In present day America, drugs, gangs, murder and all sorts of shunned activities plague almost every major city of the country. One of these neighborhoods, South Chicago was particularly known for all these bad things and living in the center of it was Trey, a 18 year old boy. Trey had higher aspirations to get out of the hood and live a better life for him and his mother. Just at the mere age of 2 his father abandoned his family leaving the family to fend for themselves. Trey did have an older brother that was 5 years older than him, but he was caught in a cross fire  of a gang shooting when he was 10. Just Trey and his mother were left in the family and she was left to work 2 jobs to provide for him. As time went by, America’s economy collapsed and she was left jobless. With a crumbling economy and no money, Trey started pushing drugs when he was 16  and it became a life Trey would certainly regret. Just 2 months into selling crack cocaine, Trey was caught and spent 2 years in a juvenile detention center.   In there he contemplated about his life and where it would head and from there he vowed that he would get his mother and himself out the hood one way or another.

Fresh out from the detention center, Trey’s best friend, Keith, was there to pick him up. Leaning on his rickety 89′ Honda, they both came up to each other and they did their signature hand shake. “C’mon hop in the car man, you missed a lot while you were locked up in that little boy house, you gotta come to taco bell now, they got some new taco’s you will love,” yelled Keith. “Not right now, you got to take me up to my mom’s house, haven’t seen her in a long time since she last visited me,”. Trey threw his stuff into the back seat of the car and he got into the passenger set. The car was in really bad shape, rust on the outside, the rims were just as rusty as the car itself, inside smelt like an old abandoned house and the seats were slashed and had tape to hold the cuts together. “What the hell  happened to your car, it was normal before I went in. Man this car needs a miracle to to get fixed,”. “Stop cussing my car, she went through struggles and at least it still runs, otherwise you’d be taking the whack transit out of here,”.

They pull up to Trey’s house and they both get out of the car. Trey’s mom comes out in a modestly long bath robe tied up and with hair curlers on. “Trey! get over here you lanky son of a-,”. ” Ma, calm down,”. She goes up to him and embraces her son. “Whats good miss.C,  I brought your boy back so I’m going to head out back to my house,” exclaimed Keith. Trey and his mother walked back to the house and she went straight for the stove. She started cooking up his favorite food, pasta and sauce with meatballs in them. “So how’s the block now Ma, anything new going on?”. “Nothing new really, same old bull that goes on in these streets.Grown men fighting each other killing themselves and selling drugs. Girls are worse though, they go for these ignorant fools that just might get them killed. Damn shame what world we live in boy,”. “Uh well that’s a lot to take in Ma, say do you know how I could go back to school, you know, community collage or something? I ain’t going to act a fool no more and push these drugs around the street’s no more,”. “I don’t know, you go look down the block, they got a new little place you could sign up for just down the block. Why the hell do you even want to go to school anyway? You just going to end up in jail again or even six feet under for all I know,”. ” Whats gotten in to you Ma, you sound like a goof for all I know, now can I have some food and I’ll be on my way out,”. “Whatever here you go,”. She slides the plate of food down the table to Trey and he gets it right before it could slide off the table.

As he eats he picks up a phone to call Keith to pick him up. Keith tells him he will come right after he does something. Trey steps outside and waits for Kieth to come and he pulls up. “get in the car man! Quick times!,”as he yells frantically. Trey runs in and he can see all the perspiration on Kieth’s forehead. He asks whats wrong and Kieth simply tells him has happened. He tells him that he just stabbed a gang member and that their after him. Trey, confused tells him to stop and drop him off near the community collage just a few blocks ahead. Trey runs out the car and at his quickest pace, he runs to the school. He barges in the door and stops to catch his breath. The lady at the front office asks him if he’s alright. He tells her that he was just running from a potentially chase that could have occurred but he at least escaped. From there he enrolled in the collage and tells the school about how he at least finished high school in the prison with fair marks. He went enrolled into a business degree and was excited about finally helping out his mom. As he steps outside a van was awaiting his exit from the school, 6 large individuals all  wearing similar colored clothing were waiting for him outside and they said they saw him go into the school and waited for him for 2 hours as he was inside enrolling into the school. Insisting that he tell them where Kieth headed,Trey said no and told them to go away as he wanted no part of this.  After some warnings and cusses were exchanged and after that one of the gang members pulled a gun and shot Trey 4 times. They all ran away while Trey collapsed on the ground. Looking up to the sky which was getting darker, Trey thought about how in just one day he ended up here laying on the ground and dying. Life was fading from this lost boy who just wanted to escape a life dominated by what just got him killed, gang violence. Trey died in hospital an hour later and by his side was just his mother silent and telling the covered up body, “Why, why me? I lost everything,”.

I just the way life is and sometimes you can escape the way you living in.