It had been two weeks since Jaylen last saw Tyrell.
He tried calling. No answer. Tried DMing. Left on read.
Then, one evening, Jaylen stepped into the corner store and saw Ty in the back—hood up, eyes hollow, posted with two guys Jaylen didn't recognize. The look Ty gave him wasn't cold… but it wasn't warm either.
"Yo," Jaylen said, stepping over.
Tyrell gave a slight nod. "What's good, poet?"
The sarcasm stung more than Jaylen expected.
"You good?" Jaylen asked.
"I'm here," Tyrell said, and left it at that.
The clerk rang up Jaylen's water and chips. As he walked out, he heard Tyrell behind him.
"You ain't one of us no more, huh?"
Jaylen turned slowly. "I'm *still* me."
Tyrell shook his head. "Nah, bro. You chasing college dreams. We out here chasing daylight."
Jaylen clenched his jaw. "You think I want to leave you behind?"
"I *know* you will."
The silence between them was thicker than the smoke from the vape pens behind the store. Words could've been weapons. Instead, Jaylen just said, "I'm trying to make space for both of us."
Ty didn't respond.
That night, Jaylen couldn't sleep.
He wrote for hours, pages filled with pain and guilt and love for a brother who didn't know how to be saved.
*"We both came from fire,"* he wrote. *"But I'm the one trying not to burn."*
His phone buzzed at 3:12 a.m.
*Mama:* "Cops came again. Said Ty's name in something serious. Just… be careful, baby."
Jaylen stared at the message.
He wanted to save Ty. But he also had to save himself.
And the gap between those two things? It was becoming a canyon.