The Deal

Chapter One

                       ••:My Own Mess:••

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"I got it!" I shout back to my mother before closing the door, sighing and yanking my hood on before heading off and down the driveway towards John B's.

Im already under enough stress and then my mom decides to spring my sisters birthday on me.
Of course her six year old self has to have some ridiculous request and make our already tight enough budget have to stretch even more. I don't even have have enough to get lunch at school let alone a cake with my little pony theme. And I certainly don't have enough to pay off the debt I got myself into.
I didn't mean for it to get so big.. I hadn't realized how much I bought until it was too late. Unfortunately the person I owe isn't one to give me more time.. or anyone for that matter.
One week was generous enough for him, I know better than to try and ask for more.

Seven hundred dollars.. where in the hell do I come up with that? I can't even wrap my head around the fact that I bought that much.. not all of it went to me.
I made some profit off of it to help my mom with the bills. The rest of it.....even I can admit I've been a little reckless lately.

I slip around the corner and take a trail that leads through the small forest. Feeling much too out in the open.
He hasn't forgotten, he won't. Not until he gets his money will he leave me alone and even then I'm not sure I'm safe. I wouldn't put it past him to come up with some malicious reason to harass me. I can't run from him and that I wouldn't even try to do, he'd find me.

I still have one day to come up with seven hundred dollars and some how enough to get my about to be six year old sister a birthday cake.
It breaks my heart that we can't give her the pool party she wanted. JJ suggested we have it at the beach but I'm not sure that's the best place to bring a bunch of five and six year olds, especially not on the cut..
Plus, she didn't want a beach party, she wanted a pool party.

I check over my shoulder almost every minute as I walk. It's just something I do now, feeling paranoid and on edge all the time. He gave me a week. That ended yesterday. I'm practically asking for it walking all alone to John B's..even staying in the same state is risky enough. I'm only hoping that maybe he's too busy being a kook to remember..
He's rich enough, he doesn't need the thousand I owe him. But I'm not that stupid and I know.. he'll come after it, after me..

"What's with that face?" JJ asks, plopping down beside me, blowing the smoke from the puff he just took of the joint between his fingers. I shake my head, pushing the ticking worry down as I pull the joint from him and to my lips. Letting the smokey drug invade my lungs and coat my nerves.
I shrug, handing it back to him. "Haleys birthday" I tell him. "Bills, nothing new" I add and he nods, taking another puff. JJ has always been my best friend. He's how I ended up with the pogues in the first place.

We'd always known each other, just like I'd known all of them aside from Sarah. I knew who she was from parties and the fact that she was the 'Kook Princess' but I didn't know her. I knew Kie since she went to school with the boys on the cut. I'd known Pope, JJ and John B since kindergarten but we never hung out. I kept to my small group which consisted of Ella, Tiffany, Rachel and Maggie.
Ella and Tiffany Gold were twins and my best friends since the second grade. Ella had long blonde hair, whereas Tiffany had medium length brown hair. They weren't identical but looked similar. We were friends up until sophomore year when it all happened....Leaving me with Maggie and Rachel who weren't as nice as the surface made it seem.

I thought we were friends. I really did. We had been since fourth grade when they joined our group after Rachel and Ella met in art class. It was always more Ella, Tiffany and I who were closer and Maggie and Rachel but as far as I knew we were all friends.
Things changed.. I thought we'd all be grieving and be there for each other but I was wrong. I tried to keep hanging out with them, I needed them but they excluded me. They treated me like it was my fault and I already felt like it was. So I stopped trying. Drugs and smoking pot made up for my lack of friends. I was hurting and it made the pain lessen. It coated it like rubber and locked it away for awhile, at least until it wore off. After that I had to go back to finding something worth breathing for.