Zenon's Game Chapter 102

*Zenon and Bryce's perspective*

It was getting late and Zenon was running out of time. He wanted to have some things prepared for his date with Candace tomorrow. And he made Bryce cancel his evening plans to help out.

Bryce had parked his car on the side of the street as they carried boxes back from a store. The storeowner had stayed open late, especially for them.

"Let me get this straight," Bryce said, while they walked back, "Jake wrote a song for her, sangit at the grotto and you still got with her that night? Damn, you got game."

He was still catching up on the whole Candace-Zenon backstory. 

"Can you write it down for me?" Bryce suggested, "Or type it. That way I can make edits directly. You can't leave us out of this story."

Zenon sighed, putting one of the boxes on the hood of Bryce's car, "Can you open the door?"

"Bro, be careful! This is an expensive car," Bryce exclaimed, almost dropping the box while he inspected non-scratches on the hood, "We took my beautiful baby into some shady part of town, near those sh*theads at Alpine high."

Both boys stopped talking. They saw it at the same time: a prescription bottle tucked under one of the windshield wipers on Bryce's car.

"What is that?"

"Is someone following us?"

"Keep an eye out, while I put the boxes in the back. We're not opening it until we're inside the car," Zenon said, thinking quickly on his feet.

Bryce kept watch. He stared into the darkness, snapping his head around at every tiny sound. From a mouse scurrying into the gutter to a plastic bag rustling on the sidewalk. 

They piled into the car.  Bryce popped the lid of the prescription bottle off. A silver necklace slid out and into the palm of his hand.

"What the-"

"It's Candace's," Zenon said, recognizing it immediately, "She was wearing it the day of your charity event."

"This the thing she lost? We spent all day looking for her necklace. I thought we were talking about 18 karat gold. This is some janky-"

"Take a picture and send it to Axel. He's with her now," Zenon said, "I'm going to talk to the boys hiding over there."

"Who?" Bryce asked, having missed that part while he was 'keeping watch'.

Three kids on bicycles were lingering in the shadows. Zenon walked towards them and they scrambled onto their bikes, ready to take off.

"Take it easy," he told them, "I'll ask you a simple question."

They stayed tense but stayed put. They were very young. Zenon wondered what the h*e*l*l they were doing out here so late.

"Have you seen anyone come by in the last twenty minutes?"

They shook their heads.

"No one came to my friend's car over there?" Zenon pointed at Bryce.

One of the boys said, "Nah. We waiting for it to happen."

"Waiting for what?"

"They're rich boys," the boys talked amongst each other, "Look at that car."

Zenon realized what was happening before the boys explained it.

"You in gang territory now," a boy said, "Bad things happen on this side of the street."

Zenon looked back and, sure enough, he saw two cars rolling down the street and stop at the corner. The drivers called out to Bryce.

Zenon's phone started to ring. He was about to ignore it when he saw the caller ID. It was Candace. Despite the showdown in front of him, he immediately accepted her call.

"Hey Candace, how are you?  Everything ok?" he asked, concerned when he heard her stressed voice.

"I'm fine. We had a crazy half hour. Bar fight, partly my fault and the cops-"

Axel suddenly came on the phone, "Candace can't speak anymore. She's being watched by a comedian who's about to go on stage. Long story. Anyway, how did you find that necklace, man? Where are you?"

"I'm outside that store in Alpine we used to go to for those wacky games," Zenon said, keeping an eye on Bryce's conversation with the gang.

A motley crew gotten out of their car, faces covered in bandannas or low caps. Bryce locked his doors and the sound made the gang howl with laughter. They circled him.

"Uh... ZENON!" Bryce called out, standing allone, "I think we're going to need you here."

"What's going on?" Axel yelled through the phone.

"Nothing yet," Zenon answered, walking into the situation.

Before he hung up, he heard Axel yell, "I'M COMING!"

Suddenly, Christopher Hayes and two friends jumped the wall in the alleyway and scrambled to their feet. They'd been running from the Laughing Heads bar, where they'd shaken off the one officer who was on their tail.  And they'd dropped into the middle of this.

"Hey," Zenon greeted them casually .

Layton Hayes looked from Zenon... to Bryce... to the ten gang members standing in front of them.

"I was just with your girlfriend," Layton said, "and she's causing all kinds of chaos back there.  You two are made for each other."

"What?" Zenon reacted, "Is she ok?"

"Yo, you have bigger problems to focus on," Layton' friend indicated the gang narrowing in on them.

"We're good now," Bryce said in relief, "These are your people, aren't they?"

The look Layton gave him was p*ssed. "Because we come from the same neighborhood? You want to say that again?"

Some of the crowd whistled, taking even more joy out of what they were about to do.

"But for real, you're friends with these guys," Bryce insisted, getting increasingly nervous, "The happy Alpine crew."

"They are not my crew..." Layton let the comment hang in the air, "We're equally f*cked."

His two friends backed him up.

Zenon said, in a cold voice, "It's two to one now. We can take them on."

"What?!" Bryce freaked out.

A gang member slid his knife against the side of Bryce's car, creating a screeching sound like a fingernail on a chalkboard.

"Don't touch my mother f*cking car," Bryce said as he got punched in the face.