"What do you mean you don't know who it was?!"
"It simply means I don't know who it was"
"Thanks captain obvious, but I mea-"
"It means that whoever was on the phone wasn't the guy that my fam-my gang usually deal with. This person's voice was new, and different."
"Different how?"
"Stephanie, now isn't the time to be playing 21 Questions." Kian snapped.
"Where are we going?" I finally spoke up.
"Your house"
"Why?"
"Get some clothes," he paused "and your suitcase"
"Good luck with her parents." Matt added.
"I'm not worried. Everything is already taken care of."
"What does that mean?" I whisper so only Kian could hear.
He looked at me, our eyes holding a strong connection and all I could see in his eyes was determination. "Trust me." I nodded in agreement.
I do trust him. I had to. He was the only one who knew what to do. What to say.
When we arrived at my house, Kian stopped all of us before going in. He told us to wait and slowly, yet quietly, opened the door and made sure it was safe. He looked to both sides and up the stairs, when he was sure it was safe enough to go, we all ran inside.
"Mia, hurry up and go get clothes. Stacy-"
"It's Stephanie!!!"
"Go help her get anything she needs. We need to go to your guys' house too. Hurry!" Kian's voice was a mixture of unease and panic. I ran upstairs, Steph behind me, and quickly started taking things.
"Mia...Mia...MIA!"
"WHAT?!" I snapped back to reality. "What's wrong?"
"Are you okay?"
"What?"
"Mia, I-I'm scared"
"Don't be, Steph. Kian is going to take care of us. He said he would. Why would he lie?"
"I don't know, I just..." I stopped packing and hugged my best friend.
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. It's my fault you're now stuck in this mess with me. I wouldn't want this to happen."
"but it did. and I'm not saying it's your fault, I'm just scared."
"We'll be okay. I promise." She smiled and we finished packing my clothes and necessities. We walked downstairs to find a very impatient Kian, and Matt.
--
Kian was able to convince both Steph and Matt's parents to let them leave with suitcases in the middle of the day. How? I have absolutely no clue. He wasn't even in there for that long. Which really caught me off guard, but I didn't have the nerve to ask questions. Kian was focused on driving to the house I stayed at a few days ago. I was really nervous, scared, so many emotions running through me I felt like I was going to puke.
don't thats gross
I won't. I just feel like it. We drove for the same amount of hours until the familiar sense of loneliness and isolation was being felt, meaning we were almost to the Pit. I wanted so bad to know what was happening. Why this was happening, what I was involved in, and most importantly, where the hell were my parents.
"What's that?" I heard Matt ask. I looked up and saw that he was looking through the windshield at our destination that was coming into view.
"That," Kian spoke slowly, "is The Pit"
Jumping out the car, Stephanie, Matt and I followed Kian inside the mansion and like before, there was no one there. Kian did what they do to make sure they know it's safe, the beat on the big silver plate on the wall. I waited patiently.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Matt asked, pretty annoyed. It was until the doors opened, and gang members started piling out that Matt realized he should've kept his mouth shut. The same feeling of judgment was roaming the air when everyone did the same thing they did to me, which was stare, intimidating.
"Hey everyone!" I sort of chirped, trying to lighten up the mood. As soon as the words left my mouth, the tension was gone and everyone breathed, while throwing "Hi's, and Hello Mia's" They were all so cute. I swear I could feel Stephanie and Matt's heartbeat slow down to a normal rate.
"What's going on?" Stephanie whispered to me.
"Hi darlins!" I saw Olivia walking up to us with open arms, which I gradually embraced myself in. "How are y'all? I'm Olivia, the nicest one out of everyone here." She said sticking her hand out to my friends.
"Matt"
"Stephanie"
"Well, welcome to the Pit! I'm hoping these gentlemen didn't intimidate and or scare you too bad. It's just what they're used to doing when strangers come in the house-"
"which has been too many recently" a large man with the longest beard said from the couch.
