Mikey was waiting for Ray the next afternoon in the closet of Lucky's. This time, he had a ratty old blanket with him. He was ready to take an actual nap.
When Ray walked in, Mikey sat up. "Did you come in the back?" he asked. Ray nodded. "Just like you told me to." There was a pause. Mikey snorted unattractively, causing Ray to burst into a fit of giggles.
Mikey put his hand over the other's mouth, biting his lip and trying not to make noise. "Shh, or someone's gonna hear us. And we aren't together. Remember?"
Ray nodded. "So I got those questions ready for you," he said. Mikey sat down, covering his lap with his blanket.
"Is that warm?" Ray asked. "Or... Clean?"
"What? Are you asking about my blanket or my dick?"
Ray blushed. "T-The blanket."
Mikey laughed. "Yeah, it's warm. Kinda. And clean. No bugs are gonna come crawlin' out of it. You'll be fine." He hesitated, then lifted the blanket. Ray stared at it for a second, then situated himself under it beside Mikey.
"Um, thanks," he mumbled, his cheeks going even redder than before. Mikey nodded. "Now, where are those questions you got?"
"Oh!" Ray reached into his bag and pulled out some papers. "Here! I've started on some. We can answer these questions together and compare the results."
"Sure, if that's what you think'll work. You're the brainiac here."
Ray nodded. "Okay. Question one; what foods are served in the culture?"
Mikey gave the paper a weird look. "I think this is designed for the Canadians," he said.
Ray laughed. "Okay, next question. Is there a typical style of dress?"
Mikey thought about it. "You dress like boring-ass lawyers, and we dress like dope-ass motherfuckers."
"Alright, how about this: 'The residents of Inland Pike dress in more formal, business-type clothing, while the inhabitants of Redwood City prefer darker, more dangerous clothing.' And we can add details and reasoning later."
"Dangerous?" Mikey asked. "How do we dress dangerous?"
"Um, do I even need to answer that?"
Mikey rolled his eyes. "Next question."
"What do people do for fun?"
"Around here, we hang around Lucky's. Or we interact with other gangs in town. Or we get revenge on people who fucked with us."
"Define revenge."
"Key their cars. Steal their shit. This one time, we knew this guy who was dealin'. And that's okay, but he was beatin' his wife, and that's never okay. So we took as much of his dealin' money as we could carry and sunk it at the docks."
"You sunk it? Why wouldn't you steal it?"
"'Cause that wouldn't be good. Plus, he could get that money back. He couldn't get back something at the bottom of a river."
Ray nodded.
"What about you?" Mikey asked. "What do you like to do, princess?" Ray blushed. The nickname had started out as an insulting joke, but now it had a more affectionate tone to it.
"Uh, I don't do much. Watch TV, play video games. With my friend Patrick, mostly. Sometimes some others."
"Are they as annoying as you?"
Ray paused. He opened his mouth, but he didn't really know how to respond.
"Relax, princess." Mikey laid a cautious but gentle hand on Ray's thigh. "I was kidding."
"Oh." Ray laughed nervously. "Uh, next question. Do buildings have identifiable features?"
Mikey sighed, leaning his head on Ray's shoulder as he thought. "They're all really old, and the last updates on them were literally when they were built."
Ray nodded. He went to write it down, looking for the next question. "How is public space used?"
"We hang out in streets and alleys, and we don't really go inside. Unless we're eatin' or sleepin'. You guys?"
"We go for walks, but other than that, we're all inside mostly."
"How do people greet each other?"
"'Hey, fuckwad!'"
"'Hey! How are you?'"
The questions continued, and Mikey and Ray began to realize how strange their cultural differences really were. They didn't live a mile away from each other, but they didn't understand the luxuries of the other side of the fence.
~
"Please pick up, please pick up, ple-"
The dial-tone stopped. "Patrick!" Ray cried. "You have to come over, right now."
"But-"
"Patty, this is super important!"
"I don't doubt that, but I'm in the middle of something right now."
"What's going on? Is everything okay?"
"Uh... No."
"What happened?"
Patrick paused on the other line. "Do you know anything about that Lucky's place? I-In downtown DR..."
Ray started thinking, making sure he hadn't left anything there. "Uh, I've heard of it, yeah. Why?"
"Come over. There's something going down."
Ray practically sprinted over the fence and down the street to Lucky's. He took the long way, not wanting anyone to see his secret way to get into the back.
He spotted Patrick standing outside, along with a bunch of other IPH kids. They all looked scared.
"What's going on? Where's Ryan?"
Patrick pointed. Ray looked up, and he could hear angry yells from inside the shop. He could just barely make out Mikey's angry face in the dirty window.
Ray started towards the door, but Patrick grabbed his sleeve. "What are you doing?!" He hissed. "You can't go in there, are you crazy?!"
"Yes." Ray struggled with his friend, who wasn't giving up without a fight.
"I don't have the fucking time for this," Ray muttered. Time stopped. "Don't act like you haven't heard it before," he said. He grabbed Patrick by the wrists and hoisted the smaller boy onto his back before storming into Lucky's.
Ryan was standing at the stairs, looking terrified. Someone dressed in a staff shirt with a name-tag with 'Brendon' printed on it was yelling furiously at him. Another staff member, Dallon, was behind Ryan, making sure he couldn't run anywhere. Gerard stood off to the side, looking angrier than most people had ever seen him, and Mikey was holding something.
It took Ray a second, but he realized that Mikey was holding Ryan's jacket.
Ray walked over and grabbed the jacket from Mikey. "What the Hell are you doing with this?" Ray hissed.
"He was trying to go upstairs, and what if he'd tried to steal something and was plannin' on sneaking out the back?"
"Ryan wouldn't do that."
"Give me the jacket."
"No."
"Look Toro, I know we've been on okay terms, but my guys come before yours in this end of town. I can't be actin' different towards you, but be threatening to shank everyone else!"
"Toro? Why not princess?"
"I just told you why not princess, Toro. Give me the jacket before I do something we both regret."
"And what would that be?"
In one swift move, Mikey had snatched the switchblade from his pocket and poked it into Ray's chest. "Don't make me push this-"
"You wouldn't-"
"Did you forget that I'm in a gang?"
"No, I remembered that just now."
Mikey sighed angrily. "Just let me check the jacket. Don't be a dick about this. It's store protocol."
"You don't work here."
"Not for pay."
Ray rolled his eyes, thrusting the jacket back at Mikey. Mikey quickly rooted through the thing, then threw it back at Ray. Then he grabbed Ray by the collar, yanking him close so that Mikey could whisper into his ear.
"Meet me tonight, midnight..." he paused, thinking for a second. "Just meet me at the back door of Lucky's."
"Why?" Ray whispered.
"Shut up, you'll find out. I'll see you then."
Mikey shoved him away. "Now get out. And take your little friends with you."
AN: So sorry about the big delay, so here's some drama for the wait! It's going to be a little slow updating, and I'm sorry about that, but I'll try my best!
P. S. Thanks to MIT for the questions!XOXO -E