Let's set fire to the rain

Unpleasant memories.

Hanini's pov 

Dillion's black eyes stared back at me, sending chills down my spine. Just looking at them reminded me of the first time I met him.
7 years ago
"Hanini! Meet Dillion! He's 16. I met him at the skateboard rink." My best friend Kyle had leaned in close covering his mouth to whisper in my ear " get this! he's in a gang!" Dillion had laughed patting Kyle on the back like they were buddies. "Hey now don't go telling that to everyone. I told you because I thought you could keep a secret." "I can! But I didn't think it would hurt to tell Nini. He's the best at keeping secrets!" "Is that right bini?" He asked mockingly while looking at me hard. His black eyes like tar pits threatening to burn me if I said the wrong thing. "Why would I tell anyone?" I said gruffly, scuffing my foot. "You better not. Who knows what could happen to you if you did?" He smirked before asking Kyle if he wanted to go to the skating rink. Naive Kyle had enthusiastically agreed. Completely missing the fact that the guy had just threatened his best friend. Later that night I had voiced my concerns to Kyle. He had brushed me off saying I was paranoid and didn't know what i was talking about. "Don't ruin this for me man. Daren is a cool guy. Why are you so jealous  that I made a new friend!" "I'm not! I just think he's bad news! He's in a gang you said so yourself!" "But that's cool. I don't see your problem. We hung out with bobby today and he loved Daren. I think your just jealous of him because he's so much cooler than you. Your just lame!" Kyle hadn't talked to me after that until I apologized. Things weren't the same though. Unfortunately bobby and jeje where just as blind. They all loved Daren,  practically worshiping him. Jeje even had a crush on him. The only one that disagreed in our group was Phoenix. She refused to hang out if Daren was going to be there. If they were ever near each other they were at each other's throats. Neither ever backed down. It scared me the way Daren looked at Phoenix. Like he wanted to eat her. Jeje seemed to merely amuse him. I caught  him talking to one of his older friends about the girls. "Jeje? Yeah I know she's got a crush on me. But she's just a baby. Maybe if she grows up a little in a year or two I'll take her for a spin but I ain't got no interest in flat chested babies. Now that fire bird the one that doesn't come around much. I'd like to take her. She'd be a sweet ride." I had never been so angry but I didn't dare confront him two against one. He saw me as I left however. A cold tremor had traveled through my limbs, making my fingers tingle. Why was I always so on edge around him? I'd told my friends about it the next day but they hadn't believed me. "What's wrong with you man? You've just never like him have you? Why can't you get over your jealousy of him? If you don't want to be his friend then just don't hang out with us when he's around!" "He's always around! You guys are always with him!" Kyle had been livid.  Nothing I said mattered to him. "I can't believe your choosing him over me!" "You have no one to blame but yourself" bobby had cut in. "You've made it to were we had to choose. Real friends don't  do that". "I'm just trying to protect you guys!" "There's nothing to protect us from" jeje sneered. "Your being dramatic trying to get attention. It's very unattractive." "Come on guys we have to go celebrate Daren's  birthday. He wouldn't want us to miss it." Kyle said without even glancing at me. They all had walked away. Only bobby glancing at me sadly. Im not proud to say it but I cried my eyes out that night. It was hard after that Kyle ended our friendship and jeje said we could only be friends if I got over my grudge for Daren. Bobby would occasionally hang out with me saying he was friends with me first and as long as he could still be friends with Daren then we were cool. It was really just me and Phoenix for a while. Still there was a huge void. Kyle and I had been friends even longer than Phoenix and I. Our mothers had been friends sense we were five. Both our moms had been heartbroken that our ten year friendship was over. Phoenix had refused to hang out with the other three despite the fact that they hadn't dropped her. Ironically I had been right. A few months later I'd been taking a back way home when I saw flashing blue and red lights. Being the nosy 15 year old I was I went and investigated. It had been a mistake. Up ahead two police officers were arresting Daren. One was rifling through his car the other was putting hand cuffs on him. Right before he was put in the back of the police car our eyes locked. His eyes flashed. angry black tar pits cut right through me before He was shoved into the back. I stood frozen until the car was out of sight. He looked so angry like he blamed me for why he got arrested. I had run home as fast as I could before locking myself in my room. I found out a few days later he'd been arrested for drug possession. Someone had apparently called him in. I now understood why he looked so angry. He thought I'd ratted him out. I'd had nightmares for weeks of him breaking out and strangling me in my sleep. Bobby and jeje had come to me begging for forgiveness. Saying they had been so wrong. I was right all along. It had taken several months but we had all managed to forgive each other and move on. Kyle hadn't  come back though. He had been enamored with Daren. It wasn't until after Daren got out of juvie and moved to Michigan that he had come to me one day and said I had been right and wasn't I so happy about that? I wasn't and I had told him so. It had cost me my friends. We eventually managed to keep up a casual friendship but the close friendship we all had shared as kids was gone. None of us were quite able to get close again. It killed me to see Kyle. I almost wished we weren't friends at all. The only one I was still close with was Phoenix.
"Bini, are you still with me baby?"  Darren's oily voice brought me back to the present. I looked up at his nasty smirk trying not to puke all over his shoes.