Macau was standing outside Pulse with a cigarette in hand while leaning against the wall. He hated going to this particular club because every time I set foot in there he was reminded of his father and the messed up things he made him do. He stubbed out his cigarette after a moment trying not to stall too much before picking up the backpack at his feet and walking to the entrance. The bouncer barely looked at him before stepping to the side to let him in.
The lights and the music here bugged Macau for the most part. It was just a nightclub right, why the hell did it bug him so much? He adjusted the backpack on his shoulder causing the cold metal of the gun in his waistband to bite into his skin. He looked around the club a moment before a short girl creeped up on him, "He's waiting for you in the bathroom, too many people in the booth," she said completely unaffected by the way Macau glared at her or at least pretending to be.
The boy walked away without a word to her. This was the last time he would be doing this so there really was no point in trying to talk to her or anyone else involved in this. The bathroom was empty safe for the man dressed like a gangsta stereotype in his Hawaiian shirt left with three buttons too many open and tight skinny jeans. He was leaning over a basin washing his hands but Macau didn't care much that he was preoccupied. He tossed the backpack at the man's feet, "Easy there little one, that's precious cargo you're throwing around so carelessly," he crooned looking up.
"It's all in there," Macau said watching the man open the bag and peek inside.
"I see that," the man said swiping his tongue over his bottom lip, "But you took longer than the given time. What's up with that?"
"Look, you have all your money so lay off okay."
The man threw a small black bag at Macau's chest which he let fall to the ground, "You have a week to clear that out." he said turning to put the backpack down and moving to fix his hair in the mirror.
"I told you last time, I'm done."
He looked away from his reflection and smiled menacingly at Macau, "That so?" he began slowly walking towards the boy who stood unmoving in his spot, "You can't quit though, your debt hasn't been cleared yet."
"Your business was with Khan, keep me out of this."
"No, no little one. You inherited the debt from your dad, you did all the runs and the clients seem to love you so you're going to see this through yeah?"
"I don't know what deal you had with Khan but I'm done," Macau turned around but instantly had a hand on his shoulder.
The boy reached for the gun under his shirt and pointed it square between the man's eyes, "I said I'm done, Nam!"
Nam raised his hands up slowly grinning at the boy, "You're done," he repeated.
For some reason, the smile on the man's face made Macau extremely uncomfortable so the boy turned his gun around and slammed his handle into the side of the man's head sending him to the floor. I never have to see him again anyway, he thought to himself as he walked out of the bathroom back into the noisy club. He walked for a little bit making a beeline for the entrance when someone fell into step with him, "Could you slow down?" the boy yelled over the loud music forcing Macau to look down at him.
"Don't you have homework to do, why are you here?" he asked slowing his step a little.
They pushed their way through the last of the club before they were outside, "I finished all my homework," Porchay beamed.
"Right...leaving."
Macau had begun to walk away and Porchay stood pouting at his back, "Why do you carry a gun?" the boy shouted just as Macau rounded the corner.
Hearing this he walked back and grabbed Porchay by the wrist dragging him away from the club onto the less busy street, "You..."
"It was really cool how you hit that guy with the gun and were all, 'I'm done' and all that" the boy mused, "What was in that bag anyway? Drugs?"
Macau was rubbing at his nose bridge trying not to lose his temper with the boy in front of him, "Why are you here? Where are your babysitters?"
Porchay ignored him and simply asked if he could have some, "Some what?" Macau asked exasperated.
"Drugs or whatever that man has you selling."
"Jesus Christ...no!" the last thing Macau had expected Porchay to ask from him was drugs and that was the last thing he'd ever give the boy, "I'm calling your brother," he said reaching into his back pocket for his phone.
"I'll tell Vegas you sell drugs," the boy smiled at Macau who tensed up a moment before looking back at the boy.
"What do you want Porchay?"
"Some of the stuff you're selling. I'll pay for it..." the boys began to say making puppy eyes at Macau.
"No." Macau turned on his heels and began to walk away.
"Oh come on! What reason do you have not to sell to me?" Porchay scrambled after Macau trying to keep up with his fast-paced walking.
"Your brother will put a bullet in my head if he finds out? And..." he suddenly turned around causing Porchay to walk straight into his chest with a huff. Macau immediately reached out his hands to stop the boy from falling over from the sudden impact.
