Viper House

Paying Dues

I ate lunch alone in the library for the rest of the week, picking a different spot each day to avoid Justin who always seemed to be lurking. Maia didn't try to speak to me. For that, I was thankful. I didn't want to apologize, and I definitely did not want to explain to her what the fuck was going on. I didn't even know for sure. Was I going because I owed them or did they need something? Most likely a combination of both. Whatever they wanted would go towards starting to pay off my debt.

Kaylan had agreed to take me to the spot. That was why he'd been a little rougher. A down payment, he'd said. It didn't really matter. I was just glad I had a way—and an excuse—to meet up with them.

Lauren quizzed me in the living room about what Kaylan and I were going to be doing. Dinner, a meeting, and then to the fall festival if we were feeling it. If not, we'd go back to his house. He had the list of reasons for why I wouldn't come back before curfew. He'd already warned her that it was going to be a late night.

I was thankful that Kaylan was early, not because I wanted to get there any sooner than necessary, but because I wanted to get away from Lauren. It was hard to lie to her. Not the actual lying part, but the way that it made me feel to do it to her.

"Remind me again," Kaylan said as he drove, "why they've never met your actual sponsor?"
I was picking at a cut on my hand. "I never really had a legit sponsor. The one I had ended up OD'ing and back in rehab. I haven't really had one since. Didn't need one in juvie."

"And the foster system went with that? Your foster parents did?"

I shrugged, bringing the cut to my mouth to make it stop bleeding. "I was a fucked-up kid who wasn't so fucked up anymore. He's a cop. Figured he could handle it, I guess. I don't really know."

"Huh."

As we got closer to the meet-up point, I sat up and scanned the area. I remembered breaking into a couple of the stores, making a deal in a parking lot, begging for money from strangers, whatever I had to do to survive. I didn't regret living. I regretted how I did it.

"Just park around the corner. I'll meet you at the diner when I'm done," I told Kaylan as we got close.

He nodded and pulled off to the curb. He shifted in his seat to look at me. "Be careful, you hear? I don't want anyone messing up your pretty face."

"I'll be fine," I muttered and got out of the car as he reached for me.

I pulled my hood up and walked quickly down the street, keeping my head down. The sun was just starting to set, so there was still a good bit of people wandering around. It would be my luck that someone would recognize me.

I walked around the back of an older brick building. People were entering the front to grab some of the "state-renowned" pizza. It tasted like shit. Like someone had picked up shit at the park and dumped it into the crust mix. It was a wonder that people kept coming back to eat it.

I knocked on the back door. As I waited, I rocked back and forth on my feet. They took their time as always. Probably checking to see if they needed to hide their stash.

The door finally opened and a large man I had never seen before opened it. He wasn't large in the muscular sense. He was large in both length and width. I looked him up and down as he sneered at me.

"Julian here?" I asked finally.

He grunted and stepped aside so I could enter the dimly lit stock room. I weaved my way through the shelves to the middle of the room. When inspections were happening, it was transformed into the area where pizza boxes were being put together. A simple flip, but effective.