Never Make A Promise

Never Make A Promise 34

I'm not going to lie to you when I tell you that I wrote this while I was half asleep. I probably shouldn't have, because then it wouldn't be as good, but what are you going to do? I feel like you guys have been patient with me for a while and it's the least I can do. Getting this up, I mean. Besides, it's already done peoples. Enjoy it!

<3 Nikky~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wish that I could say that it was all a dream. I wish that I could say I woke up from this bad dream and that everything was fine. That Damon and I were together and we were safe and that there was no gang after us. That Joyce and Chris never broke up and that he never had any connections to this gang. I wish that I could tell you that. Unfortunately, I can't say that because unfortunately, that's not the case. I stared out the window of the car at all the people, walking around and doing what they wanted- none of them having to worry about a stupid gang chasing them around. My phone vibrated and I quickly took it out from my pocket and checked the new text message I had.

"Who is it from?" Damon asked softly.

"Aliyah," I whispered back. He made a confused face and I held out my phone so that we could both read the text message.

So is Chris there too or....what?

I looked over at Damon. We never mentioned Chris in our lie. And he was the one who called Joyce in the first place. I looked at Damon and he shrugged.

"Tell her...." he began, trying to think of something. "Tell her that....he's a friend of my Dad's...." he said hesitatingly.

"Does your dad HAVE friends?" I asked teasingly.

"I highly doubt it," Damon grinned. I replied to Aliyah's text message and told her what Damon told me to tell her. She only replied with okay, so I was guessing that she believed me.

"We forgot to mention him before," I whispered.

"So I notice," he said. I looked straight and bit my lip. Damon took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. "Don't worry," he whispered in my ear.

"Aw, isn't that cute?" Larry said sarcastically. I resisted the strong urge I had to kick his face in. Hurting Larry wasn't going to get Damon and me out of this situation. Psh, situations. I've been in WAY too many of those lately. Damon shot Larry a glare.

"Don't speak," he said. Larry shook his head and sighed.

"Really in no position to be speaking to me like that, big bro," Larry said.

"What makes you think I'm scared of YOU?" Damon asked.

"Damon!" I scolded. What the hell was he thinking? Jake wanted him dead, so what made him think that Larry wouldn't have a problem with hurting him now? Damon ignored my trying to get him to knock it off.

"Do you really think you scare me?" he asked Larry.

"Damon," Larry warned.

"You're my little brother, Larry. Now you're just some big loser following an even bigger loser."

"Troy," Larry sighed. Suddenly, the guy who had been sitting quietly next to Damon punched his jaw so hard that I thought it would fall out. His face flew into my shoulder and I turned in my seat and cradled his head.

"Larry this is your brother!" I cried out. "Why are you doing this to him?!"

"We're here," was all he said as the car slowed and eventually came to a stop in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Fearfully, I turned my attention away from Damon and out my window. My courage fell further down as I noticed Jake along with Chris and a few other guys laughing and talking by the black SUV. I don't know what I expected from him. I suppose that I was sort of hoping that he wouldn't show up at all. I jumped and dropped my phone after I felt it buzz to signal that someone just texted me. Damon picked it up off his lap and checked it.

"It's Jordan," he said, glaring at the buff guy whose name I gather is Troy. Troy smirked at him in return.

"What did he say?" I asked, trying to get Damon's attention so he didn't do anything he would regret to Troy. He opened my phone and looked at the message.

"Where does Damon live?"

"What?"

"That's what it says."

"Ask him why he wants to know," I said. Damon typed the message in, sent it, then handed my phone back to me.

"Keep it in your pocket," he mumbled as Larry and the other two got out of the car. The driver, the guy who looked to be about Damon and my age and was the exact same height as Damon, opened the door I was sitting by and gestured for me to get out. With a small push from Damon, I got out and waited for him. After Damon got out, he took my hand.

"Stay behind me," he said. I nodded my head. We walked slowly behind Larry and Troy, with the other guy behind us most likely to make sure we didn't run away. My phone buzzed again and I checked my new message from Jordan.

'Just wondering', it read. I raised one eyebrow and quickly typed in where he lived. He replied with an 'oh' right away. I wanted to know why he wanted to know, but I had to shrug off the wondering feeling when Larry called for Jake's attention.

"Jake!" he said. Jake turned around and grinned from ear to ear when he saw Damon and me. He opened his arms and took a couple steps forward.

"Look it!" he exclaimed with that stupid grin. "It's my old best friend Damon and my soon-to-be girlfriend! So glad you guys could make it!" Damon pulled me behind him gently and glared harder at Jake. He really didn't like that 'soon-to-be girlfriend' crap.

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave her out of it?" Damon growled.

"Well, maybe I would have if you had asked nicely in the first place," Jake replied a bit sarcastically.

"You're not going to have her," Damon said bitterly.

"A little jealous there, bud?" Jake grinned wider- if it was possible. To my surprise, Damon smiled and laughed. Jake started laughing too, and so did everyone else but me. I looked around me at the laughing faces. This is awkward, I thought. Suddenly Damon stopped laughing, let go of my hand and stepped forward, and punched Jake right in the face.

"Damon!" I gasped. Jake's followers, except Larry, all flew forward and pulled Damon away from Jake. Jake stumbled backwards and put his hand on his nose, then withdrew it to observe it. There was a little blood coming down from his nose.

"Bad idea, Damon," he said calmly. Chris, Troy, and some other guy held Damon up while Larry and another guy held me so I wouldn't go toward Damon. Jake walked over casually and looked like he was going to pass by Damon for a minute, but came back and punched his stomach. I inhaled, but didn't move. I knew that there wasn't anything I could do about it.

"That's for my brother," Jake mumbled. Damon scoffed and straightened up painfully.

