Nick Cuarto's Story

Cara was glad that Holly was content with getting pretzels because just a few feet away from them was a food cart selling them. Before coming out onto the streets, Cara refused to touch most of the foods that the street vendors sold. She imagined that the people who worked them rarely cleaned their stations or followed standard health precautions, but most of that worrying had disappeared when she realized that being selective wasn't going to help her survive.

She ordered two pretzels and handed one to Holly before continuing towards the warehouse. After ripping a piece of the warm pretzel off with her teeth, she felt bad for her old self for not indulging in one of New York's most signature foods. It was nice to not have to worry about how many calories she was eating or how carefully it had been prepared, and the warm bread, while fairly plain, tasted heavenly today.

When Holly spoke up, exclaiming that she was tired, Cara glanced over at her with a confused expression. It was out of character for Holly to be sleepy and even more so for her to say it out loud. Holly was like a child in many ways, but when it came to sleeping, she reminded her of one even more so. A lot of little kids, even when tired, would claim that they really weren't and didn't want to sleep so they could continue to play or be involved in the excitement of whatever going on, and Holly mirrored that behavior. Cara knew that whatever disorders she had probably played a role in why the girl was rarely ever able to sleep soundly as well, so it was even more surprising that Holly would express being tired now.

"I am too," Cara agreed. "We probably walked like five miles," she continued after taking another bite of the pretzel. After navigating through the alley and past the barrier of a dumpster, Cara pulled the door open and allowed Holly to walk in before her. Her eyes first shot towards Holly and Hailey's section, where she noticed Hailey's absence. She was unsure of what Holly's sister had been doing all day but doubted that it would have taken her this long to return. However, she couldn't think too much of that because her eyes caught sight of what looked like the end product of a scuffle between Nick, and possibly Roman.

Cara took Holly by the arm and pulled her towards Robbie, who was also in the warehouse. "What's going on?" she asked quietly with a concerned expression on her face.

Roman stood standing at Nick after what he said. They both stared intently at each other and he watched as Brooklyn quietly gave him napkins for his lip. "Yeah, well I wish you did too. Would have felt better than this." He could feel himself shaking with anger as looked at them. Nick was watching carefully to make sure he didn't do anything else. Roman looked angrily between Nick and Brooklyn.

If there was anything he feared growing up, it was failing someone. Since coming to the streets, he'd grown afraid of being left alone. Nick was the first one to really take him in permanently, and at the time being that he was hardly even a teenager, he'd always feared that one day Nick would change his mind about him and drop him. This fear became even stronger after Brooklyn came into their lives. He hadn't liked her from the beginning. It took a while for her to grow onto him, and he only did it for Nick. If there was anything that would come between them, Roman always knew it would be her. She was beautiful enough to get away with the shit she did, and Nick was dumb enough to fall for it. It was only a matter of time before he picked her over him, and Brooklyn knew it too. He looked at her just then, his face turning redder and he believed this theory more and more. The only victim he saw in the situation was himself and Brook was the predator.

He turned away calmly at first but then kicked the mattress so it slid across the floor a foot or so. Roman snatched his backpack off the floor. He grew quieter as he said, "To think I gave a shit about you. And you know what, I want to leave. I don't need you. After she came along and messed everything up and you try masking it by starting a fucking clubhouse. We all and know, Nick. We know that you'd choose her over any of us. Me being gone won't change the fact that Brook successfully fucked her way to your brain."

Roman finally stepped away and headed for the exit. As he passed the others, their confused somewhat frightened stares speaking for them, he glared. "What the hell are you looking at?" he yelled. "I don't need any of you."

He pushed past them, out the door and down the alley. Roman walked past the pretzel stand and the familiar scent of dough and salt. He hurried down the street, not sure where he was going, but he had time. The sun was still active and burning down on the city. The streets were getting less crowded as the day came to a close. For some reason, as he moved down the sidewalk, it felt like he was running away again. His mind kept going back to what had just happened and it took a toll on his energy. Anxiety began to well in his chest once he looked at the size of the city. Sure, he'd basically given up on the warehouse, and he'd done so for almost two weeks, but for some reason this felt different. It was nostalgic, almost like deja vu, and left him with a sense of fear. Deep down he knew that, like the first time, this was his fault. For some reason, he couldn't run away from this.

