How Things Are

thirteen

What in the world is she wearing? "You like?!"
"What the heck is that? Is that a fuzzy collar?" Her smile grew.
"Yeah!" I ran my hand down my face.
"You look like a pimp. What? Am I supposed to be your butler or something?"
"Don't be silly. I got something for you too." She shows me a bedazzled jean jacket. I'm sure this was made for someone looking closely.
"These are real diamonds!" You gotta be kidding me. "Whoever you stole this from will be looking for it!" Her nose crinkled
"This is how you always act when I get you nice things. Why can't you just say thank you?"
"Maybe because we are supposed to blend in not stand out!" I couldn't care less if I was yelling at Carmen's princess. Everything else we already did together is going to get me killed. When he finds out she was drinking I'm sure I'll be the one to blame. Not to mention the people we killed together the day before. They have a way of finding out and she's adding to the list of reasons he has to make me disappear. Now she steals from someone wealthy who will be looking for this.
"Wearing these will help us blend in when we get there." She says it like she can just do anything. "I'm not walking into the Cript City without looking nice. Even if I am dressed like a man!"
Looking at her dumbfounded "Have you ever been to Cript City?" That's what I thought. "How'd you know we're not dressed like them already?"
Winwrey glares at me "We're not dressed like anything!" Her hands are waving up and down. "We are in random rags!" She pulls out more. "I found a full set of matching clothes."
"So you stole a lot from one person?"
"Well, when you put it that way, I still got it done."
I'm rubbing my temples by now. She still doesn't see. "That person, with all his nice things missing is going to be mad Winwrey."
"So?"
"So we can't just-"
"That's my coat!" "There you are! Those are mine!" A giant bald guy comes running this way. He pulls out a knife. Time to go. I toss the stuff Win gave me over my shoulder and we start running.

It doesn't take long to lose him. Win is still sporting his fuzzy coat. She refused to take it off. I'm still wearing the clothes I came here with. We head to the border. "I guess you'll just have to be my butler then."
"Shut up," I mumble
"Manservant?" I ignored her tauntings. She'll regret it soon.

It's a five-hour drive. So we'll be walking all day. I'm enjoying watching Winrey in the thick fuzzy coat. She's trying to pretend it doesn't bother her but her face is pink and sweaty. Perhaps if I look closely I'll see smoke coming out her ears. I offered to put the coat in my bag but she didn't want to ruin it. So stubborn. I'm fairly sure her sweaty pits ruined it by now. These rare moments are my nirvana.
We see cars go up and down every now and then. Not one gives us a look that I worry about.
"We should get some dice to play like that con man did last night."
"You wanna be a con man now? A phoney samari isn't enough?" Well then.
"If there's one thing I can rely on it's your award winning sarcasm. I want to learn how to play idiot."
"Ahh I see. It's a fairly simple game. Just guess odd numbers or even. I'm not sure if there's more. I was trying to take the other set of dice without him noticing." She snickered.
"Yeah I tried that a few times too hah." We both talk casually throughout the trip. Random bits we missed while each of us were away from each other. The sun was setting and Win finally let me put her coat in my pack.
"So how did you meet your Carmen?"
"Well you weren't subtle were you?" She glares.
"Is it that embarrassing of a story? There's not really a way to ask but straight forward." I roll my eyes
She sighs "Fine but I don't know how you'll feel about it."
Winwrey stairs off like she sees him as we walk. "My old masters job was to collect debts. Him and his whole crew were hired to either collect or kill those who owed someone money. They're freelance. So that's how I met him."
"Bull. No there's more to it!"
"Gahh! Fine." I hold back a laugh. "Carmen came to collect himself. From the bikers." I felt my eyes grow "I guess they've been skimming money from the top of every debt they collected and Lucas sent Carmen to take care of it." Wow, so Lucas is more in charge already. "When he got to the club Carmen was waiting but it was neutral zone. All he could do was wait until they moved. That's when he noticed me." There was a shy smile on her face "He talked to me every night. The bikers never noticed because it was my job to keep costumers attention by sitting on their lap and flirt. Every night we knew more about each other. I told him about my life before I was caught. He found it funny I new how to set traps. I taught him some to prove it. He told me things about himself. The Mafia.
Then one day he said he was going to sneak me away with him. He made a plan but all he said was to meet him by the outpost. It was easy to get to without getting caught, but instead of him coming my master did. The next day I saw him being dragged out of an Inn by a few members of his Mafia. And well you know the rest."
We were both silent. So it seems like an honest love story. I'll just hand my best friend over then everything should be fine.