I heard my phone vibrate from a text and woke up. It was seven in the morning, which was my equivalent of 2 in the morning, so I woke myself up enough to be able to read the blurry text. 'Dude, we gotta talk. It's about Mini. I think I like him.'. I turned off my phone and went back to sleep, not having processed what I read.

Apparently I was half asleep when I read the message, because Tyler got to the park an hour early four days later just to talk about it. I was setting up the snacks as usual when he showed up. My mom found the gang 'cute' and liked making food for everyone. The guys appreciated it and I knew it was feeding Mini and Nogla so I didn't mind carrying the baskets to and from home every day. 

"Wildcat! Hey, you're early." Wildcat leaned against the bridge and stared at me while I worked on setting everything up. I could tell he wanted something but not what he wanted. My best guess was to remind me of our impending doom, as he'd done every other chance he got. 

"Yeah, so are we gonna talk about it now or not?" I sighed and rubbed my face in my hands. I never planned on talking about the mortality of my closest friends and myself, and if Tyler wouldn't respect that and piss off about it, I was going to shoot him.

"I'm going to shoot you if you try bringing that up again." Tyler didn't say anything for a bit and when I finished setting up the food I sat down and stared at the river. Tyler sat next to me after a minute and I turned my head away from him.

"I know it's weird but, come on man I thought out of everyone you'd be the most accepting. You haven't even brought it up." I closed my hand into a fist and glared at Tyler.

"Why would I ever accept this? I know it seems like I'm not doing shit, but I'll figure something out. This is bullshit and you know it." Tyler glared right back at me and scoffed.

"Well tell me how you really feel, ass." I looked at Tyler in shock and confusion and he stared at the river. "I don't think I can be part of your life if that's what you think of this." I stared at Tyler in hurt and decided there was no way in hell we were talking about the same thing, because I thought Tyler would be pissed about the illegal actions of the police force just as much as I was. 

"What the fuck are you even talking about?" Tyler looked at me with the most pained expression I'd seen on him since I broke his elbow throwing a big rock at him in 5th grade. Good times. Anyways "We're definitely not talking about the same thing here and I'm not letting you walk away over a miscommunication." Tyler looked confused.

"We're talking about me and Mini..?" I sat up and turned so I was facing Tyler more. It wasn't what I was expecting at all but I always knew Tyler was a little bit queer. He was friends with me after all.

"No the fuck we were not, but go on." Tyler stared at me in surprise for a second more and then smiled slightly. I could imagine he was relieved I wasn't reacting to whatever was going on between them.

"I sent you a text about it four days ago, the fuck do you mean? You read the text." I pulled out my phone and went to messages, having to scroll to see Tyler's contact. I stared at the message on my screen in shock for a good five minutes before I looked back at Tyler.

"YOU FUCKING WHAT?!" Tyler winced and slapped my arm. "Dude shut up I don't want the entire city knowing." I took a deep breath and rubbed my face in my hands, not even a minute later I heard quick footsteps approaching us.

"Hey, is everything alright? The fuck are you screaming about?" I looked up at Brian and Tyler slapped my phone so it hit me in the chest and the screen was hidden from Brian. I glared at Tyler but his attention was already on Brian.

"Yeah everything's fine he's just being a bitch." I flicked the side of Tyler's head and turned my phone off. Tyler glared at me and I moved back so I was sitting against the bridge. Tyler moved to the other side of the river and sat against the bridge, and Brian looked between both of us confused. I pulled out my phone and texted Tyler.

NightOwl- Dude, I don't know if you thought I'd disapprove of that kind of stuff but why didn't you just text me again?

Tyler pulled out his phone and looked at the message. He smiled slightly and glanced at me.

Piggy- Thought you were being a bitch. That's why I've been a bitch about the police situation.

Again with the fucking police situation. It made sense why he cared so much but it didn't matter, we were likely going to die anyways. I got a text from my dad and read it, dread filling me as I read the full paragraph he sent. I turned off my phone and looked out at the park, coming to terms with what I was about to have to do. It wasn't the first time I had to make a decision like that, and surprisingly it wasn't the last.

