Hi readers.. I'm back with another chapter of Double Crossing Them.. I hope that it goes over well. Let me know what you think and what I can do to make this better. I would like to say that i'm going to be putting all of my chapter stories other than this one and Kels and Ry Annoy Those Who Don't Like Harry Potter on hold for now as i've lost interest in them.. Though if you review to them with some encouraging feedback I may go and wrote some more.. Remember things like this take hours to write but it only takes minutes to leave a review telling the author A.K.A myself what you think of it. Until next time
WhyDoesItHaveToRainOnMyParade
Three.. Troy
"Drew, get up" Jason put his hands to his mouth and yelled so hard my head started ringing.
"Godsake, Jason! My frickin' eardrums."
"Sorry," Jason said with a grin.
I sniffed around his shoulders before moving back. "Damn, Jason! Your pits out howling!"
Jason raised his arm to sniff at his armpits. He looked like her was a bird covering it's head over with it's wing.
"Oh yeah, You're right!" He said sounding a little surprised.
I pushed his arm back down before he gassed everyone on the pitch. "You do know that armpits can be washed, don't you"
"I forgot to put deodorant on today." Jason grinned.
I mean, Godsake.
Our Monday evening football match was well under way. The July evening was still bring and uncomfortably hot. Within minutes of running around my shirt had been sticking to my armpits and my back. Jason and I were on opposing teams, both on the wing, supposedly marking each other. But we were mostly talking. We watched patiently as once again pain stopped play. Drew was still rolling on the ground clutching his lower like he was in a death scene from a bad straight to DVD movie.
The Otter, where we were playing (Or Otter Park as the local authority had it on their website), wasn't as busy as usual. Only just enough guys had turned up for the seven-a-side match, hence the reason that I was actually playing. With a larger amount of people I was normally relegated to one of the park benches. The Otter was a flat patch of rectangular land, with a children's play area at one end and a flower garden at the other. Though there hadn't been any flowers growing in the garden for nearly two decades, according to my mom. The criss-cross path that went through it was now used by roller-bladers, skate-boarders and trick cyclists. Anyone using the park for any kind of wheeled activity did so at their own peril - so the numerous signs said so. I sometimes wondered if that meant baby buggies and pulling shopping trolleys. Closer to the garden than the playground was where the football pitch was located. It was surround on all sides by a rusting wire mesh fence. It wasn't much but it was ours. The pitch was kept clean from any dog crap and any litter. All the footballers in the area made sure of that.
Drew finally got up and shook out his led. About time! The ball was kicked to me and I displayed some semi-adequate skills when I got rid of it. It even went to my own side which was a change. I normally gave it to the other team when i had the ball.
"So what do you reckon?" Jason flashed his new watch just under my nose twisting his forearm this and that. It was so close I couldn't see it properly. Was he trying to poke out one of my eyes with that thing or what? and eua-de-stink-pits was repeatedly punching at my nose again.
"The watch?" Jason prompted. "What d'you think?"
"Does it shoot down low flying aircrafts?" I asked taking a quick step back.
Jason pursed his lips. "Not that it says in the manual"
"Does it contain the nano-technology to drain the subdural haematoma?"
"That's the next model up from this one."
"Then it does the same as my cheap one." I said to him.
"Yeah but mine looks good and cost more than everything you have in your bedroom and some more."
"Could you lower your arm before you kill me?" I pleaded.
Jason took pity on me and did as I asked.
"Your watch, did you buy it or acquire it?" i could help but ask him.
"I bought it, you arse. And I have the receipt and sales certificate to prove it." Jason frowned. "You sounds just like a black copper"
I held up my hands. "Hey, it's no skin of my nose where you got it from."
"Well i bought it with cash money, made from earning a living rather than dossing about at school like some people I could mention." Jason's frown lessened only slightly.
"And is it accurate"
"Of course. It is guaranteed to lose only one second every hundred years."
For the money that Jason must have forked out for this watch, it shouldn't lose any time at all, not ever. And surely it did more than just turn to arrow shaped pieces of metal three hundred and sixty degrees periodically?
