Chandler looked like a scene right out of a horror movie- or like something right out of a zombie apocalypse. Never-the-less, he still wanted to drag Andre across the block. But no matter how angry Chandler looked, Andre couldn't get his head back in the fight the minute he made eye contact with Natoya.

  shit. she knows. Andre managed to duck from an attack Chandler suddenly threw at him, but failed to realize he was successfully backing him into a corner until it was too late. He quickly took a defensive stance, covering his head with his arms. I wonder if she'll snitch on me- suddenly,he was faced with a knee- or should he say kneed in the face.

  Out of instinct, or pure embarrassement Andre began throwing several punches to break out of the corner, several connecting with Chandler until he finally managed to use Chandler's body weight to his advantage and drag him to the ground. No... She woudn't do that?

  Andre used Chandler's knee to push himself up, feeling his arm rise into the air as everyone began cheering for his victory. How embarrassing. Andre looked over at the direction he saw Natoya in to see an worried look on her face. The same way the moon must look at the sun as they meet on the horizon. Then, two seconds later he was dragged past the gates and towards a room where he was congratulated by the same spokesperson who originally sought him out to fight here.

  "$800 good?"

  "That's what we agreed on." Andre said, wiping the blood from his mouth as he gripped the duffle bag and threw it over his shoulder. He had been working for Mr. Brando for the past year now, and was getting the same amount of pay a person working a full time job. That's why he was in the business, even if it put him in danger.

  "Good job out there, son."

  "Let's keep this friendly." Andre said, with a bit of a laugh in the beginning. "You call me 'son' again, and next time you might not be so lucky." He hated the term, and in all honesty, Mr. Brando reminded him of his own father, which just made him more spiteful of the word. But he wasn't going to cause issues. He was getting paid for what he was worth, and he was getting that money a lot faster than if he was working a full time job. So instead, Andre grabbed his stuff, and left the spokesperson silent as he shut the door behind him.

  He pushed through the crowd, which is when he saw a familiar face- Jess. He began making his way over, and grabbed the Jess and Natoya to pull them out of the crowd as people's cheering died down.

  "What are you doing here Natoya??" Andre asked as he ripped his hoodie off and threw it over her head so she wouldn't be recognized in the crowd in the future.

  "I didn't realize you were the street fighter everyone was talki-" Natoya said in a hushed voice as they finally left the area, and entered a different hallway.

  "Shh!" Andre hushed, quickly covering her mouth to cut off her sentence. He looked over at Jess who seemed rather pissed off, yanking his arm away from Andre as they entered the hallway. "You have no idea how many things could've-"

  "Are you okay?" Natoya inturrupted him, pushing his hand off her mouth as she looked at the blood he had all around his face, only getting worse as he wiped his face off with his arm.

  "Follow me." He sighed, taking Natoya's hand and motioning with his head for Jess to follow them. He dragged them to another room- the locker room where everyone had already taken all of their stuff after the fight was over. He let go of Natoya as he entered the bathroom, but the two followed never-the-less.

  Andre knew the issues with street fighting. He had been doing this for a while, he almost got his family involved at one point, but back then it was petty fighting. Very small issues with a gang Dominic almost stupidly joined. This wasn't a small gang, this was a whole organization. And to be honest, he was a little afraid of them.

  "When did you get into street fighting?"

  "I've been in and out since I was pretty young." Andre said inbetween washing his face up, scrubbing it with his hands and water.

  "...Why?" Jess asked.

  "Beats working a 9-5." Andre laughed as he wiped his face off with the paper towels in the dispenser.

  "Is that what your siblings were talking about toda-"

  "Natoya, please. I'm fine, you're fine, nobody got killed." Andre said, drying off his hands and throwing the pile of paper towels into the trash bin. He then looked back at Natoya, who's face was painted with concern. "Really, I'm fine."

  "Who here doesn't?" Andre asked with a forced chuckle as he grabbed the locker and put in his combination to grab out his stuff. There was a bit of silence that entered the room before Andre turned to look at his two friends.

