I work myself up into a furor and glare up at him, only for my indignant anger to kind of sputter out when I see him standing there, as blank faced as ever, just watching me. Exactly the same as always.
So despite the fact that, up until this point, I’d found his stare disconcerting and unfamiliar, my shoulders relax a little now that it hasn’t changed.
“Hey, but speaking of, Oscar’s back outta lockup.”
Oscar.Itskmy tongue in annoyance and wave the words away. “Don’t care. I’ll come check on everything later, okay? I mean it, tell Tyler not to give my bed away. I’ll be coming back for it, and if he does–”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll beat the shit out of him, I know.” He rolls his eyes good naturedly while shoving the money deep into his pocket. I have a flutter of nerves in my gut before shrugging them away. I can’t do anything about it if Joshy steals from me and they give away my bed. I don’t have time to wait around for Tyler, who is the guy technically on the lease and who is the unofficial landlord for this unit.
Besides, Joshy is the only one of my roommates I’d trust this far, and I at least mostly think he’ll pull through. My doubts in his character stem from life experience and personal paranoia, not because he’s ever lied or stolen from me. Still, it’s safer to at least half-expect the people you rely on to let you down. That way, you’re able to land on your feet when you fall.
“Hey, be safe out there,” Joshy calls to my back as I hustle Young-gi back to the door. “I’ll keep your bed here, yeah? Don’t forget about little ol’ me now that you’ve got it good, okay?!”
His voice gets farther away and I close the front door on the slightly sad tone at the end, the sardonic twist of self-deprecating humor. I sigh, feeling the weird urge to just lean against the door and process for a while, but I don’t have time.
“We’ve gotta get the fuck out of here,” I urge, and hustle Young-gi back the way we came. I look over the railing just in time to see five men turn the corner that the scout ran down when we first arrived.
Shit, that was fast. They must’ve been close by.Bad luck.
“Follow me exactly!” I hiss, and Young-gi copies my dance down the stairs. This is the reason Joshy almost never leaves thehouse. Poor schmuck, he’s stuck up there. I don’t know how he gets his rent money.
We hit the pavement right as the group starts to cross the street to us.
“Oh shit, get in the car. Yosef, get in, go!” I grab Young-gi’s arm and haul ass, while Yosef spins to see what the issue is.
Young-gi is startlingly calm as I drag him into the car with me, maybe not seeing the danger I do. I manage to bundle us both in, almost falling on top of him before scrambling away.
“What the fuck is he doing?!” I ask when I look out the window and realize Yosef hasn’t moved an inch, and is still standing there, ready to face off a group of eager carjackers.
“Handling it,” Young-gi says, sighing like this is all inconvenient. He leans down to grab something under the seat. “The window, Nigel,” he calls to the now half-lowered partition between us and the driver.
My jaw drops in shock and dismay as the back window rolls down, but before I can squawk out any complaints, Young-gi pulls a fuckingbazookaout from under the seat.
Okay, not a bazooka, I don’t know what a bazooka looks like, but it’s a big-ass fucking gun and it has a big-ass fucking magazine of bullets. Looks like one of those guns that shoots more than one round when you touch the trigger. He holds it out the window and aims at the thugs who are in a Mexican standoff with Yosef–all holding puny handguns and flashing knives at each other. They see the barrel of Young-gi’s superior weapon and bark out some cuss words before scrambling to flee like a pack of wild dogs, yelping and howling.
Yosef briskly circles the car, not at all like he’s worried for his life, and hops in the front passenger seat while the driver casually puts the car into gear and pulls away from my building, both of them acting like we’re out for a Sunday drive.
“What thefuuuuck…?” I breathe the question and watch as Young-gi expertly removes the ammunition from the weapon before stowing it again, brushing his hands off and sitting back like it was nothing.
And now I’m turned on because holy shit. That was so fuckinghot.
Seeing him handle the gun made me half hard in my jeans and I squirm uncomfortably as it quickly deflates, all my emotions getting flipped around by my shame. It’s a struggle to keep myself together, but I manage it, and breathe through the emotional roller coaster that seems to happen a lot when Young-gi is around.
“I have several meetings this afternoon,” Young-gi pulls out his phone, like he’s checking his calendar. “You said you’d behave. Can you manage to sit still for a couple hours?”
“Sit still?” I ask, a little aghast. “Like,stillstill? Can’t I wait in the lobby or something?”
“I’ll be keeping my eyes on you, so no. You’ll be in the office with me. Can you behave?”
Shiiiit.
The truth is, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sit still that long, especially in boring meetings where they’ll talk about things I don’t understand or care about at all, but Ireallylike him asking me that, all stern and shit. Damn, he should ask me that while he pins me down and fucks me.
“Yeah,” I almost pant. “I’ll be good.”
Fuck.I hadn’t meant to say it that way. He pauses, I pause. We’re silent in the car, tension eating me alive. Then, slowly and with an obvious electric buzz, the partition between us and the driver closes the rest of the way, like someone in the front decided to give us privacy.
If my dark skin could blush, I’d be beet red right now. I sink into my chair, and look out the window.