So after a block more or less, he'd grown tired and heavy. He found an empty spot in front of a store and sat against the wall. Roman lit a cigarette, leaving him with four left.

Nick maintained a steady and focused stare as Roman responded to him. He could tell that Roman was emotional but what kept Nick from feeling bad was that all he could see in his expression and hear in his words was anger. He didn't appear to be sad or remorseful for what he had done a moment ago. No, he was only fuming with rage and in Nick's mind, he had no right to be acting that way.

Roman's voice grew louder as he headed to the exit and shouted at Cara, Robbie and Holly, clearly pissed off that they were watching the affair go down. Nick wasn't sure when Cara and Holly had gotten there but he was glad that Roman was leaving now that they were back. The last thing that Nick wanted was for this unnecessary drama to ruin everyone else's day too.

When Brooklyn offered him napkins, Nick took them a muttered a thanks to her as he pressed them to the cut on his lip. Just acknowledging the damage that Roman had done made him even angrier. Who did Roman think he was? Yeah, they had been good friends for a few months before he met Brooklyn but that didn't mean he wasn't able to have a girlfriend or like anyone more than Roman. Honestly, as Nick replayed what Roman had just said, he thought that his best friend, or possibly former best friend, sounded more like some spoiled child than a rough and tough street fighter. Just because he didn't get his way and wasn't Nick's favorite person in the world meant that he had to throw a temper tantrum and blame Brooklyn for it. Deep down, Nick knew that it wasn't as trivial as this but as he pressed down harder on his bleeding lip, it comforted him to think that the problem was just Roman being a brat than something bigger.

"Go cry to your mum, you fucking bitch," Nick shouted, imitating Roman's accent with the word 'mom'. The door was nearly shut by the time the words got out and he guessed that Roman hadn't even heard it, which was probably better than the alternative. Maybe it was Brooklyn rubbing off on him that he felt like he needed to get the last word in but as his eyes fell back upon the three other warehouse residents who stood by the door, he tried to compose himself again.

"Those pretzels look good but I think popcorn would have been more of an appropriate choice to eat while watching Roman's soap opera worthy performance," Nick said, still wanting to make a slight dig at Roman but also trying to lighten the mood. He gave a final bit of heavy pressure to the cut on his lip before pulling the napkins away. There was a fairly large red stain on them but after pouring a bit of water on his face, the bleeding had mostly stopped. He balled the dirty napkins up and stuffed them into an empty plastic bag and then into his backpack, deciding to throw them out later, before turning to Brooklyn.

He spoke quietly now, not wanting to continue the topic of the fight with the others. "He's out of his fucking mind," Nick said, shaking his head before making eye contact with Brooklyn. "Are you alright?" He was surprised that she hadn't fought back against Killens as remaining quiet under criticism was something that he wouldn't normally expect of Brooklyn.

The door to the warehouse opened catching Robbie’s attention away from the scene if only for a second, showing Braden. It was enough of an interruption to reboot himself and realizing he was still holding onto the matches, pocketing them as he walked to his area. He may be curious on what he got into last night but that can wait till later.

He didn’t really want to get involved in the situation but a moment later the door opened again this time revealing Cara and Holly. Cara almost immediately asking what was going on. The question swirled around his head for a while, he didn’t really know what to say. Nick just kicked out Killens. Killens punched Nick. It wasn’t the fact that it was hard to say, it was that it was hard to believe. Robbie never thought in a million years that anything would tear Nick and Killens apart, the two were like brothers. At least that what it seemed.

“A falling out.” he said turning his head towards Cara as Killens barged out with his bag spewing bullshit about how he didn’t need anyone. When you’re on the streets the one thing you need is a friend or at least someone. “I think they just need to cool off. For now.” He added as Nick yelled out at Killens. At least that's what he hoped is all that was needed. Killens had been acting completely out of character for the last couple weeks but to actually start a fight with his best friend, that's a step too far.

Killens words confused Brooklyn. She wasn't sure why he was acting like all of this anger was caused by Nick replacing him with her, when they had been dating for what, seven or so years? Now, all of the sudden this was some big problem which was only started because of his poor attitude and yet it was somehow her fault. Brooklyn willingly and sometimes proudly accepted that she had earned the reputation of being a bitch, but not in this situation. She had done nothing wrong and Killens' outburst was so uncalled for that it almost scared Brooklyn. She had never seen him like this before. It was like he had hit rock bottom.

