Strong • W2S

XXII

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Ronnie! What the fuck are you doing here?" I exclaimed zipping up Harry's hoodie so I wouldn't expose myself to my brother... of all bloody people that could've walked in.
"I've fucked it Er, I need your help." He sighed loudly and rubbed his temples. I could sense how stressed he really was but I was confused, why has he travelled all the way down to London.
"Ron... Ronnie, what's happened? You're scaring me now." Harry sat on the edge of the couch looking more confused and awkward than I've ever seen him before, Ronnie paced around the living room back and forth while I bit my fingernails nervously leaning against the doorframe.

It was silent for what seemed like forever, the only noise were Ronnie's heavy footsteps and my nail biting.
"Seriously Ronnie, you're scaring me. What the fuck have you done." I stood still as I continued watching him pacing around, Harry stood up and walked out of the room as he placed his phone to his ear.
"Erin what the fuck do I do, I can't get sent down for this." Sent down? Jail? What the fuck has gone on!
"What do you mean sent down? What have you done Ronnie!" My heart was beating so fast and I was dreading the words that would come out of his mouth next.

"It's Dylan..." My heart sank, I didn't even give him the chance to finish his sentence before I let out a scream. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it and then he did, he clarified it.
"He's dead Erin and It's all my fault." I was hysterically crying, I couldn't even look at Ronnie. I didn't even want to hear whatever he had to say, one of my best friends was dead and the blood was on my brother's hands.

"Erin? What the fuck! What's happened." Layla rushed over to me as I slid down the wall bawling my eyes out. Cal stood beside Harry who was standing in the corner not knowning what to do or say and Ronnie was sitting on the floor at the opposite side of the room crying.
"Dy... Dyl... Dylan's dead." I struggled to get the words out, I refused to believe it and Layla definitely did too.
"No... no he's not. You're joking right? Ronnie tell me she's joking." Layla was just as close to Dylan as I was although I was obviously a lot closer in someways. Like I've told you before we all grew up together and got up to some crazy shit as well.
Harry and Cal came over to Layla and I and attempted to comfort us as best as we could but at this point we were both uncontrollably crying and needed each other, they eventually got the message and instead went over to Ronnie well Harry did seeing as he knew him somewhat better than Cal did.
"Wha... what happened." I managed to say, I didn't dare look Ronnie in the eyes. I simply couldn't. Ronnie didn't speak for a minute, the only noise in the room were mine and Layla's sniffles.
"We got into some business a few months back and I tried Erin, I tried so hard to get us out of it but the Jacksons wouldn't have it."

Ah The Jackson family, the biggest and probably the most dangerous family in Glasgow. They started out with petty crimes, stealing things, assults and then eventually moved onto drugs and I mean all kinds of drugs. Cocaine, weed, speed, ketamine, heroin- pretty much whatever they could get their hands on they sold. Eventually the were roaming the streets of Glasgow and every one avoided them like the plague in case Steven Jackson had another one of his "episodes". Steven was a known maniac, he was violent and well just an extremely aggressive and dangerous man all round. The family consisted of four brothers and a sister but she didn't take anything to do with the "business", their father was the mastermind behind it all and he was a right fucking bastard.
If Gary Jackson wasn't locked away behind bars he was in a court room or sitting on his throne in their storage unit which was primarily used for drugs.

"Ronnie why the fuck have you got involved with the Jacksons! Are you mental!" I was stunned so thankfully Layla took the words right out of my mouth.
"What kind of fucking business Ronnie?" I spoke scared for his next answer.
"Dealing obviously but things got out of hand. We owed them a lot of money and last night me and Dylan were walking home from the pub. They jumped us, all four of them - Steven, Callum, Brodie and Fergie, I got away but they got Dyl and whe... when I looked back Erin he was lying in a pool of blood."