JUDAS - UNDRAFTED: SEASON TWO PREMIERE
Summer of 2022 was still on the rise, and another hot summer night continued in East L.A.. Tonight's headline featured the bodies of two young murdered men that bloodied the streets of Gage Ave between City Terrace and Hazard. The night in the neighborhood filled with cherry lights as the taped off section of the block garnered on-going watchers. One particular viewer there was Clinton Brown. Watching on from a distance, Clinton finished his stogie before making way in the opposite direction.
"Yo.." Clinton acknowledging his boys as he entered the house. The place was coated in fog of smoke as the three guys sat in the living room, enjoying a smoke session, two of them playing Def Jam: Fight For NY.
"So what it's looking like out there?"
"They still out there. From what I seen, no one is being questioned right now, assuming they're canvasing."
"Yeah, they'll be knocking on doors no time soon." The guy closest to Clinton passed on the blunt in rotation to him.
"Think it was the right call?"
"....... It had to be done. Those fuckheads had it coming to be honest."
Clinton sat quiet amongst the conversation as they rotate the session, his mind weighed heavy on him.
"Yo, you aight Clint?"
Clinton snaps back to reality, "Yeah, yeah.. I'm good bro."
"First body of smoke?"
"Huh? Nah, it ain't that. Death is in the air, shit ain't never easy... Aight, so what's our next move?"
"We lay low. Let shit blow over. We ain't pull the trigger, we just made sure they were at where they needed to be."
"Way I see it, them body snatchers ain't getting no remorse or grievance. Taking young girls and pimping them out, stringing them out. They had that shit coming."
"Yeah.." Clinton half nodded. "We done some crazy shit, but this one.. I don't know how to feel. Feel like I feel nothing."
"Keep that numbness Clint. Ain't no hard feelings in these streets. You survive or not."
Just then, Clinton's phone goes off, highlighting Khyri incoming text.
[11:43 PM]: In town from Seattle. Need to talk to you.
[11:44 PM]: Where you at?
[11:56 PM]: West of Downtown L.A., The Westin Bonaventure. Here with a couple of my girls.
[12:01 AM]: Aight, bet. See you tomorrow afternoon?
[12:01 AM]: Okay.
"Y'all, I'ma head out." Clinton noted the time once more before setting off in his departure.
"Everything good?"
"Yeah, just got some shit to do tomorrow."
"Aight man, keep your head low."
Just as Clinton left the house, he spotted two officers making their way down sidewalk. Clinton through his hoodie over his head and made haste down the street, but authority had already spotted him on the go.
"Hey, excuse me! Hold on there", One of the officers shouted.
Clinton kept walking as if he didn't hear them.
"Hey, I said hold on!"
Clinton stopped in his tracks, complying to the officer's attention.
"Hey, did you not hear me the first time calling for you to stop?"
"Oh, nah officer, sorry, I got bad hearing."
"Where you're heading off to at this hour?"
"Just going to the store, officer."
There was a brief silence of the conversation as the officers seemed sketchy of Clinton as he tried to avoid eye contact with them.
"There's a crime scene down that way. You were home, did you hear or see anything?"
"No."
"Two victims shot multiple times in the streets, and you didn't hear nothing at all?" the other officer aggressively questioned.
"As I said, I got bad hearing. I didn't hear or see anything. I'm sorry that happened, sounds awful."
The officers looked over Clinton once more, looking for any cracks of suspicion.
"You're good to go. Be careful out here and get that hearing checked out."
"Thank you, will do."
Clinton continued his progress down the street, shooting a text to his crew he left behind of the situation as he got out of the area as the night grows...
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The following afternoon came quickly with Clinton and Khyri agreeing to meet up at the nearby diner, Jimmy John's. Not haven't seen each other in little over half a year, pleasantries were had, but Khyri felt unease masking her discontent.
"Glad to see you doing okay Khyri, getting big out here, you look healthy though." Clinton complimented.
"Thank you."
"When you're due? Anytime soon? I'd like to get a gift for the little one on the way."
"I'm due in September. I still don't know if it'll be a boy or girl just yet. I wanted to keep it a surprise."
"Oh, well, I'm sure it'll be as beautiful as their momma, and whomever the lucky guy is."
That slight smile on Khyri's face faded once hearing that statement coming from Clinton.
"So, who is the lucky guy anyway?" Clinton asked.
"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Okay..."
"Well, I talked to Recks, gave him the news--"
"Wait, Recks the father? Yo, congrats! It was about time!"
