DANNY
“Go make yourself an awesome night, please,” Amber looks at me pleadingly, and I lower my gaze to see the many hundred-dollar bills in my hand.
My brain cells are already doing some kind of dance to celebrate this, making me miss what she says next, but as I hear Elia respond with a grunt, I know that it wasn’t directed toward me anyway.
Just as I’m about to turn towards her again, telling her that I want to watch the game with Arawn, she closes the door in my face, making me jerk back.
“Aw, man,” I groan, pushing the crumbled bills into the pocket of my jacket.
Elia sighs, laying his hand over my shoulder. “What did you want to do?”
“Actually, I wanted to watch the game with Arawn tonight,” I respond, as he steers me to the elevator.
Two armed men remain standing at the entrance while we ride down with the third man who was positioned in the apartment to protect Amber.
“Sometimes plans get interrupted, but a man always has to be happy when the other gets to change his plans because of a beautiful woman,” he says, making the other man, who I think is called Roger, snicker as he chuckles as well.
I look up at him, lifting my brows. “What do you mean?”
“They threw us out, so they could fuck through the entire house.” Roger barks out a laugh, making me crunch up my nose.
“Ewww!” I say loudly, making them crack up.
We reach the first floor, walking through the large hall and waving at the two night guards on the way out.
Taking the car that is already waiting for us, we get driven to a pub and I look around curiously, scanning the environment.
We sit at the counter and I pull out a bill, asking for three beers as my gaze is already set on the TV, watching the players preparing on the field.
I lose myself in the flickering screen while sipping at my beer while I hear Roger and Elia commenting on the game from time to time.
Not participating actively in their conversation, I nod my head sometimes in agreement, remaining concentrated on the screen.
As the game ends, the pub empties slowly, and Roger hits the counter with his flat hand, announcing that he has to take a piss.
Sighing, I empty my umpteenth glass of beer, and Elia leans into me with a grin. “Want to do something fun? The boss asked me for a favor.”
“Sure,” I grin back at him, nodding in synchronicity with the music blaring in the pub. “But if it’s really something fun, I want to pick up a friend first.”
“Safe!” he confirms, and I turn my head to continue to watch the commentators discussing the game without being able to hear them. I follow their moving lips while listening to the music and watch the statistics popping up on the screen until Roger returns from the toilet and we leave the pub in a good mood.
***
“Ollieeee!”
I wait a moment to see if he responds as I put my hands back around my lips, calling him again.
“Ollieeeee!”
A window opens and a guy with disheveled hair looks out of it with a groan. “What the fuck, Danny? Do you know what time it is? My father is going to kill me if he hears you.”
At least you have a father.
Making a big hand gesture to wave at him, I signal to him to come down.
He groans once again, pushing his locks out of his face. “I can’t believe this guy,” he murmurs to himself before he closes the window.
I make a few dancing steps as I wait for my best friend to appear at the front door, and hear the men behind me chuckle as they are smoking, leaning against the car.
Turning to look down the street, I hold my hand over my eyes as if I could see further like this. If I squeeze my eyes, I might be able to recognize the apartment where I used to live with my mom and my brother.
I have thought about going back a few times, even only to visit her.
I thought that I would be missing her and that she surely would feel my absence.
And honestly, I was just not cool with Arawn taking me in as I must be troublesome to him and Amber.
It’s always nice to hang out with them and I love living with them, but I know that they must be annoyed at having less time to themselves.
But as I heard that she wasn’t in hospital once to see if I even was alive, I was just thankful to have somewhere to stay where people would actually look out for me.
Well, at least as long as they don’t want to fuck.
Eeewww.
Shaking my head as if it would help me to get rid of the image popping up in my head.
“What the hell, Dan,” Ollie groans as he steps out of the house. “What’s going on?”
Turning around, I grin at him. “Come on! We are going to have some fun!”
“Do you even know what time it is?” he asks.
I laugh, punching his shoulder. “How old are you? I already live with two millenials. Don’t leave me hanging as well.”
“You are just insane. Didn’t you tell me the girl you live with was dope? If I didn’t know better, I would be thinking that you are on coke constantly,” he sniffs, rubbing his finger against his nose.
Spreading my arms, I walk backwards. “What do you even know!”
We run towards the car, getting in as Roger already starts the motor. With high speed we drive over the highway, reaching a big-ass gate in front of an even bigger mansion.
I stare at everything agape, nearly missing how Roger holds out a bundle of cash towards the security guard leaning out of a booth.
He gets back into the security booth, activating the gate to let us inside, and Ollie turns towards me with wide eyes. “Dude, I just saw him disconnecting all the camera feeds. What is going on here?”
“A man of honor never asks too many questions,” Elia says lowly, making me grin at Ollie.
“Don’t worry, bro. We are here to have some fun, remember. Chill!”
He leans back into his seat with a scoff, but the nervous tapping of his fingers against his leg gives him away. “Whatever, dude.”
After a seemingly endless drive up to the entrance of the mansion, I’m surprised about not seeing any security around.
“Here. Take this,” Roger pushes a bag into my hands and I open it to find it filled with spray cans.
My attention gets caught by Elia opening the trunk of the car, revealing a box full of Molotov cocktails. “Dope!”
He laughs, throwing me a lighter. “Let’s hurry up. We have another few locations we have to visit tonight.”
Grinning, I take out a bottle filled with a flammable substance and check that the fuse is properly placed. I generate a flame with the lighter under the shocked expression of Ollie and as soon as the cloth wick is on fire, I throw the bottle against one of the windows.
With a holler, I watch it break through it, exploding in the inside of the room as it shatters at the impact.
Ollie shakes his head and I slap his arm, inciting him to take one as well before we would spry the walls. He takes a bottle bomb out reluctantly while I snicker, “Come on as if we haven’t done worse.”
“Yeah,” he says as Elia throws the next Molotov cocktail behind me. “But this is a level too high even for us.”
I grin at him as I fetch the next bottle. “Not anymore, bro. Not anymore.”