"I can't believe you're working at a fuckin' gas station."
"Hey, I don't like it anymore than you do." Harry struggled to open the front door of Stokley Hall while talking on the phone and carrying a bag of groceries. She tried to hold the cell phone between her ear and shoulder as she grabbed the door handle and just barely got it open before her cell phone started to slip away. "It's a job, Bobby. That's all I can say. I'm tired of taking advantage of your poor mother. She bought me this track phone, you know."
She let the door slam closed behind her and tried not to gag at the fresh smell of piss in the front entry way.
"Come on! You know ma doesn't mind one bit! She would rather pay for all of your shit than have you working at a fucking gas station. You know how much those things get hit up? A lot more than you fuckin' think. They don't put every gas station robbery in the paper, you know."
Harry sighed into the phone and shook her head even though Bobby couldn't see her. "I know she would but how many times do I have to tell you guys that I need to be out on my own for a while?" She tried her hardest to take the steps two at a time. She really didn't want to take all night getting up the stairs after spending a whole day on her feet.
"Yeah, yeah," Bobby answered. She could hear the irritation in his voice and wished she could do more to sooth his worrying. There really wasn't much she could say, though. Bobby had probably been involved in a few gas station robberies back in his day. He had done a lot of stupid shit before Evelyn set him straight and even a few stupid things after, too.
"Just tell me you'll keep lookin' for somethin' else. I want this to be a temporary situtation."
She wanted to stomp her foot in frustration but continued up the stairs.
"What other kind of job do you think I'm gonna get? If you want me to have a legit job then you're gonna have to be ok with me working at a gas station. That's about as legit of a job a person with a record can get. They tell us in rehab that people will think we're strong for overcoming our addictions but they're wrong. People take one look at the record, ask what happened, and when everything is on the table they just say thanks but no thanks." She hoped Bobby could hear the frustration in her voice and drop the subject.
"Try harder. There's gotta be somethin' out there—"
"Oh shit!" Harry squealed as she tried to dodge the random man that had just come tumbling down the stairs. She tried to press herself as close to the railing as she could get but the man's leg still caught hers and she began to tumble after him. She did her best to hold onto the cell phone but dropped her grocery bags as soon as her body started falling. It felt like forever before her body finally stopped rolling. Her body slammed into the drywall surrounding one of the landings and she let out a loud grown. When she could finally see straight again, she lifted a hand to rub her aching head.
"Harry? Harry? HARRY!" She slowly opened her eyes and began to scan the floor for the source of the voice. She found her cell phone a few inches away from the man that had brought her down with him and quickly snatched it up with a glare in his direction.
"I'm here," she groaned slowly.
"What the fuck happened? I was about to jump on a fucking plane to come get your ass! Don't fuckin' scare me like that again!" He began his tirade right away.
"This guy came out of nowhere! He was falling down the fucking stairs! His leg caught mine and I ended up falling with him." She groaned again and straightened out her legs in front of her. Nothing seemed to be broken. Her head was just killing from the collision it had had with the wall.
"Fuckin' idiot!" She looked up at the sound of the voice that definitely didn't belong to Bobby. At the landing above her, where the man next to her had probably fallen from, a large bald figure was making his way down the stairs.
"Correction," she told Bobby, "He was pushed down the stairs by that guy who lives on my floor." She shook her head again and turned her head to look at the guy next to her. He was also bald and looked Mexican in origin. He had a few visible tattoos and she came to a quick conclusion that he was probably a gang member.
"What do you mean he got pushed?" Bobby's voice registered with her again and she turned back to the conversation. "What guy on your floor?"
"I'll talk to you about it later," she said quickly, "He's coming down the stairs right now."
"Don't hang up on me!" Bobby protested loudly. "I want to know what the fuck is going on."
"Really, Boddy, I'll call you later," she said right before she closed her phone and looked up. The tall bald man had made great time getting down the stairs and was now standing right in front of her. He gave her a quick once over and must have decided she wasn't worth his time because his gaze moved away from her and to the other bald man lying next to her in a groaning heap. She shook her head quickly and began to push herself to her feet.
"He run into you or pull you down?" It seemed like a stupid question to her but she didn't say anything.
"His leg caught me on his way down. I tried to avoid it but it didn't work out…" she trailed off, not sure what else to say and it was then she remembered she had had a bag of groceries with her. She let her eyes travel up the stairs one by one and cursed when she found various items all over the place.