Khyri signals for Clinton to put the breaks on the early celebration, allowing her to finish what she's saying.
"Please, just here me out. I talked to Recks about my pregnancy. And, it was I expected to be."
"Which is?"
"He didn't take the news too well... I told him the baby might not be his."
"Wait, what?" Confused from unfolding story, Clinton eagerly listen on.
"Well... The baby might be yours, Clinton.."
"What?!" Clinton shouted, but Khyri gets him to keep his tone down.
"Khyri... That was one night."
"That's all it takes Clinton."
The both sat quietly, hardly touching their meal. Khyri couldn't find the words to make the situation better and Clinton was just trying to process the whole thing, dating back to that fateful night.
"Does Recks know we uh.."
"No, I haven't told him."
"Listen Khy, that night, it was a mistake, that wasn't supposed to happen."
"A mistake? More like a choice for us both. I'm not one these delusional hoes out here avoiding accountability. I own up to it. Neither one of us stopped and it is what it is now, it can't be undone."
"Shit... Alright, so what now? You dragged me all the way out here for this?" Clinton retorted.
"I'd figured you want to know."
"How do you know it might be mine. Who else you slept with?"
"Clinton, don't do me like that."
"Yo, you're Recks' girl, that's his baby, not mine."
"Oh, but you can fuck his girl behind his back though."
"You opened your legs..."
Tension started to arise between the two, they both quarreled the hostility in the diner before it got too far.
"Look, I'm happy for you that you're about to be a mom. Like I said, that night was a mistake. Whatever the outcome is, I don't want nothing to do with it."
"Seriously? So just like that, you're gonna bail if the kid is not yours?"
"For your sake, I hope it's Recks' kid, assuming you to did something."
Khyri doesn't dignify that with an answer, but the look on her face, the disgust of laying with multiple men and getting her-self in this situation told all he needed to know.
"For as long as I known you Clinton, you always wanted to get with me-"
"And yet, I hooked you up with Recks instead. I put you on another man's dick, not mine. And clearly, Recks' wasn't enough for you if you still hopped on mine."
"I was drunk that night we partied, I was totally wasted."
Right there, Clinton took his phone out, playing a video of Khyri's seduction and interactions. Khyri watched on in humiliation of being on footage.
"Delete that."
"For what? It's mine. It clearly showed you weren't THAT drunk to begin with."
"I didn't consent to no video. Delete that."
"Nah, I think I'll hold onto it a little longer. Don't worry, I don't intend to air you out, we're friends after all-"
"Then delete it if we're friends. That's shady shit to record me unbeknownst."
"Yet, you cheated on Recks."
"..... We weren't together at the time."
"Uh huh, you take accountability, but justify your way out of it, I see."
"Fuck you Clinton, delete the video!"
"Well, you already did half of that. I'm gonna hold onto this "insurance" for a little while. Like I said before Khy, I don't want nothing to do with the kid. For your sake, it better be Recks."
"What? You really gonna jeopardize your friendship with Recks?"
"I clearly have the high ground in this. He may get mad at both of us, but at the end of the day, you're left with the unsalvageable relationship if this don't play out right."
"That's your friend, Clinton. And where you during the playoffs? Me and his family were there to support him. Aren't you like his assistant?"
Clinton looks at Khyri with a dead look. "Seriously? I don't have time to be riding his coat tails. Granted, he wouldn't be where he's at if it wasn't for us, but I'm trying to do my own thing."
"Clinton, this was supposed to be our thing. The three of us in a pact. What is going on with you? Talk to me."
"I can't be bothered... I'm sorry."
Khyri felt her emotions starting to rile up the longer she spoke and look at Clinton. For some reason, she couldn't see how or why Clinton has changed, but this wasn't the friend she once knew.
"I guess it was good seeing you, but it clearly was a mistake talking to you right now. Whatever shit you're going through right now, I feel for you, but stay away from me." With her final words to Clinton, Khyri gets up from her table and headed out the door of the diner.
Clinton sat quietly, going over the conversation just had. Moments later, he deletes the video of that night. Sitting back, thinking about the times with Khyri and Recks, growing up in Fresno, going to USC together, seeing both make their dreams come true in professional basketball, seeing how their lives played out thanks to him, it broke his heart deep, down inside. But being a accomplice to a murder, severing ties with his closest and most trusted best friends, he wanted to keep their names clean from his...
I'm already stoked to get season two started. None of the chapters are pre-written, everything's on the spur, so I'm a little excited to see how this turns out
