"Fuckin' kid was laid right out by the tracks.. Didja see that son-of-a-whore, Billy?"

"Yeah I seen him; seen him right before you starting puking all over your god damn shoes!"

"Not just any shoes, man.. My brand new P.F. Flyers."

"Stop pissin' an moaning, it could have been a hell-of-a-lot worst ."

"How so?"

Billy gave an audible sigh, taking a long drag from his cigarette as he glared at Charlie Hogan through the cloud of smoke he had exhaled.

"Marie and Beverly coulda wanted to get busy, followed us out to take a piss, found you with puke all over ya shoes and the dead kid layin' limp next to the train tracks. That's how it coulda been worst!"

From Vern's stand point, being hunkered down underneath the porch, he told us he could place his face close enough to wooden steps without being seen and peer right through too see both young men standing on top. Whether he was exaggerating or not; he had told us that while looking up at Charlie Hogan he could see a single bead of clear liquid run down the guys face. Unknowing if it was just some sweat from the morning heat or a single tear, he didn't go too much into detail.. Mostly because Teddy dismissed the whole thing as bullshit anyways, but still he kept on with his story.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you could be right-"

"I am right, Charlie. Now drop it and lets go see if Ace is up."

There was a moment of silence as Billy Tessio flicked his cigarette to the ground and not but a second later, Charlie Hogan's cancer stick followed.

"What if we made an anonymous phone call? They wouldn't know it was us and they could find the kid without any questions."

Vern had told us he had nearly laughed out loud at his brothers response. If it wasn't for him being scared shit-less underneath the porch, he probably would have laughed; knowing him. Though i'm glad he chose not too at this time, because if Billy and Charlie would have found him under there.. What was left of Vern Tessio wouldn't be enough to fit in a ration dog food can.

"They trace those calls, stupid. I seen it on Highway Patrol and Dragnet."

Twelve year old Vern Tessio wasn't the brightest kid around, but even he knew Highway Patrol and Dragnet were both full of shit. The police involved drama was just another money making scheme for teenagers to get hooked on a television show. It was all for entertainment and Billy was just another wet-end who fell for it.

So in the end Billy was wrong, they could have phoned in and reported the dead kid and not get caught. But than again it all depended on which police officer answered. Both Billy and Charlie were trouble makers- hell, to hang around with a cat like Ace Merrill and Chris's older brother Eyeball Chambers, you had to be- And so let me tell you, they were. So still, anonymous phone call or not, chances are they still could have gotten caught. In this case, Billy had been smart in a really stupid way.

"Yeah, right." Charlie shook his head and looked to his boots. Vern had frozen underneath the porch thinking Charlie had spotted him and was mentally getting ready for the beating of his life. But Charlie hadn't. His eyes were glued to his boots, not Vern who was right underneath them.

"We just hadda boost that Dodge and bring those broads up to the back Harlow road. We just hadda drink a little to much and need to piss. We just hadda go for a piss and see that dead kid. I just wish Ace had been with us, we could tell the cops we was in his car."

"Yeah, well he wasn't."

Another moment of silence followed as Vern tried his best to scurry away from Charlie boots so his chances of being seen were slim. He did manage to move a little further away, but as he was shifting away from the duo on top, that's when Charlie asked the golden question.

"So we're not gonna tell the cops, are we gonna tell anybody?"

Billy glared at Charlie once again, taking a step closer so they were eye to eye. Charlie had winced under Billy's gaze. When Vern had told us that, the entire tree house had erupted in laughter. If Billy and Charlie had been inside of our hangout during than, Vern would not only have been killed but the rest of us would have had the beating of our lives. Yes, even me. Female or not, both Billy and Charlie had no morals when it came to gender and I too would have gotten the shit beat out of me. Either way we all came to the conclusion that it all went to show Charlie Hogan could be a real pussy sometimes, even if he did hang around with Ace. But even I had to admit, I've seen Billy in his pussy moods too, but he was a tough son of a bitch when he needed to be.

"Charlie, we ain't gonna tell nobody. Nobody never. You dig me?"

"But-"

"But, nothing. We ain't gonna open our mouths about nothing. Act like it never even fuckin happened, alright?!"

Vern told us that he could almost feel the radiating emotion coming from Charlie as he hid underneath the porch, he was nervous.. More than nervous, he was scared. The guys who had picked on us as kids and raised their hand to us as teenagers were scared. The town bad-asses were scared. I think that's what freaked us out the most. Charlie and Billy were scared by the situation which meant it had to be bad. Even though Charlie was a pussy most of the time, he was still a Cobra.. Hell, the guy even threw up when he seen the dead kid.. This guy never throws up, not even when he's shitfaced down at Irby's Billiards with Ace and the rest of the Cobras.

This all meant one of two things.

One: Vern was bullshitting us to go hangout with him for a night before we all went back to school. Or two: this was the truth and the boys were nervous of what they had seen down at the tracks and what was going to happen in the future about it.

The way we had all seen it? There was only one way to find out.

Soon after, both Billy and Charlie walked from Vern's front porch and jumped into Billy's truck and drove away. Most likely to Ace Merrill's place to see if he was up and ready to get the rest of the gang to play a game of Mailbox Baseball or something. That left Vern underneath the porch with no pennies, and his wandering thoughts. Than he did the unthinkable. He ran, the chubby kid ran all the way from his house, leaving us where we were in this moment. The tree house.