The Streets

15. In

Cole's POV

I heard movement around my bed and I rolled over, still tired. I felt a trickle of liquid pour over my face as I opened my eyes to see Paul and Jacob looming above me. I was going to say something just as they poured the rest of the liquid over my face.

"Hey!" I screeched falling out of bed, trying to avoid the liquid.

The rest of the crew appeared and looked out down at me, laughing at my wake up call. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, water droplets flying everywhere. They all continued to laugh harder, Paul giving Jacob a high five and Dakota had tears rolling down her face.

"Morning." Trish hiccoughed as she herself tried to control her laughter.

I tried to muster a mean glare but failed as Thayer's laugh got louder.

"Is this your wake up call around here? I'm not a fan of it." I spoke as I got up off the floor.

"Only on special occasions." Dakota wiped her tears, smiling at me.

"What occasion could be so 'special' that I get a bucket of ice cold water over my head?" I asked sarcastically.

"Your initiation is complete." Trish spoke seriously.

I felt a chill of excitement go from my head to my feet at what they've decided. I think I did pretty good, we got the drugs and extra for our dealer. I practiced my ass off for our dance all week long. I was juggling between work and my new home okay but school was really kicking my ass. I was drained between moving and going all day that I was lacking a bit in football practice. Why would they dump water all over me if it was something good? This wasn't a special occasion for me, it was one for them. They had dumped water over my head because they had decided not to keep me in their crew and they were glad to get rid of me.

"Why you looking like an abused puppy? You're in Cole."

I whipped my head around to look at Theo, who was smiling at me as the rest of the crew were. Besides Thayer. I felt a smile creep up on my face and they all congratulated me on being one of them, finally.

"As your reward you get answers." Jacob spoke in his Spanish accent that I was getting used to.

I felt all the questions I've wanted to ask boil up and finally being able to ask.

"What are we gonna do about The Raider Cronies? Who are The Raiders? How come you hate them so much? Why do you do dance or do what you do? How long have you been doing this for? " I tumbled out question after question and when I was finally done, they were looking at me amusingly.

"Never met someone as curious as this guy before. If we have to answer all these questions, I'm going to need food to keep up with him." Thayer turned towards he door.

"Get dressed and we'll go out for some food." Trish spoke as she patted me on the shoulder, walking by. I nodded my head, got dressed quickly and ran downstairs to my awaiting answers.

<~>

After grabbing an extra large pizza and finding a table, I began asking them questions.

"Who're The Raiders?"

Paul took a few bites of his piece before he answered my question.

"Our rivals for five years. We just started dancing and from the beginning they were trying to beat us and intimidate us. It didn't seem serious at first, just to win competitions. But when we were sixteen and just starting to get used to working with drugs, they started doing it. They were trying to work for Reeker and he kept turning them away because they had us. Tried to sabotage getting the drugs for us. Slashing our tires, breaking the glass on Reekers cars that we would use."

I nodded my head at the information, took a bite of my slice and a sip of my Coke. I didn't to want to eat, I wanted answers.

"Things didn't escalate until last year." Jacob continued for Paul." They started going after important people and things in our lives. They went after Dakotas stepfather, almost killing him in a car crash. They went after Paul's and I adoptive parents, getting them on probation at work because of false allegations. They trashed Theo's art work he was making and going to sell for cash. The only person they didn't fuck with was Thayer."

These people didn't mess around.

"They didn't fuck with me because they know not to." Thayer wiped his mouth and gave a small smirk

"That was last year, they could still come after you this year. They'll go after Cole because he's new blood."

I locked eyes with Dakota. These Raiders could go after anyone in my life or me directly, making me think of a list of people they could hurt. I didn't want anyone getting hurt.

"They do anything to you Trish?" I asked her. She was being quiet and eating her food.

Her blue-green eyes met mine and I could see something move behind them but I wasn't sure what it was. "There used to be seven of us last year before you came along."  She looked at me directly, as the others continued to talk and eat.

" His name is Zeke Sky. He had recently transferred from a school because he got kicked out from it. He was the polar opposite of what you did to get in with us. He had been at West Coast for a week, before approaching us. He told us he knew what we did and he wanted in."

She took a sip of her drink, pausing.

"We were skeptical at first. But his confidence with himself and how he approached us was what let us give him a chance. He did well in Initiation and he's a great dancer. He got along with everyone well in the crew and he held his own when other gangs came at us. It wasn't until about halfway through the competition year until I realized that I had feelings for him. We could flirt with each other sometimes and we would spend most of our time together. I didn't even think he had feelings for me until he acted on them. We were together about four months, though it felt like a lot longer. He was my only serious boyfriend but everything changed the last night of the comps. The Raiders were going on first so we were just hanging out but Zeke had disappeared. We looked everywhere for him, bathroom, by the DJ set, backstage. I had Thayer drive quickly back home to see if he went back there for some reason. We decided that with or without him, we had no choice to go on and perform."

Her next words sent an angry chill from my head to my feet.

"We were in the front row of the audience and when The Raiders came out, there was five people instead of four. The fifth person was Zeke. That wasn't even the worst part of it. They were dancing to the song we chose to dance to, they used our moves, our everything. It wasn't until then that I realized the whole thing was planned. The Raiders had sent him as a spy. Making him tell them our every move, our every dance, every plan. But looking back at it, I should of known. The way he approached us he seemed to sure, to confident that we would let him in."

"You could of never known what he was going to do Trish." Dakota tried comforting her.

She just shook her head and looked at me sad.

"We were practically booed off stage, it was so embarrassing. They won and I felt so stupid."

"We all felt stupid Taze." Thayer said.

"I told him the night before that I loved him. He looked shocked, not knowing what to say.I should've known then."

" How come you never told that to us before?" Theo asked as he put an arm around her.

She gave a small smile towards him. " Come on guys? The leader one of the biggest street gangs in town, falling in love?" She rolled her eyes.

"You're human." I spoke up for her. "Yes you're a gang leader but you still deserve to be loved."

She gave me a large rare smile "Thanks Cole."

"Is that enough answers for today, Jock Boy?" Thayer huffed, going back to his usual attitude.

"Yea thats enough answers for me."

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I've started writing some poems on Wattpad as well. Don't worry though, I'm still focused on writing The Streets

~T