He wants 2 know the story. U kno better. We're in HobNob café. Or if you don't was to come, don't drive off without me. R.
You know, one of these days, I'm just going to block all the texts from my brother.
Well, of course, not really. I can't do that. He's probably my best friend, however sad that sounds. Sure I have girlfriends, but it's not the same. I'm too impatient to explain everything to them. Roddy gets my rushed shorthand way of speaking. That's the way I am, straight to the point without diddle doddle. The traitor got it even more, because he was like that.
You know they say that sometimes, when you accuse someone of doing something, you feel 'deep down' that you're wrong? I felt that, and for some reason really guilty too. I knew he probably had a good reason for being a jerk. When we were young, he would spin a tale with such an 'Aw, what a sweetie' factor that he made you forgive him. Manipulative jackass, my mind said. My heart stayed silent. He always ended up doing the right thing, whatever you thought. It was always annoying, knowing that your demeaning remarks and accusations meant nothing to him.
But I could find no reason to forgive him.
Roddy and I might be twins, but personality-wise, we are like cheese and yogurt. Made from the same stuff, might do the same stuff, the same but totally different, but it was your choice whether you liked one of us. We never thought it was rude if you like one of us and ignored the other. It was just lucky Diego liked us both. It was kind of expected that by the time we were teenagers, we would hate being stuck together since our parents were best friends and we would all get compared with each other, but growing up with each other like siblings, and having personalities that matched meant that we were firm friends. We probably knew each other better than we knew ourselves, if you know what I mean. I knew Diego and his good intentions, but I didn't know what I should do, what I would do. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. I'm a lively character, aren't I? I remembered what I said to Elena, Diego's mother after she begged me to go to him. I love her like my own mother.
Slowly, I turned the key in the car's ignition. Manipulative jackass and his manipulative mother.
I decide the best thing to do is to listen to what I've been told. Warn him. So I do a U-turn and drive to the Café with the silly name.
He doesn't look half bad. Does he have a girlfriend? I shake my head. There's no room for thoughts like that. Of course he has a girlfriend, since he looks like that. Damn, I did it again! I divert my thoughts to whether my car has enough gas in the tank, and if it needs a clean. Old Fordy is the only man in my life.
…
She didn't look particularly happy to be here and see me, even though I'm pretty sure the sole reason of the two of them being here in the first place was to see me. Oh the irony. I give an inward shrug. Her choice.
"So…?" I start off, as she sits down to give me a withering stare.
"Zeke and Oscar and Lenny are hunting you down. To kill you. Basically." Shakira was never one for dawdling. Roddy rolls his eyes and glares at her.
"I saw them a month or so back," she carries on, not looking at me. "They made me stop my car when they realised who I was. And then they tried to get in, but it didn't work so they just ended up spewing all this crap at me in the middle of the street. Basically, they aren't happy. At all. Something about you killing Soto-" Puzzled look. "-and betraying them and crap. I don't know how, but it's not just them anymore; they've got others helping them and I couldn't recognise them. And then they put graffiti all over the car, and I went and told your dad."
"Where were you?"
"In the car."
"No, where was this?"
"In the suburbs of New York, but they won't have stayed there. We came after a week of wondering what to do. They won't have waited."
There's a silence. I understand that at the end of the day, what they're doing is fair, in a twisted, criminal way. I betrayed them, failed them, caused the death of their leader and didn't exactly leave them in a good shape. Despite all the crap we were put through in that group, I was still a Sabre and I had broken pretty much all the laws. If this had been a century or so back, my own dad would have hunted me down, so forget about any mercy from Oscar and his cronies.
"Diego…" Roddy starts, leaning forward. "Why did you leave? What did you do?"
"Why did you leave for…" Shakira pauses, to think up the right word. "Non-Sabres?" I notice that the contempt in her eyes has been replaced by sheer curiosity.
Now or never, Diego.