Author's note: This story starts exactly two years from when the original story, 'The Gang', took place. (quick reference about the fictional chronological time line of these stories) Red Sonic, you're in luck: This is where Genesis enters! Any other Gang fans: the first three chapters are new characters which are about to become a part of the stories. Anyone else: hope you enjoy, look forward to getting your feedback!

The Gang:
The New Guys

New York City, NY - Felix Dalen September 3rd

"So it's just this week, and then . . . " I shrugged. My thick shaggy brown hair was whipping me in the face. The balcony of our 9th-floor apartment always seemed windy. I wasn't really sure why. These were just passing thoughts, things I tried to think about to be distracted from the news I was giving - what seemed, to me, the worst news I could give in my life.
Breanna Paris was leaning over the railing, and even though her back was to me, I knew she was crying. Bre had come in for the week - she lived about an hour away and spent most long weekends, large chunks of the summer, and almost any other break here in the city with me. She was my girlfriend - we'd been dating for three years, having got together about nine months before her aunt and my dad decided to tie the knot. (How's that for crazy?) I'd lived in New York City my whole life. I knew without a doubt that what I'd miss most was Breanna.
"So they're moving your dad," Breanna repeated. "I'm going home Sunday . . . school starts Monday . . . when are you moving?"
I shrugged. "Like Tuesday, I think. My dad doesn't want me to miss any of the school year." My eyes rolled. "Sophomore year and all . . ."
She was nodding, but only on the outside. I could see her eyes. Pain. "He didn't have any say in it?"
I hung my head. "Yeah, Bre, he did - and this is what he chose. It'll be a million times better for him, I think. Lots more money, less traveling. Stuff like that." I sighed. The news had come to me this afternoon, when Dad got home from work, only ten minutes before I'd left to pick up Breanna from the train station. I'd waited until we were back here to tell her, but she'd known. She'd known something was wrong. That girl can read me like a book. Sometimes it's scary.
"That's not fair," she muttered. "He's not losing his girlfriend." Breanna's voice trembled, and I turned her around so she could cry on my chest instead of over the rail.
"We've got this week," I murmured to her. "And then, it won't be a hundred percent different - we've done it long distance this long, you know? You can fly out and spend all of Christmas Break and Spring Break with me. All of next summer."
Denise and Dad were cool with that - they've never stopped Breanna and I from spending time together, and never had a problem with her staying with us. They trusted us. I didn't have the option to go out to Breanna's - her sister would never have it. Bre lived with her sister and brother-in- law who were quite a bit older than us.
"Yeah."
I could hear the doubt in her voice, so I held her tightly. It's not right, I found myself thinking. Why does the guy have to be the strong one? I want to break down and cry, too. But I held myself together, if for nothing but Bre's sake. I'd have plenty of time for that when she wasn't around. When I lived a million miles away.
She looked at me - the fresh tears had stopped, but her face was streaked. I gently wiped away the smudged mascara. "Before you go," Breanna said in a low voice, "do you think we could get any . . . you know . . . alone time?"
I glanced at the glass door which led to the living room. It was closed. In the three years since Breanna and I had been together, we'd never really been very physical together. We hugged, kissed, cuddled, and came away with the rare hickey . . . that was about it. "What do you mean?" I asked her.
She was eying the door too. Part of our immaculate celibacy was due to the fact that if we were together, it was in her aunt's/my father's house. The only real make-out sessions we'd found were in movie theaters and that was the exception of our time together, not the norm. Breanna didn't want anyone but me to hear what she was about to say.
"I think it's time," she told me. "We've been together for a million years, you're the one I want to be with forever. If I had to pick now, today, I'd marry you." Breanna said this easily - we both acknowledged that we were in love, and were mutually convinced that we were destined for one another. The beginning of what she'd said - the I think it's time part - that was new. I wasn't absolutely positive I knew what she was talking about, but I had my suspicions.
"You saying what I think you're saying?" I was whispering. My heart was starting to race.
Breanna nodded. Her smile was beautiful, fresh, encouraging. "Where can we go? This weekend, Friday or Saturday night, maybe."
I paused. "Cashus's," I said finally. "His parents are gone and his brother was going to be throwing some giant back-to-school bash at their place Saturday night." Laughs, coming out of my own mouth. "Everyone else in our school has done it over there." Chris Matthews (Cashus) was my best friend. Had been since first grade. He and Breanna were my best connection to the outside world. If everyone was a planet in this giant galaxy, creatures from Cashus and Bre's worlds are the only ones I'd call frequent visitors.
We went inside after a few minutes, shared a kiss, and I sat in my living room feeling different. Feeling larger and smaller at the same time. The world was turning inside out, that was the problem.
Denise came in with her two sons, my stepbrothers Zack and Paul. They are respectively eight and eleven years old. "Oh, hi, Breanna. Felix, where's Harlin, do you know?"
"Kitchen," I replied. Denise trailed away to find my dad, and Zack and Paul got involved in a video game race. Breanna and I looked at each other, side by side, one inside the other, and yet oceans apart.
I felt my heart break, and I leaned over to give her a tender kiss on the forehead. "You better not forget about me," I threatened good- naturedly. It came out mournful sounding, and finally my body allowed two tears to escape, one down each side. "I love you too much."
"It'll never happen," Breanna answered. We neither one knew in that moment if she was telling the truth or not, but I didn't care right then. I wrapped my arms around her and nothing else seemed to matter. We were a single island there on the couch, tangled up in a dual hug. No one could reach us. No one could touch us. And no one would ever break us apart.