Six Hundred Dollars

“Don’t tell anyone, yeah?”

Peter side-eyed Ella, who looked like she was ready to smack Omar’s nose through his skull.

“¡Madre de Dios! Don’t tell - ?”

Being the oldest of their group, Peter and Omar naturally looked towards Ella for leadership and Peter could tell Ella’s reaction dismayed Omar.

“He said he'd pay me back three times over! We could be rich in no time!” Peter almost laughed. Like twelve year olds could ever be rich. Especially not those who lived in the ghettos of Los Angeles.

“Of course he did, moron! He was conning you!”

“Hey!”

“Oh.” Ella closed her eyes and swore softly. Peter raised his brows.

Even Omar was shocked speechless. Usually Ella was careful about using the ‘F’ word around ‘babies’ as she called Peter and Omar, who were really only a few months younger than her.

Peter bit the bullet and asked the dreaded question: “How much, man? How much did you… loan Ratz.” Ella groaned. 

Omar was saved from answering when an incensed ear-piercing screech reached them. 

“Isa-bellla-aaaa!”

They scattered, each one of them heading in a different direction. Peter got a glimpse of Sofia racing across the pavement wielding a long silver spatula and he ran faster. Ella had tipped a cage full of spiders in her step-sister’s laundry basket and, after Peter had helped her stash the cage away, they had both forgotten about it. 

“¡Tú diablesca! I’m going to kill you!” 

Peter spotted Omar heading into Snake Alley and it was like someone had lit a fire underneath his heels. He swerved, accidentally kicking a beer can into a trash heap, and he heard the alley cat yowl in protest. The can must have bounced off and clocked the sleeping feline. Omar’s dark curls disappeared around the corner, and, after a brief second of hesitation, he followed, sprinting into the one alley he, Ella and Omar had steered clear of at all costs. Well, until now, apparently. 

Behind him, he suddenly heard a different scream. Higher, younger. Sofia must have caught up to Ella and she was giving away her location to the others by belting to Jesus. 

“She’ll be fine, won’t she?” 

Peter turned. Omar was waiting for him in the shadows, his dark eyes widened in fear like a deer. 

“Yeah,” he huffed out. ”She’ll catch up.” 

Seemingly reassured, Omar’s face suddenly lit up in excitement. “Do you want to meet my new friends?”

“Not really.” Peter admitted. He looked around, nervously. 

Ella joined them, gasping. “That was quick,” Omar noted. She scowled at him.

“I said I’d tell her who Christopher was having an affair with if she let me go,” she muttered. 

“Everybody knows that.” 

“Shut up, Peter.” Omar laughed. 

For a moment it seemed like they would be getting out of Snake Alley safely, after all. But then. 

“It’s Peter Hoang, isn’t it?”

Peter whipped around just as Ella froze. 

A small, pixie like figure emerged from the large trash cans at the corner of the alley. Her voice was like jingle bells and broken glass. “Isabella Reyes. Omar.” Cat green eyes honed in on Peter. “Who is Sofia’s boyfriend cheating on her with, Hoang?”

“This is Chloe, Ella.” Omar introduced, obliviously. Peter could have hit him. Everybody knew Chloe. She was Ratz’ second-in-command to his crazy wannabe biker gang, whose specialty was shop-lifting and shoddy hot-wiring of second-hand-vehicles. 

However, word on the street was that Las Viboras were branching out. 

“Hoang.” Steel laced Chloe’s voice. “I asked you a question.” Peter tried to answer evenly. 

“Crazy Lu,” he said and cursed when Chloe still waited. Ella opened her mouth to interject but he gestured for her to shut up. She glowered but kept silent, waiting. “I followed Christopher after he got off from work.” Peter could sense Ella’s and Omar’s mouth drop open. 

“When?” they asked. 

He addressed them. “It was after I finished watering Mrs Reyes’ roses at Easter.” Ella’s mom had a green thumb and she had hundreds of plants that needed her attention. She often paid Peter to water the roses and orchids. “Christopher came by your mom’s shop and picked up pink roses.” Ella closed her mouth. 

“Oh.”

“Sofia likes red roses.” Chloe finished. 

Peter didn’t like where this was going. 

“Have you been spying on me and my friends?” His jaw clenched when Chloe grinned, showing small, white teeth. 

“Ratz sees your little gang as trouble-makers.” 

“What?” Peter glanced irritably at Omar’s offended expression. 

“He asked me to keep an eye on you.” Chloe went on as if Omar hadn’t spoken. “And this one here.” She jerked her chin at Omar. “Has been filling us in on all the grand escapades you three have been involved in.”