"So what does it do?" I asked
"Nothing else. It's not some digital toy out of a cracker," Jason said preening over his watch. "This is pure class."
"But all it does it tell time," I repeated.
"Damn, Troy. How are we friends? You don't have a clue" Jason said.
"It's a loverly watch, Jason" I sighed. "If I ever get married it shall be to your watch."
"Feel free to bugger off and die at any time." Jason scowled.
I grinned. "Only if you'll bury me with your watch over my heart."
"Troy..."
"Ok, Ok. I'll shut up now."
Jason gave a reluctant smile. I could tell that he was still annoyed by my lack of open fawning over his watch, he'd get over it though. He always does. I glanced over to the sidelines, wondering which of the girls over there was Jason's latests girlfriend.
"How's your love life?" I asked.
"Non-existent, thank God!" Jason's reply was heartfelt.
"How's your sex life?"
Jason sighed. "Non-existent, unfortunately. Talking of sex.." his eyes lit up "How's Taylor?"
Damn! I should have seen that one coming. "Jason, don't start."
"What?" Jason said, acting all innocent when he was nothing but "I'm just asking if you two are still an item?"
"We are" I said firmly.
"Cause if your not," Jason continued as if I had never spoked, "I wouldn't mind some of that. She's extra fit, for what she is."
"She isn't one of them"
"Yeah but she's not one of us either." Jason replied
"Then what is she?" I asked a little annoyed.
"Extra fit. I already told you"
We stood there in silence for a little while. Why had I been so quick to deny that Taylor wasn't one of us? Maybe i still couldn't believe that she's chosen me over Chad. I couldn't help but wonder if one day she would wake up and realize that I wasn't coloured like her.
"Troy, chill. I was only messing with your head a bit."
"I know. Remind me to pay you back for that later" i responded.
If only I had the money for watches and bracelets and all the things that Taylor deserved. If only.. I grabbed Jason's arm and gave the watch a proper look.
"This is one cool watch" I admitted to him.
"You could afford a watch like this too, you know. And more" Said Jason.
"You know my job only pays minimum wage." I shrugged. My Saturday job of almost a year was roughly twenty percent selling mobile phone and eighty percent listening to costumers whine. It's just about paid for my school stationary and a few textbooks, that was it. "So at that rate I should be able to afford a watch like yours in about - what? Five or six years?"
"Selling phones isn't the only game in town" Jason said pointedly.
"It's the only one i'm interested in playing though" I reply
"Aren't you tired of having nothing?"
And that was just it. I was tired of having no money. All the things i could, all the things i could be kept slipped into my head like mental-gatecrashers.
"You could just make deliveries like me?" Jason continued. "Dropping off packages here, picking up parcels there"
For the first time I started to listen "I don't know..." I began
Sensing hesitation like a shark that has sensed blood Jason pounced. "Troy, it's easy money. Think of all the things that you could if you had it. You could save up to get out of this place for one"
"Is that what your doing?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Nah. If i had your brains, maybe. But it's this or do something like take food orders for the rest of my life. And guess what, that don't appeal to me. You though with your smarts could actually do it. Troy, in two years you could do anything you wanted and you would be able to do it because you had the cash for it."
Packages.. Deliveries.. Jason made it sound so innocuous. So very easy.
"Who do you deliver these packages for?" I asked him.
"The people who need them or want them or should have them" He told me.
"And who do you deliver these packages for?" As if I couldn't guess "Cause it sure as hell ain't the post office"
Jason smiled. "Does it matter? I pick up the packages and the addresses of where they are to be taken to and that all I know. Troy, think of the money that you could make doing this. I'm tired of having your broke arse trailing behind me all the time"
Waving the two most eloquent fingers on each hand at him, I thought about what he had said.
If I had the money, Taylor and Me...
I cut of the thought off at the pockets. I couldn't start thinking that way. I'd go mad if I started thinking that way.
But it was just deliveries. The odd parcel delivery couldn't hurt. Unless I got caught.
I shook my head, trying to dislodge of the visions of cascading money. "I don't think so Jason. I just want to go to school and keep my head down."
