"I'm so proud of you, Archie." My Mum said to me over the phone, "I've been talking to your teachers and they all say they are very impressed with you." I could tell she was crying.
"Mum, come on, please don't cry." I begged, "You I hate it when you-"
"What did that little punk do to make you cry now?" I heard my step-dad shout at my mother in the background. I heard rustling and then a growled; "What did you do?"
"Well hey there Dad." I said mockingly, "Long time, no talk, huh? Not that I'm complaining or anything." By now everyone (Jay, Theresa, Herry, Neil, Odie and Atlanta) was looking at me questioningly.
"I'm not your Father, boy." He hissed back at me.
"Oh, believe me, I know." I said with a role of my eyes.
"You better stop talking back to me boy, or I'm gunna beat your ass to a pulp!" He practically shrieked, and unfortunately, judging by the shocked gasps that were drawn in all around the table, it was loud enough for the rest to hear.
I shoved myself out of the booth angrily. "Ha! You think you can threaten me? You think I'm still scared of you?" I shouted whilst walked out the door of the Dinner. I could feel the others eyes on me as I went.
My step-father was yelling something, but I couldn't hear what it was over the blaring of car horns from the busy street in front of me. No doubt it was a mixture of threats and insults.
I quickly ducked down a side alley to get away from the noise, just in time to hear the dial tone at the other end of the line.
I looked down at the phone and let out a stream of profanities. I was so angry that I didn't even hear the footsteps walking down the alley behind me until it was too late.
"Well, well, what do we have here boys?" A very familiar and unwelcome voice jeered.
I turned around slowly and bit back a gasp.
"What? Don't tell me you don't recognise us, Archie boy? It hasn't been that long!" Said Dante Blake, someone I was hoping very much to never see again.
"Could never forget you, Dante, although I wish I could." I said evenly.
His lackeys hissed menacingly. I picked out a few familiar faces from the 6; Ryan Briars, Mathew Mitchells and Cory Nebule.
"Cory, Ryan, Matt." I nodded to them, to which they only scowled in response.
"So," Dante said, as if I hadn't even spoken.
"Haven't seen you around lately, were ya' been? We've been missin' you."
Ryan grinned sadistically. "Yeah, Arch, I've been thinking we should have us a little get together, catch up, ya know?
I'm sure I wasn't the only one to catch the double meaning in his voice.
I saw a couple of people flick out their switch blades so I flicked out my own.
"You think you can take ALL of us on alone, Arch?" Matt said, sounding amused.
"Hell, yes!" I said confidently.
But then that annoying thing called doubt started to trickle its way into my mind; this wasn't going to be like fighting monsters from hell. I couldn't kill these guys because they we human, even if they were a poor excuse. But then again, I couldn't very well die, now could I?
Dante chuckled, seemingly oblivious to the on-going argument in my mind. "Well I'd like to see that." He said.
As they began to advance I had no choice but to stand my ground. I couldn't move forward or I would trap myself in the middle of the lot of them, and I refused to back away.
Matt took a swing at me but I dodged it pretty easily. A random thug came up to me with his blade. He had filthy brown hair and shaggy clothes. It was too dark to see his eyes, but I imagined them to be dark and lifeless, just like everyone else in the gang. It's just what happens if you're with them for too long.
I was so focussed on the guy in front of me that I didn't notice Cory sneaking up behind me until I felt pain searing across my shoulder. Because of the things I have been through, I was no stranger to pain, so I soon forgot about it as the fight continued to rage on.
After what seems like hours later, but had really only been a few minutes, we were interrupted by a shout of, "Archie!" and the sound of running footsteps.
All of a sudden I felt myself being yanked out of the middle of the gang that had surrounded me.
I looked up from my spot on the ground to see my old gang slowly backing away.
"These your new friends, Arch?" Dante sneered. "A bunch of pansy ass goody-two-shoes'?"
But when Jay pulled out his sword and Herry cracked his knuckles, he could tell that if they started this fight, they would lose, and so started to pick up his speed in backing away, but not before letting out a smart-ass, be seeing you Archie boy."
And then they were gone.
My friends stared at the vacant place Dante and the rest of the gang had been, before turning their gaze on me, obviously expecting an answer.
But I didn't give them one. I just stood up and started dusting myself off.
"What the hell was that?" Neil exclaimed.
"Yeah, Archie," Atlanta said. "Who were those guys?"
"Who, them? I have no idea who they were." I lied, when it seemed impossible to avoid the question.
"Well they obviously knew you." Theresa pointed out. Damn that girl annoys the hell outta me.
"Ok, so, maybe I know them, can we just drop it?" I huffed, annoyed.
"Well considering they just tried to kill you, no!" Atlanta yelled.
By now the adrenalin from the fight had worn off and I could feel the searing pain from the knife in my shoulder.
I held up one finger o shut them up. "Excuse me for a sec." I said and reached around to grasp the knife in my hand. I yanked it out with barely a wince; like I said, I'm no stranger to pain, especially knife wounds, as they were the gangs' favourite weapons.
"Archie!" Atlanta exclaimed. Apparently the wound was having a much greater effect on her than me.
Jay grabbed me by my good shoulder and spun me around.
I heard my friends pull in shocked gasps.
"Oh, god," Odie said, sounding quite sick. I was sure that if I turned around his face would be green.
"It's ok, it looks worse than it feels." I tried to reassure them.
"Ok? OK? Archie that is not ok! You're bleeding down torrents!" Atlanta yelled again, clearly freaking out.
But actually, now that she mentioned it, I was feeling a bit light-headed.
"He looks a bit dizzy." Herry noted, apparently I was swaying or something because he grasped the upper of my good arm tightly. "Come on, let's get you out of here." He said, leading me away.
"Really guys, I'm fine, I've had worse." Apparently, that did the opposite of what I wanted it to.
"Worse!" Exclaimed Atlanta and Odie at the same time.
"What's worse than having a knife embedded in your shoulder?" Atlanta continued.
"A knife in your stomach." I replied with a goofy half-smile. Apparently I'd lost more blood than I thought.
I didn't get to hear the reply though, because a second later, I blacked out.