THE LIFE

One

I'm sitting across the street from a small bus stop, the air is arid and the light is bouncing orange beams off of the windshields of the parked cars which line the street, many of them abandoned and abused. Through my headphones I hear the sound of an approaching skate board and a familiar voice "Yo Sam! Whaddup bro?" When I turn my head I see my friends Oscar. I remove my headphones and smile as I kick the end of my board, flicking it from the ground into my hand. I look at him concerned "You're late Oz, if we get in shit it's all on your ass."
"Sorry I had to take Charlie to school." He replies and he flicks up his board and places it between his back and backpack.
"Let's just get this done." I say crossing the road to the bus stop. We take a seat at the stop and a man dressed in long black shorts and a purple baseball shirt sits next to us "I heard the deli down the road is closed today." His voice was deep and coarse.
"Yeah, well I pack my own lunch." I reply my voice breaking as I do. The man shakes his head "You're late Samson, don't move." He demands as he stands and rings someone on his phone, when he starts talking he walks away not looking back at me or Oz.

We sit as the sun continues to rise, the peacefulness is broken as a purple muscle car roars along the street slowing down as it nears the bus stop, it stops in front of the bus stop and the back blacked out window moves down to reveal a man dressed similarly to the one who talked to them at the bus stop. The man looks at me "You just gonna sit there?"
I jump up and walk to the car trying to keep my cool, I stop three feet from the car and take off my backpack. I unzip it revealing a stack of money, I remove the money and hand it to the man, the man looks over the money "Good work." He says sounding unimpressed. He picks off the first five bills and hands them to me "Dealers cut." He tells me.
I count the bills "A hundred bucks, that's whack! I got double that last time!" I argue foolishly. He pulls out a pistol and aims it towards me "And? The boss is making cuts. Deal with it, or die!"
I nod my head, my mouth unable to form words as I fight every impulse to turn and run. The man produces a block of cocaine and slides it into a paper bag, along with his gun, he hands me the bag "Lunch is served, step away." The man orders. I walk back to the bus stop, my heart pounding in my chest. Oscar stands up and walks to the car going through the same process of handing over the money and receiving his 'lunch' but I notice he didn't get given a gun.

Oscar walks back to the bus stop and the car drives off roaring down the street. I turn to Oscar and show him the gun "Shit just got messed up bro."
He looks in his bag "I didn't get a gun, I got a phone." He shows me the phone. I switch it on and see it already has one text message, I unlock the phone and read the text out loud "Oz and Sam, the pigs have been snooping around a bit too much lately, I need you to take care of a loose end. Cut it loose and you will be set for a while and move up the ladder. Dom." I lock the phone again and pick up the pistol "Do we have a choice?" I ask Oz who is visibly sweating.
"Nah man! If we don't do it we get cut off, or dropped. We gotta do this." He stands and puts on his bag "We best get moving, we already missed one class." We both get onto our boards and start off towards the school.