Thanks for hanging in there. :) I'm having a lot of fun with this story, so I hope you're all still enjoying it too. I wrote the whole thing before I posted any of it, but I've been editing it as I go... Sometimes a chapter is around 2,000 words and ends up being over 3,000 words by the time I'm through editing it... So even though I've got the skeleton all written out already, there still is a lot of work to be done before publishing it. Was that information anyone cared to know? Probably not. But I said it. It's done. Now you know. Unless you skip my intros, which you might... I sometimes skip intros by other writers...

Okay then... Here's the next chapter. Enjoy:

xxxxxx

Chapter10

Tommy had woken up early enough to actually get himself and his brother to school on time today. He and Doug had both fallen asleep earlier than usual, so waking up early was no problem for either of them.

After they had eaten their pizza, the two brothers watched a movie on television. Tommy could barely even remember the plot. The events in the film hadn't been important. The television was really only on as background noise. Maybe Doug had been paying attention to it, but Tommy hadn't. He had just been so tired. The next thing he had known, it was the next morning, the sun was up, and he was waking up from a very peaceful slumber against his big brother's arm. He wondered if Doug had known his little brother was lying on him. Maybe he had shifted some time during the night. It didn't really matter. If Doug had known, he didn't seem to have minded it.

The two brothers sat in the cafeteria now. They were half-way through the day, which was good, in a way but at the same time Tommy sort of wished the school day could be longer. Neither of them really wanted to go home. What if their dad was back and in a bad mood? If the man had drank a lot, he'd probably still have a hang over. That would mean he'd be easier than usual to bother. Any little thing Doug or Tommy did might set him off if he was already in a sore mood. He decided to push those thoughts out of his head for now. Worrying about it wouldn't do any good. For the time being, everything was okay.

Tommy sucked the last bit of his chocolate milk out through his straw, squished the carton in his hand and threw it on top of his lunch tray. He glanced over at Doug who was pouring cheetos into his mouth as though he was in some sort of race. Tommy raised his eyebrows as he stared at his older brother, who was in the process of making a horrendous mess. There were cheetos on his shirt, on his pants, and on the floor at his feet. Doug certainly could eat like a slob sometimes... Or rather, always... But Tommy didn't really mind. He wasn't the one who had to sweep up the cafeteria after lunch, so it didn't really make much of a difference to him.

Tommy looked up as he heard a familiar voice, "hey," it was Judy, and she was walking toward them. Why was she being so clingy? People normally wouldn't come near the brothers if they could avoid it. Maybe Doug had been too nice. Sure, she was a girl, and they were nicer to girls, but they still didn't make friends with them. He was beginning to think this girl might become a problem.

"You stalkin' us or somethin?" Tommy asked.

"Hey, Judy," Doug sighed. He forced a smile as he dragged his sleeve across his chin to get rid of the cheeto residue. He sounded like he didn't really want to talk to her right now but was doing so anyway, just to be nice. That was weird. Doug didn't usually do things just to be nice. He might for Tommy, but not for some girl he barely knew. Did he actually like her or something? Tommy narrowed his eyes and looked over at his brother. He didn't look like he was in love. In fact, he looked kind of sick, like the idea of her coming over to their table made him want to vomit. Of course, that could have just been the cheetos; After all, he had torn through the bag of chips as fast as a starving dog would have. But his horrendous eating habits never made him sick before, so it must have been Judy instead. Maybe he had been in love with her face but didn't like her personality so much anymore. Maybe he thought she was being too clingy too.

"Sorry about yesterday," she said, pouting and shrugging slightly as she looked at Doug. She looked down at her fingers as she wrapped them around each other nervously. She then put her hands at her sides, but her fingers were still twitching. Finally, she settled on stuffing her hands into her pockets.

"Why?" Tommy jumped in. What was she talking about? Doug hadn't mentioned anything she'd have a reason to be sorry about, "what happened yesterday?"

Her shoulders slumped, "I... well, I was talking to your brother, and I guess I asked too many personal questions... I just..."

"It's okay," Doug assured her before she could elaborate, "don't worry about it."