Everyone got there not too long after, and after about thirty minutes of small talk I decided it was time to address what I'd been keeping them from. I stood up and watched everyone look at me one by one.

"Alright! As some of you are aware there was some talk at the police station about them killing us on sight, regardless of if we're doing anything illegal or not. This is new to most of you so I'll give you a moment to process the information." Cue the chorus of shock, disbelief, questions, I was ready for it all. Well, I was ready to ignore it all. Wildcat didn't look too interested, facing the park, but I could see him watching me from the corner of his eye.

 "I want to put any concerns you all may have to rest, that being said we have some options to discuss. The police station isn't looking for public opinion, and they obviously have the power to change the story should the media get wind of their intentions. The safest thing would be to disband the gang and let me take any backlash." Wildcat turned his head to me while the others immediately disagreed with me. They knew where I was going with it, and I knew that they would fight me tooth and nail on it. Delirious didn't seem too phased by the hint, more confused than anything else. 

"I know it's not something you all want to consider. However you have to decide if this gang is really worth your lives. We'll hold a vote Monday morning." I sat back down and watched my gang talk amongst each other. Craig looked to Tyler for a response, but all Tyler did was stare at me in what I could tell was barely concealed rage. 

"Uh, Vanoss could I talk to you alone real quick?" I looked at Ohm and nodded, standing back up. We walked a bit away from the bridge and I took my attention away from the others to focus on Ohm. He looked very nervous. "You don't actually mean that they want to kill us, right? I mean, what if they know about the bug in the department and they're just trying to scare us?" It was a good assumption, but I also had connections in the police force that confirmed they were serious. They'd recommended my family make it a legal battle considering the police force tried calling me Vanoss several other times with their only proof being we look alike. God forbid they find out Marcel is black. 

"I wish that were the case Ohm. I understand if it's too much for you. You're allowed to walk away, we'll make sure you're protected." Ohm looked upset, but I could tell that's what he was thinking. Ohm meant a lot to me, as did all the others, but I knew he was safer away from us and that's what was important.

"Maybe just until the smoke clears? You guys have done so much for me, I don't know where I'd be without you Vanoss." Ohm hugged me and I sighed. I rubbed his back to help him calm down, knowing how difficult the situation must be for him. He did what was best for him, and I'd rather him be safe than loyal.

"Of course Ohm. You're always welcome back." 

By the time we got back to the group, everyone was staring at me. Marcel was at the front of them and was looking at me like he had something planned. 

"Vanoss, we've come up with something." I had a second to pray that whatever bullshit was about to be spat at me wouldn't usually get us killed. I nodded my head and a few of them looked at each other like they won some argument. "Well, since most of your options sucked dick but we couldn't think of anything else to do that Wildcat didn't shut down, we wanna go out and just do normal teenager shit. You know, grab lunch, go dick off at a skate park maybe, that kind of shit as a group. Just to enjoy the last few days of normalcy." I stared at Marcel as he spoke and felt my heart break at his last sentence. Most of us were going to be adults within a year, the rest within two. No matter what I did for those guys, that week was the group's last. Ohm would never return to the group, because there wouldn't be one to return to by week's end.

"Vanoss?" I don't know for sure how long I spaced out staring at Marcel, but one by one everyone came up to me and joined in a group hug. It was only when they parted and Tyler hugged me tightly that I was broke out of my thoughts and realized I'd started crying. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder, hugging my best friend for what I assumed would be one of the last times.

"Yeah, you're ok you big baby." Tyler whispered to me while rubbing my back. "I'm not letting you face this alone. We'll go down together." I tried focusing on calming down, which felt like it took a lot longer than it did. Once I'd stopped crying and didn't think I'd start again I moved away from Tyler and looked at my group of oddball friends with the biggest and saddest smile I'd ever had. They too were looking at me with pain in their eyes, and it took all my willpower not to start crying all over again.

"Yeah, we can go be teenagers again." 

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