You Can't Fool Me

You're not...

"She's not a badass mate," kit said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but I wanna find out why she pretends to be one."

"Have you got any theories?"

"I dunno... I did think that maybe She was poor but that theory's out the window!" Toby said, his brow furrowed.

"How come?" 

"Dude have you seen her house! God, it's gargantuan!" He exclaimed and kit laughed.

"Gargantuan? Seriously, you could have just said massive."

"But bro, gargantuan sounds so much cooler!" Kit was about to answer when Layla ran round the corner, panting.

"He's here." Was all she said but that was enough to make both of the boys follow her back into the alley.
***
"What made you think you could go gossiping about us, newbie?" Toby spoke menacingly, aiming to intimidate the stupid 17 year old that tried fucking with his friends.

"People should know how much of a jerk you and your posse are." Danny spoke bravely trying to pretend that he wasn't scared shitless.

"You have some balls bro, but seriously you're the second douche this week that has tried to fuck us over. And do you know what happened to the first?" Danny gulped loudly

"Toby battered him, Danny, almost killed him!" Kit chimed in and Toby felt a twinge of guilt at hearing this, but his fierce expression never faltered.

"And I'll do the same to you, if you don't shut the hell up!" Toby growled but the boy had the nerve to speak again.

"I've seen you at school Toby, chasing after that Riley slut. You try anything on me and I'll hurt her." That was it. Toby charged at the 16 year old, overpowered by the anger that bubbled inside of him. He didn't know why he was so mad but he knew that he wasn't going to let this idiot get away with saying that about Riley.

Toby pushed Danny to the ground with his most powerful punch. Then he threw hit after hit at the defenceless boy below him, blinded by anger.
How dare he say that! How dare he-

"Toby stop! You're killing him, man." It was Kit. Toby stood up, shrugged his friends hand off and stalked away.

Toby had only meant to scare Danny. They had never meant to harm him. But aside from talking shit about Riley, Danny had done a lot of other things. The whole reason this started was because the idiot had told a powerful gang shit about Toby and his friends so now they were in danger.

When Toby was fourteen, after his parents died, he made friends with a load of people that went to Presscot, the downtown school. Admittedly, it wasn't a very good school but Toby liked it more than he liked Lightwater. He and his friends had formed a group that met up in the back alleys of downtown Connecticut, they weren't a gang as such, they were just a group of teenagers that had really shitty lives. Anybody that tried to sabotage that suffered the consequences.

Toby's legs had unconsciously carried him to Riley's house. He decided against knocking on the door and walked round the back so he could climb up to her bedroom window.

"For God's sake Toby, what do you want this time!" She said, swinging the window open. He ignored her and climbed through the now open window, taking a seat on the carpet.

"I'm a dick Riley, don't you think so?"

"Are you drunk?" She asked, really confused. He shook his head.

"Not this time. But I am a dick, aren't I?"

"Why you asking?" Riley questioned and Toby sighed heavily before telling Riley every detail of tonight. She listened and didn't once interrupt, only when he had finished explaining did she speak.

"What did this Danny guy do anyway?"

"He told the east side gang some stupid shit about us, and trust me, you do not wanna mess with East side." Riley nodded thoughtfully.

"So basically, you think you're a dick because you beat up some guy that was spreading shit about you and your friends." Riley concluded.

"Yeah, it's all kinds of fucked up."

"I don't think you're a dick." She blurted out. "In fact, I know you're not a dick. You care for you're sister and you only beat that guy up to protect your friends. Up until like, 3 weeks ago I thought you were an annoying nerd but now I know that your a hard-headed bad boy that looks out for the people he cares about. You should give yourself a little more credit." Riley didn't know where all that had come from but she realised that she meant every word of it.

Toby just stared at her, his mouth hanging open. He'd never been good at talking about his feelings but what Riley said had really made him feel...better. Without thinking he stood up, leaned forwards and pressed his lips lightly onto Riley's soft ones.

He moved back and smirked at her dumbfounded expression. When she had composed herself Riley said,

"Toby Anderson, you just stole my first kiss."