Raised in a Gang

Chapter 2

Tyra POV

"Tyler, give me the freaking wallet!" I said while reaching for my wallet on my tippy toes.

He held it high in the grocery store and laughed at my struggle. He did this all the time because he refused to let a female pay for any of his things. He said he was the guy and was older, therefore he should pay. He also said I was too stubborn for my own good.

"No," he laughed, "I'm paying for the groceries."

The cashier laughed a cute laugh and opened the register.

I scowled and looked at his name tag.

"Excuse me, uh, Ray?" he nodded and counted money, "What're you laughing at?"

He shrugged and leaned against the counter.

"I've seen you around before," he said. "Tyra, right?"

I slowly nodded and glanced at Tyler who was just as confused as I was.

"Yeah, how did you know?" I asked cautiously.

He shrugged and handed Tyler the precise change. "Like I said, I've seen you around before."

Tyler scoffed and grabbed the bags. "More like you've stalked her before."

Ray scoffed and started ringing up the next customer's items.

"No need for attitude, Tyler." The way he said Tyler's name sent chills down my spine. It sounded evil, as if he spit venom on his name and was slowly plotting his death. But that happens to Tyler a lot nowadays. He's too protective for his own good. He thinks every guy has the hots for me and it's annoying me to no end. I understand that its his self appointed duty to look after me, but not be all on my behind about every guy who even says 'Hi'.

"Um. I think we should go," I suggested. "Tyler, hurry and pay." I said, biting my bottom lip.

He huffed and went through his wallet for the money needed to pay. After roughly throwing the money on the counter to Ray, he snatched the bags and walked out the supermarket with an attitude. It scares me how quickly he gets mad, especially since he cannot control his anger half of the time. Dad taught him to play football as a way to release the anger he has stored inside of his body, though I doubt it'll help him for long.

I looked back to Ray and faintly smiled.

"I apologize for that. We'll catch up, yeah?"

He returned the gesture and nodded. "Bye, Ty-Ty!" he said in a squeaky voice in attempt to make me laugh. It worked.

I turned away to leave before being called out. I turned around to see Ray gesturing for me to come back. I slowly made my way back to him and smiled again.

"Can I have your number, Ty-Ty?" he asked confidently.

His nickname for me made me blush faintly before snapping out of my thoughts and giving him my cell phone number.

Ty-Ty♡:12767896543

He smiled and sent a quick wink before waving me off.

"Thanks. I'll get in touch with you so we can hang out later, yeah?"

I smiled--boy I must be going nuts because this is the first time in a while that a guy other than Tyler or Dad made me smile for this long.

"Definitely." I said. Suddenly, repetitive honking was heard from the parking lot and I knew it was the impatient Tyler. I sighed and rolled my eyes before waving goodbye to Ray.

"I'll text you later." he called out as I walked past the automatic doors.

Ray POV

"Hey, Ray Ray!" Myles squealed as he came inside my job causing Hell.

He came to pick me up and drive me to Walter's since my car was towed by the police two weeks prior. I parked in a no parking zone with thirty unpaid tickets for running red lights, stop signs, and a broken tail lights.

He and the guys were taking turns on driving me around, today was his day. I liked when he drove me around because unlike the others, he was fun and played great music. He was like a little brother to me even though I already had two brothers.

Though I'm in the gang life, I'm such a hypocrite. I preach my brothers against gangs just as Chresanto preaches Prehia against it. If I found out they even had thoughts of joining a gang, I'd kill them, especially if they thought of Jaden's gang.

It's not that I'd hate them for joining a gang, but it would certainly hurt me to see them make the same mistakes I've made. It would hurt me and tear my heart into a billion pieces.

"Ray, let's go." Myles spoke up.

I nodded and turned the light off and closed my lane. I counted the money I made and wrote down the amount before closing the register and signing out.

He drove quickly down the road and towards my home. The whole ride consisted of Myles' babbling, loud music, honking at girls walking down the block, and my jokes. It's usual routines with Myles so I'm pretty used to it.

I got inside my house with Myles following suit behind me. I decided to invite the gang over so we could hang out and plan out our next hit.

There was a gang war between us and the MSFTS. They liked to mess with us so we had to get back at them. It all started years ago when Walter and Will had some feud going on. Just recently they've started up a war. It was unexpectedly, too. We were all hanging out at Craig's house when bullets were flying and glass was breaking. Craig had a little brother.. Had. He was caught in cross fire. Craig barely talks anymore because of that. He lost him two years ago and every year on his birthday and the anniversary of his death, we all go visit his grave. Craig talks a lot when he's there. It's usually depressing though. He promises all the time that he'll get revenge on the MSFTS and won't stop until he kills every single one of them. He's been sad ever since.

"Man, we have three weeks to plan this all out before its Jojo's birthday. How're we gonna do it when we don't even have the material?" Myles said.

Craig wasn't the only one effected by Jojo's death. We all were. Especially Myles. Despite the age difference, Myles and Jojo were best friends. I think Myles took his harder than Craig when he died.

"Jojo would've wanted this." he quietly said. "We have to get them back. Twice as hard. I swear I'll kill every last one of them!"

"Why don't we just go after Willow? We all know how Jaden feels about his baby sister. She's Jojo's age and everything. Have him feel the same pain we felt."

Myles was silently disagreeing. I expected it. He's crushed on Willow for a while now and I doubt he'll want to hurt her. Before this whole gang life, they were best friends. They even went out for a while until Jaden found out and ended it all. Myles has been holding a grudge against him for what seems to be the longest.

"Nah man. We can't hurt her."

"And why not?" I asked in disbelief.

"For one she's a girl! And she has nothing to do with the whole thing. She doesn't even know about Jaden being in a gang. What's our one rule, man?"

I sighed and quietly recited the third rule of our Ten Commandments.

"What?" he said louder.

I groaned and said it aloud. "Never hurt the innocent! Damn."

"Exactly, and Willow is the innocent." Myles argued.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well so was Jojo!" I yelled before slamming the glass cup I held on the ground and into a million tiny pieces. "Jojo was innocent..."