THE CREW — GROUPCHAT
B ❤️
Does Meat Market ring a
bell for anyone here...?
Baby 🍼Freddie
Ew yeah, my dad insists on
getting bones from there for
our dog and they always end
up reeking throughout the
whole apartment. 🤢
B ❤️
Uh, good to know. But anything
else??
Baby 🍼Freddie
Nope! Sorry man. ✌🏼
Dave 2
It does ring a bell for me, one
time Aaron invited this weird
guy to our chat and he threatened
to expose Aaron of what happened
behind a meat markets fence. But
wouldn't tell us what.
B ❤️
You know where one of these
markets could be?
Baby 🍼Freddie
Your folks never shop there? 😂
B ❤️
. . .
Baby 🍼Freddie
Oh, right. I'm sorry. Keep
forgetting your parents are
locked up.
B ❤️
Yeah.... so anyone got a clue?
T 💚
I do! 🙋🏿♂️ Though I'm pretty
sure you wouldn't accept my
help regardless
B ❤️
No, I actually I could use some
of your help now.
T 💚
Wait but would your favour
affect him in a bad way?
B ❤️
I'm really worried for him, you see....
T 💚
Did something happen to him??
B ❤️
He tell you about how he tried to off
himself not long ago?
T 💚
Yes he did. Why?
B ❤️
He isn't very stable rn. Go figure.
T 💚
Oh my god. 🤭 you're not saying
his trying again... are you?! Please
tell me you're not.
B ❤️
🤷🏾♂️😐
T 💚
Omg. Okay. And you think he
might've went there to do it? If
that's it then I say we go there rn.
I can drive you.
B ❤️
Yeah, come pick me up, turd.
T 💚
I don't like you calling me that, but
whatever, this is about Aaron's life.
I'll be there in about two minutes,
one if I don't get slowed by a red
light.
B ❤️
k.
T 💚
Okay. I'll be on my way, Brendan.
Baby 🍼Freddie
Wow you got yourself a free
ride 😂 Enjoy your nuggets, boy.
B ❤️
😂😂🤷🏾♂️
Brendan walks out of his building and sits down on a cement block by the street. Cars pass by, pushing out fumes that braid into the cleaner parts of the air, corrupting it. It only occurs to Brendan after two blue cars and a silver mazda putter by that he doesn't actually know how Thomas' car looks like, much less what brand it is.
A Hyundai, he guesses. For no reason other than that it was cheap enough for anyone who lived around here to buy.
He leans back on his arms, cocking his face a little towards the mild sunlight. The warmth soaks through his skin, making it shine golden brown, and he sighs lightly. He liked it when he could just relax, even if it was just for a while, but it was enough that the anger he'd just felt streaming through him like an aggressive waterfall seemed to dry off like a puddle left out on the side walk.
Beep. Beep.
His eyes slide open, spotting a green car that's parking onto the curb with its windows rolled down. He sees the slight, but worried, smile from Thomas and immediately rolls his eyes.
"Hey, dude, get in. We'll be down in no time if I'm correct." He calls over and Brendan pushes himself off the cement block, landing clumsily on his feet which have gone numb from hanging. An ache shoots up to his knees. He ignores it and gets into the passenger seat, not bothering to put the seat belt on until Thomas brings to attention that the alarm won't go off until he secured himself.
"You're the risky type, huh?" Thomas throws in a dry joke, chuckling lightly.
Brendan cuts a sharp look at him. "We're not friends, just get me to where the fuck I need to go and bounce."
Thomas hands come up and he holds them out above him. "Hey, hey, I'm just trying to be friendly. We might be rivals but we don't have to act it out?"
The car falls to an awkwardly static silence. Brendan looks out his window and crosses his arms in front of his chest. Thomas seems to get the memo and turns the key. The car rumbles to life and they swerve onto the road, driving at a calm pace that is just enough to make them pass the traffic lights before it turns red.
The Fort Wille Park's brick fence trails along next to them, some cyclists keep up with the car then glide out of sight and Brendan just watches everything through nonchalant eyes. His pupils heft themselves onto one imagine before they dart onto another and another, with quick abrupt flashes.
Silently, he wonders were Aaron might be as of now, or better, what he was doing. Because they knew he was with that Collin kid in some meat market, but he had big doubts that they were just there to buy meat.
Shaking meat, that maybe. Something more likely than shopping for meat anyway.
Thomas sighs softly and somehow, this small noise, was enough to chip Brendan the wrong way. He cuts him another irritated look, sucking his teeth. It erects a little smile on Thomas' lips. But just for a second before worry washes over his face like a sudden change in weather.
"It's stupid." He says, staring at the steering wheel which he's holding steady with both hands, instead of watching the road, like he should. Brendan of course, doesn't notice. He's more interested on what Thomas thought would be supposedly stupid.
Their war. He says.
Nah, you. Brendan returns. Thomas laughs flatly at this, glancing over at him for just a second. He's met with a cold pair of brown eyes, and returns his sight to the street. Which Brendan feels is just right.
