i like you but i cant say it

CHAPTER 4: the villain who needed saving (page 13)

A bat had hit Caleb on the back and he fell to his knees. His knees hit the dark sidewalk while his arms scrapped against it.

"Good thing I wore a thick coat-" Suddenly his hair was being pulled.

Still stunned by the pain on his back, he was only able to crack one eye open as the rest of his face strained from the feeling of his hair being yanked from the roots.

"Well didn't think we'd see ya out here." A voice came from behind him.

"Yeah, saw him run at the sight of a scrawny lil' kid back there!" Another voice interrupted.

"Oh great, they saw that." Caleb thought. Then the boy holding him abruptly tugged harder, making Caleb grunt in pain.

"W-Why are you here..?" Caleb manadged to whisper with a rasp while the rest of the gang kept his legs bound.

One of them grabbed the bat and slammed down onto Caleb's legs and he almost let out a yelp of pain.

The boy let go of Caleb's hair with a push, making the boy's head fall forward, "Oh y'know, just thought that it would be a lot more fun to disrupt your day without you knowing about it first."

"What do you want from me?" The blonde boy asked again as he tried tugging at his sore arms to free himself.

They all knew he was stronger, but they faught back with quantity.

And threats.

"Ah! You know what will happen if you try to fight back." The kid from before walked over to directly face Caleb, while another came and handed him a phone, "You don't want dear-ol-dad to know about this, would you?"

"Ty, you...you don't have to do this.." Caleb pleaded as he looked up at the boy with the mullet, but Ty only looked down at the blonde boy, phone in one hand, and a smile as if he enjoyed the look on Caleb's face.

"Anyway I'm bored," Ty completely ignored Caleb and continued on with what he was saying, "so I thought maybe you can treat us to a little something tonight, the bar right down the street looks pretty good, but the drinks there cost like a fortune with all of us combined."

"Oops, I mean all of us except for you."

Caleb's blood boilded, but he knew he couldn't do anything, that video is private, if his dad saw it, he'd be thrown out without a home!

"You know I can't do that! My parents already struggle with dept and you want me to what, pay 800 dollars for something I won't even be apart of!?"

"Well maybe you COULD'VE if you decided NOT to rat us out last year!" Ty yelled back, "WE COULD'VE WENT TO JAIL!!!"

"Well what did you expect!? That I was just gonna let you rob a BANK!?!?" Caleb snapped at the boy.

"I expected you to be loyal!" Ty added, swinging a fist down and punching Caleb across the face.

"HEY!" A female voice broke through the tense situation and everyone looked up.