RED PARALLEL

Chapter 7: Levion Bang

After a month, Traviz was immersed in The Crib's atmosphere: big dudes talking in funny language, wearing cool kicks, rapping with no mic but suspicious socks, eating horrible beans, playing with random girls (one of them had called him a 'caramel puppy'), talking funny of Uncle Tims and talking respectfully of G.Klo', and slapping Traviz's neck as a good morning or whenever they simply met him in the corridor. He was the source of ninety-percent of the current jokes. Thanks to Nate, he had a nickname: Mini-Tiger. Traviz wanted to switch rooms, maybe stay in Aaron's place. But Aaron's was packed with girls, so not a chance.

"Listen, you go to school, right? Like, you're on vacation now, right?" Nate asked, handing him the beans.

"Where's my burger?" Traviz grumbled.

"In yo asshole."

Disgusted, Traviz ate the beans.

"Hate on me, Mini-Tiger. This is what you get when you run outta your house..."

"Hey, Nate, we gotta go. Party gon be lit!" Goat drummed the refrigerator. The broken edge was the mark of his blows. Traviz wasn't left behind in this matter. The scratch on the table he had made it himself.

"Which party?" Traviz left the pot of beans and stood up.

"Not your business, Mini-Tiger," Nate said.

"Stop calling me that, Bean Sucker."

Goat whistled. "And the kid's aggy today!"

"Just like every other day," Nate mumbled, throwing the half-eaten pot in the sink. "'Right, Goat. Let's bail. HB is at Levion since morning, is that right?"

"What the fuck is Levion that you guys always talk about?" Traviz interrupted, feeling the cloud of abandonment creeping from every corner. "I have the right to know!"

"Nah, you don't. Peace out." Nate and Goat walked away. Abandonment took over the place.

"IS IT WHERE YOU DO THE HELICOPTER THING?"

Both guys turned around. Grinning.

"Yes, little sucker."

"I wanna do that."

"What? Hahaha." Nate threw back his head.

"How did you do that? Huh?"

"Kid, get outta my face, though you're also a pain in my ass."

"What's the helicopter thing called?"

"I've told you already..."

"You said about something broken..."

"Jeez. It has nothing to do with being broken... I'm out!"

"That's not fair! I've been here in this damn crib for a month-"

"Exactly, so go back home!"

"How did you do the helicopter thiiing-"

"BYE!"

Nate slammed the kitchen door.

Not fair... You know what? I'm going anyway.

He would not miss that thing. Not again. They were constantly talking about Levion, saying that they had to meet people there, practice there, because of the classes, the exams, the blah blah blah. It wasn't a school. It seemed too important to be just a school.

For the first time, Traviz decided to step out of The Crib. He hadn't done it before because the house was distracting enough, not to mention that in the last few weeks the streets had been soaked from a merciless rain, and the image of a wet blooded cat would haunt him as if it could find him in the streets and attack him. He just couldn't. But now there was a big old car waiting for his escape. With his main watcher out of sight and most people distracted with the 'Levion's party', Traviz took the opportunity and sneaked into the car. Yes, into the trunk. It was so easy that he almost laughed.