Rock, Paper, Scissors

1: Midnight run

Friendship is not about who you've known from the longest or who you hang out with, it's about who walked into your life, said 'Hey, I'm here for you' and proved it. This is what Noah and I have been trying to do for weeks now.

"What if they see us?" Noah whispers.

"Don't worry, it's too dark for them to spot us." I dismissed it, not taking my eyes from the three boys standing in front of us. I was too focused on our objective to allow the cool air of the night that surrounded us to make me cold. Noah on the other hand shivered from time to time.

The three boys looked like they were plotting something important, secretive, but we were too far to hear anything. Micah stood in the middle and seemed rather worried and distressed as he spoke to the other two. 

Were they threatening him in some way? Blackmailing him? I wished I knew what was wrong. I wished I could help him and I'm sure Noah feels the same, but if we'd got closer, they would immediately spot us.

Micah was our best friend, our brother, but he suddenly stopped hanging out with us a few weeks ago. Not a word, not a single explanation, he just stopped talking to us. It was as if we never existed. And sure, true friendship does not need a daily dose of conversation to survive, but when we crossed him, he didn't even look at us and that's the real issue: he was not the Micah we knew. 

The Micah we knew was caring, nice, and always smiling. He was the boy who was always there for me and Noah. We've been friends for four years now, he and Noah practically grew up together, so this change was simply baffling. Beyond our understanding.

We were replaced by the school's 'bad boys' the same day he ditched us, and we had to wonder if the two were related. There were a lot of rumors about them, involving drugs, gangs, and other twisted stories, which was why we had to find the truth about our friend's transformation. 

The first step was understanding his connection to those rumors and those guys – Nick and Tyler.

At first, I didn't think much about it, I thought it was a precocious midlife crisis. Maybe Micah wanted to be cool and hang out with the cool kids instead of his average, plain, dorky childhood friend. However, Noah kept telling me about all of the stories he had heard about Nick and Tyler, and making up theories each one more horrifying than the last. So I had to wonder, what if? What if he was mixed up with something illegal? What if he was in danger?

The sound of a tin can hit the floor startled me. I turned to look at its source to find a small and cute striped kitten slowly walking to us.

Not now buddy.

I glanced at the boys, but they were no longer there. Panic flooded me and I frenetically looked around until I spotted one of them. Nick, to be precise, walking in our direction, followed by Micah and Tyler. Our gazes locked and it felt as if he was looking right through me, but that's impossible. It was too dark, I tried to convince myself. Noah broke my attention by grabbing my arm and pulling me up to leave the scene.

We started running but Noah, clumsy as always, tripped and fell. I stopped in my tracks as soon as I heard the loud thump and went back to help him get up.

"What are you doing here?" an unfamiliar masculine harsh voice broke through the cold air of the night.

I slowly looked up and right then I was sure Nick saw me as I could clearly see his eyes assessing me. I looked behind him to catch Micah staring at us with a confused look on his face. I managed to put Noah on his feet, and we ran out of that dark alley like there was no tomorrow.

We ran as fast as we could until we can't keep up anymore.

"Did they follow us?" I asked between breaths.