Nick stared at me while I stared back at him in silence. There was so much he was not telling me. How could he kiss me with skeletons in his closet that I wasn't sure that he would ever reveal?

Nick shrugged as the phone call ended. "If you want to know about how Ryder is involved in all of this, you have to ask him. It's not my story to tell." I huffed in frustration. Why was everyone being so fucking mysterious? I respected that he wouldn't tell me Ryder's story, but when did communication go out of fashion?

At school the next day, Ryder was clearly oscillating between the decision of talking to me and completely ignoring me. Sometimes I caught him staring at me, and other times he pretended that I didn't exist, even though he hadn't moved from the seat next to me in maths class, so perhaps he didn't completely hate me.

Being ignored, I thought a lot about what I had done. That I'd taken the information he trusted me with and simply poured it all out the second someone asked (to be frank, Nick had taken a knife to my throat, something which I couldn't simply get over). Yeah, maybe that guy wasn't the best person I could choose to kiss.

As class began I realised that I had forgotten my binder, and as I walked down the empty hallway to go to my locker,  I felt hands pulling me into a storage closet. Adrenaline rushed through my body as my brain anticipated the same person from the choking incident. Maybe I could finally see who they were under the mask? My hypervigilance made me kick my knee into the person's crouch, but at the soft "ah, fuck" I could tell who it was. Ryder. I exhaled.

"Jesus Christ, you scared me."

Ryder narrowed his eyes, ignoring my statement."Why the fuck would you talk to Nick? I warned you about him! Does he know I told you?" I nodded sheepishly. He turned around, bringing his head against the wall of the closet and breathing the word "fuck".

"From what you told me, I thought everyone knew about the gangs, that there were rumours..."

"Rumours, yeah, but not a lot of people actually believe it unless they've been there themselves." I raised an eyebrow at his word choice.

"And you, have you been there yourself?" I asked. Ryder crossed his arms defensively.

"You wouldn't get it."

"Well fucking tell me, dammit, because Nick has held a knife to my throat and I was choked by some guy in a mask!" Ryder blanched, taking a step backwards, his next word barely audible.

"What?" I didn't move, just nodded once and looked him directly in the eye.

"I'm sorry about that. Um." A singular tear started rolling down his cheek, and I got the sense that he was about to tell me something really important.

"My fucking, my--- my sister, Ava, died last year, at the hands of the Angels. They targeted her because I refused to join them. Nick tried to talk to them, but it didn't work..." he refused to look at me as he was saying this. It made sense, I also hated people seeing me cry.

There were some holes in his story, however. "Why would talking to them work?"

"Until this year, he was an Angel. He um, had a huge fight with the leader of the Angels, and the guy wasn't seen since."

What. The. Fuck.

"Yeah. There's more violence now than ever, the Angels, and even some of the Ghosts are challenging his authority. I'm guessing you were targeted because he was seen with you, generally the younger ones don't go for Nick by themselves."

I tried to think back to when we could have been seen together, but the only interaction I remembered before the incident was when I had seen him slumped against the wall, bruised and bloody. Had someone somehow seen us then?

"I don't think...I don't think someone could have seen us." I responded. Ryder frowned. 

"Where do you live?" I took out my phone, zooming into my new home on google maps.

Ryder looked over my shoulder to get a closer look at my phone. "Oh shit."

"What?"

"That's at the border between Angels and Ghosts territory. No one knows who's who, so they generally chase out everyone at the border, no matter who they are."

"Does that always happen?" I asked.

Ryder nodded grimly.

"Then how is my half-sister able to live there?"

------------------

Finally it was the weekend. I sank into the couch with a sigh, mulling over everything I had learned today. This town sure was crazy. I clicked on the remote, ready to settle into a day of cartoons to forget all this weirdness: kissing Nick, Ghosts and Angels, the walking target I now apparently was. But the TV was already on the channel of the news --- Grace must have been watching it recently. I was about to click off when I saw the headline at the bottom of the screen: black letters encased by a big red block. 

"BANK ROBBERY BY A MOB OF TEENS. YET TO BE IDENTIFIED." I looked closer and saw the same clothing the guy who had choked me was wearing.

Oh shit. Just as I shut off the TV, I got a text from an unknown number. I was about to dismiss it as spam before I opened its contents.

Unknown: hey. it's nick.

Alex: where'd u get my number from?

Unknown: Ryder. did you see the news? might as well add his contact.

Nick :/: yeah. It was the Angels. I don't wanna start another fight but they're moving into our area. It's on the border, but I know it's them. 

Alex: why didn't u tell me you used to be an Angel?

Nick:/: oh shit I didn't think Ryder would tell you THAT much. he must really like you.

Alex: um

Nick :/: speaking of like, how slowly do I need to go to get a chance w u? Another message popped up a few seconds later. just kidding, lol. u wanna come w me when I trash their den? I didn't really understand. Couldn't they just let the police deal with it? But I guess everything in this town was personal...

Alex: I don't like violence.

Nick:/: it's not violence. it's making us equals. they hurt us, we hurt them. besides, there might not even b anybody there

------3rd person POV---------

"Oh shit," stated the leader, Finn. Dave and a few others were crowding around Finn, who were drinking and watching the news in their den (they were on high alert ever since the border had become more crowded.)

"They stole from us, we'll steal from them."

They stood up, yelling and slapping each other's backs. They were absolutely going to crush those Ghosts.