Jack of Clubs (BxB)

10: As Unaware As They Were

"Hey, Soybean!" At the sound of my nickname reserved only for Millie's lips, I scowled as I debated whether or not I should respond to it. Because the person who spoke it was definitely not her. "Soybean!" He sang.

I stopped walking to my next class, turning to see what the big deal was. Sam & Co. were all gathered off to the side of the hallway, talking to each other about something I had yet to understand. It was Dennis who called me over, which checked out. He had no regard for his pride or mine. In fact, he was probably the most shameless person I had ever met.

"What the hell do you want?" I snapped.

He seemed to be amusing himself, because he was smiling dumbly. "To get the hell over here, Soybean."

As tempted as I was to keep walking just to piss him off, I forced myself to stop. I had a bad feeling that whatever they wanted to talk to me about had something to do with the druggies. I approached them, taking note of their various expressions as I hoped they would just get it over with. "What is it now?"

All four boys looked at each other as though to decide how to begin the conversation. That only made me more suspicious. Sam was not quite meeting my eye, obviously wanting anyone other than himself to deliver the explanation. It was Friday, so our trial period was officially about two days in. So far we were doing a fairly civil job at not wanting to kill each other over every little thing. It was a development that I definitely did not expect.

It was Caden who finally decided to speak. "It's about the situation. Y'know, the drug related stuff." He leaned in closer and whispered that last part. I just stared at him, because I wasn't stupid. I knew exactly what he meant from the start.

"What about it?" I turned to Sam. If it was bad enough that he didn't even want to be the one to deliver the news, I was going to force him to. One could say that it was for the sake of communication, but it was probably more because I still wasn't used to trying to be entirely nice to him. It was going to take a while to adapt to the change.

He sighed, chewing on his lip as he debated how to say it. "I woke up this morning to a fun text of my own."

"They seem to like those." I sighed. I wasn't sure that I wanted to know what it said, judging by the solemnity of everyone's expressions.

"Yeah." He nodded absentmindedly. "They want some of the money later tonight."

"How much?"

No one moved to answer, all four boys avoiding my gaze as though it was the plague.

"Hello? How fucking much?"

"That doesn't matter." Sam spoke up.

I shook my head. "Like hell it doesn't. How much do you owe them in total, and how much do they want tonight?"

"They just want some of it tonight. I have the money, so don't worry about that." He just ignored my questions.

"Anyway." Dennis cut in, looking between the two of us. "The point is that we think you should come with us."

I just stared at him.

"Just to be safe." Caden added.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. "Safe?"

"Sam tried to give them some money about a week ago alone, and they jumped Brian and I to use us as collateral." Caden explained, glancing at his tall and silent friend as he spoke. I furrowed my brow, looking both of them over. Caden didn't seem to have any visible bruises, but since I was studying Brian for the first time, I noticed that he had a subtle mark on the side of his jaw.