"School." Jason snorted. "I hope your school isn't going to make you forget about who you are"
Inside I went still. "And what exactly is that?"
"Your a white guy. You fancy school isn't going to change that"
"I wouldn't want school to do that."
"Some of our friends already think that you've sold out. It's up to you to prove that you haven't" Jason told me.
Sold out? What the fuck? "I don't have to prove a damn thing, Jason."
"Hey." Jason said raising his hands "I'm only telling you what some of out friends our saying about you."
Friends? My eyes narrowed as I thought of my so-called friends.
Jason stepped back from the look on my face. "I'm just saying, you have to be careful that you brain doesn't get smart at the expense of your head getting stupid."
"Wanting to do something with my life isn't selling out" I said.
"Tell that to Drew and ..."
I didn't give him the chance to say anything else as I cut him off. "No. I'm telling you. That crap doesn't even make it to ignorant. Going to school so that I can think for myself, so that i can make something of myself is selling out now, is it? We don't need the blacks to keep us down with that kind of thinking when we do it ourselves."
Jason took another step back. "Listen, I was just.."
"The next time Drew or anyone else starts spouting that shit, you send them to me to say it to my face." I say furiously. "I'm to go to school and keep my head down until I can get out of this place and that's all there is to it"
"Troy, wake up. That's not even an option." Jason stated. "And Evans can protect you. He's great, almost like a dad to me. Beside which he's one of us."
One of us.
Evans was a gangster, pure and not simply. His being white was enough mitigation as far as Jason was concerned. Evans thought himself a kingpin. He took his cut of every crooked deal that went down here. That is if the Cross family didn't get in first. The Crosses were a white family that ran all the illegal activity around here that Evans didn't get his grubby hands on. Or maybe it was the other way round? Who could tell really? The both offered protection to any low-lie who pledged allegiance.
A while ago some black hooli called Dougie Jones tried to take on the Crosses and he just disappeared. And waiting in the wings to take over his place was his second-in-command. Vance Evans. Everyone said that Evans had learned from his old boss's mistakes. Evan's had no intention of 'Disappearing'. So he made sure that everyone knew his name and his game. Trouble was Evans was even worse that Jones. I guess for the Crosses and the Evans there was plenty of misery around for anyone to make a profit from it.
"The point is, the no-man's-land in which you want us to live doesn't exist Troy," Jason continued. "If you don't pick a side soon you'll be nowhere."
"Yeah but nowhere looks like a pretty peaceful place to be right now" I said.
"Nowhere will get you dead," Jason said. "On the inside you'll be protected, you'll have back up. Evans looks after his own. What do you have at the moment?"
"I have you Jason" I smiled.
"Very funny"
"I know you'll always have my back."
"Don't rely on that, Troy" Jason said quitely.
My smiled faded. Jason and I regarded each other.
"Oi, you two! This isn't a chat show" Liam, the captain of my team yelled to out. "Kick the damn ball"
Jason and I made a show of getting back in the game but although my body ran around the pitch trying to look useful, my head was elsewhere. When pain again stopped play, I stood slightly behind Jason as we both waited for the game to restart and the ball to come our way.
I couldn't help but think about what it was that he had said to me. I felt like i'd been asleep and just been kicked awake. I'd always assumed that Jason would always have my back and vice versa. However, Jason running errands for Evans had evidently changed that. I'd blinked and missed it. Hell, I'd blinked and my world was suddenly a lot more complicated.
Years ago, I thought that getting into East High was it, the be-all and end-all of my existence. I'd thought that all i'd need to do was keep my head down and my grades up to make it through. After school I'd go to university and at the end of all of that, i'd be something big in the financial markets. I had it all figured out. I wanted to get a job that made tonnes of money. That thought was stuff for the future. I'd forgotten that I needed to get through here and now first. The present filled to overflowing with Evans and the Crosses. Needing to belong to a gang to be able to walk the streets. The present was all about friends who had your back and turning away from those who didn't. The present was hard work, not to mention dangerous.
I then realized something. Jason had been right about one thing. That one thing being, the no mans land that I was clinging to wasn't firm ground at all. It was quicksand.