Guts over Fear

Chapter Seven: Young Hustlers

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Joe yawned for the 7th time taking another large gulp of his hot coffee. He stretched his neck side to side, his left hand massaged the back of it, feeling the soreness. They needed another hour's drive to get to the prison. 

He felt Eva's gaze on him and turned his head to look at her. She had her feet tucked under her and was leaning back on the passenger side.  She had a small smile on her face and her eyes twinkled in the moonless morning.

"What?" He said, taking another sip of his coffee, his face back on the road.

"You keep yawning."

"Uhum."

"I'm just saying, you keep yawning."

He turned to her again and her smile spread larger.

"You went out last night. Did you have fun?" She asked teasingly.

"I did."

"I bet. You keep yawning," Her smile in place.       

He smiled back in spite of his weariness, "How about you, tired?"

"Not really," She positioned her body to stretch, "it just sucks it's this far."

"Do you mind? I mean, coming to see him?"

"Kind of, he's always scolding me." She made a face, "tomorrow's Christmas though, I thought it'd be nice to show up. Too bad Joey is sick, it would have made for a better surprise." she shrugged nonchalantly. 

Joe nodded at that, "I think he'll appreciate you coming by anyway."

Her shoulder rolled up, "I guess." She turned to look out of the window, watching the dark scenery in front of her.

"I'm serious. He doesn't have many friends and very little family."

"But he's Marcos, everyone knows him," She turned to face him.

"Yes, but in this life, you don't have many friends, you..." He searched for the words, "You make acquaintances, and you pray they don't back-stab you or rat you out."

"I can see that. How long have you known him?"

Joe smiled at that, "Since we were in 5th grade. He was fighting with these two guys and was doing a helluva good job. He was the new kid so everyone was trying to punk him. He never backed down, though. Anyways, another older kid showed up and hit him hard with a bat on his leg, a cheap shot. That's when I jumped in and well the rest is history." His grin wide as he remembered this.

Eva smiled trying to picture Marcos as the new kid, fighting to earn his stripes.

"So you two became bosom buddies?"

He laughed at that, "Well it wasn't just us. We ended up being friends with the three dudes we fought that day."

"What!"

"Yeah," He laughed, "Apparently they liked our style so they recruited us."

"Wow. That's funny. No hard feelings?"

"None."

"Where are they at?"

He inhales deeply, "Well one of them is dead." He turned to her, "David, the one who they found in the dumpster. Sammy and Alex are the other two. They're around, they are more on the down-low with this shit. You know, 'regular' jobs by day type of shit." He hand quoted regular.

"What's the name of the one you hit." She asked.

"Alex. He's serving in the Army, has about 5 more years to go. He's in the inside helping us out on this."