You remember?

10 grand

Mandy rang the doorbell again. She had already done it three times and nothing had happened but she knew somebody was home because she could hear the TV even here outside.

"What the hell?!" A woman yelled as she opened the door staring angrily at Mandy. The woman had blond hair that reached to her chin and wore a grey sweater that had definitely seen better times. That must be Sammi. "Hi. I'm Mandy... Mandy Milkovich." Sammi narrowed her eyes as she heard Mandy's last name and it seemed like she was about to close the door but then she said: "What do you want?"

"Talk."

"About what?"

"Money."

As soon as Sammi heard the word money she suddenly looked really interested.

"Can I come in?"

Sammi hesitated but finally opened the door a little wider and let Mandy inside. The house wasn't big from the outside but even smaller on the inside. Every inch of the room was covered with stuff, one huge mess. She looked to the left and saw a boy, that had to be Chuckie, sitting on the sofa watching TV. The volume was probably on highest level, Mandy's ears hurt because it was so loud.

"Chuck!" Sammi shouted "CHUCK! Turn the volume down now! TURN IT DOWN!" No reaction. She went to the couch, took the remote out of her son's hand and switched the TV off. "Go to your room now. You can watch something else later." Chuckie just looked at her with empty eyes and then left through a door behind the sofa.

"So why exactly are you here?" Sammi asked Mandy and threw a look at her that probably was supposed to be threatening but which was so ridiculous that she almost started laughing. But then she remembered why she went here and became serious again.

"Well, it's about my brother. As you know he is in prison because of you." She couldn't help it. Before she came here she had planned what she was going to say in order to be as nice as possible but now that she saw the person that brought her brother into this mess she just felt so much anger, she even had to force herself to not punch her in the face or worse.

"Yeah, and as you know I had every reason to put him there" Sammi simply answered.

"Are you serious?" Mandy asked scoffing.

"He tried to kill me! So yes, I'm serious!" Sammi shouted but stared at her nervously. She knew that making a Milkovich mad could end really badly.

"He didn't intend to kill you and you fucking know that. He wanted to teach you a lesson! But I'm sure he wouldn't have been sad if you had died!" Mandy shouted back knowing that this whole thing didn't quite went the way she had planned, but the words were out before she thought about them.

So she went on. "You had no right to do what you did. They had absolutely nothing to do with Chuckie being in juvie so you gotta fix this." Sammi started laughing. "How? But more importantly: Why would I do that?"

"Because I will pay you."

"Oh right, you came here to talk about money."

Sammi put on a sad face. "Well, unfortunately you wouldn't be able to afford the amount I would need to reconsider my testimony."

Mandy was trying really hard not to pick up the ugly vase on the table next to her and throw it at Sammi as she said: "How much?"

"Ten thousand dollars."

Mandy swallowed hardly. She had suspected that it would be about this much but really hearing it created a tight feeling in her chest. Of course she wasn't able to afford this much money but she would do everything to try, so she nodded.