Even if Killens anger did stem from Nick preferring her over him, what did he expect? Nick was dating her, not him, and in a lot of cases, Brooklyn actually felt like Nick valued his friendship with Roman and some of the others over her anyway. It was clear to Brooklyn that Roman was in fact, "out of his fucking mind" as Nick claimed, or was projecting his own feelings onto her and Nick. The behavior was something that Brooklyn knew all too well, having done it frequently herself, so even though Killens was acting absurdly, she wouldn't crucify him for what he had done and part of her knew that Nick wouldn't either.

She could tell that once his rage faded away, Nick would feel bad, or at least unhappy, with the way that things had panned out. Killens was right in the fact that he and Nick had a lot of history and their relationship wasn't comparable to hers and Nick's. Not that it was better or worse, but it was just different, like a brotherhood or something.

"Shhhh," Brooklyn said, standing up when Nick made a last attempt to get a snide remark in at Roman who had stormed out the door a moment earlier. Once she realized that Roman wasn't returning to continue on the fight, she felt more at ease, as if this was the calm after the storm.

She examined his lip and after he splashed water on the split lip and the bleeding subsided for the most part, she turned her attention to the small crowd that had formed by the door. It was Holly, Cara and Robbie and Nick quickly made a joke about the fight. Although he probably said it with the intentions of putting everyone at ease, Brooklyn didn't want them to be involved at all. She punched Nick in the arm lightly, signaling for him to be quiet, but nodded when he asked if she was alright. Honestly, the comments that Roman made didn't hurt her too badly. If he had been normal Roman, her friend Roman, then she might have taken what he said to heart, but Brooklyn wasn't really offended by what he had said. In fact, she thought that he was probably right. Nick would choose her over any of the others and in her mind, it should be that way. If it wasn't, she would have no desire to be with him anymore.

"Where have you guys been?" she said, giving Nick one final 'chill out' glance before taking a few steps towards the three others. Although Brooklyn complained about Holly frequently, she didn't mind her or Cara at all when compared to her dislike for Hailey. After all of the shouting that had just occurred over the last few minutes too, she really wasn't in the mood for any additional bad energy with anyone. "Your sister's upstairs, by the way," she added, looking to Holly. During all of the commotion, Brooklyn hadn't even noticed Braden coming in and also going up to the roof.

By the time that they had reached the warehouse, Holly was ready to go to bed. It was probably only eight or so at night, but her legs felt heavy and her eyes strained. She didn't object when Cara pulled her towards Robbie and asked what was going on. She could hear Roman angrily shouting to Nick and Brooklyn who stood at the opposite side of the warehouse but Holly was in a dazed state, her mind already beginning to shut down and she couldn't focus on what the others were arguing about.

In a matter of seconds, Roman stormed out and everything was quiet for a second before Nick made a comment about the pretzels that she and Cara still held in their hands. Holly had eaten only half of hers and wasn't hungry for any more, but when Brooklyn spoke and said that Hailey was upstairs, she decided to offer the rest to her sister. She hadn't seen Hailey in a good few hours and was anxious to be back with her. The two were almost always together and because she Hailey had always been her only support throughout childhood, Holly probably was a bit too attached to her. It wasn't bad enough where she couldn't be separated from her for a few hours, because obviously that happened occasionally when Hailey had things to do, but Holly couldn't remember a time where she went more than twelve hours or so without seeing her sister.

"I'll be right back," Holly said, her voice trailing off as she headed up the stairs. She tried to rub the tiredness out of her eyes, wanting to channel the energy to tell Hailey about her day and ask her what she was doing, but it didn't work very well. When she spotted Hailey and Braden sitting next to each other on the roof, she narrowed her eyes. Her sister had been hanging out with Braden more often than usual and although Holly didn't really suspect anything, she just found it weird that Hailey would want to be in his company. Even though he had been nice to her a few weeks ago when he gave them his extra gym passes, he still didn't seem that fun or interesting to be around. "Why are you up here?" she said, making her presence known to the two whose backs were faced to her.

As Hailey responded, Holly nodded twice: once to confirm that she had been tired out from her day with Cara and again to signal that she wanted to go downstairs. Normally she would object to being tired or going to sleep this early, knowing that most of the others stayed up until the early hours of the morning, but she was too worn out to fight it.

