With a smile more like a grimace than anything, Erick nodded.
"Let's go to sleep then, Mr. Vaughn." He said, his voice drenched in irony. "Starting tomorrow, we have five days for you to learn everything about me."
"Right..."
Johan looked at the window, with the curtain still closed.
Through it, it was already possible to see the first rays of sun shining on the horizon.
'Long fucking day... I barely had time to enjoy it...'
Not even Johan had noticed the passage of time, irritated by the realization, when suddenly an idea crossed his mind.
'If we're going to have a week for this, he must be thinking about renewing his stay...' Johan grinned, heading towards Erick's folding wallet, which was on the table on which there was a small TV set.
He tried to shake the thought away, but there was a weight in his heart, something he wasn't able to explain or define.
Johan was not religious, but there, next to a man he had saved the life of, still remembering the oppressive presence he felt every time he looked into those eyes full of malice, Johan couldn't help but feel like he had just struck a deal with the devil.
If there was one thing Johan had learned on the streets, along with all the other things he kept in his mind and in his heart, it was that no one with a sparkle like that in their eyes lived life with clean hands.
"How much blood do you have on your hands, man...?" Johan whispered, hoping that Erick wouldn't wake up and answer the question, while at the same time unconsciously demanding an answer.
***
The days passed as if in the blink of an eye, and when Johan realized it, the fourth day of that strange apprenticeship was already on the horizon.
Erick tried, with some effort, to get up from the bed.
After a few failed attempts, however, he put his foot down.
Then another.
And putting his weight on the side that wasn't injured, putting himself in a strange position, almost as if he had pulled a muscle - or been stabbed -, he finally managed to stand.
"Yeah... I guess it's not that bad." He said, with a grimace.
"You are welcome." Johan prodded.
The days passed with such absurd speed, and Johan was learning so many things, trying his best to absorb as much as possible, that he could barely understand how only four days had passed since he met the mysterious Erick Vaughn.
Johan thought of him as mysterious, because he knew that the young man was still hiding many things from him.
Even though Johan was learning everything about being Erick Vaughn, he knew there was still so much more beneath the layer of ice that permeated this guy's surface.
Johan had already learned a lot, but he knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
'I guess I'll have to learn the rest on my own...' Johan thought, after taking a shower.
"Why are you standing?"
"Because today's lesson requires some... Shopping."
"Hehe..." Johan's laugh came out drier than he intended, as he shook his head, but Erick seemed to ignore the fact.
***
Not long after, Erick called an Uber, and the two were on their way somewhere.
Erick didn't want to tell Johan what their destination was, he just said "Let's go to the other side of the city. Nobody knows me there." Leaving Johan completely in the dark.
The fear that Johan felt for Erick was no greater than his certainty that his unexpected partner was injured, and slowly recovering.
This would give Johan an advantage if push came to shove.
But up until that point, it seemed more like the two had become best friends rather than suspects of each other.
***
When the car stopped, the two got out in front of a department store that made Johan's legs tremble.
The entrance was made entirely of glass, with Greek columns supporting the high ceiling of the building, which appeared to be at least three stories high.
The windows displayed mannequins dressed only in the best and most expensive fabrics, inside, Johan could see employees dressed elegantly from head to toe, and customers who, just by the way they walked, you could already judge that they were very, very richer than those snobs who always looked at him with disdain, disgust, and judgment whenever he entered somewhere to eat.
And Erick didn't look the best either.
Still a little pale, even though he was already regaining his natural pale skin tone, the dark circles under his eyes were still quite prominent.
If Johan wasn't completely confident in how he was taking care of the young man Vaughn, he could have assumed the guy was seriously ill.
And as if all that wasn't enough...
There were two security guards, one on each side of the sumptuous entrance to the even more sumptuous store.
The two looking at Erick and Johan from top to bottom.
Only then did Johan remember that the shirt Erick was wearing, despite having been washed very well, still had the hole caused by the stab wound.
"Uh, Erick... Wouldn't it be better if we got out? I'm definitely not the kind of person these guys like, and you... Well... You look almost dead..."
Eric laughed.
"Bullshit!" And with a smile so honest and bright that it almost made Johan believe he was absolutely healthy, Erick pulled him by the arm, leaning on his shoulder. "It's going to be shit climbing those stairs, but let's do it!"
The guards looked at the two young men intently.
One of them made to approach them, but Erick, in a more fluid movement than the pain in his torso allowed, took his folding wallet from his back pocket, and nimbly took out two hundred bills from inside it, handing over a for each one, and winking at them afterwards.
Neither of them even made a move to bother them again.
But they still had expressions of shock and confusion on their faces.
'Yeah... Money really dictates the rules...' Johan thought, feeling the weight of his empty pockets, as they entered the store.