PICS and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

34. The Ceasefire

This is the part where I begin to doubt the strength of my character.

I promised Frank I'll stay away from the guys, but here I am - standing in front of Raylan's home, going through the principles and ethics of breaking a promise in my head.

Jeremey is like a baby brother to me. He's more important than all of the guys I know.

There, discussion over.

I enter Raylan's house and go to his room. Raylan sits up from his bed, seeing me. "Finally!" He says.

I ignore him, and go grab Milk and Coffee and cuddle with them for the much needed fluff-charge.

Raylan just smirks from his bed. "I don't know why you bother acting all tough, when you know you're just going to come back to me anyway," he says.

"Why would I come here for you? I came here for the kittens, and more importantly to tell you about Jeremy."

"What about Jeremy?"

"I saw him at the park yesterday. You know that bald boy with a mustache in the Weltrope gang? Jeremy was talking to him."

Raylan sits up. "Why? No one from Weltrope should be in our street."

"I don't know what they were talking about. But I'm worried. Those guys sell drugs."

"I'll talk to Jeremy and find out."

"Don't tell him I told you this."

"Sure. So... how's everything with Frank?"

I sigh. "Technically, I shouldn't be talking to you or Tony right now. So I suppose it's not going that well."

"Screw him. Just break up with that guy."

"God!" I say and put down the kittens and stand up. "You know what, Raylan? It hurts my ego that, out of all the people, you think you are qualified to advise me on this."

He opens his palms. "I say things as they are."

"Then why haven't you told Tony what Lara did? And you wouldn't have to think this much about telling him if you'd just stayed away from Iris in the first place. So tell me, which one of your actions gives you permission to tell me what I should or shouldn't do with Frank?"

"That's not what happened with I-"

My phone rings, cutting our conversation. I look at the screen, then at Raylan. "It's Jeremy's mom," I tell him.

I take the call.

"Ellie, you seen Jeremy? He's supposed to be home a couple of hours ago. He's not picking up his calls. I'm a little worried," Ms. Tucker says over the phone.

"No. But he should be somewhere in the neighborhood only. I'm with Raylan now. You want us to find him?"

"If it's not troubl-"

"Oh, it's nothing Ms. Tucker, we'll call you when we have Jeremy."

I end the call.

"Jeremy's not home yet?" Raylan says.

"He's supposed to be a couple of hours ago. He's also not picking up her calls," I say and dial Jeremy's number.

The ring goes but no one picks up. "It's ringing. But he's not picking up," I say.

I put away the phone. "We should go look for him."

"No. Tony and I will go. You keep an eye out in case he comes back," Raylan says.

After Raylan leaves, I wait at the balcony of his room. From here I can see the front gate at Jeremy's house.

I feel stupid for not asking Jeremy about it yesterday itself, or at least telling Raylan about it.

I shouldn't have hesitated. I hope Jeremy's fine. He's not one to ever come home late, or not take the calls.

An excruciating hour goes by. I resist calling either Raylan or Tony for an update so as to not disturb them.

Soon I see Raylan's car pull up at the front of Jeremy's house.

Jeremy gets out and I feel relieved, but he looks injured.

I leave the room.

By the time I reach Jeremy's house, Jeremy has gone in. Raylan and Tony are outside. "What happened?" I ask them.

"Those Weltrope guys were beating him up. One of their guys was trying to sell drugs here yesterday. Jeremy caught him and told him to leave. So they wanted to get back at him for that," Tony says.

I notice some bruises on Tony and Raylan's faces as well. "What happened to those guys?" I say.

"We dropped them off safely at the police station," Tony says.

I think I have a gist of what might've transpired.

"I feel bad. I thought Jeremy was buying drugs from that guy yesterday," I say.

"I'm not surprised you did," Raylan says.

"What?"

"You have like zero understanding of what's really happening," he says, making a zero with his fingers.

"Alright, I'm guessing it's not about Jeremy and you're just trying to pick another fight with me with all the adrenaline from the kung fu you pulled before still coursing through your veins. But I can't be arguing with someone with a bloody face. That's distracting. So why don't you go home and get that treated and we can continue insulting each other tomorrow," I say to Raylan.

"I agree," Tony says and starts to walk towards his house. I leave with him.

"How many guys?" I ask Tony.

"Five," Tony says.

"Impressive. All that head-butting you guys do in football is useful after all."

"I also pepper sprayed a couple of them," Tony says. I laugh.

I turn at my house. "Glad you guys are talking again," Tony says.

I halt and look at him. "Surprisingly, it's necessary for me to talk to you two a lot more than I presumed."

Tony laughs, then winces in pain.

Shaking my head, I head into my home. Strange people they are - the boys next door.

End of chapter

A/N - With regular updates, I lag a little in proofreading, so If you guys ever catch any mistakes, like spelling errors and such, please leave a comment on them. That would be a huge help. See you tomorrow :)