1-Stepping up

9 0 0
                                    

Sighing from the stifling heat mixed with my layered clothes I ran my hand across my forehead. I sigh again when I hear; more than see; the three girls who always hover around my food stand. Looking to Wade, my best friend and coworker, and he just shrugs at me while he continues working on surplus orders. I saw them walk from beside my stand and tried to look busy.

"Mikki!" The three girls all shouted making me inhale deeply before releasing it through gritted teeth.

"Afternoon." I smiled at them.

"We brought you something!" They continued shouting like they weren't standing right in front of me.

"Thank you." I responded taking each gift as it was offered to me. "I don't think my girlfriend would be to happy to find out that I'm receiving gifts from other girls though." I lied through my teeth, I'm very much single.

"Oh, we're sorry." The one in the middle answered while they all looked disappointed.

"These are for you as a token of my appreciation." I said handing them each one of our cheapest items. I had to make sure it was something I could afford to cover the cost of.

"Thank you, Mikki!" They all shouted again before wishing me a good afternoon and leaving.

I turned back to the appliances behind me shaking my head. I glanced up when I felt eyes on me. Of course Wade would have witnessed everything; he was standing right here.

"How are you so good with women?" He finally asked before mocking the three girls that just left. "What do you have that I don't?"

"Looks, charms, manners, skills." I stated behind a smirk. "Take your pick." I shrugged at him.

"You're not very nice to me." He mumbled.

"I know." I laughed when he playfully glared at me.

Hearing tires squeal we both snapped our heads in that direction and saw a silver Audi and a man standing in front of it with his hands on the hood. When the driver got out and stood next to the car I huffed and turned back to organizing our stand in order to be able to function in the small space better. Hearing shouting now I looked up again and saw a circle of twenty or so people all standing around one person, the driver, who had his fists raised. One man advanced at him quickly and the driver struck dropping him to the ground; the rest advanced on him at once. Without even thinking I bent down and grabbed my finger less gloves.

"You don't want to get into that." Wade said gripping my shoulder tightly. "That's an underground matter!"

"It's not a fair fight." I simply stated pushing his hand away. "Someone has to help him, and you aren't a fighter."

"Neither are you." He snapped reaching for me again.

I rushed towards the group putting my gloves on flexing my fingers to make the gloves sit right as I went. When I was close enough I jumped and kicked one of the men square in the center of his back making him fall forward. A few others rushed towards me and I blocked as many of their hits as I could while throwing a few punches of my own. A hard hit to my ribs had me struggling for breath. I tried not to let it effect me as I finally made my way to the center of the circle. I noticed now the twenty or so people were all on the ground. The man in the center just stared at me. He's at least twenty five with curly black hair pushed back out of his face.

"Hey! You! This doesn't concern you." A random voice snapped making me look left to see a stocky thirty something year old man holding his hand in the air.

"Twenty on one isn't fair." I stated. "I'm just evening the odds."

He waved his hand and the people who were, by now, standing around us all rushed towards us. The driver and I stood back to back both with raised fists. At the last possible second he looped his arms through mine and I pushed off his back to kick the two men in front of me in the chest. He set me down and we spun around each other him taking the side with the bigger guys while giving me the smaller ones. When there were only five guys standing around us we looked at each other and nodded. We were thinking the same thing. I ran towards him and jumped he caught me effortlessly. He turned and I kicked each one in the jaw, a few even hitting heads together. He sat me down again and we stood there a few seconds waiting for another fight. The older man looked at us, or well me, in surprise before yelling at the men to 'let's get the hell out of here.'
I slowly relaxed my tense posture when they drove out of sight in a white delivery van I hadn't even noticed before. I started to feel the aching in my side and sucked in air through my clenched teeth when I put my hand to my side instinctively.

"Thank you." The driver said in a smooth voice turning to face me as I quickly lowered my hand so he wouldn't notice.

"Mikki!" Wade shouted running up to us and gripping my shoulders. "Are you okay?"

I simply nodded.

"Are you hurt?" He pointedly looked to where my hand was before.

I shook my head.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded again. He finally let his hands fall from my shoulders before glaring at the man behind me before recognition flashed on his face and he started fangirling.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person!" He cheered holding his hand out and the man hesitantly shook it.

"Dante." He stated and tilted his hand towards me.

"Mikki." I smiled. "Wade." I gestured to my still fangirling best friend.

"Nice to meet you." He stated trying to pull his hand away from Wade.

"Wade." I whisper shouted. When he ignored me still shaking Dante's hand I reached out and pried their hands apart. "Sorry about him, he's easily star struck." I smiled at Dante.

Wade punched my arm making me wince and grumbled about me being mean to him again.

"Is that your stand?" Dante gestured to my flimsy stand.

"Yeah! We have the best food around!" Wade gloated.

"How much do you have left?" He asked.

"All days worth." Wade grumbled.

"Mr. nice guy here gave away three churros earlier."

"I'll pay for what's left." Dante stated making my head snap to him shocked. "That frees you for the rest of the day right?"

"Yup!" Wade answered a little to happily if you ask me.

"Good, then meet me over here once you're shut down." Dante gestured to his car.

"Do you want to keep your job?" I scowled at Wade as we walked back to the stand.

He just stared at me as I kept walking leaving him behind. When he finally snapped out of whatever thoughts he was in he rushed over to help me shut down. When we were done I placed all of the cooked food in a box and we headed to Dante's car.

"We're going to my office." He stated getting in. I followed suit sitting in the front while Wade sat in the back.
We drove into the zoo we were parked in front of. That's not what I expected. We parked in front of the tall building at the back of the park.

*************************************************
1277

Sworn 'Brothers'Where stories live. Discover now