Black or White

Chapter 21 )( It Doesn't Appeal Like It Used To

   Their heist agenda was doing well, they had done about seven big ones in the three months since their first. One of the banks they had done already but on a smaller scale so they went back for more. It sounded greedy, but Dan thought it was fitting based on their profession.

Mara had started going on the heists too, about a month after their first heist. Her fan sites had closed down, most people believed she had just disappeared for good, but they were wrong. She made her comeback with a new look, a completely black faux leather suit in place of her black and white one. She had showed it to Dan on the hanger a few days before her first heist.

"So," Dan pursed his lips, "what exactly did you want me to do?" Mara rolled her eyes at him and pulled the suit down. She draped it in front of her, the shiny fabric falling limp without support.

"I got it back from the company a few days ago. I just wanted to show it to you, I love it." Dan understood that, Thema used to be like that when she got something pretty and could not wait until school on Monday to show someone, even if over a video call.

Despite seeing it beforehand, Dan was very much open mouthed when Mara walked out of her room the day of the heist. They sat and discussed more on how they would work with the new earpieces they had bought. Dan had to keep his eyes on the devices in their hand just so he would not have to endure seeing the black suit again, which looked much better on the wearer than on the hanger.

By the time the others came by to pick her up, Dan could say that half of them did not have the common decency that he did. He heard one of the guys over the earpiece during the heist, complaining about Mara's outfit.

"How come she gets to wear that and we wear these?" The man in the car with him snorted.

"It looks cooler than all this crap doesn't it."

"You think if we ask she'll get some made for us? Or we could get that Dan guy to do it since she likes him more. I want people to see my goods too, I work too hard to cover up on the job."

"Get a job as a stripper."

"Get better breath." The other man started laughing then promptly coughed to a stop as the first guy told him that Mara and the crew were coming back.

Dan heard someone people climb in to the back of the van and Mara up front with the driver. Then he heard one of the girls ask Mara if she ordered suits like hers for everyone. Mara said no and they did not bring it up again.

Dan had first worried about how the power dynamic among the group would go. While the crew members were not as old as Damien's cousins, most of them were older than himself and Mara. Dan had asked her age one day to figure out by how much and she simply told him that she was older than him.

"You don't even know my age."

"You're twenty-two."

"Did you look me up or something?"

"No. You mentioned that you were nineteen when we first met. Simple math."

"But it's been two years since we met. Simple math would say I'm twenty-one."

"Yeah, and you use being a virgo as an excuse for your behaviour sometimes."

"So, you knew that my birthday passed recently..."

"I found out afterward."

"Ok, sure."

"Mhmm."

"So you won't tell me your age?"

"Didn't anyone teach you it's rude to ask a woman her age? Much less pester her about it."

Keeping that conversation in mind, Dan knew that Mara was a dominant personality. She liked to be followed, she took control of most situations when placed in them. So while Dan had his doubts about the older crew members – especially the gruff men – not listening and/or respecting her, Mara took care of that.

A few weeks before Mara joined them on the field one of the more leadership inclined members, named Tyrece, had been persistent in taunting Mara on how she did not do anything but tell Dan to tell the crew to do things. Mara had ignored him for the most part, which lead him to act as the crew's leader on his own time and be rude to Dan and Mara.

A few days afterward, Mara invited everyone over to discuss the new plans for the next heist. She continued to do that, every meeting had a step by step explanation of how they were to proceed. There were flaws in her plans, that was expected, but once someone pointed them out she took it into consideration and fixed it.

Then during one of the smaller heists that they were slotted to do, one of the guys in the duo twisted his leg as they ran from the police and they limped all the way to Mara's door. She had opened the door again after the twosome came in, to address the officers at her door, with a phone to her ear. Whoever was on the phone got the officers to go away, with only a quick look around of the apartment. When the two came out of hiding they looked at Mara as if they finally understood something – something that Dan learned to admire about her. Mara did not need to exercise power, she made them know that she had control.

Thereafter, things changed. Tyrece remained as their heist leader and leader of their crew, but he stopped criticizing Mara. He and everyone else had decided that they wanted to answer to her. She would keep them out of jail, she would make sure everything went ok.

The crew had grown since then, Dan had found a few more people to recruit with the assistance of their existing members. Most of the new ones were younger, even so than the guy who had complained about Mara's suit. Their youngest was nineteen. Mara had first refused to bring her on, then she stole two hundred dollars from an ATM down town and Mara conceded.

The newer ones were more willing to follow Mara, they did not question her leadership. Dan had a feeling one or two of them were on their way to admiring her also.

The thing is, Mara did not like their crew. She did not treat them terribly but she was never friendly, never made jokes and such with them like she had with Dan. She still spoke about them in terms that pulled Dan's attention, like they were below her. He did not realize why it made him feel so discontent until he spoke to his sister two months after their first heist.

"So is that Damien guy still mad at you?"

"No, we're ok now."

"So you'll bring me to his bakery next time I come visit?" Dan told her of course he would. "I still can't believe we went all over the city and you did not bring me there."

"I forgot ok."

"Because your mind was on your other friend?"

"Thema, I'm not in the mood." For the third lecture that month.

"Not in mood for what? I'm not the one befriending criminals."

"Yeah, that's because I told you not to when you were sixteen."

She ignored his response. "Have you been involved with those bank robberies that I've seen on the news? By chance?"

"Thema, don't you have school?"

"I do, yes. Don't you have a better way of making a living?"

So Dan realized that he knew what it was like to be made to feel lesser than. Even if it was only one person, it still hurt. The worst thing for Dan was that though Thema did it out of a need to feel better about herself, Mara genuinely believed she was better than their crew. It made him wary about his own position in her eyes. Damien's offer ever present in the back of his mind, he wondered if he still needed to risk himself for money and someone who might see him as lesser than.