Shorter and Lux sat in silence as the movie on the screen of the drive in played. It was some black and white film that Lux had never seen before. She knew Shorter loved old time horror flicks so it was no surprise he had picked the screen time that it was showing at. He probably thought the film would scare Lux enough for her to lean into his arms so he could make a move. It would have been so easy, right? Lux rolled her eyes at the thought. He had probably pulled that move out on a bunch of other girls before she came along. To wash away the sour taste in her mouth, Lux took a sip of her purple soda that they had bought from the bodega before coming to the drive-in theater.
"Mind if I take a sip?" Shorter asked, trying to fill the silence with a conversation that Lux was avoiding. She passed the bottle over, refusing to look anywhere that wasn't the large screen. "Hey."
"Shh." Lux hushed, "I'm trying to hear." The movie wasn't interesting enough in the slightest for Lux to even care about what was happening, but the last thing she wanted to do was talk just to be manipulated once again.
Shorter sighed, plopping his cheek in his palm. "If you didn't wanna meet up you coulda said that." Lux scoffed and rolled her eyes again. She had been doing that the whole night. Shorter tried to act like he hadn't noticed but Lux was making it obvious that something was bothering her. He knew exactly what it was but how could he talk about the issue when all Lux wanted to do was sit in silence.
The vibrating from Lux's back pocket grabbed their attention. She quickly typed back with a soft smile on her face. Yuji had apologized to her at school about what happened the night before at the bar and grill. She accepted his apology and explained how she was just freaked out and needed time for herself. But she couldn't deny liking the feeling of a boy checking in and having her on his mind.
The incident was something Lux wanted to move on from. It wasn't going to define or traumatize her. She refused to be seen as a victim who needed protecting. From now on she was going to defend herself and not let any guy ever use her in any way ever again. That included Shorter.
"Is the movie almost over?" she asked, still typing on her phone. The conversation must have been a good one considering how Lux hadn't stopped smiling.
Shorter ignored the question and had one of his own. "Who's texting you?"
"Nobody."
The fast tapping of Lux's nails irritated Shorter. He was trying to be civil with this girl but she was doing everything she could to get under his skin. "Put the phone down." Lux looked up and raised an eyebrow. After yet another scoff and shake of the head, she went back to texting. "God damn it, Lux. I'm trying to talk to you."
Lux clenched her jaw. Throwing the phone in her purse. "What? Do I have to drop everything I'm doing just because you want my attention? Because if that's the case, I can't remember the last time you did that for me." she shot back.
"Don't do that." he shook his head. "I told you what this was. You know I'm busy." Shorter had told Lux time and time again that his life was dangerous. That some days were more hectic than others. He wasn't the kind of guy that could schedule meet ups that had nothing to do with gang business. He thought Lux understood that but with the way things were going, he was definitely wrong about the case.
"Clearly not busy enough to go out having sex with every girl that shakes her ass for you!" Those words felt gross coming out of Lux's mouth. But that's what this situation was. It was gross. The whole thing made her sick to her stomach. She had allowed herself to be used and disrespected just because her stupid heart played tricks on her. Lux had convinced herself that the whole situation with Shorter was fair. That it was something she'd have to accept and get used to with no complaints. He could go fuck whoever he wanted just as long as Lux got a taste of his attention. That should have been good enough, right? Lux's blood boiled. She was humiliated at all the things she had allowed Shorter to get away with.
"If that's what was bugging you then why didn't you just say that?" Shorter groaned, "Instead of acting like a brat this whole time?"
"Because Shorter! You act like talking fixes everything! You want to talk things out because you think you can just bat your eyelashes at me and I'd forgive you. Well guess what. That's not going to work this time." Lux argued loudly. The cars around them began to stare through the windows but they were too busy yelling to even notice the attention they were drawing to themselves. "What even am I to you, huh? Because you sure as hell don't treat me like a friend. You don't want to be my boyfriend. So what is this? What am I doing here with you?"
Shorter didn't know what to say. He liked having Lux around. He enjoyed her company most of the time. Only thing that bugged him was that she expected his attention every day. He didn't have time for that. And he sure as hell wasn't used to it. All the girls he had hooked up with understood that so why couldn't she? "I've explained it to you already. I can't keep you close. I have so much shit going on that there's times when I can't give you the attention that you want."
"Attention?" Lux yelled, "You think that's what this is about? Shorter you might not even realize this but you do everything you can to keep me attached to you. Even when you tried distancing yourself from me, you were the one who came back! You wanted to keep me in your life but once I'm in it you want to push me away whenever I'm an inconvenience. That's the issue! You can't have it both ways!"
"You're the only one that has a problem with this." No girl had ever given Shorter this much trouble before. Well maybe one... "You want to be in my life? This is what it is. It's not fucking pretty. It's not fair either. Get used to it, sweetheart."
"You're unbelievable."
"And you're hardheaded."
