English Story

"Stay down." Zane said as he peered around the corner. "They're almost gone." It was dark so he knew they wouldn't find him but he was still cautious. Two police officers got into their car and drove away slowly. Zane, AJ, and Terrell came out from behind the dumpster where they had been hiding from the cops. It was late and dark. The alleyway was cold and damp. They were used to this kind of thing though. The three of them waited until they couldn't hear the police car anymore and then slowly stood up.

AJ was around twenty one years old and his little brother Terrell was seventeen. Zane and was only fourteen. All three of them were dark skinned but that was the only thing they had in common. AJ was 6'4" tall, muscular, and kept his hair cut short while Terrell was shorter and skinnier and had longer hair. Zane was skinny but muscular and kept his hair in braids.

"Man, that was way too close." AJ said as the three of them made their way out of the dark alleyway.

"I told you they would find us if-" Zane started to say but Terrell cut him off.

"Man, quit worryin' about it. Alright? They didn't catch us. We're fine. Let's go get the car."

"Shut up, Terrell. That was your fault anyway. I told you to quit speedin'. And that was your stuff we had in the car. Not ours. I told you not to bring it, man." AJ replied sharply.

"Man, shut up, AJ. It wasn't his fault." Zane said defensively as if he had been the one who had been accused. "Just forget about it. Let's go. We still gotta go pick up Kate. She's with Nacho, remember?"

"She's gonna be so mad, dude..." Terrell said with a hint of shame in his voice.

Zane nodded his head and the three of them walked silently down the street to the place where they had left the car.

* * *

Nacho and I were still inside when AJ honked the horn for me to come out. I immediately ran to the car and got into the back next to Zane. They were running really late and Nacho and I had gotten very worried that something bad had happened to them.

"Why are you guys so late?" I asked sharply, trying to hide my worry.

"We got...held up." Terrell said. None of the guys would make eye contact with me and none of them wanted to be the one to tell what what had happened.

Finally, AJ said "Terrell was driving too fast so the cops tried to stop him but he wouldn't pull over but we lost them. We got out and ran and they tried to catch us 'cause they saw us running but they didn't find the car so we hid until they left."

"Whatever, man. They weren't chasin' us for that long. And we had to run 'cause we couldn't let them search the car." Terrell added.

Zane started to say something but I interrupted him and hesitantly asked "What's in the car?"

The three guys looked at each other. "Terrell hid his stuff under the back seat and I think Zane left his gun in the trunk."

"No it's not! I told you I had it with me the whole time so back off."

"They wouldn't have found my stuff anyways. No one ever looks there."

"We still could have gotten caught. You know all of us would be sent off soon as they brought us in."

I didn't say anything. I was torn between being angry with their stupidity, worried about them, and a mixture of both. Zane, being worried and curious about what I was thinking, asked "You mad?"

"No," I lied "as long as you didn't get caught, I don't care."

This was normal for the four of us. Zane was my best friend so I had learned to put up with everything that the guys got themselves into. And I was okay with it all, until the day when everything changed.

* * *

Months later, things had started to settle down. AJ was at work, Terrell was at home sleeping, and I was stuck at school. Zane had not changed though. He had gone out and stolen yet another car which he was now driving down 31st street. A machine gun, which he had also stolen, was resting on the back seat. He glanced down and noticed he was speeding but he didn't care. That is, until he heard the sirens behind him. Zane pulled over and rolled down the window.

"Sir, did you know you were going sixty miles per hour in a forty five miles per hour zone?"

"That's my bad, dude. I'm real sorry about that. It won't happen again. I swear."

"I'm sure it won't. Could I see your license and registration?"

"Yeah, sure. Oh, I must have left it at home. My bad, man."

"What's your name, sir?"

"Zane Tompson."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen, officer."

The police officer gave Zane a long hard look as he wrote up Zane's ticket and then asked "May I have permission to search your car, sir?"

Zane had forgotten that his gun was in the back seat. "Sure, I ain't got nothin' to hide." Zane replied confidently.

The police officer took a step back and looked into the back of the car. He was about to open the door when he noticed the gun on the seat. He reached for his walkie-talkie and said "Requesting back up, I have a minor in possession of a lethal weapon..."

Zane's heart was pounding and his head was spinning. He didn't know what to do. The next thing he knew, the officer had him face-down on the hood of the car and was putting him into handcuffs. Two more cop cars drove up but Zane could barely pay any attention to them or anything else as he was put into the back of the first officer's car. Zane had been to jail before. He knew what it was like. That wasn't what he was afraid of. He didn't know what Kate and the others would think of him. Especially after they turned all good. And now he was going back to jail? Zane knew they would never forgive him for this.

When they