Masked Risks

Chapter 17

“You’re kidding, right?” Owen sat next to me on the bed and looked over my shoulder at my phone.

I passed to him. “Does it look like she’s kidding? I don’t even want to listen to her messages.” I rested my elbows on my knees and put my face in my hands.

He put my phone to his ear as a knock sounded from… somewhere.

“Hello, hello!” A shrill voice entered the room. “I didn’t even see this connecting door last night. Did you know it was here?”

I looked up to see Avery, pulling Chad into my hotel room. “No, I didn’t know that,” I answered with a monotone, my head elsewhere. “What’s up?”

“I was just coming by to tell you that they’re hosting some events downstairs for everyone in the competition and I was gonna ask if you guys wanted to go,” she scrunched her eyebrows together. “But what’s going on?”

I sighed. “I don’t know how, but my parents found out about the crew and they’re pissed. Well, my mom is,” I explained as Avery and Chad sat down across from Owen and me. “She wants us to go home right away or else she’s coming down here to drag us back.”

Avery’s eyes widened in shock as Chad raised his eyebrows and said what was on my mind. “What’s the big deal? So, what? You’re in a hip hop crew with your friends and it makes you happy, so why does that make her angry?”

I shrugged. His questions were valid and I asked myself the same things, but then I would remember why. “I guess she just doesn’t see it as productive. I guess it’s because she’s a lawyer, so she’s always busy working on a case. In her eyes, she’s changing the justice system, once case at a time. What am I changing with each routine?”

“Don’t say it like that,” Owen said. “What you guys do is more than just stomp your feet and clap your hands. You guys change things and you don’t even realize it. You’re a part of a world that lets you express yourselves in a clean, entertaining way. You’re part of a world that Mom doesn’t understand. Maybe it’s time to introduce her to that world.”

Avery, Chad, and I mulled over his words. I realized he was right and I shouldn’t be scared of my mom because this is something I love and it isn’t worthless to me. That sounded a lot better in my head as a pleasant conversation between my mom and I rolled through my brain. Then I snapped back to reality and came to my sense that it wasn’t going to go over that easy.

A knock sounded at the front of the hotel room door. Owen stood up to answer it. My eyes followed him as he let in Erik, who rushed into the room without a “hello.”

“Did you tell them?” His face was red and his voice was loud as he stared down at me.

“Tell who what?” I asked.

“Did you tell my parents that I’m down here?” He spit at me. I saw Avery mouth to me that she would come back later before she slid out of the room, back through the connecting door to her adjoining room.

“No,” I said slowly, shaking my head, trying to remain calm even though a part of me really wanted to slap him in the face. “Why would you think that?”

“Because they found out that I’m down here for the competition and they are pissed that I’m back in a crew because that’s why we left New York,” he stared at me, almost like he still didn’t believe that I wasn’t the one who told them.

“Why are you trying to blame this on me?” I stood up, meeting him eye to eye. “You know, my parents found out, too. I wouldn’t doubt it if they were on their way now. You’re not the only kid that has parents against this whole thing.”