Eli's POV:
"Ew, why you fuck around with that whale?"
"Back off cunt; she gives good head."
-Drunken laughter-
"Can't be as good as Marissa."
"Aw, you're girlfriend?"
"Hell naw bro, you know the rules."
"True. And who'd wanna be tied to down to just one bitch any way when you got all these pussies around ya?"
More laughter.
I stared in disgust at the members of the Bloodspilt gang; just a few drunken guys hanging out on the street corner. Mike wasn't with them, and I'd seen these guys before. They weren't violent; they just mouth off.
"And you actually wanna join those dickheads?" I said to Mark, my best friend.
Ever since that day we'd met when I was nine, we'd become really close. His family didn't have much money either, but they were nice people. Mark was one of the only boys in my neighborhood that didn't scare the shit out of me.
And it was the same for him.
He looked away, ashamed. "C'mon Eli, stop that."
"Stop what?"
He turned back to me. "Stop guilt tripping me."
I sighed. "You know that's not what I'm trying to do, but I mean Mark, how could you even consider being one of them? They're rapists, abusive, murderers Mark!"
"Eli, I told you about my brother. I can't let that happen to me."
"So you're gonna join them?"
"At least then they'll respect me. I gotta try to keep them scared."
I put my head in my hands.
We were twelve now, and you could become a Bloodspilt pledge when you turned thirteen. Time was ticking away, and I still hadn't convinced Mark that it was a bad idea.
"I'll be fine Eli." He put his hand on my shoulder to reassure me. "They won't hurt me, not if I follow the rules."
"What rules?" I asked.
"Well you heard them talking, you can't have a girlfriend if you're in the gang."
"Why?"
He chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? Girlfriends are always trying to figure out your business, they wanna know all your secrets. They can't know the gangs secrets."
"So basically the guys just whore around?"
Mark laughed, but I didn't think it was funny.
"Pretty much I guess. I mean I've heard of a few guys having girlfriends, but I doubt it works out. I mean think about balancing a relationship with a chick with a relationship with the gang."
I wrinkled my nose at the phrase "relationship with the gang".
It didn't sound like a relationship to me at all…
I sat on my bed with my head in my hands. Clare will be coming over any minute, and I still don't have quite the right lie to tell her.
Telling her the truth is out of the question, obviously. I mean, I can't tell her I was part of a gang. One of the worst gangs at that. I slammed my head against my door frame in anger; cursing the day that I'd agreed to join that gang. Cursing him…
"Mark?"
He'd told me to meet him in his backyard at 6:00 PM, and I'd been waiting there for ten minutes…
"Eli…"
I turned at the sound of his strangled voice and ran over to him in absolute horror.
"Mark, what happened to you?"
His legs were covered in blood, and it was still streaming.
"Oh nothing, just my first test."
I noticed it was hard for him to speak, and I could see that his lips were swollen and bleeding as well.
"Test?"
He nodded. "You didn't think they'd let me in for free, did you?"
I had to look away to keep myself from bursting into tears.
Mark, my best friend…why was he willing to do this to himself?
"What did they make you do?" I asked, my voice quivering.
"They made me and all the other pledges beat each other up. Knives were allowed, but no serious injuries. That's how my legs got cut up."
"That's terrible! It should be illegal…it IS illegal. Why can't you report them to the police?"
"Everyone has. And sometimes it works. Sometimes a few people get arrested. But rarely Eli. You know how it is in this neighborhood. There's so much crime in this part of town….Bloodspilt is too widespread to really put an end too, and there's not enough focus on just the gang."
"Okay, you have a point. But why do you have to join them? They're torturing you just as much as they would if you weren't one of them!"
He took a deep, shuddery breath and I saw a tear roll down his cheek. I lost it then, and burst into tears for my friend's pain. I wrapped him into a hug and he whispered something to me.
"Because Eli…not only can I not let what happened to my brother happen to me, I can't let it happen to my sister."
"Vanessa?" I asked. His sister was only 10…
"Yes. I'm doing this to protect her. There's a rule you see. If you're one of them, then your family is safe. They won't rape her; they won't do anything to her if I join them. Ness is just a kid Eli, she's…they can't, I can't let them-.."
He broke off into sobs and I pulled him closer.
"I'm so sorry Mark. This is…amazing what you're doing. But you shouldn't have to do it."
"I wish I didn't have to! But I have to protect her…it's just…I can't believe I'm gonna have to do it all alone…"
A solemn feeling pooled in my stomach, and at that moment I knew what I had to do.
"You don't have to do it alone Mark. I'll…I'll do it with you. I'll…I'll join the gang."
I shook my head to clear it from that hated memory.
Mark turned out to be a bastard, and I had risked everything, ruined my life to help him.
I hate his guts.
I should've killed him when I had the chance.
I could've killed him. Just as easily as he could've killed me. But I didn't kill him. And he didn't kill me. And I still don't know why…
He had me, and he knew it too. There was nothing to stop him from-
My train of thought was interrupted when my phone rang.
I saw that it was Clare and sighed exasperatedly, I still have no clue what to tell her.
Clare's POV:
"Hello?" His voice sounded strained and I felt a twinge of anxiety at what that could mean. What he's going to tell me…it's really killing him, isn't it?
"Hey Eli, I was just wondering…could you maybe come pick me up? I was gonna walk, but it's raining outside…"
"It is? Oh, weird, I hadn't even noticed." He laughed without humor; just accenting his stressed tone.
"Yeah sure, I'll be right there."
The doorbell rang and I giggled a little. "That was fast…my doorbell just rang." I said. "How weird is that?"
He laughed too and sounded a little more relaxed this time.
"As much as I'd like to say Morty has super speed, I'm afraid it is pure irony that you're doorbell rang."
I laughed and went to open the door.
There, standing in the rain was-
My jaw dropped.
"Fitz!"
I stared at his grim, bruised face in disbelief.
"Fitz? Huh? Clare?" Eli's voice spoke urgently to me over the phone but I was too stunned to reply.
Fitz stepped inside and took the phone from me.
"Miss me emo boy?"
I heard Eli's muffled holler through the phone but Fitz ignored him.
"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt your precious girlfriend."
More muffled yelling from Eli.
Fitz just laughed. "Alright, you do that." He hung up.
"Eli's on his way."
I stared at him, my eyes wide with question. "What…what are you doing here…WHY are you here Fitz?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"I'm here to save his pansy ass."
"Huh? Save him from what?"
Fitz's POV:
I don't know what to tell her really. I don't even know if it will help anything for me to tell her. Knowing will probably just hurt her, and I don't really want that. Clare's not a bad chick; she's just hanging around with the wrong guy.
Eli Goldsworthy…
My enemy.
My fellow gang member.
….my ex best friend.
