know yo’ ass, either. You just like me, but you afraid to admit it.”
    Martha had had enough. “Would y’all please stop arguing?” She stared at both boys as they put their heads down. Ceasar remained quiet and listened.
    Ceasar was the eldest and most stable of the brothers. He was the shortest one at five feet ten and had worked as a bank teller for more than four years, ever since his senior year in high school. He was highly detailed, methodical, and an immaculate dresser. Extremely guarded by nature, Ceasar had had more than his share of beautiful young women in his life, but lately, he’d been working so hard with his day job at the bank and college in the evening that he hadn’t much time to date. Since he was paying for college, he was struggling to keep up with his bills.
    â€œNow,” Martha continued, “what we need to be concentrating on is how I’m gonna manage my rent and bills now that they cut Clyde off my budget.”
    â€œWell, what do you want us to do, Martha?” Ceasar questioned. “It ain’t like we can call those people up and make them give you money. You just gonna have to get a job or something.”
    Martha started crying even louder. Sonny was livid at his brother’s lack of concern. “Come on, Ceasar, how you gonna say that? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to, who raised us for the past ten, twelve years?”
    Ceasar rolled his eyes and said, “Well, what could we do?”
    Sonny walked over and said, “What you think? We could all chip in each week and make sure she straight. Or give her a lump sum and pay off the back rent and put some toward the future.”
    Ceasar said, “Chip in what? I got my own rent and bills to pay. I ain’t got no money to be paying somebody else’s bills. Who gonna help me if I can’t pay mine?”
    Sonny jumped in, “All we have to do is chip in each week and give—”
    Ceasar cut him off. “Chip in and pay what?” He sucked his teeth and continued, “Martha, did you expect to live off us for the rest of your life? You didn’t think we would all grow up and you would have to find someone else to leech off of!”
    Martha didn’t say a word, and Sonny and Clyde stared at Ceasar and wondered how he could be so cold toward her. Ceasar had enough and went for his jacket.
    Sonny knew he couldn’t talk his older brother into anything and just let it go. “That’s fucked up, Ceasar,” he managed to say as he watched his brother head out the door.
    â€œWell,” said Ceasar as he exited the apartment, “so is hell for all the shit you doing, Sonny!” Before Ceasar left he assured his younger brother, “Clyde, you can stay with me if they try putting pressure on you to give up all your money.” Ceasar slammed the door shut on his way out.
    Sonny didn’t like his brother’s selfishness, but he always respected him for having his own mind. Sonny felt Ceasar didn’t have the same temperament as he and his younger brother because he never got his hands dirty. Clyde, on the other hand, was a natural predator—a perfect stickup kid. Sonny should know, because he taught Clyde everything he knew. Clyde had instinct, something that couldn’t be taught, and most of all, he had nerves of steel. He and Clyde had been doing stickups and robberies together since they were preteens. They started their careers robbing and strong-arming paperboys on Sundays in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan for their papers, money, and shopping carts. From there, they began robbing college