Friendship And Family (Currently undergoing a rewrite. Do Not Read.)

CHAPTER 24. Dispute

                  Andrew's POV

I met Flexo at his usual spot after having lunch, but this time he sat deep in the alley with two other students, and they were all sharing a cigarette. The audacity they had to smoke in school even though they were safe from the authority's eyes was beyond my thought capacity.

"Andrew, I hope you come in peace." He sounded like a god whose help I'd come to seek inside a shrine.

"How else would I come?" I acted friendly, and he laughed like a boss.

"You're funny," he said, then passed the cigarette to the next person and puffed his smoke in the air.

I tried not to choke.

"So, why are you here?" he finally asked, getting down on business.

"I need a favour." I maintained our cordial exchange.

"You want to buy a cheat paper?" he smirked, scanning me with his eyes that were as dark as the colour of his skin, as if checking to see if I was a worthy customer.

I almost rolled my eyes, or I did. "No, I want you to stop selling to Mathias."

He let out a curt laughter, dropping the cigarette he'd just received on the ground and crushing it with his shoes. "You're either stupid, or you're just a clown."

The two idiots who sat on either of his side, with weights like sugarcane sticks, snorted.

"I'm neither of both." I'd fight him on a normal day, but then I realised Mum didn't pay suspension fees. Plus, Flexo wasn't a normal student, and so I had to trade carefully with Mathias in mind.

He stood up, as if his sitting down wasn't challenging enough, and I may have drifted back a bit from his sturdiness, and the fact that he was a little taller. "I don't tell you how to run your squad, so don't tell me how to run my own business. Besides, I didn't force Mathias, he came to me. Maybe you should keep an eye on your puppy since you so badly want to be his dog walker." His carefully, thought out words raged my soul, but I remained calm, not giving him the satisfaction of losing my shit.

"It's not my concern if he came to you or not. I'm currently asking you not to sell to him again," I said firmly.

"You're moving way past your boundary, Andrew." He got in my face, and I took a step back from the stench of his toxic breath.

One of the two boys stood up and held his shoulder. "Here's not the place," he said as the other one slowly got up, the both of them standing behind either of his side like guards.

"I know better than to fight in school." He stared at me while he replied his puppet. "There's always a place to get them." 

I scoffed at his wannabe bad boy attitude. "You may end up not graduating if you keep up like this, and you know the only thing the school will be flexing? Your expulsion."

He smirked, and cocked his head to the side. "Is that a prophecy?"

"I'd have loved that, but I'm no prophet, so I'd rather call it a prediction"—His chest swelled like bread in an oven—"What?" I whispered in a mocking tone, knowing I sparked a nerve. "Did I alarm your inner puppy?"

"You're chewing a lot more than you can swallow," he spoke calmly, but I saw through his facade how much my words got to him.

"And your ninety-nine days of being a thief are counting, loser." His breathing intensified, and I noticed how he kept flexing his fingers. "I hope you still know better than to fight in school." He suppressed his anger with a dry chuckle, but his eyes were fierced, thirsty for a strike, and I returned a spiteful look, not like I'd enjoyed breathing the same air as him. "Have a good day," I said and left.