Multiplayer: My Partner In Crime

Chapter 1: traffic

Layla

I wonder what would happen if I just walked into the traffic. Maybe then I won't have to deal with Bill yelling at me for being late.

A faded honk came from inside of the rain. It was her taxi. The car stopped in front of her and honked one more time. Layla busted open the car door and threw herself out of the pouring rain. She sat at the back with her wet clothes on, bringing a pool of puddle into the car. The driver quickly drove—Layla sat as she blew into her wet, shaky hands with a trembling breath.

She continued to blow on her hand when she caught the driver starring from the rearview mirror. He raised a brow and his eyes sharp. But she quickly realized that it wasn't on her. She looked to her side to find her phone buzzing. Bill.

She picked up the phone and not to her surprise, she was greeted with Bill yelling at her.

"Where the hell are you? I need to get to work now," He scowled. And it wouldn't be complete if Max wasn't also yelling in the background, and the sound of his favorite show being played on the TV.

"I'll be there in a minute—" She looked out the window, the pouring rain blocking her view. But she's been here so many times, she could recognize the place. Just by the bumps of the road, she knew she was close: "Actually... In a second."

"Well, you better get here quick." He finished cutting the line on her.

Fuck me. They've arrived at Bill's. She quickly grabbed her stuff and stepped out of the taxi. She dug through her pocket to find some scrunched-up dollars. It was wet and soggy, there were tears on them, but that was all that she had left. At least it's still money and she didn't have to run away from the driver like last week. So she paid the driver and quickly ran into Bill's place.

Sha banged at his door and screamed his name. The rain was pouring behind her, her bright-colored clothes are now dark and damped and her short raven hair looked like a pound of seaweed thrown on her head. "Bill!" She called his name one more time.

The doorknob clicked and it slowly opened. Bill was behind the door with his brow furrowed and jaw clenched tight. But before he could go on with his lecture to Layla, Max came running down from the hall and pulled Layla into his embrace. "Layla!" He mumbled as he buried his face in Layla's dripping clothes.

"Hey buddy," She spoke. Her voice was like honey as she messed up Max's hair. Slowly, she pulled away and cupped Max's face. "well look at you. You're all wet now."

"Alright, I'll be back a—"

"You'll be back at eight, there's money on the counter, dinner is in the fridge, and I could just heat it in the microwave. I got it, Bill," Layla cut in.

"Well good. Glad to know I'm getting through."

Bill finally left. Layla went in with Max, holding her hand. She dragged him to his room to get his clothes changed. She put him in a superhero pajama, and after that, they went back to the living room. Layla played Max's favorite show on the TV and cut up an apple for him. She then went back to the kitchen and took out her laptop to do her homework while Max was watching TV and snacking on apples. 

Layla looked at her watch: it was 5 o'clock. She had three hours to do her homework before she needed to go back home and took care of everyone else, or before the urge to just lie down in bed got to her. 

After 1567 words, 8 paragraphs, and hundreds of blue underlines later, she was done. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she watched the bright monitor screen slowly fading into black. Maybe she should've walked into the traffic. But it's finished now, so she blinked slowly and the end of her lips curled up. 

A loud grunt from Max awoken her. She glanced at him to see that he was playing his father's video games. She wondered, how did the eight-year-old get his hands on those games. If Bill were to found out, she was sure that he's going to kill her. But she wasn't sure if it's something to be worried about. Since she knew the death would be swift and painless. Or maybe he won't kill her and fired her instead. Meaning she would lose her main income, now that's something she's worried about.

So she went up to Max and sat next to him. His tiny fingers held the controller with his brows furrowed and lips pouted. He looked exactly like Bill when he's trying to focus. 

"What you got there buddy?" 

Max didn't respond. He was too focused on shooting zombies with his controller. trying to shoot zombies. She watched as Max played. Shooting bullets into the air, getting chased, and quickly died after that. 

Layla chuckled as the boy grunted. 

"I don't think your dad would be happy if he finds out that you're playing his game." 

But again, he didn't respond; instead, he shoved the controller to Layla's shoulder. "Play," He said. 

Layla shook her head. "No. You need to put that down, and I need to get you cleaned up before dinner." 

"Play. Dinner."

"No," She simply said. 

"Yes."

"No." They went back and forth for a while. Until Max stopped and looked at her with his beady eyes. Putting his lips forward as tears formed in his eyes. 

Don't you fucking dare. "Fine. After that, you take a bath." 

Max nodded and handed her the controller. "Let's see," she breathed. Layla had seen Bill played this game many times. So it shouldn't be too complicated. 

The game started. She got her thumbs on the stick and started walking. Soon enough, she was being chased by zombies, so she ran and ran while hitting rocks and walls, trying to find an item to fight them with. She found a rifle behind a dumpster and pressed the triangle button to picked it up. 

Layla quickly started aiming and shooting. Her aims aren't the best at first, but she got more comfortable as the game progressed. Yeah, I got this.

Max watched her play in awe, clapping every time she killed a zombie. 

There's one zombie left to kill before she could win the game, but her rifle wasn't working. A text appeared on the screen telling her that she ran out of ammo. Layla ran around, panicked, as the zombie chased her. A white rectangle appeared from a distance. She raced towards it, pushing the stick to its very limit. She grabbed the box of ammo and quickly killed the last zombie.

She beat the level. Max gave her an applaud while the sound of victory played from the TV. 

"Thank you. Now let's get you cleaned up." Layla put back the controller and unplugged the game so Bill wouldn't find out before taking Max to the bathroom. 

Layla let Max took his own bath. So she could clean the living room and prepare dinner. When max was finished, she fed her some leftover pasta and crackers. She also had some crackers for herself. Max looked hungry, so she didn't want to split up the food and let him have the whole meal for himself. She could always eat at home. 

Max ate the whole meal without leaving a spot. Not on the plate but a lot on his cheeks. Layla cleaned him up and quickly put him to bed and cleaned the whole house.

She flopped on the couch of the living room. She was a body without bones. She was as flimsy as a paper and is as helpless as one. She pants as she wiped sweats from her forehead. She glanced at her wrist: It was 7:57 PM. Bill should be here at any second. 

She was right, someone was knocking on the door. From the way of the knocking, she knew that it was Bill—she quickly grabbed her backpack and opened the door, and there he was. 

"Here." He said, sliding a twenty-dollar bill into her hand. 

"Thanks, Bill," Layla replied. She was about to leave when Bill stopped her.

"What is it?" 

"Can you come in the morning tomorrow, maybe at eight? I've got some work to do."

"Sure," She replied and left walking home to her house.