She turned back towards the stairs and looked over at Hailey. "The boys were fighting down there," she said plainly, watching her feet as she carefully walked down each step. Holly couldn't even remember how many times she had managed to trip on those stairs. Whether it was coming up or down, she was normally running and with all of the exciting news she had to tell whoever she was looking for, she never paid attention to the steps and typically got her foot caught on one of them. She was too tired to run now though, and wanted to get to her bed without any bumps or bruises on the way.

"We went to the park and the big toy store... not Toys R Us, and we got pizza and pretzels!" she said, remembering the half eaten pretzel that she still held. She handed it to Hailey, whether she wanted it or not, and shook the excess grains of salt off of her hands. When they reached the ground level, Holly found that Roman was still not back in the warehouse, which probably shouldn't have been much of a surprise, and everything was pretty similar to how she had left it.

Holly's eagerness to go to bed was even more obvious when she headed straight to her bed without engaging Brooklyn or Nick about what had happened, or filling Cara in on the little information she knew about what Hailey had been doing. She flopped onto her mattress dramatically, not bothering to shed her leggings and tank top for the sweatpants and t-shirt that she normally slept in. "Are you going to go to bed too?" she asked, glancing up at Hailey.

Of all places, he hadn't planned on coming here. In large simple letters, Finnigan's stood before him. From the outside it looked like traffic was low which was understandable since it was still a bit early to drink. Roman walked into the door, thinking it was a push and not pull kind of thing. This caught Finn's attention needless to say, and he glared at him appropriately as Roman stepped back and opened the door to be greeted by the cool dusty smell of the bar.

"God damn. And I was about to say I was having a good day," Finn said with an annoyed wave of his hand. "Then you show up." Roman didn't respond to this. He slouched his way over to the bar and dropped his backpack on the seat next to him. He noticed Finn taking a look at his face, then eyeing his bag. He was tending to cleaning some glasses and Roman was thankful for the few seconds of silence Finn left him with until he came back over with a brown liquid in a glass. Without question, Roman took it and looked inside it. He imagined it was Irish whiskey. He'd be damned if Finn ever served him an English drink; he'd be damned if anything English made was in the entire bar.

"I know you're not twenty-one," he said.

"Legal drinking age is eighteen in Ireland. Just playing by your rules," Roman said as he took a quick swallow of his drink. He winced some.

"That's how you know it's good. Better than whatever rubbish yer people are making."

"Bollocks." Roman pushed the glass away. He didn't quite care what Finn had to say about England. He hadn't lived there since he was eight, so he hardly considered himself a full blood Englishman anymore. Nevertheless, he thought it was funny how Finn would go and on about how awful the English were as if Roman himself were responsible for the monarchy. If he was really feeling playful, which most of the times he was, he'd purposely list Finn off as Scottish and not Irish.

"Where's Nick and Brook?" he finally said.

"Quite covert, yeah?" Roman rolled his eyes as he downed the rest of his glass. "If you must know," he said lingering on his words. "Nick told me to leave."

"For no particular reason?"

"Brook talks shit and Nick lets her. I was sick of it so I hit him."

This left them with another silence as Finn cleaned some more glasses and tended to a new customer. The cup made a whirring noise as Roman spun the rim of the glass around his finger. Finally Finn came back, refilling his glass, and began wiping the counter top behind the bar.

"I'm not very fond of you," he began. "But I will say one thing. I know Nick has good intentions. Whatever you did or said to him, whether it was the truth or not, was wrong, and that's all that matters. Doesn't matter how right it is if it hurts someone you care about."

"Never stopped you."

"That's why the bar has my name on it, and not yours."

"Yeah, but you're using the Roman alphabet, so." Roman didn't feel like being lectured. Finn wasn't his father, and if he was, he'd want nothing to do with him. He'd feel bad about what went down in the warehouse later. Right now, he didn't want to care. His body was numb against the buzz the alcohol provided; it was an oddly relieving combination, but it meant he'd need more alcohol to actually feel something strong. That was fine with him. He wanted another drink anyway. As Finn passed, Roman nodded to his empty glass to which Finn promptly responded to by going into a tyrant about how the English thought they could control everything, detailing him on the seven hundred years of English involvement in Ireland from the twelfth century.

