3 8/25: Unexpected Beginning - Khalil Castle

Wow. After I asked for them NOT to go to the mall, they still do anyway. They did at least offer to bring me something back that I wanted, though. Which is a video game my mom couldn't get me. So as of right now, I'm sitting in the back of Ali's car, with my legs stretched out across the whole seating, on my phone.

I'm going through my friends' posts on Instagram, seeing either pics of them in their football clothes or with their girlfriends, when I suddenly get a message from some unknown person.

Unknown: I need you to do something for me.

I immediately sit up, my back against the window of the left-back door. Before I reply, I'm thinking about so many questions to ask this person. How the hell did he get my number? What do they want me to do? Why do they want me to do something for them?

Me: Who is this? How did you get my number?

I go straight into asking questions instead of just agreeing with him. To my surprise, he instantly responds back to it.

Unknown: That's none of your concern as of right now. Again, I need you to do something for me.

What the hell? 'None of my concern'? The hell it is! But instead of going off on him, I decide to play it cool and just go with it.

Me: Ok, fine. What is it?

As soon as I send the message, I get scared out of my skin when I hear the doors unlock. I see that it's just Ali and Chan-hee back from the mall, both their arms covered in bags. "Hey punk, mind moving over so we can put these in?" Chan rudely says to me. I move my feet to the floor, slide over to the right, and then open the left side door my back was once against. The whole left side is filled with bags of different shops. When Chan-hee moves to go to the passenger side and get in the car, Ali hands me a small plastic game. I don't have to see the whole bag to see that it's from Game-Stop, so I instantly grab it when she says, "Now you, Khalil Castle, officially have the Jump Force game. Maybe we can play it some time together."

She closes the door just as I hear Chan click in her seatbelt, so I sit up, now on the right side of the car, sitting right behind Chan, and click on my seatbelt as well. Ali gets in, does the same as us, and starts the car. That's when I decide to check my phone again. As I suspected, I have another message from the unknown person. Asking me to do something I would NEVER do in my life.

Unknown: You're going to sell drugs for me around your school for money.

WHAT?! Why in my lifetime would I ever do that? I planned to stay off of drugs after what happened to my dad. My mom always told me that he was a junkie who was always high on weed. Now he's gone from doing all of that, and neither my mom nor I miss him either. Right now, I'm not even sure what to do. I look up from my phone and see that Ali is heading for a burger joint down the road.

I'm debating in my head whether to do it or not, then I come up with the pros & cons of each one.

Pros of doing it: 1) I don't get killed; 2) nobody in my family, especially Mom, gets involved.

Cons of doing it: 1) could be up on drugs myself; 2) could get caught by police or other authorities.

Pros of not doing it: basically the opposite of cons of doing it.

Cons of not doing it: I get killed. End of story. My death would probably be unknown by anybody, if not Ali and Chan-hee.

But even if I make up that, why would I just so agree to it?

Me: What if I decide to say no?

I feel the car stop, and I look up to see we're at Burger King. Ali parked the car close to the entrance of the restaurant since we usually eat in restaurants instead of taking out. The only time we ever got take out was when we wanted to stay at one of each other's place and watch a movie. She turns off the car and is the first to get out before Chan and me.

We walk into the restaurant and are instantly hit by the great aroma of grilling burgers and cooking fries. "You guys go ahead and find a booth to sit in. I'll order us three whoppers, three large fries, and some cookies. Sound good?" Ali says to us. She basically works here other than being at school or home with her mom. She's never liked to take money from anyone else, especially not from her mom, so now she gets her own money from working. She's also always looking for extra hours to work since she isn't athletic or an extra-curricular kinda girl. Yet, she's so skinny, but still thick enough to say that she's fit in her own way. 'Wait, why did I think that?' I say in my head.

Chan asks for her to get an extra three whoppers. She practically knows that we won't be full off of just one burger, even if it's a whopper from Burger King. We've been best friends forever. She knows just about every detail about us. Only she doesn't know I'm about to be selling drugs.

I agree with her and then follow Chan-hee to go to a corner booth to the back on the other side of the restaurant. Chan and I sit apart from each other, so we don't know what the other's doing unless we ask. And that's exactly what she does. "So, whatcha doing over there on that phone of yours? I see you've been kinda acting suspiciously a bit."

I can feel my heart start to beat faster in my chest. Chan-hee Jung, out of all people in this world, cannot be the one to find out that I'm dealing with drugs to people. She hangs around other people of gossip, so she knows a lot about some people at school. She and the other girls that gossip around made an official gossip blog for Blue Winter High. So, I come up with a lie to keep her off of what I'm actually doing. That way she doesn't go to somebody and tells them about it and then the whole school knows the next day "Oh, nothing. Just texting Savanah again."

Her face instantly scrunches up at what I say. "Oh, her. Should've known. That snobby ass bitch." She then rolls her eyes and goes back to whatever she's doing. Neither Chan-hee nor Ali like Savanah, even though she's the girl that goes out with me only because I'm the best football player for our school and she's the head cheerleader of the Winter Foxes. See, Savanah Crimson is the snobby, rich, mean girl that everyone hates. Even the principal of the school, although he doesn't show it as much. Her parents are super rich since they own a company passed down from different family generations, Crimson Company, Inc. As far as I know, they make and sell furniture, and my mom works there for them. She never told me as to why she did, but I could only assume that she really needed money for me and her.

"Yeah," I say back to her just as Ali comes back with our food. I check my phone for any messages and I do happen to have one from this unknown person. As soon as I see the next text, chills are sent down my spine after reading it.

Unknown: I'll make sure that your mother and your friends are killed before the end of the week.

Damn, I really don't have a choice here. As I predicted in my head, my mom, along with Ali and Chan, would be killed if I refuse. Well, no backing out now.

Me: Fine. I'll do it. Where do we meet up?

Unknown: We're not going to meet just yet. Time will come when we do. For now, just go to the address below and pick it up.

At that moment, the address is sent right below in a second text right after the first one. I feel Ali tap my shoulder, asking me if I'm ok. I click off my phone, not attempting to text the person back and say to both of them: "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's eat! To the last day of summer!" I hold up my burger and the others do the same, both saying at the same time, "TO THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER!!" At least this last summer day can be spent with them before I start doing illegal things. Illegal things that might get me fucked up before the end of our senior year.

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