An Emerald
Chapter 4
By: The New Girl Of Lycanthropy
Once we finished eating, I took Mallorie back home. She had already been put through a lot, and she was starting to get sick. During the drive, I turned on the radio there wouldn't be a heavy, awkward silence. But you could still feel the tension in the air, just hanging there.
Marie didn't go with Mallorie when we got to the apartment. Mallorie seemed better then before, at the very least. Marie had told her that they weren't coming back for awhile; they waited to let people...collect themselves, before coming again. So it was just me and Marie in the car. To be honest, I didn't even know where we were going. I was too busy thinking about what to do.
I could very easily have found these people (with a little help from others; maybe Packie) and made sure that Mallorie didn't have to worry about this. But Marie was here; and she was an employee. Roman need all the employees he could get, and besides, I liked Marie.
I shuddered. That's what made me nervous. I usually just let people pass me by, always. At least ever since...ever since Roman's wedding. But there was something about Marie that made her different. She could be a good friend.
Which meant for right now, I couldn't do anything.
"Marie, where are you staying?"
She was startled, since I hadn't talked to her since we were at Burger Shot, and I guess she thought I'd be upset. Not that I wasn't, but not with her. But I had just realized that I didn't know where she was living. I got (from the bits and pieces of her and Mallorie's conversation) that she HAD been living with...what was his name...Alvaro? Whoever it was, she seemed to had stopped living with him recently. It took her a minute to pull together her words, but not too long.
" Um, I'm...well, I'm living in an apartment in Broker- pretty far from Algonquin, I know- but I think that I'm about to be evicted. So..." she glanced down at her lap and wringed her hands. She didn't seem nervous, or worried. She just didn't seem like she wanted to talk about it. Which was normal; some people did, some didn't. It all depended on why they were being evicted and how. "Marie, why are you being evicted?"
NOW she looked embarrassed. Cautious, almost. Well, I wouldn't want to tell the world why I was being evicted either. "Well...I had some money trouble, and I asked my landlord to wait a few days before my rent was due. I wasn't expecting him to actually let me, so I was really, REALLY happy when he said it was fine. Until he told me I had to sleep with him."
Ooh. That's why. At first, I thought she was ashamed because she DID sleep with him. But knowing Marie, she wouldn't have done that. Not that it's right or wrong, just that she personally wouldn't have. "So, I hit him, and now I'm gonna be evicted...today."
I swerved slightly, which rocked her back in her seat. Someone flicked me off passing me by, but I didn't bother pulling out my gun. "What?!" I seethed. "What do you mean today?! Where are you going to go?! How are you going to work if you don't have a place to live?" I was annoyed; I mean, why would she leave this until the day she was going to be evicted? That woman was stupid right then and there. She didn't even answer me; she just frowned.
"I was just gonna find some other apartment, and ask them to let me in. People do it all the time Niko, don't freak out. It's not like there is a respectable apartment in the Bohan anyway." She half-smiled. "Now come on Niko, keep driving. People are starting to get pissed with how slow you're going." She was right; there was someone that looked like they were about to rear-end me. I sped up, but I kept thinking about her living in one of the low-life buildings. I knew people that lived in those places, but she was different. More refined, so to speak.
I was getting more annoyed, so I just let it go. Or tried, anyway. Since I, in my fury, had drove into an exit to Alderney, now I had to turn around and drive all the way back to Broker. Great. But I did get to ask Marie more questions. "Ok...so Marie, tell me about your personal life."
She raised her eyebrow. "Personal?"
I chuckled. "Yeah, personal. You were with Dimitri Rascalov, this Alvaro guy, what else is there? I'll tell you mine."
"Niko, why personal?"
"Do you have something better to talk about?"
She paused, and then started talking. "Well...I had a one-night stand with Alvaro, went out with him until two weeks ago," so that was how recent, "and I went out with Dimitri for about 3 months. Never been pregnant, though I got scared with this other guy I went out with, and never had an STD. Umm...I'm agnostic, uh...I lost my virginity when I was 20 with a guy I met at a party. And no, I wasn't drunk, I was in every state of consciousness you could be in. So...your turn."
Eh.... "Umm...I've gone out with a girl that turned out to be working for a secret agency, name Michelle; umm, a girl named Carmen, another named Alex, and another named Kiki. I first had sex with someone when I was 18, never had any issues, and it was a girl I was working with. I was completely sober. There was a girl that I got serious with too, but she..." I swallowed hard. I was just trying to get the words out. "uhh...her name was Kate."
Mallorie, or Roman, must've told her about this. Or maybe she just heard it around the city like everyone else; Little Jacob DID say everyone in the city was after Jimmy Pegorino. But however she did, she understood. "I know, Niko. You don't need to say it now." She shook my shoulder in comfort.