02
It can't be said that Emilio didn't try to get himself out of his horrible situation. He had taken Louanne's advice and gone to the principal, so it wasn't Emilio's fault that the principal didn't listen, and it wasn't his fault that he had ended up following his original plan. As he slowly walked the streets looking for Shorty, two things crossed Emilio's mind: the first was Angela, and how upset she'd be with him when she found out where he was. The second was, perhaps strangely, Louanne. He wondered if she too would be disappointed in him for coming out here, but he knew that when he got the chance, he'd tell her that he'd tried to make Mr Grandey listen. As he rounded the corner, Emilio saw Shorty and his fellow moronic crack-heads standing around, as if waiting for Emilio to show up. Emilio smirked and reached into his jacket, fingers resting on the cool, metal handle of his gun, ready to shoot which ever one of these fuckers moved first.
"Hey, man, we didn't think you was gonna show," called Shorty, spreading his arms wide and moving towards Emilio, a shark-like grin on his face.
"Well I did," replied Emilio, as he advanced on Shorty. The two men came face-to-face, and Emilio registered the maniacal look in Shorty's eyes, telling him that Shorty was high.
"You ready to go, man?" asked Shorty, slowly pulling a gun out from his jacket and waving it in Emilio's face.
"You know it," came Emilio's answer as he too removed his gun.
"Then let's get this over with," said Shorty. He pulled back the hammer on his gun and took a couple of steps back from Emilio, trying to get the other man into a sort of Mexican stand-off. But Emilio wasn't going to waste time playing Shorty's stupid games. Whilst Shorty was taking his steps back, Emilio pulled the hammer back on his own gun and aimed it at Shorty. A single shot cracked like a whip through the air, and then there was silence.