Different Worlds (wlw) Editing

One

On the bus that afternoon as she rode to work, Brie overheard a conversation between two older women. She didn't want to eavesdrop because she knew how rude that sort of thing was but couldn't resist when she realized what they spoke of. They bumped gums about something that hit close to home for her.

From what she was able to garner from their conversation was that the gunshots she'd heard the night before were the results of a dispute among two prominent gangs and not because of a rowdy bar as she'd presumed.

The two women didn't say much nor go in-depth about any of it but they did make mention of one of the infamous gangs involved, The Mafia.

Brie started putting two and two together and wouldn't have been surprised if it were men from this infamous gang that hurt the stranger she helped, in fact, it seemed the only plausible thing given that she showed up at her apartment minutes after the shooting ended— the only incident of its kind in that entire area— the same incident these two seniors discussed.

The more the dark-haired girl entertained thoughts about the unfortunate event and the potentiality of who was involved, the more she grew nervous. Even after she hopped off the bus at her stop and parted ways with the women she'd eavesdropped on, the wheels in Brie's mind kept on turning.

Was that how the strange girl was able to leave so much money before she left? Did it have something to do with either of the two gangs— was she a member of one and stole from the other? Most definitely. She wouldn't have been hurt to that extent unless she did something she was not supposed to do, like steal money or something much worse.

Brie became increasingly on edge and even more thoughts birthed themselves in her mind. Would people come after her too since she helped this girl? Did anyone follow her, seeing when she got into her apartment? Why did she think leaving that amount of money was a good idea? Would she want something in return in the future? Did she have plans on coming back?

The more time she spent thinking about the incident and the unfriendly stranger, Brie's stomach tied in knots again. It was a serious issue; that girl had to have been someone important, and the fact that she carried around so much money supported that claim. But as her mind drifted further, Brie realized the strange girl did not have a thing on her person when she arrived save for the gun, so how did the money get there? Did she leave and then come back, she thought but then her eyes widened at the notion of someone or maybe even more than one person coming to her apartment to bring that amount of cash.

Sweating her balls off by the time she reached her floor in the hospital she worked, the dark-haired girl needed to reassure herself that she was possibly overreacting with all the questions and thoughts she entertained. There was one thing she knew for sure and that was she had no intentions of getting caught up in any sort of drama she surely didn't belong in, so for the first couple hours of her shift, she thought of returning the money and pretending she hadn't experienced any of the things she did.

×

During her break which was almost around six in the evening, Brie bumped into a close friend, one who happened to live in the same neighbourhood as she did.  Christopher was often aware of things she was never privy to and she blamed that on his outgoing and sociable personality. It did come in handy though, especially now that she wanted information from him.

Despite being comfortable enough around him, Brie was still hesitant to tell him exactly what happened. She also didn't mention the girl for she feared risking her safety; she knew her safety would be compromised somehow, and she felt it in her bones.

“What, the incident last night?” Chris repeated the question Brie had flung at him. She nodded in response as they walked through the cafeteria.

“Oh huh, I heard it was a mess. A few broken bones, blood in the streets— I even heard that Raye was there last night,”

“Raye?” Brie questioned, her dark brows knitted in bewilderment.

“From The Mafia, their boss. I Heard Raye got wrecked pretty badly, among a few others, but somehow still survived.” He added and the girl studied him with both curiosity and fear clawing inside of her.

“I had no idea that it was gang-related, last night's shooting,” she lied. “I thought perhaps it was the police or something, being that it was a regular Wednesday night, you know?"

“Nah, I heard it was bigger than that and who, the police? Heard they were too scared to even get involved,”

“So what happened?” asked Brie and the young man stopped his strides to observe her. He looked down the length of his freckled nose and into the pale eyes that regarded him.

“Since when are you so invested in gang violence, Brie?” He questioned and she shrugged.

“Since everyone keeps talking about it,” she replied and he grinned at her.

“I like this new you— nosey and wide-eyed for crime. It's a shame you don't like dicks though, we could've made a cute couple. You and me both into crime-related hobbies,” Chris responded and his friend gazed around, making sure no one was looking before she punched him on the arm.

He winced at the impact. He never expected her to hit that hard for someone half his size. 

“Way to tell the whole fucking cafeteria that I don't like men,” Brie fussed and he laughed.

“C'mon, no one heard and even if they did that shit's kinda anyway.”

Pretending to gag, the dark-haired girl tossed a look of annoyance to Christopher. She hated whenever he'd say things like that, fetishizing her because she was into women. It was never nice and she'd told him about it many times but she had to admit that he did tone down his unsolicited comments, however, she wanted them to stop completely. Her life wasn't something meant for his or any other man's entertainment. She knew it was going to take him some time to unlearn all that negative thinking and behaviour.

"You need to stop with the creepy comments, for real, it's not cool or funny. Also, just spill what you heard, I'm dying to know more here."

"Sorry, okay so basically the whole shootout started because Raye slept with one of Junior's nieces and he and his boys went nuts when they found out or at least it's what I heard. These rumours aren't always true, they aren't always false either but we all know it was deeper than that."

"I see and who is Junior?"

“He runs the Irish mob. Anyway I gotta go, today we have a lot of people coming in with the stomach flu and it's hectic on our block. Anyway, catch ya later, Brie. Maybe I'll give you a call and we can talk about all the juicy details,” Chris bid and left her standing there waving him off.

Although she didn't get much information nor learn about the identity of the mystery girl, Brie knew without a doubt now that the mafia and Irish mob were the ones responsible for last night's disturbance. She also learned that because of the incident, a few people were hurt, including the stranger who'd slept in her apartment; she wondered which one of the gangs her stranger belonged to.