Pusher

six.

When I walked into school on Friday, Raven was leaning against my locker with a sucker between her lips and her eyes on her phone. The side of her head was shaved and the remainder of her hair hung all the way to her waist, dyed a deep purple. The color matched her painted lips.

Her mouth curved into a smirk when she saw me and she side stepped just enough so that I could open my locker. My eyes were focused straight ahead, mingling among my books, all lined up in perfect order of my classes, while hers were all over me. I ignored them.

"I heard you hooked up Dante. You got any for me?" Raven quirked an eyebrow, tugging at the metal that pierced through it. Her eyes were pale as steel and her cheekbones nearly as sharp.

I expected this. Hell, I wanted this. How else was I going to help my mom pay the bills? But even so, my heart rate picked up at her proposition and my hands froze before they could reach for my books. This was a very slippery slope and I was already falling.

I stalled, my mind reeling, but only for a few moments. I tore a sticky note off the inside of my locker and scribbled my number on it. I gave it to her without a word.

"Come on, you don't have anything on you?" she complained. "I've got the money right here." Raven dug her fingers into her pocket and pulled out a wad for emphasis, her eyebrow arching once more.

"Not in school," I said quickly, pushing her money back towards her. What was wrong with her? Did she want to get caught?

She rolled her eyes, pressing her back flat against the lockers and slumping against them. She shoved the cash back into the tight pocket of her skinny jeans. They were torn at the knees and a chain hung from the front belt loop to the back.

"If you really want people to start buying from you instead of Mav, you're going to have to become a little more available," she warned. Her eyes flicked to me. "But you're cute, so I'll make do."

She punctuated her words with a wink and walked off, leaving me to stare after her. Maybe this whole drug dealing business wasn't quite as simple as I thought it would be.

------

"So let me get this straight," Ellie began, squinting at me. It just made her messy mascara stand out more. "You're going to become a drug dealer because your mom is unemployed?"

"Yeah, basically." Why did it sound so insane when she said it? I contemplated not telling her at all but I didn't last more than two days. We were best friends. We told each other everything.

Well, almost everything.

Her eyes flicked up to the right, giving one long, thoughtful stare as she sipped from her strawberry shake. Going to Benny's after school was a Friday tradition, but in order to save a few bucks, I had simply opted for water. Ellie had bought a large basket of fries and was gracious enough to let me pick at them.

"You do realize they have unemployment insurance?" Her eyes squinted again, her mouth pulling to the side.

"I did the math, El, It's not enough, not if we want to keep up on payments on the mortgage," I countered. I chewed wryly on another thin fry. They were over salted, but I couldn't complain about free food.

"I know you're not going to like it," she began, "but maybe your dad could give you some cash? You don't really have to give him a second chance; just pretend long enough to milk out some money."

I sent her a severe look, one that warned I was one comment away from walking out and leaving her to hike back home on foot. She raised her hands in a brief gesture of surrender.

Ellie never had much of a filter, but she had the good grace to drop the subject.

She took another long sip, then pressed her lips together before speaking. "So no matter how much I try to convince you this is a bad idea —  that you could be expelled, that your scholarship could be revoked, that your mom would skin you alive if she found out — you're still going to do it?"

"Pretty much," I answered shortly. I tried to keep my tone light as if I wasn't terrified of every worst case scenario she listed off.

She heaved a heavy exhale, but it almost looked like a sigh of relief.

"Alright, then I can stop pretending to hate it. I've done my duty as a best friend. I tried to be a voice of reason," she declared in an airy tone. Her mouth twisted into a conspiratorial smirk and her tone was low, rippling with excitement. She leaned low across the table "This honestly the coolest thing you've ever done. I can't believe my best friend is a pusher. How edgy are we, right?

"Do you think you could get us into those parties Marcie McClellan throws every year? I heard her older brother invites his college friends and God knows they're way hotter than the slime at Dayton High."

I sent her a disapproving look and the tone to match. "Marcie's parties? I'm not about to enable you to get roofied or picked up by the police for underage drinking."

"Just when I thought you might actually start being cool," El said, rolling her eyes. "You can't pull the overprotective mom act and be a drug dealer at the same time. It just doesn't work like that."

I was about to argue but my phone beeped, lighting up the screen. I didn't recognize the number but it didn't take me long to figure out who it came from. It was a picture, Raven with a wad of cash between her teeth and a flirty wink frozen onto her face, captioned with only: When & where?