“Man why would you tag the building in the middle of the day? Is you stupid?” Alfonso said. Alfonso was holding a spray paint bottle shaking it at Eduardo looking at the building.
“Cuz homie I didn’t see no cop’s” Eduardo stated
“Man really? Is that how you got that ticket?” Alfonso said.
Alfonso just started shaking his head and laughed looking down, and then looked back up again at Eduardo.
“Man you is stupid, you f***ed up the last two letters in your own name.” Alfonso stated.
“Hahaha yea I thought it put some style homes, say it Eduarga, haha it’s a female, not me” Eduardo smirking.
“No fool it is you, your name doesn’t say Eduarga on that ticket” Alfonso said.
A car full of their friends sped up the street with their bass blaring, and smoke rolling out the windows.
The driver shouted “Aye you guys see theirs a new tagger some f** Eduarga haha”
The passenger said “Man Eduardo it’s the female you haha”
The boys started laughing in the backseat.
“Fonso told you, everyone would think im a female! Im no stupid” Eduardo said.
The driver started laughing and said “ Eduardo, fool that was you?”
The passenger added a comment “ Man I thought that was the gayest name, haha and that’s you!”
The boys in the car rolled up their windows and sped off. Sadly Eduardo like a fool sat there with a huge grin on his face.
Alfonso took a deep breath and started walking toward Eduardo
“Dumba** now that everyone left because of you, I wanna know how much you gotta pay for that ugly a** tag?”
“Ehh the cop seemed a little mad, so I gotta go to court next month” Eduardo said
“Ha-ha I don’t know about you anymore man, you cant be making these mistakes and claiming our clique, we can’t be lookin like fools in this area, we get our money for marking our territory and it looking good, ya know?” Alfonso said.
“Well I’m leaving fool, I’ll hit you up tomorrow” Alfonso just walked away.

Eduardo bounced out of the lot, and since he doesn’t trust anybody he put his hand in his belt and pulled the safety. Once he turned the corner there it was a dark street with thugs on the corner, right beyond them was his home. He evaluated the clique holding up the corner, a green bandana out of the back pocket on the right. LM was the gang, and they pay for his crew tags. Eduardo crept slowly trying not let his left leg limp, and was praying that LM had already heard about the tag. Back when Eduardo started tagging he was only allowed to tag LM. He started his first one on ground level on a side building, and the boys shot him in the leg to see how he would react under pressure. Is he a rat? Or is he loyal? Kind of thing. The bullet had gone all the way to his kneecap, tears slowly fell from Eduardo’s face and he quickly finished the tag while LM just stood there and watched from across the street. He threw the can and started limping to go to the ER; the cops repeatedly asked if the bullet was from LM. Eduardo remembered his ma always telling him skin over law, always and forever. He kept quiet and LM accepted him and said he could roll.

“Aye Eduardo fool you going home?” Lorenzo the Gang Lord said.

“Yea man just got done kicking it with Alfonso down on the lot” Eduardo said.

“I saw that homes earlier where was you, Eduardo? I thought you guys were going to run errands for us. Alfonso said he hadn’t scene you all day,” Lorenzo said, with the rest of LM standing behind him.

“I was helping my ma alright man? She needed to get the dresser up the stairs.” Eduardo said.

“Mhmmm don’t let me ketch you slipping Eduardo, remember who pays you” Lorenzo said.

“ Yea I hear you man, what are ya’ll doin posting up right here in front of my ma’s anyways?” Eduardo asked.

“Slinging smack to your ma, Eduardo! Ha-ha” Junior said. Lorenzo turned around looking at junior.

“Shut the f*** up jr. before you get shoot at, you hear me?” Lorenzo said. Eduardo just gulped. He’s scene plenty of people die it doesn’t make it any easier to watch though.

“Alright duces homes, I gotta get going.” Eduardo said and walked across the street and started going up his stairs. Him and his ma had lived in a two-story house his entire life, the basement was cold and they had just started storing stuff from his dad down there. His mom had become a drunk once his dad left when Eduardo was 13. The day his dad left his ma and his dad were arguing a lot, and Eduardo just sat in the living room watching cartoons trying to stay out of it. The last thing he remembered hearing his dad saying before he left with his gun was “F*** you b**** I’m tired of your sad a**, and that dumb a** you call our son.” From that moment Eduardo took dumb as a label those words stuck with him, and his ma drank them away.

The next day Eduardo had figured if Lorenzo were mad about the ‘Eduarga’ tag he would have already showed up, and said something. All he was thinking was Lorenzo had to hear about the tag it had to be okay. To redeem himself he thought of a ‘good idea’. It was noon and Eduardo was on his way to the store to lift a couple more spray cans. Eduardo’s heart was beating fast he didn’t know why, and nervous as if it was his first tag all over again. He had a plan to do it outside of LM’s chill spot to make them see his tagging skills. Eduardo knew that LM wouldn’t be down there yet; this is normally when they drive around re-upping anything from smack to weed. Eduardo got there looked over his right shoulder, and then his left no one in sight. Of course he missed to see that Junior was on the corner watching, Lorenzo had sent him. He grabbed the pink, and started spraying in normal stick letters. His hands becoming sweaty, and his heart beating fast then grabbed his purple and bubbled Eduarga. The brick wall read Eduarga with a capital G. The paint was dripping but he didn’t have time to fix it Eduardo thru the paint cans and ran. He ran all the way back to the lot, waiting to meet up with Alfonso again.

Eduardo was waiting there for a while; he was wondering why it was taking Alfonso so long. It was the lot because it was in between everyone’s house. Eduardo was still shaking and taking deep breaths trying to calm himself. Then their Alfonso was across the street on the corner about to cross.

“Man what did I tell you about painting in the day and not looking?” Alfonso said while walking up to Eduardo.

“Ha-ha you saw it? It’s good huh? No one was looking promise, ha-ha” Eduardo said.

“No damn it! Man junior saw you tagging and he told Lorenzo man.” Alfonso said looking down.

“Oh s***, well uh I did good ha-ha no worries man” Eduardo said.

“ No man not all good...” As Alfonso said that Lorenzo drove by and started shooting at Eduardo getting him in his arm twice, and once in his head. Alfonso just stood there and watched Eduardo just like thunder to the ground. His blood was streaming out of his head to the ground on the lot. Alfonso just looked at him eyes wide-open heart barely beating. And Alfonso said

“ I told you Eddy to not be making these mistakes, and you knew Lorenzo was trigger happy your father showed him these streets and the tricks. You knew that Eddy, you just choose not to learn.”

Alfonso started walking away slowly with his head held down. Once he got to the other side of the street he heard the sirens of the police speeding up the street. As if they care s***, just another Gallardo dead on the street Alfonso thought standing on the corner watching with Lorenzo and the rest of LM. The police pulled up with the ambulance, the Em’s checked his pulse and it was dead cold - you could tell by the blank look on their faces. They put Eduardo Gallardo on the stretcher and drove away. The police just looked Lorenzo right in the eye. Lorenzo stared back. The police got in their cars and drove away. LM had paid more then just the taggers in the city…