  Natoya stood there, the same concerned look in her deep, brown eyes while Jess stared at him with his soul-sucking grey eyes, both of their arms were crossed.

  "Chillax. You two are getting bent out of shape for nothing." Andre laughed and shut his locker door. "C'mon, let's get something to eat. I'm starving."

  Andre turned around before he was able to see the look of concern Natoya tried to exchange with Jess, who just rolled his eyes and pushed her along. The three stepped out of the locker room and through the hallway. Andre lifted up a small blanket for the two to crawl through. "Just up there."

  The three climbed up the ladder after a short hesitation, with Jess leading the way, Natoya following after him, and Andre last after closing the blanket. Jess helped Natoya climb out at the very top, and gave Andre an annoyed look as he poked his head out the hole. Then, Andre pushed the sewer lid back into the hole, covering it up with a dumpster

  "Follow me, I know a gas station nearby that has like, three different pre-made foods there." Andre said, leading the way down the sidewalk as he and Jess stood inbetween Natoya.

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  "How'd you enjoy the fight?" Andre asked sarcastically, glancing over at Natoya who still looked... He didn't really know how she looked. Disapointed? Shaken?

  "Oh." Jess cleared his throat, seeming to not notice the question at first. "I enjoyed it." He responded in a nonchalant manner. Though, from the tone Andre couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or telling the truth.

  Nevertheless, he laughed. "You enjoy watching me get beat up? How nice of you." He replied sarcastically, mostly teasing around. Natoya was still looking at the ground. She was in deep thought, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder to pull her inbetween him and Jess.

  "Of course I enjoyed watching it. Seeing you take the beating was amusing." Jess continued, his tone different, Andre didn't care much. Instead he reinforced his smile.

  "You guys are dicks." He scoffed.

  "I didn't even do anything!" Natoya retorted, rolling her eyes she looked at Andre, but there was a slight hint of something missing in her eyes, something he couldn't trace. He was getting more and more worried by the second that she was going to confront his mother about it.

  "It's what you didn't do that he's upset about." Jess said, lightly as he messed with her hair. She looked away from both of them, shielding her eyes with her hand as she laughed, but Andre could see the very light traces of red in her cheeks.

  "Someones' blushing over here." He teased, nudging her rib with his elbow.

  "Oh shut up!" She replied, slightly pushing into his shoulder while subconsciously dragging Jess along with her.

  Andre heard Jess chuckling at the two's banter, and as the two approached the gas station, he held the door open for Natoya and Jess to unlink arms and enter.

  Natoya immediately began looking through the aisles as Jess and Andre tagged along behind her. At first, she began looking at the chips and dip- before settling her eyes on some boxed pizzas sitting in a food warmer.

  Andre chuckled again as he followed her past Jess. "Feelin' pizza today, huh?" He asked.

  "What's that analogy you had? Life gives you pizzas, something about crust or what not?" Natoya teased him back, causing his cheeks to grow red. Andre scratched the back of his mind to try and remember the stupid analogy.

  "Yeah, something about crust." Jess said, joining in on the teasing before Andre rolled his eyes.

  "That's not even the quote. If life gives you lemons- make a damn pizza." Andre squinted his eyes and looked around, realizing that wasn't the quote either. "Close enough."

  "I think that's even worse," Natoya teased, lightly pushing Andre's chest as she made direct eye contact with him, her laughter filling up the gas station. His heart almost skipped a beat at the interaction, but it was cut off as he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the gas station door opening.

  Some rich chick with two body guards entered the gas station and looked around before her eyes settled in their direction.

  She had blonde hair and blue eyes, expensive sunglasses on the top of her polished, curled hair that had small bits of heating damage here and there. And she was looking right at them, or more specifically, right at Jess.

  "I'll... be right back." Jess said before walking away from the two. Natoya and Andre watched as Jess fixed up his appearance and approached the two. Andre stared apprehensively as he tried to figure out who the girl might be.

  "Who is that...?" Natoya asked, looking up at Andre.

  "No idea. She looks familiar." Andre replied, racking his brain to try and remember who she was. He had a very vague feeling that he'd seen her before, in some article or magizine, or even on the news.

