Tall Are We

All Talk and Headlocks

"Shut it!" Jed glared at Blade who was bent over laughing at the fact that his mom made him wear prepster slacks and a sweater vest, because apparently she finds his usual ripped jeans and band tees to be 'distasteful'.

This is the gang.  All six of us.  There's Jed McCroy who's all talk.  He tells pretty good stories.  In fact, if you didn't know him, you might think he's the coolest guy to hit the concrete.  The thing is, his mom, the crazy witch, has him on a tight leash,  kinda brings down his whole act. 

Blade's a different story.  No one knows much about him, not even his real name.  He doesn't talk much about himself, but when he does it's the truth and it always counts.  We call him Blade 'cause if you tick him off, he'll knife you plain and simple.  I never saw him do it, but my brother said he was with him once, when a guy jumped him in an alley.  Said the guy didn't even know what hit him.  I don't know if I believe it that much.  Blade might be a little rough sometimes, but for the most part he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

Then there's my brother, Mike.  Not much to say about him.  He's older, a senior.  People say we look alike, but I don't see it.  He's tall, blondish, athletic looking.  I mean I guess I'm pretty tall for my age and we both have those dark green eyes, but the resemblance stops there.

And what to say about Tyler James...  TJ well, before everything went to pieces, he was- he was basically the guy everyone wanted to be.  I'd like to say he was the leader of the group, but the other's might get all touchy about it, but it's true.  Without him, noting would make sense.  I used to have  a crush on him when I was younger, but then I realized he was too good for me.  It's not that I'm demoting myself or anything like that, it was just fact.  He knew anything about everything and he wasn't even smart about it.  Everyone respected him, even the kids from South Shore.  Tyler James could walk on water.

Oh, and there's Kris.  He's my age.  He was new and never really talked a lot in the beginning, so I didn't know much about him; just that his socks never matched.

But there you have it.  The crew on the corner.  I was never meant to end up with them, really.  I went back to the garage one night to tell my brother and the guys dinner was ready, and found them doing something I'm not supposed to talk about.  They made me swear to secrecy and with that, they let me in on a whole bunch of other stuff.  Soon I was one of them.

Jed took off his his egg blue vest with the baby pink polo underneath in a fit of rage, and threw them at Blade.  The sweater flew past his head, but the polo smacked him right in the face.  Everyone in the room turned to watch.  Tyler laughed out loud.  Blade slowly wrapped his fingers around the cloth and pulled the shirt from his face which was full of disbelief.  His expression changed quickly, though, to an evil grin as he started toward Jed whom had realised his mistake and started backing up against the garage door.

"Oh shit."

Blade jumped on him, wrestled him to the ground, Jed laughing his butt off, and in no time at all had him in a perfect headlock.

Mike leaned over to TJ amused,

"Five bucks Jed gets out of this one."  Tyler raised his eyebrows and laughed at the bet.

"Ten."

Kris just sat there looking.

I rolled my eyes and went back to my book, smiling as I listened to Jed, gasping for breath.

"I give! I give!"

Blade let go of him, but not without giving him a friendly thunk on the head.  That was our little family, and I'd give anything to go back to the way things were.  Before we screwed up... before things started crumbling.