It didn't take long after Kid gave Nia's grandfather's number to Killer for his brother's name to flash up on his screen. Kid answered putting him on speaker phone, "Hey bro."
"Hey Kid. So her grandpa's okay with her staying there tonight as long as you don't share a bed," Killer stated.
"Duh," Kid retorted while rolling his amber eyes. Nia giggled a little at Kid's remark. Then Killer continued explaining what he and Nia's grandfather had agreed to. He went over the basic rules which included that Nia's grandfather was expected in about an hour with an overnight bag for her, and not to open the door for anyone else. If they say they're the police, call 911 and check that the police are in fact outside of the apartment before opening the door.
He'd arranged to have their neighbour observing from the peephole at their door incase anything happened and they needed an adult to intervene while Nia's grandfather was there. In addition he'd made a report anonymously about the incident as two things concerned him: first concern was her grandfather letting a thirteen year old girl to walk from one side of the city to the other unaccompanied during this heat wave with a respiratory condition, and the second was the girl's attitude about her grandpa's friend's behaviour as it seemed someone was trying to condition her into believing it was normal for an adult to say things like that to a minor.
Kid nodded along with everything his brother was saying while Nia sat biting her lower lip and twiddling her fingers nervously. Kid felt his heart ache for her, yeah she didn't have any other relatives stepping up readily but she also couldn't put herself in danger like that. Last thing that Killer mentioned was that he absolutely wanted them to use the emergency money he told Kid about to buy some eggs and pancake mix, don't spend the rest unless they had to. An example would be if someone got an upset stomach or they cut themselves preparing dinner and used the last of the band aids. If something like that didn't happen he expected to see the rest of the emergency money back in the cookie jar.
Kid nodded in agreement, "alright. Any idea when you'll be home?"
"I'm not closing tonight should be around midnight. Just leave my steak in the fridge I'll fry it up when I get home," Killer answered.
"Like hell! You were on your feet for eight hours cooking for how many people? Nah. I'm frying that steak for you," Kid objected.
Nia smiled at the interaction between the brothers and even more so when she heard Killer's voice soften a bit as he answered, "Alright Buddy, I gotta head back my lunch break's over. Keep safe you two."
"Yeah you too. I'm countin' fingers when you get home," Kid teased.
Once Kid had ended the call, Nia asked, "he doesn't normally get hurt, does he?"
Kid shook his head from side to side, indicating 'no'. He bit his lip a little, drumming his fingers on the table.
Nia noticed the behaviour as being anxiety related and asked, "are you okay?"
"I umm—I'm gonna step out on the balcony for a bit," Kid announced as he practically bolted up from the table and went to the balcony door in the living room, he opened it and stepped out, closing the sliding glass door behind himself.
Nia arched an eyebrow and went to the sliding glass door as Kid lit the cigarette that was between his lips and sucked in a drag from the smoke, seeming to relax almost instantly. He spun around, wide eyed when the glass door slid open and Nia informed him, "You could smoke inside if you normally do. My asthma doesn't get triggered by cigarettes."
He blinked a few times before a smile spread across his lips and he voiced, "Oh. I wasn't sure and—well most people when they find out I smoke they think bad of Killer. So I—you know what? I'm just dropping it. I invited you to stay the night, of course you were gonna find out."
"It's okay. There's worse things than cigarettes," Nia offered as she stepped out onto the balcony with him.
He nodded his head recalling friends he'd seen shooting up and how sick they got when they stopped using. He exhaled the drag he'd been holding in his lungs and verbally agreed, "Yeah. Crack. Heroin. Cocaine—even alcohol can be worse."
Nia nodded as she approached the railing of the balcony and Kid was quick to put his arm out to stop her, shaking his head 'no' once again.
She retreated back towards the glass door where he was standing. He balanced the cigarette between his middle and index finger as he pulled it away from his mouth and advised, "It's not the most secure balcony. Slumlord's been dragging his ass on some repairs."
"Oh. Okay, I'll stay back then," she acknowledged. She eyed him momentarily before stating, "I just realized how tall you are."
He chuckled in amusement and nodded, "Yeah. My brother's 6'5 and we can share clothes, if that gives you a better idea."
"You must've really stuck out in junior high," she commented off handedly before regretting her choice of words. She blushed as she corrected herself, "I mean height wise. You had to be like what? The tallest in the school?"
"Pretty much all through Junior high, yeah," Kid agreed as he put out the cigarette. He avoided looking at her as he asked, "you're not weirded out by the fact I wear makeup?"
"It's your face. Do what you want," was her immediate reply.
He hadn't been sure when he stepped in while those Celestial Dragons were bullying her, but he was definitely starting to like her as a person. She was chill about a lot of things most people weren't. He always became anxious when meeting new people and that often translated into perceived hostility from the people he was meeting.
She was putting him at ease, but then again maybe part of that was how he'd approached her at the start. He'd been fighting against his usual hostile responses, trying to keep calm so she could calm her breathing down.
It had been mentally exhausting for him but it had worked at getting her breathing controlled.
"How long have you been smoking?"
"Started when I was twelve, so three years," Kid admitted.
He looked to her and announced, "okay your turn to spill something about yourself. You know I'm an orphan, I live with my brother, I work part-time, you know what my place looks like, you know I wear makeup although that's not much of a secret and now you know I'm a smoker. So tell me one about you."
Nia was silent for a while before admitting, "There is one but it's a little dark. There's this massive multiplayer online game my mom and I used to play—called World of Warcraft. I haven't played since she died. I miss it. When her illness got really bad it was the only thing we could really do together that wasn't a household chore or a doctor appointment. I cry every time I get to the log in screen. I can't get past it."
"That sucks," he remarked, he rubbed the back of his neck as he added, "something like that it—I'm not surprised. Grief doesn't have a time limit despite what some people think. I was still grieving my grandmother when my parents passed and she died five years ago. I don't know how long I'll grieve my parents. I mean overtime the pain isn't as fresh – but it's still there. I don't think grief really stops you just adapt to it and carry on. Cause what else can you do? If you stop living, you're disrespecting their memory—but it changes you. No matter how much you want to be the person you were before there's a part of you that's not gonna change back and you don't want to because if you do it's like saying they didn't matter and that could never be true."
Nia gave a faint smile and nodded as she admitted, "I get what you're saying. I just wish it didn't hurt so much. There was one quest we were trying to finish but—We never quite got the hang of it."
Kid thought back to the car engine that he and his Dad had been rebuilding when his parents had been killed and nodded, "yeah. I get that. It feels like it's unfinished."
Nia heard a car door close and stood on her tip toes trying to see over the railing from where she was standing. Kid held back a chuckle as he stated, "you can look over the railing just don't put any of your weight on it."
"Um—I'm five foot nothing," Nia pointed out. Kid rolled his eyes as he knelt down in front of her. She climbed onto his back and he moved close to the balcony railing so she could look over. She stated, "that's Grandpa's truck."
"Alright," Kid replied as he knelt down again so she could hop down. She jumped off his back and dashed back into the apartment, Kid followed her in and closed the balcony door behind himself. No sooner had he closed the balcony door there was a knock at the apartment door.
