The nervous barista kept his gaze down as he handed me the milk chocolate cappuccino I ordered. I smiled at him.
"That wasn't rocket science. Easy peasy." I stated and lowered my gun from his forehead. I took a sip of the cappuccino and watched the other workers shove the fake cash from the vault into a bag. I had been sent on a side mission by Peanut to clean out the money another gang had stored in this coffee shop.
"Keep looking at me like that," I warned and leaned onto the counter. Some of the customers had been held up as hostages, and the one man glared at me. "See what happens," I added and took another sip of the cappuccino.
"Young man… sir, that's all of it." The nervous barista from before remarked and held out the bag full of cash.
"The cops will arrest you for this, boy," A woman blurted. I pointed my gun at her, and she screamed, which made all the hostages uneasy. I chuckled and picked up the bag.
"Tell them D.T.A. sends their regards," I yelled and fired a shot into the roof. The gun was just a cap gun used to scare the people. It mimicked the sound of an actual weapon and released a bit of smoke when the cap exploded. I used a cap gun if one of the hostages wanted to be a hero and decided taking the gun from me was a good idea. I had my lucky knife strapped to my ankle, just encase. It was a talon knife that looked like a claw, which glided into the skin and tore it apart from inside. The handle was black, and the blade itself was tinted white.
I was good with a gun, but I perfected my close-quarters combat. A knife has no warning, just action. It was an art that gave me a rush every time it dug into someone. Plus, with a knife, my defensive is endless. A gun runs out of ammunition.
"Kid!" A guy shouted and pulled out a gun. "Drop the bag." He didn't seem to be an officer.
"It's just a school bag," I smirked and held up my hands. The guy stepped forward and moved closer to me. I slowly dropped the bag and then grabbed my knife; in one swift movement, I cut into his arm, drove it into his neck, and jerked it out. The man gurgled as he drowned in his own blood and fell to the ground. People around me started screaming and ran off away from us. A car's tires screeched as they skid against the tar road, and another man jumped out with a gun.
Fuck.
I grabbed the bag and sprinted off as guns started firing at me. A sharp pain shot through the side of my stomach, which almost made me tumble over. Mother flipper just fucking hit me. I sprinted around a corner and clenched onto my side as blood poured out. I started to feel nauseous and light-headed. My pulse pounded in my head, and I ran into the side of a building. Get it together, Taine. You need to get this money back to D.T.A. A car stopped on the side, and the door flew open.
"Get in!" Peanut yelled. I didn't need to be asked twice. Many men ran after me, so I jumped into the car, and Peanut shifted the gears to speed the hell out of there.
"Where were you?" I asked through my teeth and ripped a piece of material off of my shirt. I needed to stop the blood.
"Traffic! Don't spill your blood in my car." She snapped as guns were fired at us. The front window screen shattered as a bullet hit it. I was in so much pain… but I felt tired. I couldn't keep my eyes open. My head fell forward as I started dozing off. I tried to wake myself up, but I was losing quite a bit of blood.
"Shit. Stay awake. Taine?" Peanut shouted. I nodded but closed my eyes and drifted away.
An aching pain shot me awake. Peanut hovered over me with a needle and thread. I tried to move away, but she held me down.
"I have to stitch you up!" Peanut hissed and dug the needle into my skin. I cried out but stayed put so she could finish. "The bullet tore straight through, so I stitched up both the entry and exit hole." She added.
"Thanks," I muttered. My body was covered in sweat, but I felt cold. A metallic smell filled the air, and my mouth tasted like blood. "What's the time? I still have school today." I asked and tried to get up.
"Calm down. You have to miss school today. You were just shot."
"Not the first time," I grunted and lay back down. Peanut chuckled and collected all the bloody clothes and materials into a pile. We were in some sort of cheap hotel room in Durban North. The plan was to complete the mission quickly before school, but I guess things happen.
"I'm going to get bandages." Peanut stated then left the room. I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket and saw Cameron tried to phone me 8 times. He also spammed me with messages asking where I was.
"Sorry, dude. Ran into some trouble, but I'm fine." I typed and hit send. I then sent my mom the exact same message so that she didn't worry. Besides the dude part, of course. My phone started ringing soon afterwards. It was Cameron.
"Mate, how are you phoning me right now?" I asked. He should be at school.
"I'm in the bathrooms. I legit waited outside for you this morning; I was even late for school. What held you up?" Cameron questioned.
"Oh uh, just hungover from last night. This chick I crashed at didn't put my phone on charge, so I missed my alarms. Just woke up, actually." I quickly lied.
"She hot?"
"Yeah, bro, she slept in my underwear. I don't remember a thing." I laughed.
"You lucky bastard. We are supposed to party on Fridays, yet you go ahead and start without me. Anyways, you missing rugby practice, but I'll let the coach know you are sick."
"Thanks, man," I stated, and he hung up. Cameron was a good friend, and I really liked him.
