Undergrounders by David Skuy

torture of waiting for him to find me.
    I forced myself not to make a sound — not to move a muscle — not to even breathe — so I held my breath for as long as I could before taking another one real quiet. Try doing that when you have a cough. I thought my lungs were going to burst.
    I heard someone run by but couldn’t be sure it was him. At least the garbage was soft. Maybe it was from a restaurant, because I know there’s one in the Theatre. I counted to a hundred three times, and then slowly peeked out the top of the bin.
    I took my first deep breath; the coast was clear. I pushed the garbage bags off, and then slumped back down. This is great, I thought: sitting in garbage, the nastiest Streeter in the world after me, J.J. runs off, I smell like crap, and I have my first hockey game tonight with the Rangers. Maybe because no one was around, but for whatever reason a tear snuck out of my eye, and after that I couldn’t stop. Why couldn’t I just play hockey all the time? On the ice, I didn’t think about the Underground or Streeters, or always being hungry, or living with idiots who bugged me, or missing my mom so much I got a sick feeling in my stomach.
    Thank God the tears finally ran out. What really sucked was I’d lost my extra dollar to W5 and couldn’t buy a Coke unless I hawked some more cash. Fat chance of that, smelling like this, and I felt my butt was all wetfrom something — now that was gross.
    Stupid J.J.

Chapter 15
    “Mouse. Where have you been? I’m tired of waiting. J.J. said you were right behind him.”
    Will glared at me with his hands on his hips. Rose looked at me with her nose all pulled back like she couldn’t understand something. J.J. slunk off to the side.
    “I had some W5 problems to deal with,” I said, real calm.
    All of a sudden Will didn’t look like he wanted to pound me.
    “You got blood on your coat,” Rose said.
    “Did you fight W5?” Will said, his eyes wide.
    “That loser took my money. But I popped one guy in the crown jewels and took off.”
    “Yeah, right,” Will said, waving me off.
    “It’s true,” J.J. said. “W5 whacked him in the face a few times and then this tall, skinny guy was gonna pound him. Jonathon punched him good. I saw it.”
    Will actually laughed. “You surprise me sometimes, Mouse. I wish I could’ve seen it. Just thinking about it is worth a bun, anyway. Come with us, and I’ll buy you one.”
    “Okay. Thanks. It was a good shot too. The loser fell right to the pavement.”
    “Too bad it wasn’t W5,” Will growled. “Do that to him and I’ll buy you a hot dog.” He pointed down the street and walked off.
    “You got some blood on your face too,” Rose said as she passed me.
    I licked my fingers and rubbed my face to get it off. The taste was salty and beefy, and it nearly made me sick. J.J. kept away from me the whole way to Winston’s. I figured the best thing was to say nothing and let him stew. I guess there wasn’t anything he could have done to help me, and he did back me up in front of Will and Rose. Still, I wasn’t going to be nice; he didn’t deserve it.
    The sun was going down. Rigger could tell me the time. I hoped I had a chance to rest before the game. I had to meet Rasheed at his house by six thirty, and since I was so low on cash I couldn’t take the subway. I could have eaten ten Chinese buns, I was so starved.
    We got our buns and went back to the Underground. Creeper was guarding the door. He nodded at me. “What happened to you? Run into a truck?”
    J.J. answered for me. “W5 pounded on him. Stole his coin too. Mouse punched one of W5’s crew in the nuts and got away.”
    Creeper whistled softly. “Mouse the enforcer. Didn’t figure you for a scrapper.”
    He didn’t say it in his usual mean way. Maybe this fight would be a good thing, make me more legit to the Undergrounders. Everyone seemed impressed, even Will.
    “That loser fell like a sack of potatoes. You shoulda seen it,” I