Chapter 25: A New Friend

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"It's okay, Lia, just calm down." Mason tried to console me.

We were all in the living room, Mason and Lina, Jace and Cole, and Ryan and Ollie. They sat on the couch, watching me while I paced back and forth in front of them.

"No! It's not okay!" I stomped my feet in anger. "When were you going to tell me about this?"

"We were thinking never." Ollie added, and I glared at him. He put his hands up in surrender.

"We didn't want to tell you, Lia." Jace approached me, getting up from the couch.

"Why not? We're all friends here. Why keep such a big secret?"

"Because we wanted to protect you." Lina said, frustrated.

"Lia." Mason paused. "This stuff that we're involved in is...dangerous. We could put you in so much danger by telling you."

"Well, I know now!" I put my hands up in annoyance.

"But the real question is..." Ryan sat up in his seat. "Who told you?"

"It was obviously Santa Clause." Cole blurted out and everyone responded by smacking him in the head.

"That's true. Who told you, Lia?" Mason narrowed his eyes at me.

I made a clicking sound with my tongue. Do I tell them the truth? Will they hate me? Probably.

Who should I tell him it was?

"It was Eli." The words naturally came out of my mouth. "Eli told me."

"I knew he was a bad influence!" Mason yelled at me.

"Why couldn't it be Santa Clause?!" Cole shouted, looking up at nothing.

"Wait, something isn't right here." Ryan, the perceptive one, says quietly.

"What? What could possibly not be right?" I crossed my arms.

"He couldn't have just told you out of the blue. That isn't like Eli. There had to have been a reason as to why he would tell you and reveal all this information." He ran a hand along his chin.

"That's true." Jace agreed with Ryan. "He wouldn't. So how did you find out?"

"Well, when I was driving home that night from the Junkyard, I saw him and Andrew beating some guy up in an alleyway. The next thing I know Andrew whipped out a gun and pointed it at the guys head."

"Did he see you?" Jace asked.

"Yeah! And it terrified me!" I raised my voice.

"And so," I continued. "I cornered him at school, and demanded him to tell me what happened. He wouldn't give in at first, but me being me, I got through to him and he told me a lot. Maybe it wasn't everything but it was a damn lot." Wasn't exactly the right story but it's enough to be reliable.

"How did you get through to him so easily?" Lina asked, she seemed a bit confused.

"I just did! I can be very persuasive." I heard Ollie snort in the background but decided to dismiss it.

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