Under pressure

15: Donations (Part 1)

*25th August*

Betty's POV

"Elizabeth, come here for a second," mom says as I'm about to go to the kitchen.

I go into the living room, "Please don't call me that if I'm not in trouble," I say.

They laugh at me. "Hey," I say to FP and Jelly who are also here with mom and Chic and Jordan.

"Where's your brother?" I ask, touching Jelly's amazingly dark and thick and smoothe hair.

"At the Whyrm, but he'll be here soon," she says.

I sigh. That's one place where I'm not going.

"So.. What's up?" I ask aqwardly as everyone is just staring at me.

"Sit down," mom says.

"Mom, I'm really hungry right now," I say.

"You just ate the whole meal," she says.

I sigh, "Fine, wait a minute," I say.

I go into the kitchen, take one of my secret potato chip packs out and go into the living room.

"What? We had chips?" Jordan asks, getting up.

I put my hand out so that he'd stop, "I had chips, thank you very much," I say.

"Where the hell are you hiding those?" Chic asks, bummed.

I shrug, "A place," I say and sit down next to Jelly. I put them in between us. She looks at me and I nod. She smiles and starts eating them.

"Wow," Chic says, "I'm your own brother!"

"Yeah, exactly," I say. Mom and FP laugh and he narrows his eyes at me.

"So... What's up?" I ask.

"You guys know about the attacks on the Southside, right?" FP asks.

"Yeah," we all say, "Sucks," I say.

"Hey, this is one word, I'm not allowing you to use in this house," mom says.

"Fine, it blows," I say, making her give me 'the look' and everyone else laugh.

I hear the front door open and close. I tense up and look there. Jug comes into the living room and I sigh from relief.

"Hey," he says and stands in front of me. I stand up, he sits down, and I sit down onto his lap. I kiss him.

"Hey," I say.

"So. Why are we all here?" Jug asks and I nod. He eats some chips too.

"The attacks on the Southside," FP starts again, "They've moved to the trailer park and.. Some burned down," he says.

"What?" I ask.

"Wait, what?" Jordan asks. Chic is looking at him with widened eyes.

"And some people are dead. From getting stabbed," mom says.

I look at Jug in horror. He seems to know all of that. He has a tear in his eye.

"You knew someone?" I ask.

He sighs, "Yeah. One of the best Serpents... Joaquin, died," he says.

My eyes widen, "Joaquin? Is a Serpent?" I ask.

"Was," he says sadly, "You know him?"

"Fuck," I breathe out. "Yeah, he is.. was one of my best friend's boyfriend," I say.