She got home at around . It had started raining at the race, and was pouring down when Cass pulled into her driveway. Annie couldn’t stop coughing. “I saw you with Juan,” She said, “What’s up?” Annie shrugged. “Well I think that he’s into you girl.” Annie tried not to laugh at the absurdity of that statement. “Yeah, you could say that.” She said. She got out of the car and walked up the driveway. She looked at her phone as she was unlocking the door. Two messages. Valentino and a number she didn’t know. She real quick looked at the one from V: Run girl, run. She texted him back as she opened the door and went inside: wat? She waited for him to text back. Her mom was on the couch watching TV.
“How was it?” She asked. Annie thought for a moment, she never told her mom anything that went on. It would hurt her too much. “Good. I took first in my heat. I could have done better though.” Her mom smiled that sad smile she always had. “You always say that.”
Annie decided to look at the message from the unknown sender: I want you. She looked at it again. Then she froze. Who is this? She texted back… waited for it although she was pretty sure she already knew who it was. Jeff. It hit her hard. She didn’t dare text him back. Her phone went off; she had a new message. She looked at it. It was from V: they r looking 4 trouble. She looked around. Two weeks and she’d be gone. It didn’t matter. She would be out of their reach soon.
Jeff advanced toward me, shirt off, looking at me like he wanted to kill me. I was pretty sure he could. I had to stop myself from taking a step backwards. I didn’t want them to know he scared me. I held my ground.
He swung at me; I ducked and swiped his legs. He hadn’t expected it and fell. The guys laughed. He yelled at me, “Crazy white bitch.” And hit me hard in the stomach with his knee. I almost lost it to blackness, but I managed to keep myself together. I threw my fist into his face hard, but pulled back too slow. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me close. “You ain’t gonna win.” It was a promise, not a threat.
I hit him in the stomach; he barely let it show in his face. His fist connected with my face and I lost my balance and stumbled backwards. He pushed me hard and knocked me onto my back, then he pulled out a switchblade. He held it against my neck.
“Now you need to learn lil girl that we might got your back sometimes, but if you ever think you gonna get away with playing us, this blade won’t stop here.”
My eyes were directly in line with his. He smiled; I saw that his teeth were crooked. I couldn’t help it; I just started laughing. Juan stepped over to shut me up.
“Why you laughing bitch? He just told you that we ‘d kill you without so much as blinking. You think that’s funny?” I pushed my luck a little; I really was feeling kind of crazy. “Yeah, it’s pretty damn funny.” I said, watching his face turn from anger to surprise, “’cause I’d do the same with any of you.” Jeff stood up, put the blade away. Juan grabbed my shirt and jerked me up. “You actually pretty damn street smart girl.” Jeff said. It didn’t take me long to realize that I’d just earned some respect with the rest of the gang. They tossed me a ragged piece of green and black cloth. “This is us, all of us.” Juan said, “Green poison and black hate.” He looked me right in the eyes:
“We’re the snakes.”
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