Chapter 5

The next couple of days after Toby had arrived home were a transitional one for him. He couldn’t bring himself to go back to college. He also could not bring himself to stop using the crutches that were prescribed for him by the hospital. Deep down, Toby really wanted to go out to frolic with his friends around the Miami beach. But he was caught in between his fear of being a victim once more and him looking like a shadow of himself.

He got bored while staying at home by himself, but he was a little worried about his brother. “What could Booker be doing right now?” He would most times ask himself. He knew Booker too well to be the violent sort. Being the leader of a notorious gang in Florida meant that you had to be deadly. He knew Booker would not want to see someone else hurt him and get away with it. For umpteen times, he would call his brother over his cell phone, wondering if he was safe wherever it was that he was. Most of the time, Booker always told Toby that he was safe.

On one of those days when Toby was home alone, he was still eaten up by the thought of his brother since he was the only family that he had. “What if I find him a girlfriend of his own? Just maybe he would be fine afterward?” A thought beckoned on his mind. Almost immediately, Toby began to visualize what it would seem like with Booker having a girlfriend of his own. He thought about how he would someday find a wife too, and they would become one big happy family.

“Since I do not go out for now, how do I find Booker a girlfriend?” This was the dilemma that ate up Toby’s mind. While he held on tightly to his cell phone, a random pop on his phone brought the image of a pretty lady. From the way that the slim model was adorned, he could tell that she was either from Dubai or one of the many countries in Asia. A pretty woman indeed! He thought aloud.

Toby decided to follow up with the pop-up that glared up on his cell phone, and then he realized that he was on a dating site. Perfect timing! He exclaimed.

“What do I do right now? Do I tell Booker about this or not?” He knew what his brother’s response was bound to be. He decided he was going to simply set up an account for him. He skimmed through his cell phone and found pictures of Booker. Most of the pictures had him looking handsome in the many tattoos that covered up Booker’s body. Toby smiled while selecting the pictures that he used for the setup of the account. Booker had a broad chest as he did. His face was pretty much the attraction point for him. He was a dark-skinned man, and even though he had this violent disposition when he was outside their home. Toby knew his brother too well. He had seen him with a few random women whom he had nothing intimate with.

“I know you are a great guy, Booker. I am doing this for a change,” he muttered aloud while finally setting up an account for his brother on Mingles.

The rest of that day was filled with a lot of fantasies for his brother. One dilemma that bothered him the most was that he wasn’t really certain about his brother’s taste in women. He thought about some ladies that Booker had been intimate with in times past. Most of these ladies were just platonic friends with his brother. Lisa was slim and busty. Princess is thick. Toby thought about all of the girls that he knew with Booker, but the more he thought about them. The more he was confused.

Eventually, he realized that he was simply wasting his time trying to unravel what Booker’s preference for women was. He decided in his mind that he was simply going to go with the flow. “Whatever, lady seems kind on our chat. I would just go for her. After all, there is no harm in trying,” Toby made a resolution with himself, and that began the search for the best fit for Booker.

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Besides morning, Booker was always out of their home. He tried to feign being happy when he was with his brother. In his mind was a logger of wood, and that was the thought of whom it was that might have orchestrated the shooting of his brother. Most of the time, he was always at the car parking lot, which was adjacent the Miami Beach. Ever since the time of the shootout, he had always been careful with the social gathering that he was in. Whoever it was that came for your brother definitely had you in mind. They won’t stop now. The voice in his mind reechoed at the break of every dawn. The nightmares that he had revolved around a strange face breaking into their home to kill Toby.

Although he had made up his mind to turn a new leaf for Toby, the numerous nightmares would not let him halt the thought of getting a gun so he could protect his brother. In no time, he found himself a shotgun which he got from one of his fraternal brothers- Wilson Blackstone. He was the one person who understood all that Booker and his brother were going through, and it was no wonder why Booker trusted him enough to keep his back in those trying times.

Most of the times that Booker was outside on the streets of Florida, he wedged his short gun and pulled its slide at intervals. He was always on the lookout for any strange movement around him. All he needed was a word from the streets of Florida about the shootout. At that time, he didn’t even trust his own fraternal brothers because he knew that one of them must have snitched on him to make the shootout possible. “Nobody breaks into my hood without my knowledge. I rather just be alone than be with a pack of snitches,” he had said to himself before he made the decision to stay solo.

He just either wanted to get a quick shot back at the gang that carried out the shootout, but every attempt that he made towards getting any more information was futile. He had to smoke some more variants of his choice herbal flavored weed just so he could keep his thoughts under caution. The words of the doctor on the day when he could finally see his brother back at the hospital played in his head moments after he had been discharged from the hospital. Although Toby was traumatized by the events before his being shot, Booker wasn’t any better. His was more mental than his brother’s periodic snap out of his nightmares.