★★★
★★★
"All y'all's hands up in the air now! You, out of the car! Let's go! Out of the car! Let's go! Hurry!" Barry demanded, and I took a sharp breath as I clamored out of the car with everyone else. "There you go, pretty girl. Here we go! Get out the car, let's go! Hurry up!" Barry yelled at me as I put my hands up with a scowl. I could tell it was him even with the stupid skull bandana covering his face.
"Back off, man," JJ warned, but when the gun raised, I shook my head nervously. "Shut up, JJ," I snapped at him. When he went quiet, I knew he understood the urgency. I swear this kid had a death wish sometimes.
As we all walked out of the car with our hands raised above our heads, the fear of being shot became all the more apparent as the sound of the gun in Barry's hands became closer to us. "We're broke," I growled at him, already sick of his shit. I had seen him in the Cut plenty of times, he had many customers there.
My aunt would buy cocaine from him sometimes for the times she wasn't drinking. I bought weed from him once but never did it again because I thought he was skeevy. I guess I was right not to trust him. He came close to me and held the gun to my head, my breath stopping short. I closed my eyes as his face got closer to mine.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH," He yelled in my face as I continued to not breathe. The suspense was high in that moment, and I could tell there was nothing more than JJ wanted then to step in, but he had enough sense not to right now.
Barry wouldn't shoot me. He wouldn't shoot anyone right now, he'd be in prison for the rest of his pathetic life. I was confident the gun was just a scare tactic, and I knew this because Helen, like many Cut residents, kept a gun in the boat. The only thing was, though, that our gun wasn't loaded.
Helen was stingy and didn't actually want to buy bullets, so we kept the gun for its fear factor. I'm not saying I knew for a fact that Barry's gun wasn't loaded, but I knew he wasn't about to pop a cap in anyone today.
He harassed us into laying down in the ditch to the side of us, and when we all got down, hands on our heads, he began to pace back and forth. I was next to a seething JJ, and when I looked over to him, his face was set still in the midst of his rage.
I wanted to try to help him calm down, but I couldn't speak or Barry would flip his shit again. I saw JJ's jaw clench and my own heart my beating in anger at this whole ordeal. Barry went to look through the van, presumably to look for the gold. "It's a set-up, guys," Kie said, emotion thick in her wavering voice.
"That old bat shanked us. Fuck, goddamnit!" JJ barked through clenched teeth, slamming his fist into the ground multiple times. As we laid there in our own fear and humiliation, I decided enough was enough. I sat up slowly, crouching on my knees as I kept staring at Barry ransacking the van.
John B. stood with me and I knew he was on the same page as I was. "Guys, no. No, no, no," Sarah said in fear as we gained a foothold on the ground. "What the hell are you doing?" JJ hissed at me, grabbing my arm in an attempt to make me stay down, but I jerked it away from him.
"You need to trust me," I said to him, looking directly into his eyes. "Stevie! John B.! Don't be a hero," Pope pleaded, but we were both already up. We realized our window was small for the amount of time we had to get to the car, but when we did, we both jumped in immediately.
When we were in, I reached over and took the key from the ignition, leaning back into the seat and hiding to the best of my ability. "All right, y'all stay like that. Unless you want your brains blown outall over this road, don't move your goddamn heads, okay?" We heard Barry bark, and I hoped he wouldn't notice there were two fewer people in the ditch.
Barry got in the car, not noticing John B. and me, and as soon as he sat down and put the gun to his side, I reached up and elbowed him in the face. As John B. reached over for the gun and began to wrestle with Barry for it, I wound up again and punched him in the face as hard as I could.
This gave John B. an opportunity to take the gun and once he had it, we exited the car as fast as we entered it. "Guys! We got the gun!" I said, and they all got up after seeing what had happened with the help of the windshield.
We bolted out of the car and I held the shotgun in arms as John B. fought off Barry. With the gun in one arm, I reached up to hit Barry again but was knocked to the ground from the force of his fist against my nose. At that, JJ bounded towards him and wound up his fist to get a good hit on his gut.
He fought him ruthlessly, and I saw all light leave his eyes and be replaced with a void of darkness and anger. "JJ!" I shouted, not wanting him to actually kill someone, but Barry soon knocked him to the ground. Kie swung at him but missed, being fended off.
I got up off of my ass again and hit Barry's back with the butt of the gun, knocking him down and kicking him one more time for good measure. "I got the gold!" Pope shouted as he came around from the other side of the car, and with that, Sarah grabbed hold of the car door and hit Barry with it.
We all took a turn kicking him while he was down, and when he leaned up against the car, I ripped the bandana off his face. "Barry, you're fucking scum. Do you hear me?" I said.
