All Good Things

Chapter Eight

Just over a week without any further contact from the unknown number had made Ray braver. Little by little, she started to carry out her daily business again like usual. The day after driving her dream car in H&O, she quit accompanying her brother to work, beginning to feel slightly ridiculous for hiding there like a frightened child in the first place. Instead, she chopped cars with Max until the sun sunk below the horizon. And the next day, she made all the thermite and gun deals herself.

On the following afternoon, she robbed another house solo, mostly to prove to herself that she still could without attracting any trouble. Redeeming herself successfully, Ray carried out the job smoothly, without a single mistake made. No cops pulled her over. No one abandoned her in a cell until her stomach resorted to trying to eat itself. Nobody sent her any alarming text messages... Well, except for Randy, who had sent her a picture of himself smiling above two dead Ballas (he captioned the photo "Look! I made some new friends!"). He was adopting her habit of sending incriminating text messages, and if a cop ever read their thread of messages, they'd be done for.

By the end of the day, Ray sincerely felt as though her life was gradually piecing itself back together.

Therefore, when Taco asked her if she wanted to corner weed with him the next morning, she hadn't hesitated to accept the offer. She would need a lot more money if she wanted to buy a nice S-class car, even after selling off her G-Wagon. Besides, it had been a full week since she'd chilled and caught up with her favorite pot stirrer.

Ergo, early Friday morning, the two Chang Gang members settled themselves into the alleyway that ran behind the Little Seoul gas station and right next to Mr. K's new jewelry store. In between handing off baggies to the customers that approached, they messed around and argued in their typical fashion. Additionally, Taco shared with her some spicy drama he'd witnessed between the Mandem leader and Lana Valentine a few days prior.

Whispering conspiratorily- even though it was just the two of them- he divulged, "I'm not sure what exact words were being said because Dean and I's positions were discovered too soon, but I'd say another breakup is incoming."

Ray didn't need to fake a shocked expression; her surprise was genuine. Not even a week after Tommy was released from the hospital a few months back, his relationship with the pink-haired woman had been rekindled. And every time Ray had seen the two since, they always seemed to be attached at the hip. Where one went, the other followed. They appeared to be very happy with each other- a fact that had initially saddened Ray Mond a tiny bit. However, as time passed, Ray realized that she missed having them around as friends more than love interests. Because, whether she admitted it or not, there was still only one person that she considered in a romantic light.

"That bad?" she asked.

"Very bad," he confirmed. "Once Dean and I returned to the other group of boys, I watched the two of them move up to one of the roofs to keep talking, and before it was over, they were screaming at each other. Unfortunately, it wasn't clear enough for any of us bystanders to decipher, but after a few minutes of that, Lana stormed off and left the Mandem block in her car."

Ray took a second to digest all of that information. "Oh, wow," she uttered, and then added, "Maybe it isn't that serious, though."

"I don't know- it seemed pretty serious to me."

Just then, a high-pitched chime informed her of the arrival of a new text in her inbox. Pulling her phone from her back pocket, she eyed the notification banner on her home screen and reactively said, "Oh."

"What is it?" Taco asked, trying to subtly peer over her shoulder.

Flipping the phone around so he could see the name displayed on the screen, she joked, "Speak of the devil." Taco just laughed and walked up the concrete stairs to sell a couple of baggies to a man in a white button-up shirt who already appeared to be strung out on something.