Anton and I had our plan, now we just needed an execution. With our watchman outside in his little chair, it was only a matter of time before the man would fall asleep, like usual. See, we were smarter than Donnie Strong. He just didn't know it. We didn't have much of a plan, just a quick swipe of the guy's keys. Easy, right? Wrong. Cops were trained to have heightened senses, it's not every day you get cops as stupid as the ones in "Grand Theft Auto". But Anton had a quick and precise hand.
"Alright, Anthony." Said Donnie. "Get home soon, don't leave too late." My brother nodded at the officer and began his little lie.
"I know, sir." He smiled. "Just let me have a few more minutes with him." Donnie sighed and walked back outside. We planned to wait until he fell asleep, but I was unaware of what my brother had done. He had his hands in the pockets of his parka and gave a wink while he revealed the half-empty bottle of sleeping pills I had on my nightstand. Smart bastard. These pills had been placed in Officer Strong's coffee a while before, which he had been drinking little by little as we had been talking. I smirked at Anton. Sometimes, he scared me.
"Fine. But not long." He walked outside again, sat in his chair, and finished the drugged coffee. It took about five minutes for it to happen, just as the sun began to rise. A perfect time to leave, when no one was here for the most part. It was 5:58 A.M., on that awful day. Anton rose out of his chair, and with a sarcastic rubbing together of his hands and grinning, he started towards the door. He bent down at the side of the knocked-out man and undid the ring containing the keys. It took seven tries, but we finally got the handcuffs off. I stared at the deep red and purple ring around my wrist, both mad and happy at the same time. I rubbed the cuts to see how deep they were, and we walked out. Me in my hospital outfit, Anthony in his Jare's Outlet grey parka. What a sight we were.
"Which room," I asked. He took out his flip phone to view the picture. He zoomed into the photo to see the room number.
"2-117, second floor." He said as we made it to the elevator. Second floor. We were on floor four of six, in this massive place. I pressed the second-floor button on the keypad, and we waited. The door slowly and smoothly slid closed, and we began our two-floor descent. If you're ever in an elevator and it starts to free-fall, don't jump at the last second. It doesn't work. Just accept your fate. We heard the first ding of the bell. Still descending, he turned to me to ask something again. "Are you sure you can handle what you see?"
"Yes, I know what happened. And yes, this will hurt me. But I need to face it. It's what Dad would do." I said as his face got bright. He gave a slight nod and the second ding rang out to us. Second floor. Anthony peered out into the hallway that looked the same on every level and motioned for me to come out. As a sort of disguise thing, he hugged me as we walked to make it seem like an escort. Smart thinking, bro. I was watching the room numbers rise as we passed.
113...
114...
115...
116...
And then we got to room number 2-117.
"...It's boring at this place, I know. But we're always at yours." I said to Angie as we sat on my bed, in my embarrassing shack of a house. I had my arm around her shoulder, and she was holding the hand attached to that arm. "There's just never anything to do in this place. This town." She moved closer. And brought her face close to mine.
"Vince, everything is fine. We don't always have to be doing things, I just like this. Being with you." She pressed against me more and brought her legs up so that they rested on my lap. It was the little things like this that made me fall for her.
"Do you want to watch something?" I asked. She nodded. "Which things do you like?" I could feel her heart and breath the way she was sitting. Her soft, small breasts on my chest.
"I like Jake Gyllenhaal." She said. It was insane how similar we were. I got up, gently so that she could resituate herself, and walked over to my bookshelf. I had many films with many different people, but no one more than Gyllenhaal. I took the DVD off the shelf and held it up.
"If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket!" We both said together as we laughed. We spent the next hour or so watching "Nightcrawler", our personal favorite. Who would've known? She started to fall asleep on me, which I thought was cute. I let it happen and turned down the TV volume. When the picture darkened due to the shot on screen, I saw our reflection. I was smiling and didn't even notice. This was a happy time in our lives. I was going to protect her forever. I would always be there for her when she needed...
Vince?
Vince.
"Vince." Said Anthony's voice inside my head. Again sounding like it was through a wall of water. Strange, the human mind. "Are we doing this?" He asked persistently. I didn't even know I was spacing out. We were standing in front of the clear checkered window, which had been covered with inside curtains. Respectable, on their behalf. My brother and I looked at each other like we always did before we were about to do something together. If only that look could have made me feel better.
"I'm ready."