Strawberries and cigarettes

Prologue

"Do I look like I'm fucking kidding?"
The red-haired squeezed his eyes shut, scared to death and not knowing what to do. He hadn't signed up for this. He'd thought this was just some low-key night-time job where he could earn some extra bucks. Sure, he knew that it wasn't exactly legal, but being pulled aside by a hooded figure into a dark alley during his first assignment was not what he expected.
"N...no sir.", he responded stuttering and the other grunted.
"Don't 'sir' me, asshole, and go back to where you came from. This is my territory so whoever it is you're working for, better tell them to fuck off!"
How was is that he sounded so calm but aggressive at the same time? At least now he knew that the guy didn't plan on killing him, that was progress and it gave him enough confidence to lift his chin and open his eyes again.
"Chill, I'm leaving.", he said and turned away, trying to seem cool this time even though he'd probably already ruined that chance by now. Before, he'd felt like he had the high-ground, being quite a bit taller than the other guy, and he almost laughed at him when the hooded guy tried to threaten him the first time, but with a gun in his hand, the situation looked a lot different now and all he wanted was to go home to his parents' place and eat cookies with hot milk, as he always did on Saturdays. Counting the steps until he arrived at the main street where the street-lights would shine on him again, he heard a soft chuckle from the man in the hoodie and swallowed hard. No, he didn't sign up for this. And he was positive that the person who'd given him the job in the first place would run away from that fight just as well.