if I could take them both. Luckily for me, my growth spurt hit at twelve. I was tall but not that built. Not that it mattered. I’d grown up around this shit my entire life. I took a step forward and raised my chin. “No.”
“What are you gonna do? Fight us both?”
The beaten kid got between us, becoming my shield like he could somehow protect me. He couldn’t even protect himself.
“Just stop,” he said to me. Then to the others: “I gave you my money. You can leave now.”
“No,” I cut in. “Give him back his money!”
Barry stepped forward, his stance matching mine. “Or what, Parker?”
His fist was halfway to my face before I reacted by ducking and charging his stomach. The immediate impact on my shoulder made me want to scream out in pain, but I didn’t let it show. I didn’t even show it when Harry came at me while Barry and I were on the ground. He started to bend over to get me off his brother, but I kicked the back of his knee hard enough that it gave out. Their victim screamed and charged over to Harry, grabbing a backpack on his way, and started beating him with it. I got two punches to Barry’s gut before I had a chance to look at Harry—now cursing and lying on the ground, trying to defend each consecutive hit of the backpack.
With my fists balled around Barry’s collar, I seethed, “Give him his money back, and while you’re at it, give him all of yours!” Next to me, Harry groaned. I laughed. “You too, asshole!”
“Fine!” Barry said, his hand already in his pocket.
Harry cursed again. “Okay!” he yelled. “Just get this psycho off me.”
I watched the kid get one more hit in before letting out a maniacal laugh. Standing up, I took the money they were more than willing to hand me and watched them run away.
“You didn’t have to do that, Ky. I was handling it,” the kid said quietly.
I kept my eye-roll to a minimum when I handed him the money. “What’s your name?”
“Jackson,” he told me. “I live next door to you.”
I shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “I’m sorry I don’t know you,” I said lamely.
“It’s cool. I don’t expect you to. I guess it’s just kind of hard not to know you.”
We walked home in dead silence, only stopping when I got to my gate. “So this is me…” I looked over at my house, sure that it had changed a lot in the two years since we’d moved in. Back then, it was a picture-perfect suburban home. Now—the word shithole wouldn’t even cover it. It was exactly the kind of house you’d expect someone just like my dad and his pathetic friends to occupy. At first, the neighbors called the cops because the loud music and the general sound of assholeness never stopped. The cops came around a few times, but they never did anything. After a few months, the number of bikes in our front yard outweighed the number of residents that lived on the street. I guess they had no choice but to put up with his shit.
Just like I did.
My front door burst open and my dad walked out—shirtless, tattoos on display—scratching his nuts, his eyes narrowing as soon as he saw us. “Perfect,” I whispered sarcastically.
“Well, if it isn’t the useless cunt!” Dad yelled.
Jackson shook his head, his eyes cast downward as he fiddled with the straps of his backpack. He waited until he heard the front door close before looking up at me. “So that’s your dad?” he mumbled.
I rocked back on my heels. “That’s him.”
After shoving his hand in his pocket, Jackson pulled out the money provided by the twins. “You should take this.”
I waved him off. “Nah.” He lifted my hand and placed the scrunched up cash on my palm. I stayed frozen in my spot, not sure how to respond. Pity—especially from him—was the last damn thing I wanted. “I’ll see you around, Jackson.” I started to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
I looked at his hand on my arm, then to my front door. “Probably getting my ass beat.” I scoffed. “Again.”
“Maybe we should both use this money. We earned it, right?”
* * *
We walked to the closest diner and ordered everything we could afford—the splurge made even sweeter because of how we obtained the funds. We talked about movies and TV shows. Turned out, he was