Rei wandered past a group of surly looking men with missing teeth spitting phlegm noisily into the river. Lovely. He continued down the cement walkway. There were more people milling about further along the docks, and a lot of them not much older than Rei.
He peered between the torsos to see the entrance to the warehouse behind them. The door was painted bright green and had a number of random signs plastered to it, like a Give Way sign, and a sign for a parking lot. From behind the doors he could hear the sounds of shouting and music. Was this one of the new clubs? Interested, Rei slipped seamlessly through the crowd and slid down the side of the warehouse. This warehouse dwarfed the one next to it, but the other still blocked out the light as Rei moved between them. As he went further and further down, the sounds of music and shouting quietened.
'Maybe they only used the front part of the warehouse,' Rei mused, trying not to breathe in too deeply. The smell of cat pee was overpowering and making him feel nauseous.
Finally, a door. Rei listened for any noise behind it but heard one. He put his weight against it and pushed. Curiosity always killed the cat.
The door pressed against something as it opened, making a scraping sound against the filthy floor. He stepped in and peered around the door. A cardboard box, full of shoes. What was that doing blocking the door?
Rei shut the door behind him and stepped forward into the warehouse. It towered above and around him as an enormous, airy mass, the dirty evening light smudged at the windows. Scattered about the side of the warehouse floor were mattresses, books and clothes.
"People are living here?" he questioned, out loud.
On the other side, opposite him, the sounds he had heard before were louder.
'This must only be the back of the warehouse,' he thought, mind reeling at the vastness of a simple warehouse. It was more like an aircraft carrier!
He crossed the warehouse, and pressed his ear to the door in the wall. He frowned. There was the usual sounds of a regular club; music and the clinking of bottles, but also pained grunts, the smacking of fists and the whooping of encouragement. A brawl? Or an organised fight?
Rei curled his fingers over the door knob and pulled the door open, moving inside before too much light could spill in.
Everything was red. A red filter had been plastered over the overhead lights. Everyone glowed with a chilling blood red. The noise resounded in the almighty ceiling, rattling the windows.
No-one had noticed him and he merged with the crowd, watching and noting. There was a ring in the middle of the awesome space, made from wood and the old fishing ropes Rei had seen on his very first visit to the docks years ago. The ones that smelt of fish. Two men similar to the ones hocking the contents of their noses into the water were battering each other with their fists. The metallic smell of blood hung in the air with the red light, making a frightening companionship.
"Want a drink?" someone shouted into Rei's sensitive ears over the thumping music. He was grinning with an open, honest face. Rei felt the boy didn't really fit in with his surroundings.
"No, I'm good, thank you,"
"No, come on, I'll get
you a drink,"
'Date rape, data rape!' Rei squealed inwardly, before realising a) boys hardly ever got drugged with date rape, b) this boy was obvious younger than him and c) because of his young age, Rei could probably throw him and break his arm easily if he tried anything.
Was his age why the boy didn't fit these surroundings. The bar swung around the warehouse continually, disappearing out of Rei's sight into the back regions of the club. It was attended by about sixty or so men and women, flipping bottles, pouring glasses full and dancing along to the music, or else humming along.
"Beer please,"
'Beer? I hate beer,' Rei thought, but
didn't want to be rude.
The drink was shoved into his hands.
"How did you find the place?" the boy asked, pinning Rei with his eyes. A simple enough question, but did he need to smile so wide?
"Um…I was just on a walk. Wandered in,"
"Met
anyone else here?"
'Does he want a favour or something?' Rei
thought, clutching his beer. The smell of beer suddenly rose, and so
did the awful smell of blood. The cat pee aroma somehow got into
Rei's senses too and suddenly he wanted to gip.
"Where's the
bathroom?" Rei asked, unsteadily. The boys face froze
momentarily, then his smile got impossibly bigger and his eyes lit
up.
"I'll show you, come on,"
'I'm gonna draw the line at him holding my hand whilst I throw up,'
The bathrooms were to the back of the club, obviously built. They were made of large breeze blocks, some splashed messily with paint, others left grey. The floor was concrete and the doors smooth black, although already grafitied upon.
Rei stumbled to a cubicle and sat down on a toilet with the seat down, not bothering to shut the door. All he wanted was for the world to stop spinning. Maybe he should have had dinner before going on this walk.
His guide sat on the row of sinks opposite Rei's cubicle.
"You OK?"
