A man with a motorcycle

“You screwed it up,” Beni told me smacking me while eating nuts. “You should’ve covered the smell up before going back home.”

“I do know it,” I replied. “The worst thing is I don’t know when I can come back home. Give me those fucking nuts, you’re gonna finish them.”

We were drinking soda in the sidewalk of the sport center because we’d played a short match while waiting for a client. We were gonna sell a gun which was hidden in my backpack.

“And you have where to go, beast?”

“Not really,” I sighed. “To be quiet honest, I don’t what I’m doing.”

After a while, a man approached us and finally plunked down next to us. He did a gesture to signal we could go, but we were comfortable in that moment.

“Do you think we’re bad people?” I asked Beni.

“No,” he said without taking his eyes of the boys playing on the court. “I’ve always believed that nobody in this life is bad, but we all have our motivations you know? To do the right things isn’t always good.”

I turned around surprised for what he said and smiled.

“Does that mean I can stay for a while with you?”

“Of course, you know that,” Beni made a brief pause to gorge himself on nuts. “What are you going to do with her?”

“With whom?” I asked.

“Your mom,” she smacked me again. “That crazy woman who has got you out of the house. From what you say, you’re not more than friends and besides, any woman must be nuts to catch an eye on you, which I think it’s exactly what happened with Carmen. What will happen there if you aren’t free enough to live the life you want?”

“I don’t know bro,” I plopped down on the grass and turned to see him from the ground. “I think when that moment comes; I’ll simply let the situation flows.”

“Better kill youself,” he answered and I replied with a punch on his shoulder.

I felt relaxed during that moment, but those are the short moments of every blow of my life.

While Beni and I were procrastinating, lots of things happened in the city. A man wanted to buy some weed; someone’d been watching an intruder and another person tried to make a living. For some twisted destiny design, all of them converged in the same place. One took out a gun and everything went shit. One of the vigilant men took his knife and charged on another man who was just making a living. But then, a wave of noise was heard only to make way for a deep echo and in a split-second, low-caliber bullets penetrated the chest of the vigilant. What was the problem? Someone had the back of that dead person, but a college of mine had shot him.

At the same time, Carmen was alone at home. She was crying in anguish as she was watching an old video on his phone and I don’t blame her, it was the video about her and her ex in her parents’ house.

I remember she wanted to have more in life. She wanted to go to college and work, but at the end, nothing happened. I remember seeing her wheep in my arms when she knew she was pregnant and when their father got her out of the house. She hadn’t talked to them since that day.

At night, by the time I arrived at the bar, I noticed many friends around a table, so I got closer to catch up.

“And now what?” I asked them.

“There were problems in a neighborhood.”

“Which one?”

“Libertadores, the little bear murdered a gansgter who ran up to him.

“Shit,” I said.

In that moment, something came to my mind and opressed my chest. That memory of my first job kept etching as fire on my chest.

“That’s so wrong.”

“That’s right kiddo and now try to keep yourself away from this or you’ll get raped and from what I see, it’s probable you’ll enjoy it.”

I saw him neutrally and came back to bartender a bit uncomfortable for what had happened. I got bored in a moment, so I was a bit desesperate for my shift to end until finally the time’d come. My head ached, so I went straight to Beni’s home. The door was locked, so I sent him a message asking what was going on. He told me he’d gone to carry out an order from cholesterol and mentioned he left the keys on the door frame.

I got inside Beni’s house and plunked down on the couch to see memes until a message from Ana popped up. She was asking to go out. I was about to reply her when a phone call from Carmen interrupted me. I looked at the screen for a moment until I was encouraged to reject her call. After that, I simply asked Ana where she was and headed there.