"I know this piece of shit too, he's a basehead!" JJ shouted, and Sarah ran a hand through her hair. "Probably knows my brother," She said, looking down at the sweaty mess of a dealer beneath us. "Sells coke to my dad," JJ said, and I nodded. "My aunt too," I added.
"Listen, I couldn't hurt any single one of y'all-" Barry started for sympathy, but my adrenaline and rage overtook me. "Fuck off," I shouted, hitting him in the face with the butt of the gun. "Stevie!" John B. shouted, holding me back while Pope took the gun from me. "Chill, dude!" Kie yelled.
JJ was wide-eyed, but not opposed to what I had done. He reached into Barry's pocket while he wheezed and writhed on the ground, pulling out a wallet and a card from within it. "We got one last stop," JJ announced, and he walked off and back into the van.
"Hey!" John B. protested, but JJ kept walking. "Let's go see where this son of a bitch lives," He said. Barry began shouting about how he would remember this while we all walked back to the car, but I held a middle finger up at him. "Keep up that whining, maybe someone will care enough to listen," I shouted before climbing in the van and heading to the wasteland.
★
I waited in the car with Kie, Pope, and Sarah while John B. and JJ went into Barry's house. We all said nothing while we waited, me especially. I was still reeling from what we had just endured and it made me think about the fucked up life I led. I knew a drug-dealer from personal experience and beat him up with my bare hands and a shotgun.
I couldn't go in the house. I needed to decompress before interacting with anyone again, or I'd snap and say something I didn't mean. When the two boys finally came out of the house a few minutes later, JJ held a duffel bag in his hand that looked like trouble from a mile away.
We all got out as he got closer, John B. hot on his trail with a disgruntled look on his face. "Alright, so we're lookingat five grand each for reparations for putting us through that bullshit. Sorry about that, y'all," He said casually, and Kie shook her head at his carelessness.
"So that's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" She asked, bewildered. "This Barry guy's gonna find out," Sarah said. I said nothing, leaning up against the van and trying to block everything out.
JJ was going to get us all killed.
I muted the rest of the conversation, not wanting to break down. A tear fell down my cheek and I begged myself not to slip into a panic attack again.
I was strong enough not to, luckily, and I wiped the tear away before anyone noticed it.
I saw JJ for who he really was at that moment.
He was terrified. He was unhinged. He was dangerous.
But so was I.
I couldn't say anything, because just minutes ago I was beating the everloving shit out of Barry without any plans to step away. I mean, John B. had to physically pull me away from Barry, or I think I would have shot him in my blind rage.
I snapped out of my trance when JJ shoved John B. up against the van, making me fully aware of my surroundings. "Do you feel like a tough guy? Huh? What are you gonna do when he comes for us?" John B. demanded.
"We punch him... in the throat," JJ said menacingly.
I knew this attitude was partially coming from his relationship with his dad. It turned him into some JJ-against-the-world preacher and messed with his head, but he needed to think of all of us.
As much as I wanted to feel bad for him and comfort him, he was being reckless.
"Yeah, good fuckin' idea, JJ," I said, not making eye contact with him. He turned to look at me, clearly surprised I spoke up to bash on him, but I kept my eyes trained on the house behind him. "I'm not putting it back," He stated, still looking towards me, and I scoffed.
"Congratulations, you've earned the coveted title of flight risk, dickhead," I snapped, finally looking at him.
His jaw clenched, but he covered it up with a shrug. He climbed into the van, sitting down and rifling through the bag again.
"You guys getting in or what?" He asked, and we all stayed where we were. The unanimous vote was to let JJ spiral on his own today and deal with it later. When he realized nobody was following him, he got back out with his hands on his hips. "What?" He asked.
"We're sick of your shit," John B. said.
"Oh! My shit?" JJ exclaimed, and John B. nodded, getting in his face. "Yes. Yeah, your shit," He reiterated. "Yes. Your pulling guns on people shit," Kie said. "You acting like a maniac-" Pope started, but JJ snapped at that point.
"Okay, Pope, I took the fall for you man! Know how much I owe because of you?" He shouted, and Pope's face fell stoic before again breaking out into emotion.
"I'm gonna pay you back,and I didn't ask you to do that!" He shouted back.
"I just did! Pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself," JJ said. When we all said nothing, he continued, "You know what? That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself," He said, turning around. Pope started after him, but John B. pulled him back.
"Hey, wait man," He said, and I pushed myself off the van lightly, crossing my arms. "Let him go," I said and everyone turned to me, shocked. I was done though. The sour expression on my face remained as I got into the van, taking a seat.
"Let him go, see how far he gets," I muttered spitefully.
★★★
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