"That's all you got?" he challenged Jake. I rolled my eyes. Was he TRYING to get himself killed? Because it really seemed that way right now. Jake smirked and looked from Damon to me, then back at Damon.

"You really want to do this in front of your girl?" he asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Quit looking at her!" Damon snapped.

"SOMEONE'S getting REALLY jealous!" Jake laughed as he inched closer and closer to me. When he was within touching distance of me, he looked at my face and smiled. "How you doing, Hayley?" I looked down to the side without giving him the slightest answer. How the hell did he THINK I was doing?

"Aw, come on Hayley. Just answer the man's question!" Chris called to me.

"YOU don't speak to me," I snapped. Jake clapped his hands.

"And she speaks!" he said. I looked back down which only made Jake laugh some more. "Come on Hayley. If you're going to be my girlfriend, you're going to have to talk to me a lot more often."

"What?" I scoffed. "You don't seriously think that's going to happen, do you?"

"Not that you have much of a choice."

"Says you," I muttered. Some sticks behind me started cracking and breaking, like a car was pulling up. I looked over my shoulder past Larry at the car that had just pulled up next to the car Damon and I got here in. I know that car, I thought. Oh god. They followed us? What the hell were they thinking?

"Do you know these people?" Jake asked me. I looked at him and then at Damon.

"No," I lied. "I don't know them."

"How about you Damon?" Chris asked. Damon shook his head. I silently thanked God that Chris never met Aliyah or Jordan before, because if he did then they were screwed. WE were screwed.

"Don't know them," Damon lied too.

"Well then," Jake began, reaching around his back. "I guess we'll just have to get rid of them." I saw what he pulled out from the back of his jeans and I didn't like it at all. Mostly because he was planning on using it on my friends.

"Jake, put the gun away," Damon said. Jake pointed it at him.

"I don't take orders from you," he said. "Never have, never will."

"You don't have to kill them," Damon reasoned.

"I might just have to."

"No you don't."

"So you DO know them?"

"I never said that."

"But you didn't deny it either."

"Jake, they're getting out," Larry said, just as Aliyah's door opened. Jake sighed and walked right in the middle of where I was standing and where Damon was.

"Everyone is going to be cool," he said. "No one act suspicious, the first one who does gets their head blown off and then I kill these two, got it?" he threatened. How the hell were all of these guys following him around when he talked to them like that? He would blow their head off if they did something wrong? Was he being serious right now? And were these guys being serious? He just freaking threatened their lives! One wrong move and they're done! That doesn't bother them enough to make them run. Think Hayley, I thought. We're in the woods, no one is going to hear them scream and no one is going to see them running. Aliyah was the first to walk over to us.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking over at me. Larry and the other guy let me go quickly and let me walk over to Aliyah.

"Nothing," I lied. "Can I help you with something?" I have to pretend like I don't know her. And that's going to make me seem like a real jerk because I know that Jordan's going to bring up memories from when we were awkward kids making the transitions into teenage thoughts and interests.

"We followed you," she said to me. I cocked my head to the side.

"Followed who?"

"You and him, of course," she said, pointing back at Damon. She did a double take on him and tilted her head like mine.

"What's going on over there?" she asked. Damon shrugged and glared at Jake.

"Just a little fight is all," he said. "Nothing to freak out about."

"Whoa, I'll freak out when one when I want to," she said. "Now what's going on over there?"

"Nothing really," Jake said, stepping in front of Damon. "Just a fight. It's over with now." Aliyah looked over her shoulder at me and I nodded. Jordan didn't look convinced, probably because he was my best friend and he knew when I was lying.

"Hayley," he said. I groaned internally. He just confirmed that I knew him. Wait, wait, wait. Pretend like you don't know him, I thought. Pretend.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Come on, are we really going to do this now?" he asked impatiently. I really didn't wan to do this to them, but it was for their protection. Jake looked from me to Jordan. 'You know them,' he mouthed to me. I looked at Jordan.

"Sir," I said. "I think you should go home."

"Hayley-"

"Just go," I said a bit more harshly. Jordan gave Jake and the others a look.

"Okay," he said, walking back. "We'll go."

"What?" Aliyah protested. "No we won't."

"Yes we will," Jordan said, grabbing her arm. She sighed and gave in to him.

"Fine," she said. They went to the car and drove away. I was surprised at how easy it was to get rid of them. By the look on Damon's face, so was he. Jake tsked and paced back and forth in front of me.

"It seems some people may have lied to me," he said.

"Lied about what?" Damon asked.

"Knowing those people," he said. "It looked like you did."

"Well we didn't," I said. Jake got a little closer to me than I would have liked him to be.

"Are you really going to try to lie to me right now?" he asked. I rolled my eyes and looked to the side.

"Get. Away. From her," Damon said through gritted teeth. Jake chuckled and shook his head.

"You two really don't get it," he said to himself. "I'm the one calling the shots here. Not you and not-" He was cut off as I kicked him in the face, catching him and everyone else by surprise. The guys hanging on to Damon loosened their grasps and he fought them off and came by me. We took advantage of the guys recovering from Damon beating them up and the guys helping Jake up, and ran out of there.

"Where are we going to go?" I asked Damon. He looked around. We were kind of out of options here in the middle of the woods. To my utter amazement and relief, Jordan's car pulled quickly in front of us and stopped. He motioned for us to get into the back seat, which we did gratefully. Damon groaned as Jordan started driving.

"Didn't want to drag more people in it and that's exactly what I've done," he said. I laid my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around me. "It's okay."

"You two," Aliyah said, turning in her seat to look at us. "Talk." Well, I suppose I wasn't going to be able to hide this from her forever. Because this always happens in the movies. The people are never able to hide their secrets from the ones they love. I really wish that this wasn't one of those cases.