Chapter 5- Know Your Enemy

‘What? Why would I like her? She’s like my sister,’ he laughed. I had to hold back laughing my a*s off, I love how good he was at lying sometimes. It was so obvious that he was into me.
Eli smirked and stood up, ‘Okay that’s enough bullshitting around, let’s go to school.’ He looked at his watch and looked at me, ‘It’s 8:02.. Hey come with me for a second, I gotta talk to you real quick, Alice.’ I put my things back into my bag and walked over to him, motioning Raven to go ahead without me. I glanced at Austin who looked a little worried. Should be. I was probably gonna get yelled at for setting my bookbag on fire.
I looked back at Eli as they all left, he looked calm..ish. ‘Okay now I have the same question to ask you. Do you like Austin?’ Oh s**t.
‘No.’
‘Are you just saying that because of me?’
I snickered, ‘The world isn’t all about Eli. Plus, if I really liked him don’t you think I’d ask for permission, after all he is your best friend.’
‘I’m serious, Alice. I already know he likes you, he’s told me before. He just didn’t want to tell you until he’s ready to ask you out.’
‘He’s going to ask me out?’ I cocked an eyebrow up at him.
He took a step closer to me, ‘I don’t know, but you are going to say no if he does. Got it?’
‘Why would I say no? Why don’t you ever let me date anybody?’
‘Hm, I wonder. Just say no and that you’re gay and like p***y or something. I don’t care what the excuse is, just say no.’
‘Fine,’ I growled.
He looked at me for a second and then started walking towards school. I followed wondering why he was acting so calm. Usually he would have gotten pissed off at me for being a smartass. We were about three blocks away from school when five guys surrounded us. Eli was instantly in front of me scowling at the other guys.
One of them held up his hands in defense and laughed at him. ‘Easy bro, just trying to make a deal.’ Then I realized who they were, the Ghosts, a street gang. Evil, conniving b******s who are always making deals that only benefit themselves.
‘What do you want?’ growled Eli, he can be really ferocious when he wants to.
‘Well, we’re looking for new members and y’all are looking for some of the strong s**t and we got that. All you have to do is become one of us.’ The guy smirked at us, waiting for a response and I was about to give him one alright.
‘How do you know we want that?’
‘An old friend told us,’ he smirked. ‘Now are y’all gonna say yes or no?’
‘No, do you think we’re idiots?’ I snapped, stepping out from behind my big brother. ‘I know what you did to my friend and it most certainly will not happen with Eli nor I.’ The main guy laughed and looked at his other friends then turned back to look at Eli.
‘Control your girlfriend,’ he laughed. Then he looked at me seriously, ‘I’ve never gypped anybody out of a deal, ever. Maybe you’re referring to the another gang?’
‘First of all, you a*****e-’ Eli cut me short by coughing and pulling me back.
‘Ahem, maybe she was mistaken. If you’ll excuse us, we will be on our way to school.’ He grabbed my arm and pulled me past the main guy but the other four got in front of us. ‘Excuse us,’ said Eli with an edge in his voice, ‘but we need to get to school before we are late.’
‘I don’t think so,’ the guy behind us said. I turned to look at him, ‘You see, we don’t take no for an answer. We’re also being nice about it by offering something to you that is quite hard to find.’ He smiled. ‘What do you say?’
‘I say let us f*****g pass in peace and not start any s**t,’ Eli growled. This situation was really turning on the bad side.
The main guy smirked again and nodded at his friends, then grabbed me as the other four guys piled on top of Eli kicking and punching him. I struggled against him but he was really strong. ‘Stop! Stop! Please!’ I screamed at the top of my lungs. ‘Okay! We’ll be apart of your gang, just stop hurting him! Please!’ And just like that, as easily as it had started, it stopped. The guy let me go and I fell to the ground, I looked up at him as Eli shot up to help me stand.
‘Excellent,’ said the leader. ‘My name is Aaron, I’m the leader of the Ghosts. This is Alec, Eric, John and, Michael. You will meet us after your school at 5:00 right here.’ He waited to see if there were any questions but Eli and I just glared at him. ‘We are going to teach y’all the guidelines and rules. Maybe do something else more productive,’ he smiled and winked at me. ‘Do y’all want your bullets now or when we meet up at 5:00?’
‘Now,’ Eli grumbled. I didn’t dare look at him yet because I knew I would freak out. As Aaron gave us a bullet a piece.
‘This is some strong s**t, so I advise that you don’t smoke it all at once.’