She sat down across the table from them, "so, I'm going to a party tonight," she informed them, "I don't really know people here that well... It might be more fun if you guys came along."

"You don't know us either," Tommy narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well, I know you guys more than I know most people at this school," she looked down, like her feelings had been hurt, "you don't have to come," she added, "I just thought it might be fun. I mean, you guys seem nice, and I'm not going to know most of the kids there, so it would be easier for me if you were there. But I understand if you don't want to go."

"Who all's going to be there?" Doug asked, "I mean, is this a balloons and cake kind of party? Or a beer and cocaine kind of party?"

Judy laughed, "Well, Samantha Norris invited me," she explained, "Derek Moore will be there... and uh... Jake something - I don't know his last name... um... Karl - I don't know his last name either... Maria Suarez, and um... Well, probably just a lot of the people they hang out with," she frowned, "I don't know everyone well enough to really answer your question. But I don't think there will be balloons or cake. I can tell you that much."

Tommy looked over and met Doug's eyes. Karl Harrison was a senior who often supplied them with drugs to re-sell. Tommy had been meaning to restock his dwindling supply, and knew Doug was running low too. Karl was friends with Derek Moore, so Tommy knew that was probably the same Karl Judy was referring to. Going to the party might be worthwhile. It could also prove fun to terrorize the rest of the students there too. He gave Doug a slight nod.

"We'll go," Doug agreed, "where is it?"

"Derek's house," she answered, "it starts at eight o'clock. His parents are out of town for a few days. You know where his house is? I'm just having Sam drive me, so I don't know the address."

"We know where it is," Tommy answered. They had been there before.

"Cool," Judy smiled, "I'll see you guys there then."

Tommy offered a mocking smile back, but he wasn't sure she saw it. Still smiling, she stood up and walked off.

"God," Tommy sighed, looking over at Doug, "What did you say to her yesterday to make her think we're best friends all of a sudden?"

Doug sighed, "We were talking about family," he laid his forehead down on the table with a thud, "Don't worry," he said into the table so that Tommy could barely hear him, "I didn't tell her anything. She must make friends with everyone she ever meets, because I wasn't even that nice to her. And you certainly weren't."

Tommy laughed, "Friends don't matter when you've got a hundred of them and don't really like any of them. She's hanging out with Samantha Norris? That really shows what kind of person she is."

Doug looked back up, "come on," he defended her, "she's new. She doesn't know who to hang out with yet. Give her a break."

"Well, she made a pretty good choice trying to hang out with us," Tommy grinned, "kind of... Too bad we're not interested."

...

Leaning against the wall, Tommy stood in the corner of the room in Derek Moore's house. He was sipping on his third beer and was silently watching people as they nervously avoided him. He didn't know where Doug had gone. Probably to pick up some cocaine from Karl; Tommy hadn't seen Karl in a while either. Sometimes it took a while to find someplace in the house where they could do business in private, so Tommy didn't really know how long it would take. Hopefully not too much longer. It was probably about ten o'clock now. If they didn't get home soon, their father wasn't going to be very happy with them.

A boy who Tommy hated particularly glanced over at him, wearing a judgmental expression on his face.

Tossing his mostly empty beer can harshly into the floor, Tommy pushed himself up from the wall he had been leaning against. He made himself appear to be ready to go over and slap the kid in the face. But he didn't even have to walk over to him. The boy averted his eyes immediately and promptly walked away. Tommy grinned.

He looked over across the room at a group of people who were smoking weed. That sounded pretty good about now. So he walked over. Leaning over the girl who was holding the cigarette they were passing around, he snatched it up and returned to his corner, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from the group. They had only just lit the cigarette, so it would still last him a while. There was also probably more where that came from.

Puffing on the cigarette, he continued watching everyone else. A few people were looking like they were pretty drunk by now. A boy and girl were making out in the corner across the room from him. He was pretty sure they were both pretty drunk, because they both looked like shit and probably would have never been interested in each other otherwise.

Tommy smiled when he finally saw his brother walking toward him, but frowned when he noticed how he was walking. He was stumbling a bit; he must have had more to drink than Tommy had.

