The Mistake

Shifted

"Come on, dude." Ben crashed into the couch next to me, reeking of beer and cheap tequila. I could barely hear him over the loud house music and people's drunken screams and laughs. "You can't be sitting here all night. We need to get you drunk off your ass."

I fixed my eyes on the crowd, this one jock, Joel, annoyingly taking off his shirt as he howled after chugging some beer. Joel was probably one of the guys that had said that shit about Sam. He was a dickhead. I scowled and leaned back on the couch, just about ready to leave this party. "Hey man, what's wrong?"

I turned back to the crowd. That's when I saw her walk in; wide-eyed, the wind tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. "Nothing." Sammi. I sat upright in my seat. She came. "Nothing at all."

I stood up in a split second and made my way to her, she hadn't seen me, she kept looking around the room. I was standing right behind her, her back turned to me.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" I whispered in her ear with a smirk, she whipped around to face me. But something was off, she looked angsted.

"Nick." She said with a heavy breath, but the music was so loud I could barely hear her. I grabbed her hand and led her outside through the crowd until we were alone, the music faint.

"What is it?" I held my breath. Did some asshole tell her something?

"I saw him. I saw one of them tonight." My blood ran cold. It took me a second to register what she meant. It didn't make any sense; they'd left.

"What? Who was it? Are you okay?"

"I- I don't know. We were at the ice cream shop, and Sophie said she knew him, that that was the guy she'd kissed one night at the boxing match, so she went up to talk to him. He had on a blue cap, and I don't think he saw me-" James. I let out a breath in relief. "Nick, what do we do?"

"Sam, it's okay-"

"Nick, I-I thought they'd left, what-" She said, her eyes darting around nervously.

"Sammi, listen to me." I held her by her shoulders and made her meet my gaze. She was shaking a little. "That's James. He's one of my oldest friends. He didn't go with them because he got out. After... what happened, he realized he didn't want to be stuck in that life anymore. He went to visit me the other day, said he wants to do everything right. He got a job at the ice cream shop, and hell, he even wants to finish high school. He's not dangerous at all. He never even did any of their dirty work. He just dealt drugs for them sometimes, that's it."

"How can you say that?" She replied, still confused. "He was one of the guys that was holding you back."

"He was holding me back so I wouldn't get us killed. Sammi, he's the one who warned me that Terrence and the rest were looking for us."

Sam still looked unsure and looked to the ground. My hand slid down from her shoulder to grab her hand. "Sammi, trust me," I said. "I promised you'd be safe. Trust me."

She met my gaze then and nodded. "Okay. I do. I just wish you'd told me this before. I didn't know what to do."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it was important. But you're right. I promise, there's nothing else. They're gone."

"Okay," She said once more with a relieved sigh, then suddenly dropped my hand. Her face reddened. "I'm sorry, I ruined your night. You can go back to your party now." She laughed a little, embarrassed. "You weren't answering your phone and I didn't know where else to go." In the hurry to leave home, I'd forgotten to take it with me.