Chapter 2

I got to the pawning shop and looked at who was at the register, it was Danny. He always took advantage of me. I had been to this shop too close too the deadline before and he had guessed I needed to do business with him. David would not be happy if he knew that. Danny knew that I was in desperate need of money and could force me to accept his price or turn me away. David only accepted money. He gave me an evil grin.

"Back again, Duo? How far are you from the deadline?" He asked. I knew that he already knew it was tonight but that didn't stop him from reminding me who was in control of this bargaining. I glared at him.

"It's tonight." I said, trying to keep the malice out of my voice. He grinned at me again.

"Well, let's see then, what've you got?" I handed him the watch praying that this plus the money in the wallet would at least be $500. I could already tell by looking at it that it was real gold. It was a Rolex. I knew a Rolex would not sell for less than $250. This looked to be an expensive watch worth at least $600. Now I just had to see how nice Danny would be. He looked it over making his judgment and then wrote a sum down on a sheet of paper. He looked at me again.

"How much money do you need for the payment?" He asked me with a smile. There are times when I really truly wish I could lie, like now, yeah, now would have been a good time for that.

"500." I said not looking at his eyes. He didn't need to know that I had a wallet as well.

"500 huh?" I looked up at him. He was smiling. Dammit. He held up a sheet of paper, '$650' was written on it.

"This is the price I would normally buy such a watch for, you don't need that much though, in fact, I think I feel like watching you suffer, I'll give you $400 for it." He said with an evil grin. That would leave me $100 short. I still had the wallet though. I tried to keep the glimmer of hope out of my eyes. The guy was rich. He might carry such amounts of money in his wallet. I glared at him. Then I slumped my shoulders.

"Deal." I said. He handed me $400.

"Have fun tonight." He said with another smirk. "Oh yeah, and since you won't be able to pay off your debt tonight," He said with a look out the window, the sun was setting I had to make the payment by 8:00 pm. "I want to see you in here tomorrow or I'll never do business with you again." He enjoyed seeing people in pain. People like me. It disgusts me how sick people can be. I nodded slowly. Then doubled up as pain slammed through my stomach, the drug was really starting to wear off.

I ran out the door to the sound of Danny laughing. David would not be happy if he found out that someone had guessed I was on a drug.

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I ran back to the abandoned-looking apartment and rushed to my room, I quickly unlocked my door and sat down on my bed. I pulled the wallet out and looked inside, praying that there was at least a hundred dollars in there. I pulled out the money and counted it. Fuck. $90. I was ten dollars short, ten measly dollars; I could have stolen that off of a kid. I looked at the clock in my room, twenty minutes until eight. I still had time.

I rushed out of the door locking it behind me, I staggered into the banister leading down the hall as pain roared through me, this one lasted longer than the other two had. I waited for it to pass and then ran down the hall and into the street. I looked around. Need someone, anyone. Come on, ten dollars. Just ten.

There was a man walking down the street, hands in his pockets, slouched over, perfect. I could mug him and get away with it. I walked behind him silently; just because I could do it didn't mean I had to. I looked for the bulge in his back pocket. I carefully reached forward and stumbled onto the ground as pain lanced through my entire body. Dammit, so close. I curled up. Then reached for the hand being held out to me.

"Are you ok?" It took me a second to realize that the man I had been planning to steal from was helping me up.

"Uh, yeah I'm fine." I said, trying to cover up. David would not be happy if anyone found out what he was doing. I need to make David happy, he gives me my fix. Inspiration struck. "I must have tripped, my stomach is hurting a lot. I think I need to go to the hospital, I don't have enough money though."

It was all true, my stomach as well as the rest of my body was hurting. I did need to go to the hospital. I didn't have enough money, after all, what I stole was David's money not mine.

"How much do you think you'd need?" The man asked with concern, making me almost reluctant to ask for money from him. I hated manipulating people.

"Twenty dollars, I've got a little saved up already." I said automatically. Yeah, like however much extra the guy decided to give me. The man opened his wallet.

"No, no. I couldn't take money from you." I said, still on auto-pilot. I was getting tired of using people. But I needed my fix. The man continued looking for money in his wallet.

"How generous you are, here take $30." He said handing the money to me, he pushed it into my hand and turned around. I stuttered a thank you to seem in awe of his generosity. Then I almost fell again but instead managed to smash myself into the wall without too much sound as another wave of pain washed over me. After it stopped, I ran back to my room and looked at the clock, shit, five minute past. Maybe if I asked nicely? I ran to David's office and tentatively knocked on the door. At first there was no answer then the door opened and David stood there.

Well, that's that chapter! yeah, i know some of it is a little unrealistic but hey whatever, it's my fic i can do what i want right? R&R please!