What?
And as far as "hanging out" with Trey, they did it right...perfectly even.
Doughboy and them originally knew Trey as the kid from across the street that collected comic books...so they would hang out with him because they could do regular kid shyt like play football, talk about comics, and scary movies and shyt.
But Dough and the rest of them grew away from Trey because they got more into street shyt and Trey got more into school. And that is why Ricky and Trey become best friends, while the other kids stop hanging around each other. Ricky's baby mama even mentions it during the BBQ scene when all of the women are talking about Trey. She says "He used to be best friends with Dough when they were little" which spells out that they aren't close like they were.
If you watch any of the scenes as adults, Trey never hangs out with Dough or the street cats like Monsta. He is always around Ricky. They just interact at times with Dough because Ricky is his brother, so being around the street cats at times is inevitable. You would have a point if Trey was playing spades with Dough, or participating with their fukkery, when it's the exact opposite.
Trey comes over for Ricky, and sometimes while he is waiting they'll offer him some liquor and he'll awkwardly decline it. Or he'll come over for the BBQ, and they'll make fun of his clothes for the five minutes that they talk before Trey goes on about his business. They aren't buddies, they are associates because of their childhood history, the proximity of their houses literally being right across the street, and the go between Ricky.
If Ricky was shown to be a street dude, then you would also have a point. But he's explicitly shown to not be into the street shyt.
"I thought you were scared of Compton?"
Plus all of the scenes of Dough hanging with his friends, and Ricky never being with them. Ricky is into sports and girls, so it makes sense that he and Trey would bond and grow close. They might be the only school boys on the block.
And Dough sees it, and he often makes fun of them for it, like when he's getting drunk on the porch watching Trey and Brandy kiss, and he's like "he still hasn't fukked her."
And when Trey comes over for Ricky a few days later, he says "I saw you leaving Brandy house about 2, 3 in the morning
". All 3 houses are right next to each other, Dough and his boys are always sitting on the porch drinking and smoking late at night, so Dough always see's who is moving in the neighborhood and what they are doing, and brings it up to Trey because "So when you gon finally fukk that bytch"
is basically the only thing they have to talk about.That's realistic as fukk.
Corny dudes exist in every hood. School boys exist in every hood. And often times the school boys used to be friends as children with the dudes that grew up to be street cats. But the divide as they get older doesn't mean the street cats hate the school boys. They still will see each other around, nod, ask about the moms, and keep it moving. And that is what Trey and Dough's relationship would be if Ricky wasn't around.
And even beyond that, what stops Trey from being seen as food by those cats is that Trey is friends with Ricky, they knew him as kids, AND they respect Trey's dad. That won't stop Trey from being harassed by other cats (like when the gun is pointed in his face while he is walking home), but he has the pass from the street dudes connected to Dough.
This difference between them is explored explicitly in the final few scenes of the movie, where Trey tries to hop in the car with the street dudes to do some street shyt, something that never happens in any other part of the film, but chickens out and gets let out. And Dough literally says the next morning "you shouldn't have been there in the first place." That is the major theme of the whole movie, Trey being on one path, being built differently than Dough and his boys. Again, realistic as fukk.