"And?" Porchay asked looking up at Macau.
"I've seen what that stuff does to people, you're not about to be like one of them because of me," Macau's hands lingered on Porchay's arms for a moment while the boy tried to figure out what was going on behind the other's bright eyes. He allowed himself a moment before stepping away from the boy and walking the last few steps to his motorbike, "Go home Porchay."
"I don't want to," he fired back pouting, "I'm hungry."
"What?"
"Buy me food and I'll go home," he said walking up to the motorbike and staring Macau dead in the eye now that they were at eye level.
Macau stopped for a moment genuinely taken aback by what Porchay had just said, "Why would I do that? Doesn't your brother have people to feed you at designated hours or something?"
"Okay, first of all, that's mean. And no hia doesn't have people to feed me at designated hours, I'm not five. I just happen to want to have a meal with you so buy me something to eat."
"What do you want to eat?"
"Pizza!"
Macau tried to hold back a laugh but ended up snorting instead. Porchay looked in that moment like a twelve-year-old; carefree and happy unlike the drunk or hung-over boy he'd seen over the past couple of weeks. He looked a little like how he did when they were in high school; always laughing or just goofing around with his friends, "There's a pizza joint about thirty minutes from here. Their food's pretty good and not a lot of people know about it. Wanna check it out?"
"Sure."
Macau rode through the city allowing the cold night air to bite at his exposed face. He had given his helmet to the boy who was now clinging tightly onto his waist before they took off completely having not expected to need an extra. He didn't mind it though. Pete and Vegas would probably lecture him if they ever saw him speeding through the city streets on that death trap but Pete and Vegas weren't there. He worried more about Porchay falling off the back of the bike and breaking his neck instead. This wasn't the boy's first time on the bike but it was his first time riding with Macau sober and he wished for a moment he hadn't gotten onto the bike at all. Despite having a helmet he buried his face into Macau's back trying to block out the sight of the city zooming passed him.
Porchay didn't know why he had asked Macau to buy him food. The boy wasn't even hungry. For some reason he didn't want Macau to leave. It was probably because the boy was at the moment the only familiar face around because all of Chay's friends had some or other prior commitment leaving the boy to retreat into his thoughts. After a few hours of marinating in his self-pity, he had decided to get up and go find something to distract him. He didn't really plan on going to the club. He had no intention of drinking, hence his sober state, so he just sat at the bar with a Coke just watching everyone else having fun. He was about to leave when he saw Macau pushing through the crowd toward the bathroom with an almost unreadable expression on his face. He had followed the other boy with the intention of getting him to play with him because he also seemed to be alone. What he saw in the bathroom however was not at all what he had expected to see. He didn't know what he had expected to see but Macau talking to the man who appeared to be his plug was not it.
When Macau said the man's name the other boy suddenly realised he had met the man with a gun in his face. Back in high school when he had decided to give up on uni. Back then Chay and his friends had found themselves in a private booth with a bunch of uni students that his friend, Som, knew. Nothing crazy was happening, just a whole lot of hard liquor being passed around, and then suddenly it was pills and white powder. And then Kim was there.
Porchay was dragged out of his sudden flashback when he realised Macau was walking out of the bathroom so he ducked against a nearby wall blending into the dark given his black get-up. He didn't know what to think about what he saw but he knew Macau was involved in some shady business that his brother probably didn't know about so he ran after him. He still didn't know why he had asked for drugs but he had and almost as soon as he did, he realised how dumb what he was asking for was. Seriously Chay, is this what we've become? The small voice in his head scolded. And then Macau started to walk away and Chay didn't want to be alone again so he asked him to treat him to some pizza and here he was, holding onto Macau's waist for dear life.
They arrived at the pizza place in a little over thirty minutes and Porchay was confused. What he was looking at looked like something out of an old American movie and not at all what he had expected. The building looked mostly empty safe for a few pairs and the person standing behind the counter. When they walked in a small bell rang at the door causing the person behind the bar to look up from his phone, "Welcome to Jean..." he trailed off when he saw Macau walking towards him, "Look what the cat has dragged in," he crooned leaning over the counter, "And you've brought company," he added taking in the boy standing behind Macau.
