* * * * * *

Fall - 1998

"Got shot down again?" Avery asked unable to conceal his smirk.

"Shut up… I wasn't serious 'bout her no way; I just wanted to see if I could hit it." Jayden griped as he made his way back to his lunch table in the cafeteria. He carried his tray that had a cheeseburger, curly fries and a drink on it.

"Man what's wrong with us… We've got the money, the brand name clothes and fresh sneakers…"

"Yea but we don't have the ride… These chicken-heads want dudes with cars." Jayden complained pulling out a chair and sitting down. "Man that's some bull…" H continued whining as he stuffed his mouth with cheeseburger followed by some string fries.

"It might be but check it out…" Avery said pointing to their classmate Bryant. Bryant could barely walk over to a table to sit down and eat his lunch for all of the girls waving and winking at him.

"He gets all the girls…" Avery observed enviously. "And why is that?"

"Red Pontiac 1995" Jayden answered thinking about Bryant's cool red Grand AM Pontiac car with the drop-top. "Dude we need a car…" Jayden added taking another bite of his burger.

"Yea but he's got that Wal-Mart job on lock." Avery said reminding them that Bryant worked at the giant super store.

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"Man we've got to get us some steady real jobs too…" Jayden noted.

"Have you been applying?"

"Everywhere I can… Home DePot, Walgreens, K-Mart, U.P.S.… whatever…" He replied being annoyed a little about never hearing from any of them.

"Same here… I guess this is what they mean when they say this economy is in a recession; too many brothers out of work and getting downsized."

"Tell me about it… What does TLC say?" Avery asked as they watched Bryant getting all of the play from the girls.

"…I don't want no scrub…" Jayden said quoting a popular line from a song's lyrics.

"Hey what about that car your mom promised?" Avery asked hopefully.

"Remember I have to come up with my half?" Jayden reminded him.

"Oh yea… Damn…"

* * * * * * * *

"Yea Howard… I know it was a business decision but still." Jacob sat behind his desk looking haggardly at the growing pile of bills. It had taken some finagling, however he had managed to pay most of Markus undergraduate tuition and loans off by borrowing against his 401k pension plan. He felt good that they only owed $40,000 dollars towards it. Now that Markus had been accepted to DePaul's School of Law and Dinah was Pre-Med at Loyola University this year he would have to be even more creative in finding a new source of money. This was not a good time for cutting back his workload at the law firm.




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