Justin by LJ Alonge

Author:LJ Alonge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2016-05-03T17:14:41+00:00

It’s Fat Jimmy who suggests that I should play the kids from Ghosttown. It’s obviously a sad little attempt at redemption, an effort to save himself from falling to the very bottom of the totem pole. It suddenly occurs to me that this is probably how the world has always worked, in every neighborhood, village, and city. Save the town by sacrificing its weak and vulnerable to the invading hordes. I come along and throw Omar under the bus, and then Fat Jimmy gets his chubby fingers around my neck and does the same to me. I get it. Similac summons me from the grass and asks me what I think.

I look around the circle. Faces grin back at me eagerly. Everyone except Frank, who’s just shaking his head. But the way I see it, I’ve got nothing to lose. The way I see it, I’ve already hit rock bottom. The only place to go is up.

“Yeah, I’ll play them,” I say.

A couple of forced whoops come up from the crowd.

“Who wants to be on my team?” I ask.

“Whoa,” Similac says. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who said anything about us playing with you? This should be about you making good, right? You know, bring some positivity back to the neighborhood after everything that happened?” He points across the street. A couple of guys shake their heads at the memory of the burning Q Mart. Omar is sitting at his little table, pressing the dark circles under his eyes.

Frank gets up and brushes the dirt off his butt.

“Forget y’all,” he says, and motions for us to walk away. Which is how I know he really is my brother.

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