The Gold and the Forest

XXXII

Chapter 32: Recalling You

☙⚘☘

They had narrowly escaped getting their asses beaten and managed to scramble to the roof of a mall. It was lit up by beautiful night lights installed into the floor. Declan glanced longingly at the vending machines so Carl took out the cash he nabbed, handing it to his younger stepbrother with a defeated sigh.

Clan grinned brightly, patting Carl hard on the back and making Carl wince in pain.

It was freshman year for Carl, when he had gotten into a multitude of fights. Clan's dad had a medical condition that was eating away at their savings, so Carl did whatever he could to get them by. Extra cash was a sight for sore eyes.

Fighting was something he learned by hanging around the dudes that played basketball at the park near his house. They were good men, hardened by the struggles of their past, morals grayed by what they had to do. They saw that Carl was interested in their sandwiches and invited him for a snack and a game of ball.

He wasn't scared, but he was apprehensive to take food from strangers. At first, at least. The smell overtook him anyway, and he was invigorated enough to play ball and talk a bit with them.

They were like his dojo masters, and he wondered if that was what having a father was like.

When Clan's father first started having issues with his blood pressure, the medication became more expensive than what he planned for. He had to take less shifts off work and take it easy.

Carl brought this up with his dude bros. One of the more cheerful ones looked him in the eye with a smile and said, "You can come along with me for a run, see how you like it."

That's how he got into fighting.

He was growing taller than the other freshmen boys, which made a lot of girls flock to him. That caused issues with their boyfriends. So he had to deal with that. He became notorious for being a bad boy, and the attention he got was irritating. He started skipping school to get out of the spotlight.

He went along with his friends more often, until one of them was found by an ex gang member and he got taken out.

The circle was more quiet after that. It started off with one missing. Then two. Then four.

Carl left among the four to go spend time with his step brother, who had been getting more and more anxious about his dad.

But money still was an issue.

Clan found out about the fighting by stalking him one day. Carl thought that Clan would tell his dad and get him to stop. Clan instead exclaimed, "show me how you do that!"

They got involved with some bad crowds, but Carl never dipped them in too far. A brush of the shoulder, a deal done. Step in, sprint out. That was how they worked.

"I got you a green tea." Clan passed the bottle over.

Though Carl wondered if it was right that he allowed Clan to be involved.

Declan settled down next to him, admiring the night sky and munching on some Doritos. Carl opened up the cap with a click and unscrewed it, taking a sip. It was sweet and cool against his tongue.

"You ever think about your dad?" Clan brought up out of the blue.

Carl was taken aback and his mind blanked on a response.

Declan spoke up in his place. "I think about my mom sometimes. She had me and couldn't take the responsibility of having me, so she ran. I think I'm supposed to be sad, but I didn't know her for that long, so—"