Nicole stared at the clock, counting down the minutes until closing time. It was 9:45 on a Tuesday night and all Nicole wanted to do was go home. The hole in the wall restaurant was almost empty except for a pair of business men who had been there for the past two hours drinking beer and complaining about their jobs. She sighed and continued wiping down the tables and putting up the chairs, hoping the men would get the hint and start to pack up as well. She was usually not in such a hurry to go home, but today had just been one of those days where nothing went right, from the oven breaking down this afternoon to the muggy weather outside, everything seemed to conspire against this day being a good day. At 10:05 the men finally ambled their way up to the cash register to pay their bills, and at 10:07 Nicole flipped the lock on the front door and breathed a sigh of relief.
After helping Nathan, the manager and cook, scrub down the kitchen and put the food away Nicole was finally free to head home, the ringing of the front door as she stepped outside was like a victory bell. The sound of Nicole's footsteps as she walked home mingled with the sounds of the city: sirens, yelling, glass breaking, dogs barking, and an even louder sound of an engine gunning as a black Mustang raced up the street. Nicole shook her head, I hate this city, she thought. A little over eight months ago she and her younger brother Paul packed up everything they had and moved from Detroit, Michigan to Columbia, South Carolina in a desperate attempt to start a new life. Their dad left when Nicole was just five, before Paul was even born, and shortly after Nicole turned twenty she came home to find her mom barely alive next to an empty bottle of pills. For two years Nicole tried to make it work in Michigan, taking care of her brother, holding down a job, and keeping the bad guys and boogeymen at bay, but it all got to be too much so they picked up and left. The move had been especially hard on Paul, it was his senior year of high school and he was leaving his school and all of his friends behind. Not only that but instead of finding the peace and quiet they had expected from South Carolina, they just found more gangs, drugs, and violence. Sometimes it felt like they would never get out.
Nicole rounded the corner and cut across the parking lot to her apartment. She pulled her key ring out from her apron pocket, the restaurant owners made all the waitresses wear hokey blue dresses with white aprons tied around their waists and frilly head coverings, they thought it looked "quaint", Nicole thought it looked campy. Nicole went to unlock the door and was surprised to find it already unlocked. Paul should know better than to leave the front door unlocked, she thought, annoyed at how absent minded her brother could be. She walked in and smiled as the air conditioning hit her face, if there is one thing I will never get used to it is this godawful heat. She heard the TV on in the living room and made her way back there to check on Paul and remind him to be more careful about locking the door when he comes home. "Hey Paul," Nicole called as she walked into the living room, only to find it empty. She glanced and saw the light on under the kitchen door, "Paul what did I tell you about remembering to lock the door-" Nicole screamed as she opened the door and saw three strange men standing in the middle of the kitchen . Another man was to her left and grabbed her roughly, muffling her scream with his hand. "Shut your fucking mouth bitch!" He snarled. Nicole then saw the crumpled body of her brother lying on the floor, blood pouring from his face profusely. She uncontrollably cried out even louder. One of the men standing over Paul pulled a gun from the back of his jeans. He bent down and grabbing Paul by his neck yelled, "who the fuck is this, huh? Is this your girlfriend? Your mommy? Huh?!" Paul's response came out gurgled and unintelligible. The man tightened his grip around the boy's throat and sniffed, "What's that? I can't hear you." "My sister," Paul managed to spit out. "Well tell your sister here that if she doesn't shut her fucking trap I'm gonna put a bullet in your skull and then in her's." To prove his point he pressed the barrel of his gun to Paul's temple. Nicole's eyes widened, everything about this man spoke truth to his words, from the tribal tattoos running up his arms to his neck, to the furious gleam in his eyes, she could tell he meant business. Her screaming lessened until only soft whimpering escaped from the man's hand. The man over Paul kept his eyes on Nicole as he pulled the gun away from Paul's head and tucked it back into the waist of his jeans, "good girl Sis," he sneered as he stood back up. "Heco, why don't you tell our new friend what we're here for," this man was clearly the leader. The man who had Nicole spoke, "seems little Pauly here has an issue with getting our money to us, so we've come to collect. Problem is he doesn't have the fifteen hundred he owes us." "So Sis, what do you suppose we do about this?" Their leader took a step over Paul and towards Nicole, smirking. He turned and swiftly kicked Paul in the stomach, "Cause I want my God damn money!" Paul let out a groan and pulled his knees towards his chest, and Nicole shrieked behind Heco's hand. The man looked crazed as he turned back to Nicole and stalked forward. Heco let go of her as the man backed her into the corner. He grabbed her by the chin and forced her to meet his eyes, "you and the little fuck get one more week, ONE, to get me my money, or I'll be back here, and I'll put you and your little shit brother six feet under," he tightened his grip till Nicole winced in pain, "and don't even think about goin' to the cops, cause we'll get here faster. Got it?" He slammed his hand into the wall, barely an inch from Nicole's head. She quickly nodded, and he released her. The man headed for the door, followed by the other three.
Nicole rushed over to her brother. Paul could barely move except to clutch his stomach. They had worked him over for awhile before Nicole got there, and it showed. His nose and lip were both bloody and it looked like he would have at least one black eye the next day. His stomach was already bruising from where he had been kicked multiple times, and it looked like they may have even kicked him once in the back. Nicole helped him up, and sat him at the table. She grabbed a towel and threw some ice in it, then she wet a paper towel and hurried back over to her brother. He held the ice to his eye as she did her best to clean the blood off of him. Tears began to leak out of her eyes as the adrenaline and shock faded away. Paul pulled the ice away from his eye, he looked scared and ashamed, "Nic, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, it was stupid…" The words tumbled out of his mouth. "Who were they? What did they mean Paul? Why do you owe them money?" She whispered, scared of what the answer would be. Paul's shoulders slumped down and his eyes met the floor, "I messed up Nic, I messed up really bad. I started selling for Billy…but one of my loads went missing and…" Paul trailed off. Nicole's fears were confirmed. She had heard of Billy Darley and his gang, but before tonight she had never come across them. They ran a couple of streets on the southside, selling drugs, guns, and anything else that could make them money. "How long have you been doing this?" "About four months. I didn't mean for all of this to happen." Paul sounded so desperate, so scared, Nicole couldn't be mad at him, not now. "We'll figure this out. I promise Paul. We'll find a way to deal with this." Nicole did her best to hug her brother without causing him any more pain. "Why don't you go and get cleaned up ok." Paul nodded and shuffled his way towards the bathroom.
Nicole looked around. She had to get out of the kitchen, she felt sick. How did this happen?! Why?! Why did this happen?! She slammed her bedroom door behind her. Inside her room she paced back and forth until finally she stopped and faced herself in the mirror. Her already pale skin was ghostly white and her eyes were red and irritated from crying. She ripped the head covering from work out of her auburn hair and threw it on the ground. How did I not see this? How could I have failed this badly that I can't even see when my brother's dealing drugs? She turned away from the mirror and paced some more. She stopped and walked over to her closet, kneeling down she dug to the back right corner until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a small safe that she had bought back in Michigan after the first time their apartment had been broken into. She flipped the combination lock back and forth until it clicked open. Inside she kept only two things, money she was saving for Paul's college fund, and a string of pearls her Grandma left her after she passed away. Nicole pulled out the money and counted it, one thousand even. She figured with tips and her paycheck on Saturday she might have a little over $200, and if she had to she could sell off a few things or ask for an advance at work, and if worse came to worse she knew the pearls would cover it. Nicole sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, then she slid the money back into the safe and clicked it close. How could this happen?