Street Racing- Klance

thirty nine

Lance's heartbeat was steadily increasing, his chest rising and falling quicker with every breath. The anticipation was killing him, quite literally as his headache got worse and everything began to spin. He felt like he was going to pass out yet again.

Keith was visibly trying to calm down and collect his thoughts, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth in a steady pattern that Lance picked up on. Maybe he shouldn't have asked, it clearly was a big deal to Keith. Maybe he wasn't ready and he just felt guilty, and that's the only reason he's about to tell Lance the story. Oh well, too late now, he wasn't going to let Keith back out of it this time. He promised. And for some reason, promises seem like a big deal to Keith.

"I already know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask anyway." Keith started. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I do. Like really bad." Lance admitted. "But I can see this really is a big deal to you."

"So, if I told you no-"

"You promised."

"I know, I know." Keith sighed. "I don't break my promises. Ever."

"You don't seem like you do."

"It's true. And it kind of ties into this story."

"Well, now I'm double excited."

"Double excited?"

"Is that not the right word? Maybe I should have said double curious."

"Excited wasn't the word that I was talking about, but sure Lance. Double excited."

"Okay okay quit stalling already." Lance playfully rolled his eyes and huffed. He adjusted to a more comfortable position, still facing Keith sideways on the couch.

Keith seemed to have sunk further into his seat, taking a deep breath once again and looking into Lance's eyes for a brief moment before looking down at his hands.

"Kolivan was the one who contacted me about the position for street racing in the Galra gang. A previous racer of theirs got caught during a business trade between Galra and Pollux and they needed to fill in the spot. I was really surprised at first, but I was so in on it the second he asked me if I was interested."

He paused for a second before continuing. "He told me that the way they let new people in is by majority vote, so i had to meet at least half the team before I could race with them. I agreed, not exactly sure what to expect. That's when I met Kolivan, Zethrid and Ezor. They told me that in order to join, I had to earn my place."

"Earn your place?" Asked Lance.

"Yeah. They wanted me to show I was committed. That's when I found out I had to leave VLD. They said that normally they don't get people transferring from auto racing, and so they had their suspicions that I was trying to get them caught or something. To be honest, I didn't really think twice about quitting. It wasn't my original plan, but I didn't mind. When I agreed, they told me they'd call me again when they hear about it on the news."

He paused again, looked quickly at Lance and then continued. "That call you over heared, it was Zethrid calling me about the next course of action. She said that they still don't quite trust me, and that I had big shoes to fill after the previous person left. Apparently that guy was their main dealer, so they wanted to see if I was up for it."

"So if you said no to being their dealer they wouldn't let you in?"

"No, it would just be a longer process."

"Oh, right. And you agreed?"

"Yeah. Yeah I did. That's when I got accepted. I had to do a few small deals first. They never got violent and were always lower class drugs and the money owed or given was never over $2000. That carried on for the first two years, and then when I hit 23."

"That's when the big one you led happened?"

"Mhm. The one that ruined my life."

"Is that where you got your scar?"

"Yeah. I'll explain how now. I just wanted you to know the back story."

"Why?"

"Because I-" He sighed. "I need you to understand. I need you to know that I didn't have a choice. I had to agree or they would have kicked me out and handed me straight over to the police."

Lance had to think for a minute. Surely there had to be another way. There always is. But he believed Keith's judgement. Clearly if Keith thought there wasn't another option, maybe there really wasn't one. "Okay Keith."

"I didn't want to agree. I told them I would do literally anything. I told them I would some how pay them the money they would get from the deal, or that I would do smaller ones more regularly, or that I would find more races to participate in and I would give them the prize money, but they wanted none of it. It was a yes or no question, but really there was only the yes option. If I said no, I'd be a goner." Keith had to reiterate and really make sure Lance understood. If Lance thought that Keith led this out of his own free will, Keith wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"I believe you Keith. It's okay."

"Thank you." Keith looked back down. "When I finally agreed, they told me all the details. I had to be the front and centre of the operation to prove my loyalty and that I was really part of the team. Each of them had to take the leader role before too, but none of them were ever as large as the one I was part of. Ezor apologised for it a few times, saying it was unfair, but it was just my luck and I had to take it."

"I've always seen Ezor as the nicer one."

"Ha, yeah. She's alright." Keith said. "But anyway, the deal was we were selling a really, really rare drug imported from Japan. It was specially made by some fucking mafia boss or some shit, and it was top secret. I tried to get more information, but no one knew anything about it. All we knew was that 1kg of that stuff was worth $500k. We were selling 20kg."

"20!?" Lance shouted. "The news said it was just 5!"

"We were told it was 5 too. When we collected the delivery and realised it was 20, it was only then that it really hit us how fucked up this operation was and that if absolutely anything was to go wrong, we were as good as dead."

"Wait wait wait. So, if 1kg is $500k, then 20kg is like-" He paused to count. "1 million?"

"10 million Lance. 10 million."

"Oh. Right. I see."

"Didn't you see it on the news? It said we sold over 2 millions worth. How did you even- you know what, I don't want to know."

"Hey! I slept through half my classes, okay?"

"I can tell." Keith laughed. "Anyway, stop interrupting would you?"

"Right, yes. Sorry. Carry on."