What if I Go?

The Second Day

JASON POV

The room we were in lit up. Memories of yesterday came bursting into my mind. Piper was awake as well. We got up and the sleeping bags disappeared. We sat down on the couch nervously. Leo was sobbing in his mind. Tears falling down his face. Then he slowly calmed down, trying to gather himself together.

Memory begins

"Hey kid! You got any money?" An older boy, who seemed to not have good intentions cornered Leo.

"Nope. Sorry!" Leo said, a smile on his face, "What do I look like to you? Raggedy clothing, backpack with a sleeping bag, a loaf of bread, and a water bottle. Shoes worn out and dirt smudged all over my face and body! Gee! You must've thought I was a millionaire!" Leo said the last part in a way that made the mugger smile humorously. 

"You're a jokester!" He laughed, "Aren't you! Tell you what, you hand over your backpack, prove what you say is true, we'll see about you joining our gang!"

"Sure!" Leo said, he tossed them the backpack and the gangsters nodded approvingly. He had told the truth.

"Alright, kid, seems like you're telling the truth. Now what can you do?" The one gangster asked.

"I can build stuff." Leo shrugged, "I can hijack, fix, and destroy cars and machines." Leo made it seem like joining a gang was no big deal. It was almost like he'd done it before...

"Dang kid! You got skills!" the gangster said, "Prove it! Hijack that car for us!" The boy jabbed his finger towards a car. Leo got to work and in seconds the car was hijacked. 

"Dang! You're good! Tell you what, you join us, we'll give you food and a place to stay!" the gangster said with a dark smile.

"Sure!" Leo said with a shrug, "My names Leo by the way."

"Name's Mark, these two o'er there are Harper and DJ!" the older boy smirked, "And Leo, you just made the best choice yet!"

Memory Ends

Hazel and Frank looked like they were gonna have a panic attack. The rest of were stunned. Leo joined a... gang? Wow. There's so much I didn't know about my best friend. 

The rest of the day we watched Leo run away from place to place. Gang after gang, foster home after foster home and city after city, as long as he smiled, he lived. 

The lights dimmed, we tried to go back to sleep, Piper and Hazel looked ready to lose it. The rest of us were numb. How did Leo do it? The smiling. The laughter, was it all fake? Was Leo really depressed under all those smiles? Then I said the thing we were all wondering.

"Why didn't he tell us?"