Breath of the Future

Chapter 5

**One Week Later**

It had been about a week, and Amanda and the kids were still MIA. Michael was still upset, but I didn't pester him about it. He mostly kept to himself and I hung out with Trevor, keeping my distance from Franklin.

I had nothing against Franklin at all, but he was a part of some weird gang outside of town. They were always getting screwed over when they tried to get their stocks up, and I did not want to be a part of that.

Franklin had a running buddy named Lamar, and to say I didn't like him would be an understatement. Franklin was a good guy, clearly well educated, and Lamar always put him down for it. Lamar wanted to live the drug pushing life forever, while Franklin was desperate to get out and run bigger jobs with the professionals like Michael and Lester. Well, as professional as one could get for a band of criminals.

Speaking of Lester, the day finally came where the entire crew was going to reconvene at the garment factory. I knew we were going to be going over the full plan, and the next time we would all be together would be when the heist actually happened. Shit was starting to get real, and while I put on my default angry demeanor to stay confident, I was afraid.

I sat on the couch watching Fame or Shame that particular morning when Michael came through the living room, taking the remote out of my hand and turning off the TV.

"Hey!" I shouted, jumping up.

Michael pulled the remote out of my reach and stepped closer to me to let me know he wasn't messing around. I wasn't in the mood to fight him for the remote, so I backed down and let him take it.

"Get your stuff, we are going to the range at Ammu-Nation before we have to meet Lester." He commanded.

I nodded and turned around to go upstairs, but Michael stopped me.

"Hey kid, I figured you might want this back."

I walked closer to him and he handed me my freshly polished switchblade hunting knife.

"I had it sharpened and shined up for you..."

I took it from him and our hands brushed briefly. I looked up to gaze into his eyes.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Don't worry about it, kid. You're doing alright, yeah?"

I nodded and then quickly took off to grab my stuff from upstairs before meeting him in the foyer.

He motioned for me to follow him into the garage, and we got into his car. He sped down the road into town to get us to Ammu-Nation so we wouldn't have to wait in line. We snagged a spot and Michael went over all the annoying basics with me, but then actually guided me through some simple drills to get my aim and stamina back to where it used to be.

"Hey, you did well. You didn't punch yourself in the face." He pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess I didn't. That's the bare minimum, ain't it?"

I instinctively reached up and traced my fingers over the scar on the bridge of my nose.

Michael noticed and looked at me in a way that said, "You look fine, don't worry about it."

"Alright, we gotta meet Lester in a little bit. Let's get going now so we can get coffee on the way."

I agreed and followed Michael outside. We stopped briefly at The Common Bean before driving to the garment factory and sneaking our way in through the back. Thankfully, everyone was already there setting up to have this conference about our plans.