Jane was still distant from me. She now said "Hi" when I greeted her, so it was progressing. A few weeks had passed, but she refused to show interest in me. She did this thing like she didn't care if I was in the same room as her or not. Cameron told me to stop trying, which was ironic cause I told him the same thing about Rocksyn. We both didn't listen. I gathered more information about her, like where she stayed and who looked after her. I even looked into her aunt Lydia, but everything seemed clean. I also noticed that she was afraid of swimming because some idiot tried to pick her up and threw her into the pool one day. Jane lost her mind, so Rocksyn stepped in and beat the guy up. Yeah, Rocksyn isn't to be messed with.
Cameron threw a party like every Friday. Jane never came, but Rocksyn showed up for an hour or two. Oh, and Jarrod got into Jane's bad books. He insulted some guy, and Jane took offence to it. Let's just say he borrowed my hoody afterwards since his shirt was full of milk. So, she had some fire in her. I reported back to the leader of D.T.A., but she never responded. The mission was gradually moving along, but Encore kept me entertained. I would never admit it, but I didn't mind school. Rugby was great. We voted on captains, but I told the team I had to pull out of the elections for personal reasons. Cameron became captain, which I wanted.
We played games against the other rugby teams at Encore but not an opposing school yet. Oh yeah, and Jane doesn't do anything other than reading and studying. She's like crazy smart. The door opened, and I grabbed the gun next to me just in case. Luckily it was only Peanut. She held up the bandages and shook her head. Peanut was no longer my handler, but D.T.A. sent us on side missions quite often. Nemis never showed his face again, which is perfectly fine with me.
"Right then, let's get you wrapped up." Peanut smiled and helped me sit up. She wrapped the bandages around my stomach and gave me pain killer to down.
"Thanks for saving my life," I stated. She looked at me, and something flashed in her eyes. She hid it and smiled, so I didn't notice what she had hidden.
"Can't let my favourite partner die."
"I'm your only partner." I rolled my eyes.
"Well, my only partner." She mimicked then asked, "Ready to head home?" I nodded, and she helped me up. My mom ran out as soon as she saw us stop outside. We had ditched the car with bullet holes and a shattered window screen for a silver BMW.
"Are you okay?" My mom asked and helped Peanut walk me to the door.
"Just a small cut." I smiled.
"By small cut, he means bullet wound," Peanut added. I glared at her, and she laughed. My mom didn't find it funny; she started freaking out, so we calmed her down first. My mom cleaned the stitches and replaced the bandages. A bunch of children all made me a get-well-soon card. They were sweet kids. I slept for the rest of the day and woke up early the following day to get a head start. Luckily it was Friday, so there wasn't rugby practice. After a while of convincing, my mom agreed to let me go to school. I had a high pain tolerance, so it hurt, but not as much as an average person would feel the pain.
"Taine, dude!" Cameron cheered, and we did our special handshake as I got into the car. "Glad to see you looking a lot better."
"Thanks." I laughed, and we drove to school.
Things were good until Jarrod decided to tackle me. I cringed as the pain shot from my side. Cameron and the rest of the rugby team laughed and helped me up. Jane seemed to be staring at me, which was unusual. As I stood by, I felt warm liquid dribble down my skin. Oh, fuck. I laughed at Jarrod for the good tackle and pulled my jacket over the bullet wound. I ducked into the bathroom as we walked past. The blood had started to seep through my shirt. Shit!
I undid the bandages, grabbed some toilet paper and pressed it against the wound. A stitch had snapped. Well, what did I expect? It was just a standard thread.
"Taine?" A voice asked. A female voice, which was strange since I was in the men's bathroom. The bell rang for the first class, and the blood now seeped through the toilet paper.
"Just a second," I called and took off my jacket.
"Are you okay?" The voice questioned. It was a familiar voice. Jane's voice. I scrunched up the bandage and pressed it against the wound, and tied my jacket around my waist to keep it in place.
"What's up, sweetheart?" I asked and walked out of the bathroom stall.
"I uhm… I thought. Nevermind." She stated and shook her head. "What were you…." She asked and stepped next to me to look into the stall. "Why is there blood everywhere?"
"Oh, uh… I cut myself on broken glass." I quickly replied. She shook her head and pulled the jacket from my waist. I quickly pressed on the wound to keep the bandage in place, but she could see all the blood.
"Oh my gosh. Are you okay?" Jane panicked. Wait, was she worried about me?
"Yes, sir. One of my stitches snapped. You don't have any bandages by any chance?" I smiled. Fuck. Please don't ask questions.
"No, why would I have bandages?!" She yelled in a harsh whisper. "I have at home. I stay around the corner."
"So, you want to ditch school with me?" I smirked.
"I don't want you to bleed out! Here wrap this around you again." Jane ordered and gave me back my jacket. She then threw the bloody toilet paper into the bowl and flushed it away. "Come on then." She remarked and put her hand in mine.