I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

54

It'd been a week since we had that run-in with Chester. Marcus and I were extremely wound-up about it that whole week.

Nothing seemed normal or fun like it used to. In all honesty, everything felt like it was falling apart. Well, it did for me anyway.

I couldn't keep up a conversation with my friends without looking or sounding disinterested. Marcus and I couldn't even talk without it turning into some serious conversation about Chester. If the conversation wasn't about that, then it seemed like there wasn't a conversation to be had.

Don't get me wrong, we had a couple conversations. Maybe a handful throughout the week, but it wasn't the same. Nothing was the same. We used to be able to talk for hours about complete bullshit or just spend time with each other and feel happy. Though we did still bring each other happiness, those emotions were drowned out by the worry, and it was all Chester's fault.

Chico's murderer squad, along with Petra and Lex noticed. They didn't know about Chester, none of them except for Billy. They didn't exactly need to know in order to figure out that Marcus and I were acting different, though. So instead of talking to us about it like normal teenagers would, they decided to invite us to a hangout at the roof after hours. I'll admit I liked this approach much better than talking it out so I wasn't complaining.

Now we were just in the middle of a monopoly game. We all sat in a circle. Marcus on my left, Maria on my right, Willie across from us. Saya didn't participate in the game, instead she stood on the other side of the roof staring out into the city in silence. I had no idea what she was doing but she seemed really out of it. Lex and Billy didn't play either, being more occupied with their skateboards rather than the game.

For the first time in a long time everything felt normal. For the first time in a long time I forgot about Chester and enjoyed living in the moment with my friends.

"So it makes sense that every post-apocalyptic future movie is full of punk rockers. They're the ones that survive because they've been anticipating it the whole time." Marcus explained.

Billy came up from behind us laughing with his skateboard in hand.

"It's kind of ironic. The only ones who saw how shitty the world was are the ones stuck living in it." Billy pointed out as Maria rolled the dice and dropped it.

"Is that where you see yourself in the future?" Maria asked as she counted her fake money and Marcus got ready to make a move.

"Yes." Billy said in fake excitement.

"It sounds sad." Maria said empathically.

"Boardwalk with a hotel. Pay me two grand, busta." Willie bragged to Marcus.

"Fuckin' monopoly. This is proof that capitalism doesn't work, okay? Because whoever gets property first, they get to screw with everyone else in the game." Marcus complained as he paid Willie in his monopoly cash.

"Oy, oy!" Lex called out trying to get out attention as he did some new skateboard tricks he learned.

"Whereas I'm chuffed. An absolute fan of the status quo, because it sure is smashing for the chaps up top." Willie mocked Lex's accent.

"Careful, he might stumble on top of you after he falls off his skateboard again." I laughed.

Lex picked his skateboard and walked towards us.

"Did you see that, Petra? I landed it." Billy bragged about landing his kick flip.

"Better than Lex's sketchy bomb drop." Petra stated.

"My bomb drop's more impressive than your imminent middle-aged boob drop. I mean, they're fine now, but look at those pointy little puffers. No elasticity. Gravity's your enemy, my melancholy mime." Lex insulted Petra, though she didn't care much.