The Truth in the Ring

Chapter 1

Joey

30 Days Until Incident

The smell of smoke and cologne filled the brisk basement occupied by five other teenage guys.

"I call." left the lips of Hudson Brady. Matthew Conaway, Charles 'Ace' Aacker, Jacob & Josiah Panetti and I flipped our hands over and revealed our cards. Curses were spoken when Matt's straight flush was exposed to the rest of the table.

"And that, my friends is how you pull bitches." he said in a more than cocky tone. Red and blue poker chips were tossed in his direction. My mind ventured off elsewhere. To some place I was hoping to not visit tonight. Aspiring to forget my stresses and feel less aggravated, I lit the nearest cigarette to my left. I released a puff of smoke through my nose when I realized all eyes were on me. With my eyebrow raised, I questioned their reason to stare at me as if something was wrong. They did nothing but shake their heads in innocence. I sighed and slid my cards to the middle of the table. Everyone became consumed in their own conversations while I was consumed in my thoughts. I raised my head and looked at my long time friend Ace. He was busy telling a story about some girl he met a couple weeks back. All of a sudden a question began to make its way to the front of my mind.

"What about Ari?"

"Who?" Ace responded.

"Arietty." he still looked confused. "That girl you met at that party last month. The brunette."

"I met MANY brunettes at that party, J. You're not clarifying anything."

I sighed.

"The one who rode that motorcycle through the school."

"Oh her." he laughed. "She is bad ass, bro." There was a murmur of laughter that came from the group as cards were shuffled. A moment of quietness filled the room before he spoke again. "She was hot too."

Footsteps came down the basement stairs. I turned my head and saw someone with black heels and skinny jeans make their way towards the last step.

Andrea

The noise quieted down as I made my way to the cold basement. Of course I couldn't make it without tripping and damn near killing myself. I turned to my right and saw a poker table surrounded by six guys, one of them being mine.

"What’s up, peasants. " I greeted.

"Wench." They responded with a raise of their chin.

I walked over to Joey and peered over his his shoulder at the cards in his hands. His free hand reached up, brought my face closer to his and kissed my cheek. The conversations around us continued.

"Hey." I whispered.

"Hey." he replied with his signature grin.

"So, uh...there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a looong time, Joey."

"Yeah?"

"Yup." I returned popping the P. "I wanna go home."

He gave me a perplexed stare while resting his hands in his lap. He glanced between me then to his friends and back.

"What does that have to do with me?" he joked.

"Really funny, smart ass." I slurred. "I wanna go home."