Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 3

Maria was obviously not happy that we stayed away for so long, she made that known when she welcomed us into her house once more. She and her husband are the only people that knew about my parents being abusive, well, them and their daughters, also known as my best friends, Abriana and Chelsey. This family has been nothing but good to me and my sister. Every time we were too scared to go home, we would come here, and they would always have a room ready for us, no questions asked.

This place is the only place that I will be able to call my home with the only people that I will ever see as my family, and this is the only place that I will forever be comfortable with calling my own.

"I don't want to be rude or anything, but why are you girls here?" Maria asked after leading us to the plush couch in the living room.

"We ran away from mom and dad, were heading back to boarding school." I trailed off and Maria's expression mirrored one of complete shock, "We are going back to Phoenix High, I have already signed us in, starting on Monday." I could literally see her visibly relax at my words with understanding flashing through her eyes.

"I always wondered why you never ran away, but you actually finally had the guts to do it," She chuckled lightly, "I should have known you would do it since the fighting and-" She stopped mid-sentence and looked over at Lizzy. I smiled at Maria and reassured her that she already knew about my lifestyle.

"How did she find out? Did you tell her Elna? You know he will not be happy that you did."

"I did not tell her, Maria. She followed me to one of the clubs I attend."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Are you telling me that she knew!?" Lizzy pipped in, some anger lacing her voice,

"Elizabeth, of course, I knew. Hendrick was the one who taught her to fight and race in the streets. The first time he told me that he was teaching Elna, I wanted to strangle him for exposing her to that type of world, I was so mad at him, he had to make his own food for a month, and he slept on the couch." I chuckled at the memory of Hendrick eating takeout the entire time.

"In that case, since I know now, can I ask you something?" Elizabeth asked, and continued when I gave her the go ahead. I was not very keen to inform Elizabeth more of this life, but I was not about to lie to her when she so clearly saw what I did, "When did you start fighting?"

"I started my training at ten. But At thirteen I had my first fight, but I started training at ten."

"I heard about street racing. Do you race as well?"

"Yip,"

"When did you become part of a gang?"

"Liz..." I said with a warning voice, "I cannot tell you everything, there is a reason I did not tell you about that part of my life and I did explain it to you on our way here."

"Yeah, I know." She answered with a bit of annoyance, "Are there people after us though? Is that why we were dangling off the cliff yesterday?"

"What!?" Maria exclaimed in shocked, interrupting us with wide eyes. I cringed and gave my sister an unamused look.

"No, not us. They are after me. If anyone touches any of you, they are dead without a doubt." Maria still stared at me with an unreadable look,

"Why have people not attacked us before? Why did they not attack this house? We were here most of the time."

"No one knows who I really am when I am in the streets, we do not give our real names and IDs to prevent situations like the one we are in right now; but I guess someone figured out who I was. Maria and Henrick's house have not been attacked yet because Hendrick is a gang leader as well. He is part of one of the most feared gangs in the world. I can tell you no one would even think of crossing him. Anyone who would attack him would be a fool." I did not give her all the information of Hendrick, neither one of us want anyone of the people we care for to get even more involved than they already are. Hearing the door close behind us, I spun around and saw my friends walking in with their father.

They were in a deep discussion about something before their eyes landed on us. They stopped in their tracks and dropped all the bags that were dangling from their arms as Abriana and Chelsey ran towards me and Liz, trapping us in a bear hug, cutting off our air circulation.

"Missed you too..." I said as we pulled away only to be pulled into another hug by Hendrick. He picked us up and spun us around before placing us back down on our feet.

"Let me guess your parents do not know that you are here, do they?" We smiled sheepishly and he chuckled giving us another hug. "You are more than welcome to stay,"

After we explained caught up, Abriana jumped up from the couch and dragged me along while talking over her shoulder, "Follow me, we have a surprise for you. Is it okay if we give it to them dad?" He showed off his perfectly white teeth when he smiled and stood up as well, nodding to his daughter. Abriana and Chelsey ran in the direction of the garage leaving us to follow them in confusion.

As soon as we were in front of the garage door they stopped and told us to close our eyes. They guided us to wherever they wanted, but when we opened our eyes did not belie what we saw.

"The one on the left is yours and the right one is your Liz." Both of us ran to our new set of wheels. A 2013 Kawasaki ZX-6R stunt bike for me and an awesome Jaguar for Elizabeth.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" They laughed and pulled away from the hug we engulfed them with.

"Since your school will be starting soon, the girls can take you shopping if needs be." We grinned widely and agreed excitedly. Although I am not big on shopping, with these two in front of me, it is going to be amazing!