Playing Criminal

13 - Deals

“I thought we had our talks on Sundays,” I deadpanned.

“Yes, but I need to know more about you if I want to direct my teaching style to your educational needs.”

“Okay…” Slowly I walked over and let myself sink back into the mustard yellow couch.

“How about you tell me a little bit about your gang?” Mr. Berkeley leaned back in his chair while forming a steeple between his fingers.

“My gang? What are you talking about?” I was actually, legitimately caught off guard by this question. No one knew about the gang. There was no reason for anyone to – there was no evidence to suggest gang involvement in mine and Caden’s cases.

“Yes, your gang. The one you and Caden belong to.”

I frowned. Maybe he was just trying to fish for information. Regardless, I wouldn’t play that game. This was complete BS. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what you’re talking about…” I pursed my lips as if I really were apologetic about being ‘in the dark’.

“Fine, play it that way.” He rolled his eyes as he crossed his own arms across his chest. “You and Caden have belonged to a gang called The Players for a number of years. The Players have been active since around the time you were born, dealing for the most part with small stuff, pirated music, DVDs, and the occasional run of marijuana. Now please now that we’ve established that I really do know about your gang, how about you elaborate on it?”

When he stopped speaking I realized that my mouth had dropped partway open and I quickly snapped it shut. Oh shit. How the hell did he know this? There was just no freaking way…

“There are no cameras here, like I said before. Don’t worry – none of the other staff knows. They didn’t need to.” He assured the ghost of a smile across his face.

I shook my head in disbelief, “What in the world would you want to know?”

“Now there’s a good girl,” Mr. Berkeley smirked as he leaned back into his chair again. “You were the main dealer for a number of years.” It was a statement, not a question. “How did you first get into that position?”

Thinking to myself, I gulped, this was going to be a long morning.

And so it was, because under Mr. Berkeley’s barrage of questions, I felt myself slipping deeper and deeper into the past.

“I’m not so sure about this guys…” I bit my lip as I contemplated what they were asking me to do.

 For the last eight years I’d just tagged along with them, watching them work, cleaning up after them, making them sandwiches. All the normal stuff a girl would be sucked into doing in a big group of guy friends.

But despite the fact that I was so much younger than them- and a girl- they didn’t treat me much differently. We watched TV, played Xbox, rode dirt bikes, and just chilled. I’d tagged along during the nights when the gang vandalized other gangs’ territories, did graffiti runs, and shoplifted from random stores. And though I knew it was supposed to be wrong, I couldn’t deny that electric zing I felt every time we were in close proximity to danger. I thrived off of the adrenaline rush that accompanied our less ‘clean’ activities, as Aiden called them.  However as Caden and I got older, Caden began to disappear more often from these outings as he began to take part in the deals- the one part of the gang’s life that I wasn’t old enough to be a part of.