"I don't know, I would have figured something out!" I had thought about what if they had guns or knives. I actually assumed they had guns or knives. They certainly had fists. But I trusted in myself to be able to get myself out of danger if I needed to. I had done it so many times before now, in what I thought of as worse situations than this. What was a petty drug ring to a mob boss? Jake's lack of faith in me upset me.

But I remembered too how upset my friends and my parents had been when I ran off and did something dangerous. Jake was my friend, but it was still weird to have someone not my parents show concern about something like this.

"Look, I appreciate that you'd rather not have me killed. I rather not be killed either. I swear I'm not looking for trouble, Jake. It just tends to find me."