"It's good to see you too P'Bar," Macau said slipping into a stool in front of the counter. He nodded his head in Porchay's direction, "This is Porchay, an acquaintance of sorts I guess."
"Hello," the boy said with a goofy smile.
Bar raised an eyebrow at Macau, "Acquaintance?"
"Yeah we went to school together and we keep running into each other a lot lately," Macau said narrowing his eyes at the older man.
"Nice to meet you...Porchay, was it?" Bar said extending a hand to the boy who shook it lightly while still standing next to Macau, "The usual?" the older man asked.
"Yeah and Chay will give you his order," Macau said before sliding off the stool, "I need the bathroom," with that he disappeared into the back of the restaurant leaving Porchay with the strange man who was smiling creepily at him.
"What would you like?" the man asked.
"A Hawaiian pizza and a bubblegum milkshake please," the boy said with a small smile on his face.
"You should teach your friend some manners too," Bar said pushing away from the counter, "He has to be the rudest most foul-mouthed kid I've ever met," the older man shuddered dramatically before walking off into what Chay assumed to be the kitchen, "Stop standing there and grab a table please, you look really lost!"
Bar had stuck his head out of the kitchen door and shouted at Porchay who was still standing next to the counter trying to figure out how Macau had found the place. The boy snapped around and saw Bar looking at him expectantly before he grimaced and scurried to a table next to the window, "Did your brother never tell you not to sit next to windows like that?" Macau said sliding into the bench across Porchay.
"No?"
Macau cocked his head back looking the boy in front of him up and down, "Where are your guards?"
"They tail me from a distance," he said finally meeting Macau's eyes for the first time since they arrive at the restaurant, "Or rather they just track my location. Which is dumb really because I could just leave my phone in my apartment and they'd think I'm at home not somewhere on the outskirts of town."
"Well that's dumb," Macau huffed.
"Tell me about it," the boy rolled his eyes leaning back in his seat, "Where are yours?"
"I told them they'd lose their jobs of heads if they followed me around like some kind of shadow so they're around...somewhere I guess."
"Would they really lose their heads?"
"Maybe," Macau turned his attention to the road outside the window.
After a moment of silence, Porchay spoke again, "Are you really a dealer?"
Macau slowly looked back at the boy. Dealer? No. Macau was more of a runner but in all honesty, it was almost one and the same if you thought about it, "Maybe? Not anymore."
"Does your brother know?"
"Does yours know how much you've been drinking yourself half to death?"
"No."
"No," Macau mimicked.
It was as Porchay had expected. There was no way in hell that Vegas would allow his brother to run with shady crowds like that. While their family did dabble in drugs, there wasn't a single universe where Vegas would allow his brother to be involved in any such dealings.
Porchay was snapped out of his thoughts as his and Macau's food was placed on the table, "Thank you," the boy said absent mindedly eyeing the pizza. Maybe he was actually hungry.
"What's with the milkshake? What is that, bubblegum?" Macau asked eyeing the blue drink in front of Porchay.
"Do you have something against bubblegum? Mr plain old vanilla?" Porchay teased.
"Watch it, vanilla is the best flavour. It never tastes bad, ever," he said taking a large swig of his drink.
Porchay rolled his eyes and picked up a slice of pizza, "You can stick to your boring old vanilla milkshake old man," his eyes grew wide as he began to chew his food causing Macau to smirk.
"Told you the food here was good," he crooned earning himself a glare from the boy sitting across the table from him.
For a moment, just for a moment, everything felt like it was normal again. Although Macau wasn't exactly a friend, he was unknowingly filling in for one, and Porchay couldn't help but enjoy the sliver of 'normal'. But his life had lost all semblance of normal. He now lived in a world where he could be randomly picked up off the side of the road by a bunch of mobsters who have a bone to pick with his brother or his brother's boyfriend. He was thrust into a world where he couldn't go anywhere without the chance of being shot at looming above his head. His life before all of this wasn't the greatest but it was enough; he was happy back then and that was taken away from him. He tried to push those thoughts into the back of his mind as he looked up to find Macau halfway through his pizza. The boy was looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a small smile lingering on his lips, he had never seen Macau smile. He shook his head slightly at the unasked question and smiled at the boy across the table, watching as he practically inhaled a slice of pizza. If only he could stay in that moment forever.