Hidden Life (on hold)

Chapter 34:

Well turns out that even though curiosity kills the cat, satisfaction really does bring it back. Standing in the corridor just outside of the living room, I hold the opened letter in my hands, the discarded envelope sitting crumpled on a small decorative table to my right, cluttered with little odds and ends. I had decided to take the advice of Ryan after all, to open the letter in private. Though this was not because of issues of trust, more the issue of possible unease or panic that I would not want spreading due to the contents of the letter. But I needn't have worried.

All it was was a message from one of the smaller rival gangs surrounding our territory. The King Vipers will give us no trouble. A meeting time and place was listed to discuss some matters that could probably be handled with a simple phone call, but who am I to question their workings?

I can still hear the boys in the room arguing, their rage refocused back on Ryan since he had joined them again after speaking to me. He was smart enough to leave and let me to think by myself- smarter than half my gang members and with more common sense than a lot of them combined. Turns out I'm becoming more and more happy with my decision to take him in.

You can hear the sound of a pin drop when I walk back in the room as all heads turn towards me and all mouths snap shut for the first and probably only time today. I give the letter a little wave in the air as a I walk past all the boys and pick up the remote, sitting down on the closest lounge.

"Good news and bad news boys. The good news is that we have a meeting with the King Vipers, and the bad news is that it's a meeting with the King Vipers". Most of the boys hate anyone associated with the King Vipers gang because they are always trying to copycat other gangs and get in on their territories and are an all round pain in the ass, but I don't mind them. I'd have a problem with them if they tried anything against me or my gang but so far they have kept their boundaries and kept to any terms that we have negotiated and therefore I do the same. A meeting with them won't be so bad and though I can't manage to guess what it could be about, all problems already having been resolved not too long ago, I am not too concerned.

The boys start up the same debate that I had had internally earlier, questioning why they would send a letter if they don't usually do so, or why they would need a meeting when we had only just agreed on terms to fix recent problems. I just let them talk.

Finally getting back to To All The Boys I've Loved Before I am able to zone out from the talking and slowly the boys do the same too. Turns out they really do enjoy the sappy teen romance movies and I can't help but admit that they hit a soft spot within the teenage girl in me too.

Before long the credits are rolling and we had all fallen asleep, piled on top of each other and squished on the couches in the most uncomfortable positions. Though uncomfortable I slept well, surrounded by some of the few people I still trust these days.