dame amor ↝ steve murphy [✔]

fifty five. a new place

Mateo looked down at his watch. He had been sitting in the front of the bus on his way to Mexico,  it he sneered to make a quick stop first. Once school was over, he walked up to Josh Andrews, his partner from calculus. They weren't friends, but Josh liked to talk to Mateo. After the coach told Josh that if he didn't get his grades up he was going to be benched, Josh asked Mateo to help. After some tutoring sessions, Josh was able to play through the season.

"Whatever you need, let me know." Josh told Mateo one day. And that stuck with him ever since, so why not ask for a ride to the bus station?

"Hey, kid," the bus driver, Wayne, said to Mateo. "This is your stop."

Mateo got his bag ready and stuffed his trash from all the snacks he had eaten into his front pocket of his backpack. Several other people were still waiting for their stop so Mateo didn't feel that alone. Before his official visit to Mexico, he needed to meet someone. Mateo had only met this 'someone' once in his life when he was very young.

"Thanks." Mateo said to the driver as the doors to the bus opened.

"Stay safe, kid, and don't get into trouble." The driver told Mateo.

Mateo nodded and watched from the sidewalk as the bus drove away into the streets of Laredo, Texas. He had only been to Laredo a handful of times because of his uncle and Steve's former partner, Javier Peña.

He took out a handwritten letter from his back pocket and tried to read the return address on it. He was never good at reading or writing cursive. But he could make out some letters so he pieced it all together and read the address. Now all he had to do was find the house with the same address.

He first stopped at a local restaurant and asked the cashier if they knew where the street he was looking for was. Turns out, it was only six minutes away. Mateo thanked the cashier and left to finish his search. After crossing the street and walking past many small homes, he was finally infront of the house he had been searching for. He took a deep breath and walked up the steps then knocked three times on the door. He waited several seconds then heard a woman's voice announce that she was coming. Mateo grew nervous as the door was finally opened revealing a beautiful woman with strawberry blonde hair.

"Hi," the woman greeted with a smile. "Do you need help?"

"Uh, is Walt here?" Mateo said lowly, but the woman could hear him.

"Walt . . . Are you in trouble? Do you need me to call someone?" She asked.

"No . . . I . . I have the wrong address, I'm sorry." Mateo apologized then quickly turned around to walk away. He tried to walk down the steps, but he saw the person he needed to see. Walt Breslin was standing feet away from Mateo, but he wasn't empty handed. He had a diaper bag in one hand and on the other, he was holding a little girl's hand.

"Dad, who's the creepy kid?" The little girl whispered to her dad, who was too shocked to even say a word.

"Louise!" Her mom scolded her from the front door.

"You're Walt." Mateo managed to say.

Walt finally spoke. "You're Mateo. Evi didn't say you were coming. Does she know you're here?"

"It's a long story."

Walt walked towards the house with little Louise by his side. "Come on in, kid, we're just about to sit down for dinner."

"It's pizza night!" Louise cheered as she let go of Walt's hand and ran to her mom.

"Pizza night for her, my wife made chilaquiles. Hope you're hungry."

Walt and Mateo entered the Breslin home which instantly felt cozy. Mateo noticed all the photographs that hung on the wall from Walt's graduation picture to his wedding day and Louise's first picture ever. It reminded him of his home.

"You can set your stuff right here," Walt said pointing to the spot on the floor that he always left his bags on. "What brings you here? Running away?"

Mateo followed Walt to the kitchen. Walt's wife, Felicity, had the table set up. She had just finished setting up a placemat for Mateo. "This is going to sound crazy, but I want to see him."

"Him as in Miguel, again, does Eviana know any of this?" Walt asked as he helped Louise wash her hands.

"I like that name." Louise commented as Walt dried her hands with a napkin.

"Go eat your pizza or I'm selling all your toys." Walt said to his six year old daughter, who instantly ran to her spot at the table to eat her slice of pepperoni pizza.

"Well no, but—" Mateo tried to explain, but Walt cut him off.

"Listen, I would love to reunite a father and his son, but your mom will have my head if I take you to see him. Plus, I can't guarantee that the prison he's in is safe. He still runs the cartel through phone calls. You can stay the night and in the morning, I will drive you to Miami myself so your mom doesn't send a whole search team looking for you." Walt said as he finished washing his hands then drying them.

"I am not going back to Miami unless I see him first. I need to talk to him." Mateo pleaded.

"Yeah? About what exactly? There isn't alone you two have in common. Your mom will literally send people to murder me if she finds out you came down here."

"Don't say it like that, she isn't . . . she isn't like that." Mateo mumbled. His mom would never do that. Maybe she would ground him for life, yeah that was more like it.

"He's dying, Walt."

"What?"

Mateo sighed. "He's dying. I read somewhere that a judge denied his request to complete his sentence at home. Says he's suffering, can't hear, some other shit. I just . . . want to see him before he goes."

This was news to Walt. After resigning, he didn't really keep up with the world of drugs. Sure every now and then some drug trafficking would come up on the news, but he would change the channel since Louise was in the room. (Mainly, he just didn't want to see anything related to drugs or cartels ever again.)

"And are you sure that's what you want?" Walt asked.

"Yes."

Walt really couldn't believe he was actually considering it. Miguel was dying, Mateo wanted to see him, sounded simple, right? Far from it.