Involved with the Mafia

5.

I wake up with a panging headache on the left side of my head. With a huff, I sit up and lay my back against the wall. It even hurts to move.

  My attention turns towards the voices upstairs.

  "Reece is sleeping, mom! Stop yelling!"

"I'm not going to stop yelling until you tell me why she can't stay with her parents, Klara," her mom's voice is stern and cold.

  My heart drops to my stomach once I hear a bang, most likely the front door. I try to keep quiet. I've should've never come here, her parents think I'm a bad influence. That Klara shouldn't be my friend because I hold too much baggage.

  My breath catches in my throat when I hear someone coming down the stairs. I stare at Klara whilst she turns on the lights, my eyes squinting once she does.

  "Sorry, Reece. Did you hear all of that?" Her voice doesn't sound the least bit sentimental.

I take a second to answer. "Yes. I'll just leave."

I get up from the bed and make my way over to the bathroom, when I felt her hand grab my shoulder. I spin around and see her facing me with a look of betrayal in her eyes.

"Reece, Wilson called. He wanted to meet you. Have you been screwing him? Huh?" Her eyes are accusing me, looking my body up and down.

I swipe her hand off me. "Is that what you think of me, Klara? That's I'm sleeping with Wilson behind your back? How could I do that if you're always around him?"

"He chose me, not you Reece!"

"Yeah, because I'm too real. Because I'm a huge puddle of mess that causes anyone to stray away from it. That's why Wilson chose you over me, Klara."

She shakes her head. "I'm going to help you because we used to be friends and I feel a tad bit sympathetic. After that, you're gone, Reece."

"Why do you think it's a privilege to have your help, Klara? I don't care if you're sympathetic. You didn't even love him. Why did you do it, Klara? You knew I was in love."

"Because I'm alone, Reece!"

I shake my head and gather my belongings. "That's the worst excuse I've ever heard. You wanted to see me miserable, to give you a sense of superiority in this friendship, huh? You didn't want me to a boyfriend because you didn't have one. Thanks, Klara."

I push my way past her and run up the stairs. Once I opened the door, I saw her dad and brother trying to get inside.

"Hey, Reece. I didn't know you were here," her father greets me by pulling me into a hug.

"Yeah she wanted to ask me a question," I smile, "Robby, could you help me with something?"

Robby looks at his father, then back at me. "Yeah, sure," he smiles back.

Klara's dad pats Robby's back and places his hand on my shoulder while walking past me. "Go and get em, Robs."

"Dad!" Robby's face flashes red and a smile creeps up my face.

I hear a slight chuckle behind me before a gentle closing of a door.

"What's up, Reece?" He plops down on a wooden bench on their porch, me sitting down next to him.

I'm reminded of my headache once I turn my head swiftly to look at him. Lifting my fingers, I massage the temple of my head.

"I just needed to ask you a question," I say.

"Are you alright, Reece?"

My eyes meet his. "Robby, this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but... I'll explain the whole story."

***
Robby opens up a creaky, heavy metal door and enters before me. The room smells heavily of new products, multiple blinking lights that I can see through the darkness. I look behind me to see if anyone was there, all I see is the long narrow path of the alleyway and different cars and people ahead.

"Don't mind the smell, these people never take out the garbage in the dumpsters," he says when he catches me staring at the green dumpsters that overflow with black garbage bags, "oh, and the cats that come here are named Tom and Jerry. You know because they're always tricking each other. Blah, blah, blah."

He continues on by telling me stories about Tom and Jerry and how he feeds them every single day. While speaking, he flickers the lights on and sets down his bookbag. He turns on the monitors while I look around in amusement.

"How'd you get all of this stuff, Robby?" I smile while feeling the cool material of the computers.

He scratches his head. "The owner of this building is sort of a tech nerd like me. I have no idea how she got all of these monitors, I suppose she traded some stuff to get these."

I nod my head. "Thank you so much, Robby. Is there somewhere that I could stay?"

He searches my eyes for a couple of seconds, conveying all of the emotion he felt while I poured out what happened to me that night. He finally got the message that I wouldn't like to talk about it by impulsively moving towards a back white door.

"In here is the bathroom," he opens it, "pretty small, but you know, it works."

"Ah."

He moves towards the other side of the medium sized space and pulls the pink curtains to reveal a small room with a bed in it.

"Jesse, the owner, used to live here when she was homeless. I guess this place meant so much to her that she bought the whole building," he extends his words by looking up at the ceiling and examining the whole area.

"Thank you, Robby. For everything."

"Yeah, I guess that's what I'm here for," he knocks the wooden tables that carry the monitors and heads for the front door, "sorry about Klara. Call me when you're situated so we can start working."

He smiles at me and places down the keys to the room on the table near the entrance. With a last wave, he's gone.

Looking down at the floor, I notice the grey bold concrete. This place is quite modern, since I'm going to stay here for a while I might as well decorate.

Touching all the shiny, metallic screens, I press a key and the bright screen lights up.

Passcode Required

I sigh and an instant thought strikes my head. Klara has all of the notes that the man in the black suit left.

Picking up my phone, I leave a voicemail for Robby to bring the notes from Klara.

Guilt wrenches my chest at the thought of Klara. With the agonizing pains eating away at me, I willfully get started on my plan.