A Beautiful Lie

Complications

Chapter 25

Beans and I walk out of the L.A. Gym and into the cool night air. The dark waves splash onto the shore. Not a soul was in sight. We go in the direction we came from. As the sidewalk twisted and turned, my thoughts were scrambling in my mind.

Did Roc really mean that? He knows Prince and I go out. But maybe somehow he wanted to ask me out first. UGH!! How could I be so naïve? All of the signs were there. He's always been protective over me. Roc saved me when I fell through the building. The way he argued with Princeton about my safety. Just everything. He was always there. Worst off, he had these feelings and he watched me and Prince be happy together.

A giant headache forms in the back of my head. Roc is just complicating my situation to deeper levels. I can't get caught in a petty love triangle. Now is not the time (though the attention is nice). I still have an entire gang, which could be possibly thousands strong based on the information I heard, after my sorry black ass.

Beans barks and I escape my mind prison.

I sigh. "I wish I were you. Only worry in life is the next spot to pee."

He barks at me again and starts to circle my legs.

"What's gotten into you Beans?"

He stops and sits. I tug on the leash.

"Come on we have to get home."

Beans wasn't budging. He starts to growl. I look in the direction he was staring at. Across the street, dark figures were crouched in bushes. Scared, I start walking again. Beans follows close behind still looking back. My heart beats loudly against my chest. Roc's company is much needed now.

We turn down another intersection.

"Two more streets and we'll be safe at home." I whisper under my breath. Beans yips. I pick up my pace, anxious to get inside. Then I will run to the phone and ask Prince to come. On the other side of the street, a group of guys walked by. I felt their stares but I ignore. Almost there....

It was eerily quiet. I looked around multiple times to make sure I wasn't being followed. A chill crept up my spine. Something was going to happen. My hands reach up to my neck but only grabs emptiness. My necklace! I left it at home! Now I'm really vulnerable. I have no self defense at all.

I kept my head down and walked a little faster. Through my eyelashes, I took a peek and was almost at the end of the street. Suddenly, the same group of guys blocked it off. I was trapped! Quickly, I pretended I dropped something and turned around. A wind whipped past me and I felt a tap on my shoulder. Beans starts to growl.

"Hey mama cita. Where you think you're going?" It was a Hispanic boy. He looked about 19.

"I'm going back to my hotel." I lie.

"It's too late for you to walk out at night alone, baby. There's bad people out here." He snickers and puts his arm over my shoulders. I shrug him off.

"Oh so that's how we gonna play." His face contorts to rage and he grabs me hard. His hot, nasty breath was on my face.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Where's the necklace?"

"What necklace?"

He yells and slams me into the concrete ground. I grunt. Yellow and red stars popped in my vision. Beans starts barking real loud but one of the other guys picked him up and threw him in an alley.

"Beans!" I try to crawl away from the guy but he catches me and starts to drag me across the asphalt. I cried out as bits of rock tore through my flesh.