Shorter and Lux shared scowls. This was the first time they had ever brought out the worst in each other and it wouldn't be the last. If Lux wanted to go home, Shorter wouldn't hesitate on dropping her ass off. At least then his headache would go away. Then again they both knew how things would play out right after that. They'd spend hours reminiscing on fond memories spent with each other. They'd begin to miss the feeling of being wrapped in the others arms. Then the late night text would happen. Or Shorter showing up on the balcony. Another heart to heart talk only for the problems to happen all overs again.
The two couldn't help it. Lux missed this crazy, dangerous boy with kind hands and a bright smile. And Shorter couldn't let go of the little innocent light that Lux brought into his life. The fond times spent together were worth the few nights that they were at each others throats.
Shorter's phone began to buzz and he angrily answered. "What is it, Hook? I'm in the middle of something here." Lux watched Shorter's expression drop into one that could only be explained as sheer paranoia. "Is everyone alright? Okay good. Yeah I'll be right there I just- Alright. Alright." Shorter hung up and put the car in drive, speeding out of the lot.
"Where are we going?" Lux asked.
"I need to check in on something." Soon Shorter pulled up to a dark underpass where another car was camouflaged in the shadows of the bridge. "Stay here. Stay off your phone." he instructed. Lux had no choice but to listen. She watched as Shorter met with two guys. One of them she had recognized from the party. The boy with the fluffy brown hair. Shorter had beaten him in that fight. The boy with the black hair next to him though, didn't look familiar at all. "What the fuck happened?"
"We made the sale with Ash's gang like you said." Viper lit a cigarette and blew the smoke past his bosses head. "But we changed the location."
"Yeah Hook told me. What about the stash house? How the fuck did the cops find it?"
"Take a guess." Hook buried his hands in his pockets to hide his clenched fists. He didn't want the Boss to know that he was upset with him.
"Sing?" Shorter shook his head, "Nah. There's no way that Sing would rat us out."
"Oh yeah?" Viper tilted his head, "Seems kinda strange then that our stash house gets hit after you brought a new guy in to know its location."
Lux kept her head down like she was told. Whatever Shorter and his guys were talking about couldn't have been good by how upset everyone looked. Lux was curious and slowly rolled down the window to see if she could hear anything.
"Sing had no time to talk to any cops. He's been with me or at the apartments." Shorter defended. The whole situation looked bad but something in his gut was saying Sing was innocent. Then he had a flashback to catching Sing on a phone call in which he tried to hide until Shorter questioned him on it. It may not have been Lao on the other line after all.
"What about today? I hadn't seen him at the apartment. Was he with you tonight?" Viper questioned rhetorically. "You're lucky that Hook and I moved everything to a different location last night. There was something off about that little prick, Boss. We couldn't risk it."
"Glad we didn't. Or else we'd be fuckin screwed. We didn't even let Lao in on the new location of the buy either just in case." Hook added, "Thankfully that idiot ran off the moment he heard sirens close by."
"This shit stays between us." Shorter ordered, "Until we find out it was Sing, we're gonna act like nothing happened. Got it?"
Lux stayed down, giving up on trying to hear. The boys were too far away. Suddenly her cell started to buzz in the open purse that was on her lap. The glow of the screen flashed on her face, "Crap!" she quickly hung up, afraid to check to see if her cover had been blown.
Hook stared past his Boss and over at the car that had a bright light shining from inside. He nudged Viper to get his attention on the vehicle. "Boss, is there someone with you?" Shorter knew it was forbidden to bring tag alongs to meet ups like this. He turned to see that the inside of his car was still dark but knew something had happened. The boys didn't wait for an answer and went to confirm their suspicions. Hook opened up the side door despite Shorter's protests and saw a disheveled Lux spill out along with an empty bottle of fire ball. She had her shirt inside out and pink panties around her left ankle.
Shorter hurried over to the side of the car and picked Lux up, her lips reeked of alcohol and cinnamon. She lazily hung onto his arm as he held her upright as she drawled her words as she spoke. "Baby are we back at your place already?" Lux planted sloppy kisses against his cheek and neck.
Shorter knew exactly what Lux was doing. "Sorry about that. You guys caught me when I was in the middle of something." He carefully sat Lux's limp body back into her seat. "Take it easy babe. Go back to sleep."
Hook and Viper stared awkwardly between each other. They knew their boss got around but damn. Did he ever take a break from it? "Sorry Boss." Hook apologized, feeling embarrassed by how he reacted. If Shorter wanted to punish them for acting out of line it was a hundred percent within reason.
"It's fine. She kinda wore herself out from- Well you get it." Shorter shut the car door as Lux subtly breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully Shorter is terrible about cleaning out his car and had a bottle of fire ball laying on the car floor. The little bit left inside was enough for Lux to rub around her mouth to smell like she had been drinking to put over her drunk girl act. "Like I was saying. Nobody speaks a word about Sing. And when Lao asks about why you guys ditched him just say you were being dicks or something."
The boys agreed. "I know you took this kid under your wing but if he was talking to the cops then..." Hook looked back at Lux to make sure she was still asleep. "Him and his brother are both dead."
