Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Job went shit

DIXON’S POV

“Oh, shit. I am gonna die.” I muttered to myself.

My hands were tied, my eyes were blindfolded and I can’t feel my freaking face. The tingling sensation on my lower lip had turned into a deep seething pain and I can feel it grow one size bigger. A busted lip is the least of my problem, nor was it the greatest of the injuries I have as of the moment. I don’t even know where I am or who I am with. I could hear muffled breathing and snippets of conversations from the people who took us.

I didn’t have to guess who ordered our hit. Gustav Pallino. He's pretty popular in the hood. Popular and deadly they say. I was not certain of the latter until I was tied down.

The last thing that I remember was hanging out with my group. Yeah, I am fifteen and I have a group. This is New York. No one survives East Harlem without a group. Well, some people don’t…like my sister, Meredith. Oh, crap. She must be home now and by this time----Meredith had found out that I wasn’t home by the time she was done panicking, she’d probably checked the Deli store where I was ‘supposedly’ working as my part-time job.

That was a lie. I wasn’t working. The truth was I was hanging out with the toughest thugs in school for two reasons:

One, I need to have a group to put an end to bullying. I was bullied a lot. Before the gang, I belonged to the lowest caste of the school with no chance of ascending one level higher. Maybe with a miracle, but highly unlikely. The moment the word spread out that I was in Nick’s gang, all my bullies lay low.

Two, this was not in my plan. I ended up working. Two weeks after I was accepted into the gang, Nick offered me a job. A job that pays really well.

We are poor. Meredith doesn’t like it whenever I use the ‘P’ (poor) word in the house. My sister is an optimist. She’s one of a kind. After the death of our parents, she took me in. She said she couldn’t bear to send me to a shelter so she left college and worked two jobs so the social workers won’t take me away from her.

To me, if that was not love, then I don’t know what that is.

That was the same love that I have that drove me to accept ‘the job’ that Nick was offering. My first job was easy. I was only asked to deliver a manila envelope to a certain address and return with another thicker envelope. The only rule that I had to follow was to not ask questions, to never sneak a peek at the inside of the envelope, and most importantly, don’t be a snitch.

My first job landed me my first one hundred dollars and that was not more than ten minutes. When I gave Meredith half of my first salary, she was intrigued and went ballistics. Imagine if I handed her all the amount.

“Dixon? Where’d you get this money?” Meredith glared at me.

“Uhm…” I minced my words. I did not plan on telling her I was working for a gang or I was with a gang. She’d skin me alive, that’s for sure. “…I…”

Meredith was in the kitchen, making tea for herself. It was past ten PM and she was poring over the unpaid bills scattered all over the dining table, her trusty calculator was out, as well as her wallet. It’s her payday and this also meant she had to stretch her salary to cover all the expenses including our food supplies.

“You what? Cat got your tongue?” She stared at me as if she was reading my mind. “ Don’t tell me you sold the new shoes I bought you? How many times do I have to tell you that you leave the financial burden to me? All you have to do is focus on scho----”

“I work part-time.” I cut her off. There, I've said it! Phew.

“What?” Meredith whispered the words. “Say that again?”

I gulped. “I said I work part-time.”

I’ve been wanting to work part-time since mom and dad passed away. My first dream job was to be a dog walker but Meredith said I was too young to be wandering the streets alone, let alone be walking dogs half my size. She’s very protective of me. I understand that. With nobody else to look after us, her behavior is valid.

You see, Meredith loves me so much that maybe she fails to realize that I am no longer the helpless child that needed her for a lot of things. I am fifteen and I am taller than she is by now.

“Why?”

“Please, don’t get mad at me.” I sat in front of her. Meredith may be overreacting but she loves me and she listens to what I have to say. Suffice to say, our household is not under a dictator but she’s a little paranoid when it comes to me. “ Okay, I am sorry. I should have not lied. I just want to help you. You are always tired.”

Instead of getting a smack in the head, Meredith hugged me and told me that I should keep my first salary. That she’s not going to take that joy from me. Meredith understood me and she also added that she’s proud of me for manning up.

“Just promise me one thing, okay? Don’t. I repeat, don’t do anything stupid.”

I know what she meant by that and it made me guilty. But I still gave her my word. After all, as long as Nick gave me delivery jobs once in a while, no more no less----I was good.

But that was not what happened. Nick made me do more and our last job led one thing to another. The last thing I remember, I was at Nick’s crib after school because I wanted out. I discovered that the parcels he asks me to deliver were drugs. Nick did not want me out and threatened to snitch me to the cops if I leave. That was also the exact time that armed men, dressed in all black broke into his apartment. I felt a short stabbing pain at the nape of my back and passed out. The last thing I saw was Nick’s limp body carried out by a mountain of a man.

The best that I could do was to close my eyes and pray that Meredith will find my body and lay it to rest alongside our parents.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter