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“Hey, Johnny,” I replied, putting my good arm between myself and his hug, “Sorry, my arm.”
“Oh, damn shame! What happened?” Johnny replied. “Come in, come in!”
“Thanks.” I took a seat in the only chair that did not have clothes strewn over it. The house looked like a mess, with clothes everywhere and trash from takeout food piling beside the door. Johnny lived like a rat, but he was a very useful rat, one of the only ones in my entire block. We had both been friends since I moved in—he had helped my mother and I that day, and after a coffee, we had been close ever since.
“So, what happened? I don’t have any coffee, but I have a protein shake. You want that?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” I replied as he reached for a cup and began pouring. Then he stopped.
“Yeah, I think you’d rather not. I can’t tell if it was the caffeine or the lean I put in this, but it definitely would give you a kick you can’t handle.”
“Water is fine then,” I replied, nodding to one of the bottles of water which sat to the side of his gaming chair. He picked out one and passed it to me.
“So, the arm?”
“I got hit by a car,” I replied with a sour look.
“Damn shame… Broken?”
“Fractured. It hurt like a bitch for an entire week.”
Johnny perked up. “I got something for the pain.”
“If you are about to offer me your opioids, I’ll have to decline. I have my own pain meds.”
“Which you won’t supply me with. I mean I’m a dealer, and you are in contact with this stuff every day. Help me out, man!” Johnny replied with a big grin.
“You know my answer to that,” I replied.
“Whatever. So, what do you need help with?” Johnny asked, ruffling up his hair before looking at his hands.
“I got the plates on the car that hit me. I spoke to the police, but they don’t seem too keen on putting in the effort to find the guy who did this to me.”
“Alright, I got some guys who can help check that out. We can get your results in two, maybe three days, but it’ll cost you. I’m going to need a favor from you at some point, and I don’t want you backing out when I come to you.”
My shoulders dropped, “Come on, Johnny, you know how I feel about doing illegal stuff.”
“But you are fine with letting me do it for you, huh? Double standards all over the place with you folks.”
“Fine, I’ll owe you. But try as much as you can to make sure I don’t have to do something which would get me in trouble, because Icannothave that… At all!”
“Whatever. Gimme’ the digits.”
“Control One,” I replied.
“What?”
“Like on the computer. C-T-R-L-1.”
“No, I heard you the first time. Are you sure that is the car that hit you?” Johnny asked, with his face locked in shock.
“Well, yes. Because I had my entire face up against the plates, so yeah. I made sure to memorize it before I passed out.”
“Yo, sorry, darling. I can’t help you out here.”
I frowned. “You haven’t even tried. Just get it to your people. I’m sure they can find the person. You said they do stuff like this; it was an expensive car too.”
“A Cadillac, yeah. But trust me on this one, Maria, you don’t want to deal with any of this.”
