Excluding Soda, who looked extremely confused, the rest of the gang look worried out of their mind. You know a situation was bad when Dal didn't even try to hide his emotions.
   "What am I going to do?" I asked, my voice shook as I spoke.
   "I'll tell you what you're not going to," Two said. "And thats going back to your house with Bryce." Everyone in the gang nodded in agreement.
   "That's not really an option," I exclaimed. "I need somewhere to live and I have no where else to go but back to my house." This led to an outbreak of disagreement from the gang.
   "You could stay with us," Pony said loudly. "Can't she Darry?" I didn't give Darry a chance to respond.
   "I actually can't do that," I said. "First off, Darry has enough on his plate without needin' to take care of me. And even beyond that, Bryce would figure out where I went and he'd call the cops on y'all. He frame you for kidnapping me or somethin' like that." I didn't bother pointing out that Bryce would get away with doing that since the cops would believe him over the gang in a heart beat; whether they admitted it or not, the gang already knew that.
   "There's gotta be someway to get you away from him Lex," Johnny said softly, looking me directly in the eyes. "We can't just let him go on beatin' you like this." I shook my head slowly.
   "There ain't another option Johnny." I told him.
   "There would be if you let me call social services on him," Darry finally spoke up. The minute the sentence left his mouth, I wished he had just stayed quiet.
   "You shut your trap right this second Darrel Curtis," not caring that he was both older and stronger than me, I continued. "You know I ain't gonna let you do that so just drop it." Seeing the shocked look on his face, guilt swept over me. I knew they were all just trying to help me. Softening my tone, I addressed the whole gang. "I'm sorry for snappin' at all of you. It's just I'm stuck and there ain't any good way for me to get out, I've accepted that and I hope y'all can do the same. Like I told Superman earlier, this is my first day away from Bryce in a while and I'd like to spend it without talkin' about him. Think we can do that?" After they took a bit of time to take in what I said, everyone nodded and murmured in agreement. Slowly making my way back to the opposite side of the counter, I smiled and said. "Great, now can we beat it from here and go to the lot or somethin'." Steve and Soda shared a look.
   "Our shift don't end for another hour but we'll meet you guys there once we get off." Steve told me.
   "Y'all best keep this little lady safe and outta trouble until we get there," Soda said. From the way he spoke, I could tell that he was still concerned about me. Shaking the feeling though, I headed to exit.
   "And off to the lot," I said with excitement. Though they verbally dropped their concern about my situation as I walked I couldn't help but feel as if one of em with a similar situation to mine, was staring at the back of my head with concern. Each time I looked over my should, his big black eyes quickly squirted so they were looking anywhere but at me.