"Yeah, just…I'm fine,"
The boy swung his legs like a little child on a wall.
"Maybe you should go outside. Fresh air and all. Want me to take
you?"
"What's your name?" Rei interrupted before
the strange boy offered to call him a cab to take him and tuck him
into bed.
The boy let a moments silence pass before saying, "I think you should maybe go outside. You've gone kind of green,"
"I'm fine, thanks," Rei said, trying to smile. He tried to be polite to everyone, however annoying helpful they were.
"Hey, what's this place called?"
"Oh, don't remember," the boy said vaguely, "You still feeling ill?"
"No…I'm feeling better,"
He was lying. He felt sick.
The door to the bathroom swung open. Rei couldn't see who had entered and personally didn't want them to see him, so he swung his cubicle door shut. He just had time to see his guide leap off the sinks, an expression of being caught in the headlights of an oncoming car on his face.
"Hey, look who it is!"
Rei stood up, listening through
the cubicle door. He leant around slowly. He still couldn't see who
it was, the next cubicle's door was swung open.
"And hello, whose this!"
Before Rei could move someone slammed the next cubicle's door shut.
REI'S POV
I went cold. Physically cold, I could feel my veins freeze.
"Well hello Rei-Rei,"
I opened my mouth, but felt the
bile start to rise in my stomach and so shut it. My hands had gone
all clammy.
"Morgan,"
"Aw, you remember me. How sweet,"
He hadn't changed. He hadn't changed at all. He still had those electric green streak in his black hair, that tiny scar above his eyebrow where he'd told em he'd had an accident with a tricycle when he was little. He was wearing his usual attire, black and green. He stepped forward. I took a step back, almost disappearing into the cubicle again. My guide took a move back too.
"Piss off Morgan," my guide snapped.
"Ooh, temper, temper," Morgan snickered.
He gave him the finger.
"Go. Away," he said, as
if he were talking to a child, before turning back to me.
"So, still remember me then Rei-Rei? I assume you got my presents then?"
Those photographs.
"And I hear your friend Lee's learnt to
forgive and forget. I thought you said you'd given up on trying to be
his friend anymore, Rei,"
When I didn't answer him I could see the flash of annoyance on his
face. He hated people not doing what he told them to.
"Come
out from there," he said. I waited a moment before doing so. The
other boy was standing slightly between us, eyes darting from Morgan
to me.
I couldn't think of anything to say. So I blurted, "What does 'I hate pink mean'?"
Morgan threw back his lead and laughed. The four guys behind him, two
I remember and two I didn't, began to chuckle.
"Nothing
Rei-Rei. If I were you, I wouldn't be getting worked up about that!
I didn't come all this way to do something to Mariah, although if you
don't start doing as your told I might have to. No…I came all this
way to find you again. And if it wasn't for this idiot," he
snapped, pointing at the other boy, "I would have met you
sooner. If he hadn't meddled in business that's not even his,"
"It's
my business!" the boy spat.
"Shut up and get lost, how many times do I have to tell you!" Moran sneered, leaning down to make the other boy feel he was having to go to his eyelevel, like a Mum does to their disobedient child.
"I'm not going anywhere,"
Morgan ignored him, "So,
how long has it been Rei? I don't think you really appreciate how
long it took me to find you. What I've had to do,"
I wasn't
surprised. It was the holidays at Morgan's school, didn't he always
go to Connecticut with his Mum?
"Leave him along Morgan,"
"Look, who the hell
invited you into this conversation!"
I watched the pair of
them argue but couldn't hear anything. It sounded like a bird was
trapped inside my ears, flapping desperately, until I realised it was
my heartbeat.
"So Rei, are we going to meet up sometime? Have a talk. We can't really make a decent conversation in a bathroom now can we?"
I shook my head. Just like old times; I was doing everything Morgan said.
"Now, come and see us here tomorrow evening. We'll talk things through. Maybe I'll forgive you,"
"Great, can we go now?" my new friend said, glancing at the
back door at the other end of the bathroom.
"You can go
whenever you want, shorty, I'm not interested!"
The boy turned and as he passed me, grabbed onto my wrist. I was yanked backwards and he dragged me towards the back door. He swung it open, threw me through, and I landed heavily on my butt on the other side.
"Who the hall are you!" I yelled at him, as he barred the door. The evening air chilled me even more.
"Tyson. Tyson Granger. And you are so flipping stupid!"
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