Jeff the Killer

Randy, Keith and Troy

Jeff and Liu looked over and saw three boys outside, two of which were riding around in circles on the Woods brother's bikes. They would spin them around and then jump off, letting the bikes crash onto the pavement, just to stand them up and ride them again. The two boys riding the bikes were both slim in build, while a heavier boy stood on the sidewalk, drinking a Red Bull and watching.

Jeff and his brother made their way towards the doors of the video store, when the fat kid saw them coming. Jeff couldn't hear what he said to his two friends, but he made some sort of gesture while shouting, and the other two boys dumped the bikes where they lay, and walked towards the sidewalk, directly towards the two brothers.

"Those your bikes?" one of the boys asked as Jeff and Liu entered the summer heat.

"Yeah, why are you riding them?" Liu asked sharply.

"We just saw them there man, relax, figured someone just left them out for us," the same boy responded, as his two friends joined him on either side.

Jeff, determined to make a good start here, tried to change the course of this confrontation.

"Well, they're ours. We just moved here about a week ago, we live over on Fairmont Avenue, a few blocks from here. We were just checking out the neighborhood." Jeff hoped that a civil tone could turn things around, but he could tell by the insolent look on the kid's face that this was a difficult gamble.

"Good for you, you moved somewhere," the fat kid remarked.

"Oh yeah Troy," the first boy spoke, "they moved into that piece of shit house with the gravel driveway. I was wondering who would move into that place."

"Well Randy, now we know," the big kid, apparently named Troy, replied.

Jeff, still trying to salvage the conversation, tried peaceful banter one more time. "Okay, so you're Troy and you're Randy, well I'm Jeff and this is my brother Liu, we just moved here from New Orleans."

"You ain't in New Orleans now," the third boy, who'd just now decided to speak, remarked.

"Yeah, and who the fuck said you could call us by our names?" Randy asked, that insolent, privileged smile never leaving his face.

Jeff smiled and responded to Randy, "Well, I guess I could have called you a fucking asshole but I figured I would give you the benefit of the doubt."

In that moment, a flare of rage replaced the smirk that had rested on Randy's face throughout this entire exchange. The other two boys, Troy and the still unknown third member of his band, seemed to be momentarily struck silent. Perhaps they weren't used to being stood up to.

"Oh I'm sorry, was that language too adult for you?" Jeff asked. "And you, quiet boy, we know this isn't New Orleans," Jeff stated to the slim kid that had reminded him of his geographical locations, "because if this was New Orleans you three would already have gotten your asses kicked for touching someone else's shit."

The slim kid looked back and forth at his two friends, however, Randy, clearly the leader, seemed to know what to say. "Keith, you gonna let this little bitch talk to you like that?"

Jeff knew this part. And while he wanted quite badly to sock Randy and his pals around, a real concern suddenly invaded his mind. If he and Liu got into a fight on their first week in this new neighborhood, their parents would freak. He could practically hear it now. And while things had been far from perfect in their home, even after the move, there was a peace that had fallen over the family, and Jeff, fighting his urges, decided to do his best to keep it.

Jeff looked over the three, very well dressed, very privileged looking suburban kids before them, and dismissed them. "You guys are boring, come on Liu, let them continue their play dates without us."