mostly mobsters

eric | 5

Victoria isn't pleased that I came and sat next to her, and it's very obvious. She takes another shot, while I'm pretending to be dead on the floor. She shakes her head, sighs and looks down into her empty shot glass, while I struggle to get up.

"I saw your father just now," I say, looking at the rim of the glass in front of me. She looks at me and glares dead into my eyes, and I swallow.

"So did I" She deadpans, and I nod slowly.

"Oh, um, okay," I fiddle around with my nails, stumbling over the wrong words. "He was talking to this American guy, about an agreement.. The guy looks older than me, maybe early 30s? Anyway I don't like the look of it." I reply.

"Eric, you're probably daydreaming. And since when have I cared about what you don't like?" She says and I nod and half-smile.

"Oh, yeah, totally. I might be wrong, you never know, but you might also be-" She looks up at me sternly as she knows what I'm about to say.

"Don't say it." She warns, her eyes ablaze with anger, but I carry on. 

"You might also be wrong.... I mean, it is possible.." I mutter, and she looks mad. I don't think she enjoys being challenged that much. Life to her is a game, and clearly she's winning it. She opens her mouth to speak but closes it again and exhales loudly, a sign of clear annoyance. She looks over to the large clock in the wall of the ballroom doors and starts getting up abruptly, leaving me alone. I just jump up and follow her, like a lost puppy, which makes me look stupid. 

"Where are you heading?" I ask, trying to walk on eggshells around her, as she's pretty much a ticking time bomb ; one wrong word or deed would send me to the depths of death, or being stabbed and/or shot 74 times on both sides, and just to make sure that I'm dead, my throat slashed and spine stepped on until it breaks under the collision. She ignores me and walks at a faster pace to the ballroom, where loud music is seeping through the doors. The dance is probably starting shortly- Which means I could either get lost or try for a dance with her, just to wind her up, or at least have a serious talk about thing. I try to keep up with her as shes briskly walking away from me, but suddenley someone seizes my arm and forcibly pulls me to the dimly lit side before the doors. I watch Victoria enter the ballroom and gradually leave my vision. I forcefully yank my arm back and look up to a much more towering, chiselled guy, who I reconise from earlier where I saw him and Dominic Swanson. His blue eyes and staring at me, and his darkish blonde hair is combed back with a dense layer of gel. He is wearing a unadorned black suit, with blue cloth on the lining of the jacket and sleeves, paired with a silk black button-up shirt, topped off with a white tie. 

"You're a menace to society, you know that?" He begins with, looking me up and down. He has a thick New York American accent. What a fucking stereotype oh my god, he sounds like a movie character from the 80s in a mafia movie.

"I'm usually told that yes, but what have I done for you to learn that? Surely I've never seen you before, unless it was in my dreams, you big lug of a dream boat" I respond, chuckling at my own joke, which surprisingly he does not find as humourous as me. If he doesn't find that funny he's definitely going to be in a little bit of a shock when he learns Vicotoria's had a fair amount of girlfriends as well as boyfriends.  He stares at me, his eyes completely emotionless.

"Who are you? Does Dominic know you're friends with Victoria?" He spits out, and I laugh again.

"Mate, she hates me! You can't be serious. The girl will kill me if she could. I'm Eric." I put my hand out to shake his, but he doesn't shake it back, instead, he continues to glare at me. I can feel him staring right into my soul and it is, quite frankly, unsettling. I don't actually think he finds me funny, which is surprising. Everyone finds me funny, I think- Well, everyone on the estate, restaurants and clubs my family own or pay for. Small change, really, but sometimes they're fun to pop into. I used to have a game with my brother and sister where we'd go into the Monty Rova, a more distinguished gentlemen's club and pretend to loot the store like in the old timey gangster movies we'd watch when our parents werent looking during the time of the week where our parents just got the cheques for the revenue and bills. We would always be completely blind to the exotic dancers on the stage in the fluorescent and psychedelic disco lights, including the tall, pretty girls selling lapdances for the business men and women who congregated to the clubs away from their wives, husbands, family, or even their 3 cats. Now my sibling dynamic has changed dramatically, especially  after Eliana, our sister's sudden death. The unknown man still is standing over me, scanning me for something he wants, be it truth, money or whatever the fuck he wants. He makes a "hmm" sound and raises his eyebrows, and without missing a beat, saunters off. Weird.