Markell yawns and tries to tune out the shit talking on the other side of the cafeteria. He eyes the breakfast in front of him and decides that he should probably eat it; he's tired and doesn't want to move but it will be worse to have a rumbling stomach later.
Across the room, three boys huddle on a bench. Two are brothers LeVon and Marcus, the other is Rabbit, their constant shadow. Rabbit is small and fast and he needs to be. He has a big mouth - over compensation, perhaps. He's able to get away when he inevitably gets himself into a scrape. LeVon and Marcus encourage his behavior. The boys have a strange, chaotic synergy.
LeVon and Marcus believe themselves to be tough guys. What they really are, when you look closer are children. Children who are also becoming young men in one of the harshest environments one can imagine - everyday is unpredictable. The corner store is robbed, someone is shot, someone goes to jail, someone dies. This is what they know.
They hype them selves up; depend on orchestrated chaos to be their control. Evidence that they are in charge. Rabbit follows suit. They have taken on more than they ever should. They have become judge, jury and executioner. Grown up decisions have grown up consequences.
The boys continue in their huddle, and even though they whisper, Markell has made out every word. Maybe they were friends, once upon a time, but he stays away from them now. He wants no part of their bad decisions.
The passing bell rings and Markell dumps his half eaten food into the trash. The boys greet him and he nods quickly back, eager to put distance between the group and himself.
"Rabbit", Markell thinks to himself, "isn't cut out for them. It's not gonna work." He adjusts his back pack and heads to English.
YOU ARE READING
Shadrach (Shadrach Acres #1)
ParanormalAs a group of of young boys begin to change in mysterious (and for some dangerous) ways, the search begins for Hanniah Shadrach who has been missing for years.