Once they reach the end of Fort Wille Park, Thomas turns left and into a small parking lot. Only about four other cars are parked there, but there wasn't much space for others anyway.
Once he kills the engine they quietly exit and Thomas locks his car while Brendan heads out and peers around, squinting against the bright sunlight which seemed more aggressive now than pleasant like it had before.
"We're here." Thomas says, like this had to be announced.
"So we're looking for a fence." Brendan says, still looking, and then his eyes stop right next to the meat market where it's met with a flower shop, divided by an alley. "Over there!" He exclaims, a little too excited for his liking so he follows it up with a cough, then jogs towards the alley.
Thomas tails after him, but lags a little behind. Not because he is slower than him, which he might be too, but more of that he feels like it'd play out better if he gave him some space. And it seemingly worked, if not for finding the fence, Brendan seems to relax into the situation. His posture falls from what was previously tense to letting his shoulder hang a bit more.
"Seems like there's nothing here," He mutters to himself, eyeing every corner of the alley, the walls have dark spots from water damage and weeds are growing from cracks.
It seemed pretty abandoned, like nobody bothered even coming here expect for throwing out from trash. Stray bottles lay here and there, empty cigarette boxes.
Brendan steps on a few of them, checking if there might be some left, but they're mostly empty. Expect for the last one where he finds a single cig and picks it up, tucking it behind his ear for later smokes.
Thomas watches him do all this next to a door leading to the backside of the meat market, then he investigates further, bending forward to peer into the fence, then tiptoes to look over it. "Nothing." He reports back.
Brendan shrugs. "Well, maybe it was another–"
A sound, like a body falling against the fence, makes them both flinch and their heads turn back to it. They share quick glances and in a silent agreement Brendan steps forward, getting to the source of the sound.
"Fuck," A voice sounds from behind the fence, the view is blocked by a giant plastic banner stretching out over the entire thing. Cosmos Circus, a festival from years ago that nobody had bothered to remove or replace by some other kind of advertisement. "I think they're here."
"No shit." Another voice replies, this one lighter, familiar. The blood freezes in Brendan's body. He forms his hands into two fists then lurches forward and begins pounding into the fence with all the anger that's coursing through him like fire following a path of gasoline.
"Yo what the fuck?!" He exclaims. The rattling of the metal chinks cut through the air. "Aaron? what the fuck are you doing there?!"
Thomas moves his arms towards Brendan like he is about to tear him away from the fence, but hesitates, he knows better than to mess with Aaron's friends. At least he's heard enough of bad stories of Me-Crazy to know not to anger them.
"Relax, he's probably not doing anything bad." He says at last, offering him comfort which Brendan doesn't take. Instead, curls his fingers around the chinks and starts tugging.
"Motherfucker," He groans, his face tight from straining so much. "Get our of there and I'll fuck you up, surely."
"Bren, okay, I'll come out, but don't hit." The fence rattles again, but this time not because of Brendan, and through a straight opening comes Aaron. He hops out, flattening his clothes as he stands before both of his friends.
"He-" His greeting ends in a ground and then he's bend over, holding himself. Brendan blows at his fist like he's just put it over a campfire, then crosses his arms.
"What were you doing there?" He demands.
Just then, the fence shakes again and someone else comes out. Brendan doesn't recognise him right away but when realisation kicks in he can't help throwing himself by him, with fists and everything. It's Aaron and Thomas that tear him away from Collin who holds his arms above his head in an attempt to shield himself from the raining blows.
Collin is the first one to leave the scene, once they have Brendan pinned to the greasy looking wall, he makes his escape, undone belt flapping against his pants until he stops by the other side of the street to put it back through the loops, buckles it up, and closes the fly.
Brendan pants, straining his eyes at Aaron with a fury of emotions. Most of them being anger, the weaker ones being frustration and hurt. "You screwed him, didn't you?"
Aaron doesn't answer, he looks straight at Thomas who's struggling keeping Brendan's right arm in check. "Did you drive him here? Why?"
"He told me that he was suspecting you were gonna hurt yourself again...." He swallows. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you...." He falters, looking at Aaron with pleading eyes.
"It's okay." Aaron says flatly, returning his eyes to Brendan who's still waiting for an answer. "Even if I did, we've broken up, so it can't be considered cheating. But we'll talk about it, okay?"
Brendan huffs. "Don't need to talk about nothing. Already know what's going on." He fights then both off himself, then staggers a few steps away where he readjusts his hoodie aggressively. "You're returning back to your fuck buddy whatever you wanna label him, cuz you're too scared dealing with Me-Crazy." He spits against the fence. "I'm out."
As he turns to leave Aaron makes a move like he's about to follow after him but Thomas' hand lands on his shoulder, heavy as lead, and he stops in his tracks.
[ okay that scene was actually so unnecessary and idk why i wrote it lmao. also the writing in that one sucked, haven't written in like a week and writing is pissing me off rn cuz it doesn't make sense in my head if u get what i'm saying, no u probably don't cuz i don't make sense rn, man. i hate writing block. what the shit. ik nobody will probably even read this book so i'm practically talking to myself but whatever ]