"Did you get the stuff?" Tommy asked, keeping his voice low, but still being vague enough that it wouldn't matter much if anyone heard.

Doug nodded, "yep. Let's get outta here," he threw his arm over his little brother's shoulders and started leading him toward the front door. Tommy noticed Doug was leaning on him pretty heavily and was almost tripping over his own feet as he dragged them along.

"How much did you drink?" Tommy wondered, looking up at Doug. He wrapped his arm around Doug's waist in an attempt to keep him from falling down or stumbling off in some odd direction.

His brother shrugged, "not too many," he laughed, leaning against Tommy heavily enough to push him back a few steps, "uh... two? seven? I dunno. I'm less drunk than... uh..." he slurred, "I'm not as drunk as I feel," he offered a crooked smile, the same smile that let him off the hook quite often whenever he had done something stupid. Many people couldn't resist it. Their father could, but the rest of the world wasn't immune to it.

Tommy winced. Should he take his brother home like this? If their dad saw him and even suspected he was drunk, he'd be furious. He sighed, "maybe we should stay here for a little while, so you can sober up. It's still early... Sort of... One or two more hours probably wouldn't make dad too angry."

"Nah," Doug disagreed as he reached over and put his free hand on his brother's chest, pushing him slightly. He looked at Tommy with unfocused eyes, laughed at something unknown to his little brother, and then turned back toward the door, dragging Tommy along with him, "Like I said," he turned toward his brother again, pulled himself away from his brother's supportive grip, and put his hands on Tommy's shoulders, "I'm not really drunk. I might look like it, but it's because... I'm not. You just feel like you're drunk."

Tommy shook his head, "No...," he stared into Doug's eyes, "you do. I'm not drunk. You are."

"Yeah," Doug agreed, grinning a wide smile that showed all his teeth, "You are."

Tommy rolled his eyes and let Doug lead him out the front door. The older of the two almost stumbled down the stairs, but Tommy quickly grabbed onto him so he wouldn't fall, "Jeeze!" Tommy yelped, "watch out!"

And of course, Judy was standing right outside the house with a few other girls. Tommy wanted to scream. Why was she always everywhere?

"Hey, guys!" she called out, wearing her normal huge smile. What was she always so happy about? Why did she want to talk to them so often? Did she actually like Doug? Did he like her? They barely knew each other.

Tommy forced a very small, very fake smile, "hi," he muttered. Doug was leaning on him heavily again and he was putting most of his focus into keeping him from falling over.

"You leaving already?" Judy sounded disappointed.

"You wanna buy some coke?" Doug stumbled away from Tommy and toward her.

"He's joking," Tommy hissed as he reached forward and grabbed his older brother's arm, "come on, Doug. Let's get you home..." he didn't know if he'd really take him home, but he sure didn't want to stay here and have his brother trying to sell cocaine to everyone he happened to bump into. Most of the kids weren't into that and might be pretty freaked out by the offer. Maybe even freaked enough to tattle on them. Their customers for cocaine were pretty much the same group of people every time. They didn't need new customers, and if they did, they certainly wouldn't find them by asking everyone in sight if they were interested.

"No I'm not," Doug persisted, pulling a small bag of the very item he was advertising out of his front pocket, "got it right here. Fifty buck a pop," Doug informed her, "maybe forty for you," he raised his eyebrows and smiled at Judy.

Tommy elbowed his brother in the ribs, "put that away," he whispered, "she's not interested."

Judy looked nervous, "where did you get that?" she asked, "I mean, who gave it to you? Is it someone here at the party?"

Tommy narrowed his eyes, "what do you care?" Tommy snatched the bag away from his brother and stuffed it into his own pocket, "it's not for sale. Come on, Doug."

"Wait!" Judy called after him, running up and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Listen," Tommy growled as he turned around and glared at her, "I've had enough of you following us around everywhere. You don't seem like the type who would be into this sort of stuff. And if you've never done it before, I wouldn't suggest you start now. Just forget it. Why are you looking for our supplier? You wanna get into the drug selling business? Because I don't think you'd be much good at it. It's dangerous, and you probably don't really need the money anyway. Just leave it to the screw-up poor kids like us."

