"Can you write it down for me?" Chad suggested, "Or type it. That way I can make edits directly. You can't leave us out of this story." Luke sighed, putting one of the boxes on the hood of Chad's car, "Can you open the door?" "Bro, be careful! This is an expensive car," Chad 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 preion bottle tucked under one of the windshield wipers on Chad'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," Luke said, thinking quickly on his feet. Chad 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. Chad popped the lid of the preion bottle off. A silver necklace slid out and into the palm of his hand. "What the-" "It's Millie's," Luke 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 Austin. He's with her now," Luke said, "I'm going to talk to the boys hiding over there." "Who?" Chad asked, having missed that part while he was 'keeping watch'. Three kids on bicycles were lingering in the shadows. Luke 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. Luke wondered what the hell 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?" Luke pointed at Chad. One of the boys said, "Nah. We waiting for it to happen." "Waiting for what?" "They rich boys," the boys talked amongst each other, "Look at that car." Luke 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." Luke looked back and, sure enough, he saw two cars rolling down the street and stop at the corner. The drivers called out to Chad. Luke's phone started to ring. He was about to ignore it when he saw the caller ID. It was Millie. Despite the showdown in front of him, he immediately accepted her call. "Hey Millie, 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-" Austin suddenly came on the phone, "Millie 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," Luke said, keeping an eye on Chad's conversation with the gang. A motley crew gotten out of their car, faces covered in bandannas or low caps. Chad locked his doors and the sound made the gang howl with laughter. They circled him. "Uh... LUKE!" Chad called out, standing allone, "I think we're going to need you here." "What's going on?" Austin yelled through the phone. "Nothing yet," Luke answered, walking into the situation. Before he hung up, he heard Austin 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," Luke greeted them casually . Chris Hayes looked from Luke... to Chad... to the ten gang members standing in front of them. "I was just with your girlfriend," Chris said, "and she's causing all kinds of chaos back there. You two are made for each other." "What?" Luke reacted, "Is she ok?" "Yo, you have bigger problems to focus on," Chris' friend indicated the gang narrowing in on them. "We're good now," Chad said in relief, "These are your people, aren't they?" The look Chris 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," Chad insisted, getting increasingly nervous, "The happy Alpine crew." "They are not my crew..." Chris let the comment hang in the air, "We're equally f*cked." His two friends backed him up. Luke said, in a cold voice, "It's two to one now. We can take them on." "What?!" Chad freaked out. A gang member slid his knife against the side of Chad's car, creating a screeching sound like a fingernail on a chalkboard. "Don't touch my mother f*cking car," Chad said as he got punched in the face. "How much money do you have?" one of the gang members asked. They were deciding what to do. They had been on their way somewhere, before getting distracted by Chad's fancy car. Now they could see the boys wouldn't go down easy. "Nothing," Chris answered, "There's only one rich boy here and you can have him." "Hey!" Chad yelled, clutching his bloody nose.