AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Eastern,” Mr Burnside interrupts. “We don’t know each other and you’ve no reason to listen to a word I have to say, but I will tell you this… Over the past couple of months, I’ve got to know Asia pretty well. She tries very hard to hide the fact that she cares about people, but she does. She’s made friends here despite her instinct to push people away. Do you honestly think she’ll want to see you in prison for fourteen years of your life? Do you think, given what appears to be a very strong bond, that she’ll survive all that time without you?” Mr Burnside asks. He’s using his therapist voice to try and get Eastern to talk, but like me, Eastern doesn’t buy it.
“You’re right there,mate,” Eastern snaps. “You don’t know a thing about me or my relationship with Asia. Iknowhow much she’ll hate seeing me in prison, but it doesn’t change a thing. I won’t talk. Not know, not ever. I did the crime.I’m guilty. It’s all on me.” He looks at me then, pain in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Asia,” he whispers.
The thing is, he and I both know he did it for his mum, for Braydon. He might not have made the right choice, but he did it to help them. Inside I’m screaming at the unfairness of it all.
“Why bring him here? Why dangle the carrot when you know Eastern isn’t going to change his mind?” I bite out, feeling both incredibly sad and angry all at the same time.
“We were hoping that you’d help us with that,” Chief Inspector Crown says. “You could save your friend from a seriously long time in prison.”
Fuck. Fuck.
Eastern glares at Crown, his eyes narrowing. I watch as his fingers curl around the seat rests. I know my best friend and I know that he’s about to lose his shit. If he rips into Crown now I know that this offer will be taken away in an instant. “Give us a moment?” I ask, looking between the three adults in the room. “I need to have a conversation with Eastern.”
“Five minutes. I suggest you make this good,” Chief Inspector Crown says, before leaving the room.
“You too,” I say to Mr Carmichael and Mr Burnside. “This is between us. Can you give us this at least?”
“Think about this very,verycarefully,” Mr Carmichael says looking at me and Eastern both. If I didn’t know any better, he seems conflicted as though he’s not happy with what’s going down here today. “I understand what’s at stake,” he says, looking between us both, “but I also know how the system works. How it works on the street. Igetit. Don’t do anything unless you understand how both your lives, and those of the ones you love, will change.”
I know what he’s trying to say. I know what agreeing to Chief Inspector Crown’s terms will mean for us, for Tracy and Braydon too. The repercussions are huge. We’re not playing games here.
“We get it,” I say. Once they both leave, pulling the door closed behind them to give us some privacy, I turn to Eastern. “You have to do this. You have to talk.”
“No.” He shakes his head, gritting his jaw and getting that determined, stubborn look I know so well.
“Listen, you heard what Chief Inspector Crown said. They’re going to put you away for a long time, Eastern. I don’t want that for you. Your mum and Braydon need you…”
Eastern glares at me. “And what about you, Asia? Do you need me?”
I swallow hard.
“Even now, you can’t admit it, can you?”
“This isn’t about me, Eastern. This is about you, about your family.”
“You’remy family. Fuck, don’t you know how I feel about you? Do I need to spell it out to you?”
“Eastern, don’t…” My heart squeezes with pain, with… love. I love him like a friend, I always have. But I do know that if given the chance it could develop into so much more. Seeing him here today, knowing what’s at stake makes me realise that. Why is life so fucking cruel?
“Bollocks to it,” he grunts, standing. “I’m going to say this because it might be the only chance I get.” Eastern grabs my hands then pulls me upright. “You’re stubborn, pig-headed, determined and so fucking strong, Asia. I don’t know any other person who’s been through what you have and survived it.”
“Eastern, stop,” I whisper. But he doesn’t stop, and my heart fucking breaks.
“You make me laugh, and my shit days are more bearable when you’re by my side. You’re talented and feisty and fucking insanely beautiful even with all the colour.” He smiles then, a genuine, heart-warming smile that turns me inside out. “You’re my best friend, and ever since we kissed. No,” he says, shaking his head. “Beforewe kissed I knew I loved you and it’s because I love you, love mum and Braydon that I will not put you all in danger to get me out of prison.I refuse.
“Eastern, I don’t know what to say…” I mumble, feeling helpless for the first time in a very long time.
“I’m about to go to prison for fourteen years. Maybe, for once, you could tell me how you really feel?” He rests his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs stroking against my collarbone. “Think of it as my final wish…”
“You’re not dying, Eastern,” I choke out, even though this feels much the same.
“I may as well be. When I’m out of prison I’ll be fucking thirty and you’ll be married with kids, some famous street artist as rich as Banksy.”
“Thatisn’tgoing to be your future, Eastern, and it won’t be mine either. You’re going to do as Crown says and you’re going to tell him what he wants to know to save yourself.”
“No, Asia! This shit I’m a part of goes way beyond Camden and Hackney’s Hackers. They’re just small-time criminals caught in a web of grown-up gangsters. The guy behind this outfit is not to be messed with. He owns half of fucking London.He’sthe man they’re after. They call him the King and we are all his fucking servants. He’s the latest ruler in a long line of them.” He shakes his head, turning his back to me, but I scoot around him forcing him to look at me.
“I don’t care who the fuck he is. You are going to tell Crown what he wants to know because you love your mum and Braydon, because you love me… You’re going to do it, because I love you like a friend,” he flinches at that, hurt chasing across his features. “And a promise of so much more,” I add gently, my heart squeezing inside my chest.
