Daniel
Since we arrived in Seattle with Marco and Derek things had not turned out as we had originally hoped. The idea was not to get into trouble, find a good job all three of us and stay with it until we made the decision to leave again, but our set plan did not yield the results we foresaw. The United States is a good place to get work, but we had a hard time finding one with good pay and our savings would run out at any time.
Derek, luckily, two months later was able to get a job in a nightclub, as a bartender and, fortunately, his pay was a decent thing. I, for one, looked for many, and I didn't stay in any except as a security guard at the bar where I now worked, and although the pay was good, it was still not enough for the three of us because of the lifestyle we had been used to having before we had to flee London. I thanked Nathaly for it, because my interview with her was not the best, she almost did not know what to ask me when interviewing me, but thanks to the fact that she spoke well of me with the boss, the guy ended up calling me on Monday morning and giving me the job. I can't explain the sense of relief I had in my chest when I answered the phone. Marco, on the other hand, was still not lucky enough to find a job, so he ended up getting into illegal matters again: forbidden careers. Sure, it wasn't selling drugs, but if the police got into any of these races, Marco could end up in jail and it would be difficult to get him out of there. None of us all had the same support from our London team. We were alone.
I was with Nathaly outside of work, in our spare time, quietly smoking a cigarette, until a call from Marco interrupted my free moment.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'm about to run in twenty minutes. I've bet a lot of money, Daniel," he replied. It sounded upset.
"Are you kidding?" I wanted to insult him, but Nathaly was by my side.
"I just hurt my foot, Daniel, I think it was sabotage. I can't run, not with my foot bent. You have to come."
"What do you want me to do, Marco? I'm at work" I had to control myself if I didn't want to let out any insults.
"We will lose the money otherwise, Daniel. Can you come? You have to run for me."
I felt a pressure in my chest.
He was going to kill Marco.
"You know I don't do this anymore," I recalled.
Running had been part of my past, something I wanted to erase from myself, from my memories, but some of the scars on my body were a living memory of the consequences I had for getting into so many messes. I didn't want to have to help Marco, especially if it was about getting into an illegal career after two years. Marco knew how difficult it was for me to recover from the car accident I had and now I wanted me to go and give him a hand. But he was going to have to do it, he was not going to leave him alone and less if he had bet money. Besides, he was my family. Derek and Marco were, lately I had almost no family left, and I could not forget all the times that Marco left what he did and came to help me and rescue me.
Nathaly watched me intently, as if noticing that something wasn't right. I walked away from her and quietly said to Marco.
"We said we would get away from trouble," I reminded him.
"Daniel, it's not time for us to start discussing this," he stopped me. Annoyance and nervousness covered his words.
It's true. It was not the time.
"I'll go. Send me the address" I ended up agreeing, knowing I would end up regretful.
I turned to see Nathaly, who was looking at me curiously.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"All right. I need you to tell the boss that I've had to leave suddenly, that I'll then make up for the lost hours," I replied.
"What? No, the boss is demanding, he won't like you to leave," he denied, expressing concern.
A message came to me. It was Marco's, with the address of the place and a reminder to hurry up.
Shit.
"It's important," I repeated, upset with Marco for making me leave work.
If they fired me it would be their fault.
"Please, Nathaly, tell her that I had to leave and then I will call you to apologize," I grimaced, noticing that she didn't want to go talk to the boss.
However, he ended up accepting.
"Okay."
"Thank you. I owe you one, Nat," I smiled, pulling my car keys out of my trouser pocket.
I walked away from her, walking fast along the sidewalk.
"My name is Nathaly," he reminded me, raising his voice.
I threw the cigarette on the street and put it out with my slipper. I got in the car and started driving to the right place, somewhat nervous and frustrated.
Illegal racing never has anything good. Yes, there is good money, but the danger and aggressiveness in those events are not worth much. This was something I didn't understand before, not until I slipped with the car in the middle of the race and the car coming from behind hit me unintentionally and my car ended up rolling down the street. If it weren't for Derek and Marco risking getting me out of the car, I would have been burned to death. The car exploded shortly after the accident. Throughout my adolescence I trained in a bad way, I never took drugs or took until I lost consciousness, but I did smoke a lot and I was in sales of all kinds of illegal things. I even hit rock bottom with it and almost ended up in prison for years. Had it not been for my contacts, I would be behind bars today.
With those strong thoughts I was getting closer to my destiny.