The Seven Day Gangster

Chapter 30: Part 2

Sam stared at me, his face showing conflicting emotions and thoughts.

Why was he so distressed by all of this? It wasn't like he knew Nathan was going to screw me over.

"Sam, don't look so unhappy," I said, forcing a smile. "This is so not your fault."

Sam opened his mouth to say something, and then just swallowed deeply.

A sudden knocking at the door stunned me out of my thoughts.

"I'm fine Sam," I said one more time.

Sam looked away and took the mop out of my hands as he walked away slowly, his head bowed down.

I snapped out of my dreary mood and walked to the front, wondering if my dad had come a lot earlier than he had told me.

Not even bothering to check the stupid peephole, I opened the door quickly and widely.

It was Tori.

Our surprised expressions mirrored each other's and we gaped at each other for a few seconds before she spoke up.

"Ari! What the freaking hell!"

She pounced on me, her bony elbows jabbing me painfully in my back.

"Ow! Tori! Ow! Watch it!" I shouted, my voice muffled beneath her.

God, I missed my best friend. I missed the old life I had, the one I had temporarily left on a weeklong 'vacation' allegedly. I missed not knowing Nathan, as stupid as that sounded.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you were back?"

I stammered a reply, not having thought this through very well.

Tori's eyes widened slightly as I heard footsteps approaching behind me.

"Hey you okay Arianna? I heard shouting," said Randy. He stopped short to survey my best friend who was looking back at him with equally narrowed eyes.

"Who are you?" asked Randy distrustfully.

"Hey, she's—"

"I'm Tori, her best friend," said Tori curtly. "Who are you, big boy?"

Randy looked affronted by her words. "Randy," he finally muttered, without anything left to say.

Randy looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I felt my cheeks grow warm for no particular reason.

Tori looked at Randy briefly, her eyes narrowed in concentration for a few seconds. "Hey, I know where I've seen you before," she said slowly. "You work in that car shop downtown right?"

"You go downtown?" I asked, surprised just as Randy said, "You go there?"

Tori rolled her eyes. "I don't know why you're all so surprised. And yeah, I've been there a couple of times. I was actually getting my car lowered, and your place does the best job."

Randy looked slightly impressed at this. "Yeah?" he said. "You're into cars?"

Tori shrugged. "I guess so. I take my car to this one track half an hour away from here. It's really cheap and the turns are great."

"Okay guys," I said, pulling Tori's arm impatiently through the doorway. "You guys can continue discussing this month's issue of Car & Driver sometime later."

Without another word, I pulled my best friend upstairs, wondering what the heck I was going to say to her. I glanced down once more while heading up, hearing voices pipe up from the living room.