A minute went by after Braden sat down. He stared out at the sky, figuring that by how the sun was slowly inching its way towards the horizon, that it was probably nearing eight o'clock. As a kid, Braden loved the spring time because with the later sunset came more time to play outside with the neighborhood kids. Now though, he thrived at night. It was his main time for money making and with it remaining light out for extended hours into the evening, he had to start later as well. Really, it had more positives to negatives though, because spring also meant warmer weather, which led to more people hopping from bar to bar. Without the cold wind or snow as a deterrent, their drunken states usually also caused them to believe that walking to their hotel on the opposite side of Manhattan was a good idea too. They made for easy targets.

Hailey's question about the havoc being caused downstairs led him to glance over at her. As he spoke, he studied her face. God, was she beautiful. She really was. Even without nice clothes or expensive makeup, Hailey was such a nice girl, inside and out and the last for weeks had really proved that to Braden. Looking at her now, Braden knew that he wanted to have something more with Hailey. He still couldn't settle with the idea of everyone else knowing about them just yet, but maybe on her birthday he would ask her if she wanted to make whatever they had an exclusive thing. Something like dating, where they wouldn't see anyone else, but they also wouldn't flaunt whatever they were to the others. He wasn't ready to have a girlfriend and deal with all of the social responsibilities and contracts that would come with it, but at the same time, he didn't want to lose Hailey.

"I walked in to Roman shouting at Nick about something. I don't know, I wasn't paying attention much, but Nick's mouth was bleeding and Roman seemed pretty hyped up. Guess they got in a fight or something," he replied. Before he could make a joke about whether that was going to be her and Brooklyn doing the same thing sooner or later, she turned and looked at him, beginning to speak before the door to the roof swung open and Holly spoke up.

Braden twisted back to look at her, but Hailey quickly left his side and with after mouthing "we'll talk later", she disappeared down the stairs with her twin. He was curious to what Hailey had to say but didn't think into it too much and guessing that she was going to be dealing with Holly for a good part of the night, he lit up the joint that he had originally planned on smoking.

All that Robbie offered on what had gone down was "a falling out". It seemed like that, to say the least. Cara opened her mouth to ask him to give her more details when Roman barged towards the door. She instinctively pulled Holly closer to her. She knew, or thought, that Roman wasn't someone who would hurt any of them and of all people Holly, but she also never would have imagined that he would hurt Nick and that had happened. He shouted at them for looking at him, something that Cara knew she should have expected as a response. The last thing that she would want in a state of rage was for everyone to be watching wide-eyed as if it was a show, but this was such an unexpected thing to walk in on that she couldn't help it.

After Roman left, Nick gave one last punch to his ego but the door had already slammed shut and Cara assumed that Roman was already on the other side of the alley by the time Nick said it. However, she held her breath for a moment, almost expecting for the door to swing back open with Roman coming back for round two. Luckily, he didn't and Cara hoped that the tense situation was over for good.

Brooklyn seemed to want to move on from it too, because she stood up and asked them where they had been all day. Holly took the last part of her comment, about Hailey being upstairs, and headed to the stairs, leaving Cara and Robbie to chat with Brooklyn. "Holly and I were just hanging out," she said, pulling her ponytail tighter as she looked behind Brooklyn at Nick. She was conflicted with what to say or do. Cara enjoyed playing the role of the peacemaker in arguments that occurred between the others, but a fight between Nick and Roman wasn't something that she felt prepared to deal with. Hailey and Brooklyn were easy because they were both girls and Cara had dealt with her fair share of cat fights even before coming to the streets. Even Brook and Nick's fights were doable but whatever had just happened between Nick and Roman seemed like something that was too far out of her league. There was a lot of history between the two boys and Brooklyn and even if Cara had lived with the three of them for a year, she didn't feel like it was her place to step in here.

However, she did whisper, "Is he okay?" to Brooklyn, nodding her head towards Nick. It would have been against her character to not have at least asked about his well being. The whole aura of the warehouse felt so strange now and it was unsettling for Cara. She then looked back at Robbie and gave him a confused look. "I'm curious to know where the hell you've been too," she said with a giggle as she studied his disheveled appearance.

After Brooklyn got up to talk to Cara and Robbie, Nick moved from his chair and rummaged through his backpack. He wanted to smoke but doubted that it would be a pleasant experience with a freshly split lip, so instead he grabbed a nearly empty bottle of Jameson's and took a swig of the whiskey. Finn had given it to Brooklyn a few days back, claiming that it was his favorite brand of Irish whiskey and that they needed to start drinking "quality" liquor.