"Will you please just tell me who it was?" she asked, looking desperate.

"Okay," Doug smiled. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tommy slapped his hand over it.

"Shut up, Doug," he scowled at him, "look at me," he waited until Doug was paying attention, "you cannot tell her. You can't tell anyone. It's not their business. Understand?"

Doug nodded.

Tommy turned back around to Judy who was holding her wallet up at him as if she was trying to show him something inside it. He pushed it down, not paying any attention at all, "Just lay off, okay? You barely know us. If you stop talking to us, it'll just be like we never met."

She pulled the wallet back up so he could see it, "Tommy, I'm a cop," she told him, frowning and not looking at all as happy and carefree as she usually did. In fact, she looked very disappointed.

He actually grabbed at the wallet now, holding it in his hands and staring at it. Sure enough, it was actually a police badge. It certainly looked real, but he couldn't believe the girl was actually a cop. How could she be? "are you for real?" he looked back at her. He still held the badge in his hands, "you're fucking with me, right? You're like eighteen years old..."

"I'm twenty three, Tommy," she informed him, reaching out and taking the badge back, "I assure you this is no joke."

Doug was completely silent. Either he was shocked, or he wasn't paying attention to what was going on.

"You takin' us to jail then, or what?" Tommy asked, feeling adrenaline rushing through him. They had been arrested before. It didn't happen often, but it wasn't something he was completely fearful of. Usually cops would just hold them for a few hours and slap them with a fine.

"If you tell me who gave you the drugs, you won't get in as much trouble," she told him.

"Well, we aren't going to tell you that," Tommy insisted, "we aren't narcs."

"Fine," she frowned, "Ioki!" she called out. Another boy appeared seemingly from nowhere. This kid had been in their detention the other day.

"He a cop too?" Tommy asked, nodding toward him, "Guess you can't trust no one," he frowned.

"H.T. Ioki," the boy - or rather, man - introduced himself, flashing his police badge as well.

"We're going to take you down to the station," Judy informed them, "we don't have to handcuff you if you'll be good. But you have to sit in the back. It's procedure. If you'd just tell us-"

"Well, we're not going to," Tommy interrupted, "where's your stupid car?" he asked, ready to get this all over with.

"Over here," she said, taking Tommy by the arm as Ioki walked around to Doug and led him in the same direction.

Tommy pulled away from her touch. He didn't need her holding on to him. He'd go with her willingly. He turned around and looked at the ever-growing crowd of kids watching this all unfold, "are there any more cops I should know about?" he yelled at the crowd.

"Come on, Tommy," Judy insisted, "don't make this difficult," she reached toward his arm again.

He pulled his arm away from her but continued walking with her.

"Maybe we should cuff them," Ioki suggested, "they seem kind of crazy. The little one at least. He might try to run off."

Tommy scowled at him, "I'm not little," he insisted, "and I won't run off. And don't you dare cuff me." His wrists were still bruised and scratched up from when he had been trying to get out of the restraints his father had put him in. If they cuffed him, it would probably be painful. He also wasn't at all a fan having his hands locked up. He liked to be free to move around at all times if possible.

Ioki shrugged, "your call, Judy," he said to his partner.

"I want to trust you, Tommy," she said gently. Why was she so nice? She was a cop, and she was arresting him on drug charges. They usually weren't interested in trusting him, "just keep walking with me and don't give me a reason to think you need to be handcuffed, and we'll both be good. Okay?"

Tommy didn't say anything. He just kept walking with her. He agreed with her proposition, but wasn't going to tell her that.

"Don't tell them anything, Doug," Tommy looked at his brother, "understand?"

"Yeah," Doug agreed. Tommy hoped Doug had actually comprehended his brother's words. With him this drunk, he could say anything... Karl had been supplying them with drugs for about two years. He hadn't ever let them down, so they weren't going to let him down either. Not if Tommy could help it anyway. But who knew what Doug would end up saying...

xxxxxx

Ooooooh... things are getting pretty complicated now... What's going to happen! Ooooooooo aaaaaaaah! Woooaaah!