Healed

Chapter 3: A New Source of Employment

He woke up the next morning, feeling much more rested than normal. His bedroom was fairly bare, with only a double bed, a small TV, a closet, and two bedside tables. He sat up, forgetting where he was for a moment before the memories came to him. He was no longer homeless, but a possible gang member. The thought of that still made him slightly uncomfortable, but if it was what he had to do to survive, he could live with it. He got out of bed, opened up his backpack and pulled out a semi clean hoodie, pants, and boxers. He got changed quickly, knowing they had to leave soon. He picked up his gun that was sitting on the bedside table, which was on the opposite side from the door, and placed it in his waistband of his pants. He had been told to do this by Aiden and to pull his shirt over it. He did as instructed and headed out of his room.
He made himself a quick bite to eat, finishing it just as Aiden called for him to get in the car. He sat up in the passenger side and put his seat belt on. He turned around and saw multiple backpacks sitting in the backseats. He assumed this was the product they were instructed to run to the other city. Their drive would be around 45 minutes, and he was hoping that it would go smoothly, since his life was on the line.
They drove through the dimly lit city, it wasn't to long after sunrise they had left so the soft colours still hung around between the clouds. The cut wasn't usually quiet, but it seemed like people had better things to be doing than be out at 6am. Which was able to calm his anxiety a bit.

Suddenly the car stopped, he lifted his head from the window and looked around. He had fallen asleep at some point, and they had now reached their destination. Right next to the parked car was a dingy alleyway, scattered with garbage and dumpsters. It reminded him all to much of sleeping out here. He looked over at Aiden, waiting for instructions. "When we leave this car. You do not speak. You will stay to my side, Hold your hands over your crotch, close to where your gun is. Only take it out if things go bad. And, don't fuck this up. I'll do the talking, just hand me what they ask for out of the bag." Aiden had been holding one of the bags from the back of the car and handed it over to Silas. They both exited the car and Silas threw the bag over his shoulder. They walked through the alley and turned the corner, it brought them to a small divot where no one else could see them. After a few minutes of standing around, and Silas doing as he was told. Two older men approached them. The two guys gave them a head nod and came closer, making sure they couldn't be seen outside of the alley. "You Aiden?" One of the men asked. Aiden only nodded, not bothering to give them a verbal response. "What you want?" Aiden asked, his whole personality had seemed to change from the last time Silas spoke to him, maybe this was his way of being professional. Aiden was standing with his legs spreader further than apart than normal, doing the same thing with his hands he had told Silas to do. "Speed, an ounce." Silas clued in that they were only speaking in short sentences, probably not wanting to be there longer than they had to. Silas opened the backpack and began to dig around, trying to find what they had asked for. He worries slightly, since for a moment he couldn't find what they were asking for, he began to search more frantically, shoving things to the sides of the bag. As this was being done Aiden was dealing with the money aspect. Silas noticed that the one man had given Aiden 500$. That was the most money he had seen recently, his eyes widened slightly at the sight, snapping him out of his frantic search. But he quickly returned to his job, not wanting to get caught staring. He finally found one of the baggies and handed it to Aiden to hand to the guys. They gave eachother a slight nod after checking it over. Then, they just walked away. That was so easy, How could it be just that easy? After the men had walked far enough out of earshot, Silas turned to Aiden. "That's it?"
"Mhm," Aiden replied still shortly. Seemingly not dropping his personal till they were back in the car where he took a deep breath. He gripped tightly on the steering wheel. "You okay?" Silas asked, wondering if that was really that stressful of a situation, nothing had gone wrong, how could it be that bad? "Fine. We've gotta get back." Silas placed the bag down behind his seat and relaxed into his seat.

"You did good, for your first time." Aiden let a small smile creep over his face as he spoke. "Thanks, I wasn't really sure what i was doing though." He laughed lightly.

The drive back was more relaxing than the one there, the stress of the deal was gone, as well as the stress of his life being taken.
The dirt roads to the house, had now become slightly more familiar to him, the trees they passed, which some seemed wilted and old, were dropping leaves. The signs of the year switching from summer to autumn. He rolled down his window and allowed for the cool breeze to run through his fingers and hair and he let his hand dangle outside of the car. He felt a strange feeling of pride in being able to pull something off like that. "I've never been a fan of this weather." Aiden speaking caught Silas slightly of guard as he had been caught up in his own thoughts, he turned his head to face him. "Autumn is my favourite season. Summers too hot, Winters too cold, and spring is allergy season, I think autumn is just the best overall."
Aiden snickered "Isn't your birthday in autumn?" Aiden raised an eyebrow, wondering if the real reason behind Silas's love for the season was strictly because of that. "Yeah, October 24th. How did you remember that?" Him and Aiden weren't that close in elementary, playing together during recess sometimes, but that was about it. "I remember you coming to school on your birthday one time, which i thought was weird, I mean, who comes to school on their birthday? I remember you talking to the people at your table about how you wanted to have a halloween birthday party. Which, to me was a genius idea. Presents and candy on the same day?" They both shared a laugh, feeling slightly more comfortable in each other's presence. "Ugh, I remember how much i wanted to go to that fucking party, I wanted a fucking Kit kat." Aiden laughed at his own joke. Making Silas smile, that plan had never worked out, but just remembering the idea made him happy. He had basically forgotten all about that at this point. "If you don't mind me asking, How did you even end up on the streets? You seemed like a fairly smart kid." His tone had shifted slightly as he asked a more serious question, From the moment those two had been reunited, That question had been nagging at Aiden. "My parents." He hesitated to continue, "More my dad actually, But, they got into drugs when I was 5, they stopped having patience for me. Anytime my dad would come home he would just.. Take his anger out on me, for no fucking reason. I never did anything to them- And my mom, she would just watch- And when he was done with me, she would antagonize me. Once they stopped having time for me, They stopped having time for my sisters. I had to take care of them all on my fucking own. Fucking Addison was 4- and Leah was 2. I was 8- Chainging their diapers, taking them to school- Fucking parenting! Better than either of them ever did." Silas was shaking as he spoke, from the anger and anxiety that had been bottled up for years was finally spilling out. "My dad just got worse every day. It went from, Name calling, to a slap here or there to fucking beating the shit out of me any chance he got- FUCK! I COULD KILL HIM-" He paused, taking a breath, realizing what he had just spilled out. "Sorry- Didn't mean to, say all of that." Silas returned to his more normal quieter tone and began fidgeting with his fingers again. "It's alright, we've all got our family shit. I assumed it was something all those lines. You don't strike me as a bad kid." Aiden turned onto the road which brought them into the driveway of their new home. "Thanks, That.. means a lot."