"Great," she muttered as she began to walk up the stairs. Her muscles gave some protest but she ignored them. She bent down to pick up the first item she found, her jar of peanut butter, and then continued up the stairs to her next item.
"Heco, you fucking idiot, I told you to be on the corner five fucking hours ago! And what do you do? You show up six hours later at my fucking apartment!"
The white bald guy was yelling as he bent down to pick up his friend. When his friend was finally on his feet, the white bald guy shoved him into the wall by the throat.
"Whenever you don't fucking work, I gotta put up with the bullshit Bones puts out. Get to the fucking corner and stay there all night. I don't want to see your face again till tomorrow night and you better bring me back some fucking money." He dropped his hand from his friend's throat but then grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down the rest of the stairs. When he turned back around, Harry pretended like she hadn't been watching.
She could hear his footsteps as he started walking up the steps and her heart sped up. She again tried to press her body as close to the hand railing as possible and a few seconds later he walked by her and then continued to walk up the rest of the stairs.
"Thanks for your help," she muttered lowly. She snapped her mouth closed instantly afterward and flinched, hoping he hadn't heard her words. She realized he had, though, when his footsteps came to an abrupt stop. She looked up to find him staring down at her, the meanest, angriest look on his face that she had even seen. She hadn't even seen that bad of a look from Bobby when he was mad at her for something.
"You say something?" He asked harshly. He was challenging her to say it again and she immediately decided she wasn't going to.
"Nothing," she squeaked quickly before breaking their eye contact and quickly bending over to retrieve the rest of her groceries. It was at least another minute before his footsteps could be heard again and she hoped he hadn't been watching her the whole entire time.
When she looked up again she nearly screamed to find that he hadn't gone up the stairs like she had thought, but down the stairs until he was standing only one step above her.
"You just moved in?" He said it in the form of a question even though, she guessed, they both already knew the answer.
"Yeah." She cleared her throat in an effort to sound more confident. "I live a few doors down from you actually…" she trailed off and crossed her fingers that he didn't think she was stalking him or something. There was just something about him. She was pretty sure she would never forget him even if she tried.
It was a few seconds longer before he nodded. He moved to rest his hands on his broad hips and she flinched away from the movement. Who could blame her?
"There are a few things you gotta know about this building." He leveled his stare at her even more and wanted to bunch up in a ball and hide. "You see somethin', you don't say nothin', especially to the fucking cops. There's a lot of shit that goes on here but it goes on without a fuckin' hitch. I own this fucking building." He got closer to her as he said the last sentence and she really cowered then. "Don't get on my bad side."
He seemed to be satisfied with his little speech but he looked her up and down again, gauging her reaction.
"I've got people," she said, before she could stop herself. She realized how stupid she sounded but there was no way she could just stop there. "If something happens to me, or I get hurt in anyway, I have people, and they'll find you." At least she could say her last statement with confidence. It was true.
If something happened to her in this God forsaken building, if someone hit her or even tried to harm her, all she had to do was mention it to Bobby, or Jack, or Jerry. They would all protect her in an instant. It was part of the bond all of them had formed over the past six months or so.
As if on cue, the door downstairs opened and slammed shut. Harry took her eyes off of the bald guy long enough to look down the staircase to see Jerry. She sighed with relief by accident. She was glad he was there, very glad. If she had been in a different situation, she would have been mad at Bobby for calling in reinforcements but at this point in time, Harry could only be happy.
"Jerry!" She called down to him. She watched as he looked up at her, glared, and then started to run up the stairs.
"You are in so much fucking trouble," he began but stopped when he saw the man standing in front of her, her ripped plastic bag, and her arms full of groceries. "What's going on here?" He put on his best tough guy act and moved closer to Harry.
The man started to glare at the both of them at the same time and Harry was torn between fear and confidence now that Jerry was there. He certainly wasn't the strongest of her four best friends but he could still hold his own.
"Just a casual conversation," the bald guy said easily. He didn't move from his position on the stairs and that made Jerry intensify his glare.
"You Darley?" Jerry said suddenly. The bald man looked at him sharply and his chest seemed to puff out with anger. "Yeah, I know about you." Jerry continued. "She's got people. And we like to know where she's livin'."
Darley, as Jerry had called him, turned his anger into a wide, sadistic smirk. "Yeah, she said that."