  Her arms were crossed as she spoke to Jess, who didn't seem to care much for her. His body language was stiff while hers was fluid, and... flirty? Andre looked over at Natoya in a bit of more confusion as the girl began wrapping her finger around Jess' hair.

  As he turned to Natoya, he could sense that she looked... annoyed? frustrated?.. sad? Her brow was furrowed and she looked tense, her lips were tight and her eyes had lost their ability to draw you in, almost as if they had turned cold. Her entire body language was stiff and tense, her arms were crossed and a second later she had turned away from Jess and towards the pizza boxes instead.

  Andre couldn't help but feel as if she was... jealous? of Jess? or whoever the blonde haired girl was. But he felt the need to comfort her, and didn't know how. A slight rise of jealousy filled his own chest, but he brushed it off as just an instinctive reaction. But he couldn't lie, it felt like he and Natoya had chemistry.

  "I'l see you at dinner tonight~" Courtney flirted, untwirling Jess' hair from her finger as she turned around and left. Jess waited for them to leave before he, too, turned around, looking stoic and a bit annoyed as he rejoined Natoya and Andre.

  Natoya was acting indifferent, as if she didn't notice Jess walking towards them. She picked up a pizza and examined it, as if it were a textbook she had to study before the final exam.

  "Oh shit. The exam." Andre quickly scowled.

  "I completely forgot about it." Natoya said with a little bit of a laugh before she looked at Andre, then back at the pizza.

  "Still lookin at pizza." Andre said, easing up the tension between the three of them.

  "Yeah you know. If life gives you pizza... make lemons." Natoya replied, lacking the same ethusiasm she had a few minutes ago.

  "I guess you could call it pizza-logic." Andre replied, which to his surprise made Natoya laugh a bit, and quickly hide her face in an attempt to ease her embarrassment from laughing at his joke. Andre's smile crept back on his face as he saw her reaction.

  Her laugh appeared a lot more gneuine and ethusiastic, the same as her smile that was creeping up on her face as she shook her head.

  "That's a stupid joke." She said with a bit of a giggle, looking up at Andre who had a somewhat smug look on his face, satisfied with her response to his joke. It was nice to see how she smiled and laugh, the red creeping up on her cheeks made her seem more and more beautiful.

  "So... Pepperoni pizza?" Andre asked, picking up the box from Natoya's hand as he gestured for everyone to make their way to the register.

  "One of the classics." Natoya responded in agreement, leading the way to the register with the two boys behind them as they approached the cashier and purchased their pizza. The cashier scanned the item, then pushed the pizza back towards them after they paid. "Thank you!" She said cheerfully, taking the pizza and leading the two boys back outside where they would sit on a poorly designed sidewalk which only consisted of a curb leaning against a building.

  "Have a great day." The cashier said in a relaxed, soft demenour after they finished the transaction, and left the gas station.

  Andre was the first to take a slice, with Natoya and Jess following him afterwards. Natoya sat inbetween him and Jess, holding the pizza with her legs, careful not to drip anything on the other pizzas.

  "So. Streetfighter, huh?" Natoya laughed.

  "Only the.. what... third fight you've seen me in?" Andre chuckled.

  "My dad put me in a few self-defense courses, until my mom found out. I miss them sometimes." Natoya said after finishing her bite of pizza.

  "Maybe we could do some street fighting sometime." Andre replied subconciously.

  "Wooahhh!" Jess and Natoya teased, causing Andre to suddenly become bright red.

  "You both know that's not what I meant." Andre replied, hiding his face with his palm before he looked at Natoya with a smile. "I just mean sparring."

  "It actually sounds like a lot of fun." Natoya replied before looking over at jess who had just finished his slice of pizza. "You gonna join us, Jess?"

  "Yeah, c'mon Jess, it'll be fun." Andre added.

  "Yeah, I guess. Better not bruise my face though." Jess replied with witty banter.

  "Please, we won't disqualify you from your beauty contests." Natoya teased him, causing Andre to laugh as she took another bite of her pizza