Omar, at the least, had the decency to blush. He muttered something about wanting to make a good impression. Peter had never been so close as to punching Omar in the face as he was then, in the middle of Snake Alley, facing off against the lieutenant of the neighborhood gang. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared stone faced at his so called friend. 

When I get my hands on you, his look said to Omar, who, he could tell, almost winced. From the corner of his eye he saw Chloe watching, fascinated by the silent exchange. 

Which is why they all failed to predict what happened next. 

There was a sudden tangle of limbs and Peter had to blink to understand what was happening. He gripped his Swiss blade through his jacket as they were surrounded by Viboras members the next second. It was only a barked command from Chloe that stopped them from attacking Peter and his group. 

“Hold, idiots! Can’t any of you look before you leap?”

Omar was on the ground, looking stunned. Chloe was livid. 

“Sorry, boss.”

“You could have ruined everything!” 

Sweat trickled down Peter’s back. He let go of his uncle’s Swiss army knife and tried to look as non-threatening as possible. It was the only way they could escape this situation in one piece. 

Ella, for her part, had had no such compunction. 

Apparently unable to clamp down on her fury at Omar anymore, she had launched herself at him with full force, knocking both of them to the ground. Peter had always jokingly said she could punch well for a girl but he knew he wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of her fists. He could barely see her arms move as she landed one rapid blow after the other, not giving Omar the time and space to land one of his own. 

“Boss!” an impressed voice exclaimed. “She’s good, too!” 

Peter didn’t hear Chloe’s response. Omar already had a bleeding nose and the beginnings of a black eye when Ella was dragged away kicking and screaming from her quarry. A teenager with a pierced lip and black nail polish looked half-scared, half-amused at his new charge. 

Omar, having finally gotten his bearings, tried to charge at a now successfully restrained Ella and Peter readied himself to intervene. 

“Enough!” 

Chloe’s voice carried like a gunshot. Even Ella stopped struggling. Omar lowered his fists. 

Chloe glared at Omar. And then at Ella. “You two are free to go. If you can stop yourselves from killing each other.” Ella glowered, before her face changed. She looked at Peter, and then at Chloe. Fear entered her eyes. 

Peter’s heart sank down to his running shoes. They had walked into a trap. Las Viboras were not only expanding their gang-related activities. 

They were also recruiting. 

And they had their eyes on Peter. 

Peter turned to Omar. “Wait.” Guilt warred with another emotion Peter didn’t recognize in Omar’s face. “Omar, where did you get the cash? The money you loaned to Ratz.”

“Me.” The teen holding Ella nodded in his direction. “Nic, at your service.” There was no mocking in his voice but Nic’s black eyes were hard, like stones at the bottom of a pond. 

“Ratz knows what he’s doing, Peter,” Chloe spoke, softly. She nodded and Nic released Ella. Omar was pushed towards the entrance of Snake Alley. 

She turned back to him. “Talk to us. Unlike your boxer friend, you have a cool head.” Peter didn’t look at Ella. Someone laughed and he heard Ella mutter angrily under her breath. 

Omar looked like he wanted to say something. Peter cut in, looking Chloe in the eye. 

“I want you to let Ella go. Never approach her again.”

“Done.”

“You tricked Omar to get to me.”

“Partially true. Not everything is about you.”

“Then let him default on his loan.”

“Woah! Hold up, now.” 

“Let him speak, Nic.” 

Nick looked bemused but didn’t protest. 

Peter thought furiously. “You made an investment. Was Omar really going to get any money back?”

Chloe said nothing. Omar made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. Peter thought he heard ‘six hundred dollars.’

“I could make you that much money and more.”

“The hell you can.” 

Ella piped up. “He can! You should see him with second-hand bikes. He fixed Old Joe’s piece-of-junk Honda and it purrs like a kitten now.”

There was muttering. No one except Omar and Ella knew he was good with two-wheeler vehicles. 

“We can add that to the list, then.” Chloe’s green eyes glittered in the waning afternoon light as she watched him. He wasn’t off the hook just yet, if he ever really was. “But first, a word with Ratz.” She turned briskly to the loitering Viboras. They sprung into action and, before Peter knew it, dragged Ella and Omar out of Snake Alley. They both struggled, although perhaps for different reasons.

Ella called back to Peter but she was then too far away for him to hear her. 

Chloe caught his collar and he yelped. He stood face to face with a plain brown door. Chloe gave him an almost sympathetic look before rapping on the door three times. Two Viboras stood behind him. The door opened and this time he didn’t wait for Chloe to take him by the collar again. He stepped in.