"So here's the deal, kay?" I Bartered with the crowd, not letting them look at Jinx for even a hint of a moment. We agreed not to talk about this since our past, since both of us hate talking about it equally. He shrunk into a bench. "Y'all speak word of this outside this damn tunnel, I'll hunt each and every one of you down and wring your little necks until I see the light fade from your eyeballs. Kay? Kay."
Ignoring their fear, I inhaled and gathered them closer. "When Jinx was younger, in his earlier teens, his little brother died of cancer, devastating their whole family. Y'all with me so far?" They nodded their eyes with saddened eyes and weary souls, but still they strung along.
"He had just started training me, and I didn't know him or his family well enough to know right away..." I knew he was staring at me. I felt the longing look in his eyes just begging for comfort as if his brother died all over again right in front of him. I sighed, feeling the same weight on my own back as I tried to push Luca's voice to the back of my head again, "he was good at hiding it. Anyway, when Red Bull started blowing up, Jinx had to spend more time with me to train me and coach me in fights... I guess his mom didn't like the loss of attention when she only had one son left."
Jinx's voice cut my storytelling short, with everyone jerking their necks to him as he emerged from the darkness, "So she did the most grimy, plotted, vengeful thing to Mixie's family—she became their friend,"
"Dinner with my family, family photos and barbecues, even portions of my fight checks to pay for his funeral and burial,"
"She became a staple in Mixie's life so much that she was able to just walk in and spend time with Mixie's mom and dad,"
The crowd's heads jerked left and right like they were watching a competitive tennis match, and we weren't even talking to them now... we were staring dead at each other and reliving the memory.
Our storytelling grew in speed, "But here's the catch I didn't pay attention to," I started, my finger resting on my chin, "She became very... invested in me, you guys. You get it? With every day she would start to look... sound... act more and more like young Mixie. Why?"
"To get in Mixie's family's head without her even noticing. And I didn't even know. My mom wore this persona for months, with everyone fooled." Jinx seemed actually mad. He seemed internally frustrated with himself or with his mom. It tugged at my heart. How long was he angry with her?
The crowd started their mumbles, whispers and theorizing. A jump off the metal bench would break their conversations and start their questions.
"So how'd she kill them Mixie?"
"How did you not know?"
"What happened, Mix?"
They acted similarly to a Game of Thrones death analysis team online... the ones that predict based on facts, science, and the past episodes who's destined to die.
"On the biggest fight of my life... the one for ten thousand dollars..." I felt my throat clench with each word, Jinx cut in and finished what I couldn't.
"My mom was always jealous that I was taking Mixie's side over hers. She thought Mixie was stealing me from her. She snuck into Mixie's house, dressed in her typical Red hoodie back then."
"She waited until the fight because she knew neither of us would be home to stop us. She tracked my schedule."
"I guess she thought Mixie's parents was the perfect revenge for... my brother..." Jinx's eyes were watering now. He always blamed himself for this, taking responsibility for the death of both his family and mine. He bore it all in his chest. "My mom was so fucked up..."
Some of the girls in the crowd went to hug him, which would have been amusing if we weren't in current circumstances. They were like, hugging his stomach and he was towering over them since he was so tall.
"Mixie..."
"I'm so sorry Mixian,"
"Damn yo..."
"She slit my parents throats dressed like me and then threw my clothes in the scene to frame me, okay? She framed me. That's why I paid to have the file erased... because I wouldn't kill my own fucking parents!"
The whole tunnel was shocked into silence, with the ceiling feeling like it would cave in on us at any moment from the pressure. My head hung off my shoulder, but it almost felt like a light hand on my shoulder.
Like someone was there, behind me.