The Fourth Stall - Chris Rylander [57]
I think I’ll spare you the rest—it wasn’t too pretty. They worked me over for what seemed like a couple hours. It couldn’t have been that long; when they stopped it was still pretty light out. I was proud that I never cried, but toward the middle I just started to go numb. I think maybe they broke my tear ducts or something, because it hurt so bad I definitely should have been crying.
I kept wondering the whole time why no cars were stopping to help me. Maybe they just didn’t notice the little kid getting the snot beat out of him by a gang of high schoolers? Maybe they were too afraid to stop? Or just didn’t care? Or maybe they were all on Staples’s payroll, too? In any event, Staples’s hit men eventually dropped me onto the ground. I looked up to see PJ looming over me with a big smile.
“That’s for Barnaby. And there’s a lot more where that came from. Slow and painful, just like Staples said, right, Mac?” They all walked away laughing.
After a while I climbed to my feet. My stomach ached and my side hurt and my face felt like a lumpy piece of deep-fried cheese. I spit some blood onto the grass and gently touched my cheek. I winced. My whole face throbbed. I was relieved to find that I at least had all of my teeth.
The Shed burst open about that time. Mitch must have taken the bike lock with him when he left. Kitten emerged, soaked in sweat. He stumbled forward a few feet and then sat down. He breathed hard, his sweater and collared shirt were soggy, and his normally neat hair stuck up all over.
Nubby, Great White, and Joe followed. Their clothes were drenched and they panted as if they’d just run a marathon. We had just gotten wasted. Mitch and Justin had known everything. It had been a classic double ambush.
“Mac, I can hardly breathe,” Joe said.
I nodded and pointed to a spigot behind the Shed.
The four of them took turns drinking from it. After a few more minutes of walking around and breathing hard and taking off their drenched shirts and wringing out all the sweat, they looked a little better.
“Wow, Mac, what did they do to you?” Joe asked after examining my face.
“I’m okay. They were just sending me a little message. Don’t worry about it,” I said.
He shook his head and whistled.
“They’re not getting away with this,” Kitten said softly.
His eyes were beady and dark. His mouth was drawn into a tight frown. I’d seen that look before. Kitten was angry. The insane little kid looked like he wanted to grab a shovel from the Shed and beat someone’s face in with it. And he would have, too, had the enemy still been there.
“Aye. Those wankers will pay. I’ll kick their arses,” Great White added.
“We will, guys. We’ll get back at them,” I said. “For now, though, you should all just go home. If you want to stay on board and help me get back at these jerks, meet me in my office tomorrow at morning recess.”
They nodded. With that, we all parted ways to go home. The walk felt much longer than nine or ten blocks. I couldn’t think about anything but who had double-crossed us. One person kept creeping into my mind as the obvious suspect, but I kept erasing it immediately. Because there was no way. Skimming some cash was one thing, but double-crossing your best friend into that kind of beating? No. There was no way he’d do that.
Whoever the snitch was, though, we needed to figure it out, and fast.
Chapter 19
Vince was waiting for me in my room when I got home.
“What happened?” Vince asked as he examined my face.
I had told my parents that I hurt it while doing some crazy stunt on my bike. It’s the same story I told every time I got an injury. They always believed it. They must have thought I was the worst bike rider in the world. That’s one thing I’ve learned from watching reality TV shows: When you’re lying, consistency is important. You can’t always be changing your story or no one will believe you.
I didn’t say anything to Vince. I could barely stand to look at him.
“Mac, I’m sorry. I really am. I should have told you,” Vince started.
“Told me what? That you were stealing money? Yeah, I guess that would