Forgotten

The Fall

I closed my eyes hard, knowing the shot was coming, but then I had realized... the gun was out of bullets. I opened my eyes wide. Stared directly at the kid. I then tackled him and started punching him in the face to try and teach him a lesson.

I swung my fists at him, without any fighting etiquette whatsoever in my battle with him.

The sirens came upon me, I saw red and blue lights in the corners of my teared up eyes.

"Do... do you like that you sick fuck?!"

I cry at the kid, his bruised and puffed up face scaring me internally, his lips could barely formulate a sentence at me.

"Uh... um- fuuuu- fuck y- you mother fuck- er..." He managed to whisper at me.

The police ran at us, told us to put our hands in the air, and to stop what we were doing. Paramedics were approaching our cul de sac as well.

I knocked the asshole out, blood all over my fists, red knuckles. I had to go under temporary jail and all that boring shit. I had to go call Angelo to pick me up from the place.

I saw him in his car, and the words I wanted to greet him with wouldn't come out.

"Hey Austin, what's up boy? Get in the car. We gotta go." He told me.

"Oh- okay."

I opened the car door and closed it behind me as I got in.

"What happened Austin? All I heard about was a shooting, between two gangs. Know anything about it? You didn't tell me much about why you were behind bars for a bit."

"Well... I was one of the people in those two gangs. Saw my friend die, Michael. I'm unsure about Juarez though."

"Holy shit? Really? Tell me more."

"Well we were smoking it up, this kid in our gang had a gun, the other gang rolled up on our territory to ask about it..."

"Oooh"

"Conflict happened and shit, someone shot first, I ran for my life. Saw that Mike's face was full of led, and he was dead. Jaurez wounded. I was tryna get help for Juarez but the kid with the gun told me that if we called 911 then he'd be arrested. He had killed the others from the other gang too. While the other gang had shot up Mike."

"Damn... I've been through shit like that before, losing dear and close friends over a conflict including guns... and drugs."

"Yeah..."

"My crew I told you about earlier, Carlos, Juan, Ramirez. We used to be a bigger group of gangsta obsessed cholos Austin."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's why I was caught up in that water remember? I was with them at the escape, when the police were after us."

"Yeah Yeah"

"Well we were two separate boats with turrets at the end of each, I was with Juan. Carlos and Ramirez on the other one. Cops chased us by boat. Had to teach 'em a lesson while we were escaping."

"Hm"

We kept driving while he was talking. He was an amazing multitasker.

"That's when I was shot in the leg by one of the officers. Fell off the boat, others left me behind cuz they couldn't take no chances. You follow?"

"Yeah I've been following."

"That's maybe the reason that kid had to do what he did. You don't know who shot first. Maybe he shot second to protect you guys. Maybe he shot first because he was insecure as fuck, I dunno."

"Still didn't have to almost kill me. He pulled the trigger on me. Luckily he was out though."

"That's what an actual traitor is. When you do something for no reason that hurts the ones you work with a lot. When they trusted you."

"How are Carlos, Juan, and Ramirez?"

"Ramirez is running a strip club at the moment with Tony, this own guy who's like an entrepreneur. Maybe when you're old enough we will go."

"Sweet!"

"Ahaha, that's my boy. So then Carlos is a worker at a nice fine dining restaurant. He's tryna start over."

"Seems reasonable."

"Then Juan is just chilling really. He's bored as fuck."

"That's what my everyday is, usually."

"So how's your life, other than what just happened that was fucked up?"

"Nothing really to be real man. I'm just thinking about how my classmates and teachers are gonna interpret my situation..."

"Don't do anymore gang things with your gang then. Unless you want what just happened to eventually come back and happen again... get people killed and shit."

"Yeah. I just hope Alison stays with me."

Only if I knew... only if I KNEW