"Oh hush up Billy, it's all work and business with these folks. Now carry on and finish watching your Marriage Bootcamp bullshit!" Olivia replied playfully. Billy, the large man, laughed at her comment but did as was told.
"Now, why don't you guys come into the bar and I'll get you kids something to drink so you can calm down. Seems like one of you is bound to have a panic attack."
"With the amount of large men, guns, and knives around - I might" Matt commented. Olivia laughed at his joke and walked all of us towards the kitchen. I looked around, for Kian, but tried not making it as obvious.
"I'm over here, Kitten." I heard him walk up to the kitchen island we were sitting at.
"I wasn't looking for you, thanks" I retorted. "But now that you're here, can you explain what's going on?" I pleaded.
Kian sighed and, what seemed like, tried to find the words to say. "One thing you guys might find out very odd is the news that you're going to hear in a bit. But really, all you need to know as of now is all three of you, and your families are safe."
"Why should we believe that?" Matt added.
"Because we're standing right here" a male voice was heard from behind us.
We all turned around, as did the rest of the house, and sure enough, all of our parents were standing there. My mom and dad, Matt's and Stephanie's parents. They were all here. We got up in unison and ran into the arms of our parents.
"I'm so glad you're okay, honey" My dad whispered into my ear. "We love you so much."
"Quiet everyone, Damon is coming" I heard a woman announce. We all turned to the top of the stairs and coming down was literally the scariest man I've seen in this whole house. All around me, fist were hitting chest in a monotone. Eventually everyone but me, Stephanie and Matt were doing it. Even our parents joined in, were we supposed to do it?! I didn't know, I looked at my best friends and they were just as clueless as I was.
Kian leaned into me and whispered, "here comes the odd news" Before I could speak, this Damon guy held his hand up and everyone stopped.
"Hello, Brothers and Sisters."
"Hello, Damon" everyone said at the same time.
"Business calls. Lets get to it" his deep voice said. Although he stayed on the stairs, not one peek was heard from anyone, and I wasn't taking any chances so I stayed quiet and listened it. "As we all know, our old pal Shawn Cortez has started up another war with us. There isn't much detail to be laid out, all we know is he has tried to kill two of our youngest members, Kian and Sam. We will not allow that, now will we?"
"No sir" the crowd chanted.
"Very well. We also know that Kian and Sam aren't involved in anything that has to do with Shawn, so it's time to find out what he really wants. Maybe it's money, or maybe it's another war, for our property. I was able to get something out of his men, and Shawn might now have a new target, besides our men, it might be a girl. A specific girl that was unluckily dragged into this. Mia Poppers, please rise." Nervous as fuck, but I managed to stand up and look no where but up.
"Mia has nothing for Shawn, but he knows about her father." I shot my dad a look, but he didn't even glance my way. "Marc used to be part of Shawn's gang. Until he was able to get out, and join us. He has been a great help, as well as his wife, The McManus'," Matt's parents? "And the Sanders" STEPHANIE'S PARENTS?! "Who's kids might also now, be a big target. Matthias McManus, Stephanie Sanders, rise" I looked at Stephanie and Matt, both had the same confused look as me, but rose otherwise.
What the fuck are our parents hiding from us?!
"Listen now, together we are going to stop this. We will protect these kids with out life, they are our future generation. We will put an end to Shawn's idiocies, and make sure we keep what's ours. And we will win, we always do."
Everyone cheered, "Kian, Sam, Poppers, Sanders, McManus, my office" Everyone did the same monotone, fist to chest sound as Damon left, and that was the end of the meeting.
I stood next to Matt and Stephanie, all of us unable to speak, while everyone else scattered around the place to do whatever it is they do, and our parents disappeared into the third floor of this mansion. We stood motionless.
"Guys," Matt spoke and we shot him a look to know we were listening, "Our parents are gang members"
"yeah" I said
"and we're targets of a rival Gang Leader."
--