Traitor

Ch 2: Hey Look, She Lived

I Curved around the pot-holes of this road through muscle memory, straight into the long-abandoned neighborhood that held the building that I called home.

With eight other boys.

This part of town has long been left by civilization and judging by the broken windows, caved-in roofs, and broken walls on every house except my own, it wasn't hard to tell.

I guess that's why dad put all of us here.

I parked my bike right outside of the old rust-ridden fence that I can only imagine used to be white, kicking down the kickstand as I removed the briefcase from my lap.

My mind wouldn't stop going back to that guy.

He didn't follow me at all. I didn't see any sign of him whatsoever after I left him in the alley.

I'll admit that I was fully expecting him to at least try to chase me down, but he didnt.

If he really needed this, he probably would have followed me right?

I sighed as I set my hand on the front door nob.

Whatever. That sounds like his problem now, I got what I needed.

Six sets of eyes turned to me as I opened the door and stepped in.

My nose wrinkled at the all too familiar smell of them, the overflowing trash can, and whatever beer they had been drinking.

Even from the inside it looked abandoned save for the mix-matched furniture, and the rug one of them bought to cover the messed up floor.

"Hey look, she lived," Dante spoke from his place on one of the couches.

I sent him a tired grin.

Dante was pretty much the only guy here that I would consider a close friend.

Usually, he would get up to give me a hug, but he was obviously defending that couch at the moment.

The rule in this house is if you're sitting on it, you get to sleep there.

And since we only had four old couches, it had almost become a competition.

Lucky for Ashton, he was already asleep on one of them.

That boy could sleep through anything

The rest of the boys just looked relieved that I came back with the case, some cheering their "Good jobs" and "Welcome backs".

They all must have known that my life was on the line with this one. Despite it being an easy run.

"Why the hell are you guys still awake?" I asked.

I don't care if they're capable men in their twenties, it's 3 AM and they should be asleep.

"We wanted to make sure you came home safe," Collin spoke from his place on the floor.

Everyone else nodded and chatted in agreement.

A smile tugged at my lips.

Being the only girl, and the youngest in this house tends to make for some overprotective boys.

Especially Clayton who pretty much jumped to his feet to come and greet me as he always did.

My smile quickly faded.

Tanner quickly took the newly given opportunity since Clayton just gave his couch up for grabs.