Lux's body almost betrayed her by nearly opening her eyes in shock. Sing and Lao were talking to the cops? There's no way that could be true. At least not for Sing.
"I know. We just have to make sure before we come for their heads." Shorter's heart felt heavy. He should have never brought Sing along with him. "Anyways, you guys did good on the move. Thank you."
"You know we've got your back, Boss." Hook and Viper both confirmed. "Nobody crosses you and gets away with it."
Shorter nodded, sending the two boys both on their way. He got in the car and once Hook and Vipers car was out of sight, Lux sat up. She pulled her panties back up and flipped her shirt back around. She noticed Shorter's grip on the steering wheel tightened as he sped down the empty roads, in full concentration. "Hey..." she said getting his attention.
Shorter turned his head in her direction and went back to focusing on the road. "Quick thinking back there. Acting drunk and all. Smart move."
Lux ignored the compliment. "Sing... You guys were talking about killing him..."
The car started to slow down as Shorter parked on the side of the road. He looked down and sighed, "I didn't want you to hear that." This was the ugly side of his life he didn't want Lux knowing about. She couldn't handle something like this.
"You can't!" Lux's voice broke as she tried to shout. "He's your friend. He's my friend! Shorter please don't hurt him." she cried, clinging onto his sleeve.
"If he's the one who told the cops about the stash house then I don't have a choice. He knew the risks, Lux. He betrayed me. He betrayed our gang." Shorter explained, his eyes watering in the process. "I told him what would happen. I thought that scaring him with the consequences of being a rat would- fuck!" he cursed loudly, slamming his fists against the steering wheel. "I brought him there. I trusted him enough. I shouldn't have."
Lux reached over to take ahold of Shorter's trembling hands, "Hey... look at me and tell me the truth. Do you really think he'd do that?"
"Lux it's obvious. He was the only new factor in it all-"
"That's not what I asked. Do you think Sing would really risk his and his brothers lives like that?"
Shorter sniffled and swallowed the growing lump in his throat, "I don't. But there's nothing that proves otherwise. He knew the location. He knew it was top secret. I caught him on the phone with someone. And I don't know for sure if it was Lao. Then the next day the place gets raided. If it wasn't for Hook and Viper then we'd all be in cuffs right now." Shorter lifted his hand and wiped away Lux's tears. "Listen to me. I can't have you tipping Sing off. Let me handle this."
"He needs to know what's going on!"
"No! Do not get involved. Just trust me. Promise me." Lux squeezed her lips together, unable to swear. "Lux, this is serious. The only way you can help Sing is to stay out of it. Okay?" she nodded, "I need you to promise me. Say it."
Lux gulped, forcing herself to speak. "I promise..."
Something wasn't adding up. Shorter and Lux knew Sing enough to know that being a rat wasn't in his nature. He'd always talk to Lux about how he looked up to Shorter. He was always eager to prove himself to the gang. That's why none of this made any sense. Only thing Shorter was sure of was that there was a measly rat in his presence. And when he fids him...
___________________________________
"What the fuck happened?" Detective Wydell screamed at Lao who was sitting in the interrogation room. "We got to the location of the stash house and you know what we found, genius?" he got in the boys face, "Nothing! The whole place had been cleared out! I even had officers on stand by at the location of the buy and nobody showed up besides your stupid ass!"
"I don't know what happened." Lao had bugged Sing's phone without his knowledge via instruction from Wydell. Knowing Sing was with Shorter and taking the educated guess about them going to the stash house, he decided to call him. When Sing answered, Lao kept him on the phone long enough for the cops to ping the location. It was an old abandoned house that was perfect for stashing drugs. Everything Lao gave the cops was served on a silver platter, yet it all went to shit.
Wydell grabbed Lao from the collar of his jacket, nearly lifting him up out of the chair. "Did you tip them off?"
"No, I swear!"
"Well someone must have known we were going to show up."
"Could have been Viper and Hook." Lao thought back to how those guys didn't like him or Sing. Especially Sing. They didn't think he had what it takes to be in the mafia. He was just a little punk that wanted to be like big bro. Nothing about that was respectable. "They don't trust many people. They must have been suspicious of Sing and changed everything up last minute to throw everyone off." he explained.
"How convenient." Wydell crossed his arms. He paced around the room trying to think of another plan. "Anybody else you could think of that's likely to spill about the Chinese Mafia? Anyone we can at least target? Maybe those whores that linger around? Any of them might know anything useful?"
Lao shook his head. It was a rule not to talk gang business with any of the girls that hung around the apartments for reasons like this. Then again, there was someone who was getting pretty close with The Boss. "There's one girl." Lao clenched his fists, "She's really attached to Shorter from what my brother has mentioned. I don't know if she knows anything but... that's who I'd keep an eye on. The Boss has been back and forth on her bad side lately. Maybe that's an advantage."
Wydell leaned in and gave a dark smirk, "What's her name?"