Verbatim [h.s]

Three

The rest of the week flew by. I just went to work, came home, ate and slept. Also hung out with Audrey every night as usual. I had plans with my mum on Saturday which I was so excited about. I hadn't seen her in almost two weeks considering I went out last Saturday. She lives outside of London, not too far but not close enough to visit daily. Especially when I'm working all week and she is too. But I've already told Aud that I'm booked up both Saturday and Sunday this week to be with my mum.

All thoughts of Harry thankfully got pushed aside after Tuesday. The only time I thought about him that day was in the morning when I got to speak to Audrey about her talk with Tim.

"So, what did you say to him?" I sit opposite Audrey on the couch, both of us with our legs up and crossed facing one another. We each have a blanket wrapped around ourselves still in our pyjamas. I didn't have to shower this morning considering I had a shower and a bath yesterday. That was a bit excessive and the water bill might be a bit high this month but I wanted it so.

It was 7:15am so we had a bit of time to kill and considering it took me 5 minutes to get ready for work so I could sit and chat for a little while.

"Well, when I first walked in I didn't even say anything, I just sat down opposite him. You should've seen his face." She laughs, recounting their meeting.

"You're so mean."

"He deserved it, taking me to that death trap club." She scolds.

"I wouldn't go that far-"

"Wait, since when did you have a change in tune?" She frowns at me. I immediately regret what I said. I don't want to tell Audrey about wanting to go back. Not until I know about what went down with Tim.

"I haven't had a change in tune, I just- you know what, it doesn't matter. Carry on." She squints her eyes at me then rolls them, taking a deep breath.

"Okay, well he looked really hurt when I put on my moody scowl so I softened I bit. I didn't want to argue. I just wanted answers."

"Fair enough."

"So I asked him about it all, well I went on a rant on how stupid he was for bringing me there without telling me about the whole gang and gun shit. He apologised then explained it-"

"Go on." I interrupt, eager basically sat on the edge of my seat. Please say he's not involved. Please say he's not involved.

"He's not in the gang."

"Oh thank god." I slump backwards. "That's good news right?"

"Yeah but he just told me about the whole thing. Basically Verbatim is the 666 gangs base, as they'd call it. Well one of them, he couldn't even tell me where the other was because he doesn't know." I just sit nodding every so often and humming 'yeah'. "They host rap battles for the different gangs in and out of London. It's a way to keep the peace with the younger recruits. They seem to get into a lot more trouble when they first join and the big bosses don't have time to deal with their dramas so they use the rapping as a way to get it all out in the open and leave it there."

That sounds quite...clever. Just think, you're running this big ass gang who deals with all sorts of illegal shit, you can't be arsed with some petty drama between smaller gangs.

"A lot of the guys that get involved in the gangs come from bad backgrounds and need a home. In a way that's what Verbatim is. A safe environment for those people." And now my heart swells at the thought of that place being someone's safe place.

"Did you find anything out about the guy that saved me?" The words are out of my mouth before I can think about it. I didn't think id even ask Audrey this, I didn't want to actively seek out this information but here I am, asking for it.