Drinking the alcohol wasn't the most pleasant experience either, because as soon as the liquid hit the open cut, it began to burn. The physical pain was enough to distract him from the emotional distress that Nick had started feeling after replaying what had just went down, though, so he took a few more gulps of it. However, it wasn't long before the thoughts came flushing back into his mind.

What a fucking inconsiderate prick. Who does that kid think he is?! I could have left him for dead out there. I should have. Maybe it was wrong to say that I should have killed him, but I know I should have at least left him out there on the streets to make his own way or get killed by someone else in the process. I let him be a cockblock for years when it was just me and Brooklyn and this is how he repays me? By messing my fucking lip up and embarrassing me in front of everyone? I'm going to fucking kill that kid the next time I see him.

The bottle soon emptied and after searching through the rest of their bags, Nick realized that they were out of alcohol. He knew he'd get a buzz off of the whiskey that he just drank but that wasn't going to be enough to get him through the night, especially if Brooklyn was going to be gone at work. After stuffing the empty bottle into the same bag as his blood stained napkins, he grabbed them and his backpack and headed towards the door.

"I'm going to pick some shit up," he said, glancing back at Brooklyn before leaving. The air was brisker than it had been earlier, but was still considerably warm compared to how cool it had been a month or two back at this time. He dumped his trash in the first garbage bag he passed and walked aimlessly for a few blocks, unsure if he wanted to just grab some booze at a convenience store or go to a bar and drink there.

As soon as Brooklyn mentioned Hailey being on the roof Holly left their presence. Cara said something about how they were hanging out and turned to Robbie questioning his looks. He stepped back and looked down at himself "What?"

A sly grin came across Robbie’s face, not really knowing how to answer that. Rubbing a hand threw his hair he thought about what he could say. He had no recollection of what occurred last night and no guesses either but somehow ended up in an alleyway with new clothes and money when normally the opposite would happen. Tonguing his split lip he said “I woke up in an alleyway. Must have blacked out at some point last night, cuz I don't remember anything.” Gesturing to the cheap pair of black sunglasses on his face "Had to pick up some sunglasses. My eyes were super sensitive and don't get me started on how loud everything was."

Snapping his fingers he made his way to his area as Holly returned from the roof with Hailey. “That’s actually what I was gonna ask..before...ya’know.” He mumbled nodding towards Nick and the exit hoping they understood that it meant Killens. “I don’t know what I did last night,”he stripped off the shirt, neatly folding it and placing it in his duffel bag “I hate not knowing.” he added putting on a brown t-shirt.

Robbie crossed his arms and leaned up against a support that was next to his mattress "It was really just a regular morning." he joked.

Cara explained that she had spent the day with Holly, which made sense when Brooklyn remember Hailey running in alone earlier. "And you survived?" Brooklyn joked, although her face remained serious as she poked fun at the idea of anyone being able to last that long alone with Holly. It was known by nearly everyone in the warehouse that she couldn't, but then again, Cara was a lot different than she was. Only a few seconds after speaking, the twins came down from the roof and Holly appeared to be surprisingly lifeless as she made her way to her bed without making an annoying and unnecessary comment or question.

She glanced back at Nick, who was shuffling through his bag, and nodded to Cara when she silently questioned whether he was okay. Obviously he was upset and angry but Brooklyn knew that he would get over it without anyone's help. Even Brooklyn didn't have much advice to give him, and she knew that no one who knew him any less than her could solve this either.

When Cara and Robbie started talking about what Robbie had spent the night doing, Brooklyn turned back to watch Nick. He chugged the remainders of a bottle of whiskey that Finn had gifted them before getting up, giving a lame excuse about having to "pick some shit up", and leaving. She didn't know where he was going but only hoped that Killens had actually left and wasn't sitting in the alleyway or any of the surrounding blocks. The last thing that she wanted was for the two of them to run into each other in public, where the cops would be the ones breaking them up.

"Speaking of the devil," Brooklyn said loudly, her eyes following Hailey as she walked across the warehouse. "Cara was just telling me how you dumped your sister on her for the day. I found it strange though, since Nick never mentioned him needing you to any far runs and we all know you don't have any friends outside of the warehouse. Well, outside of Holly, actually." She stepped towards Hailey, a taunting smile plastered on her face. "Did you just decide to take a mental health day for yourself? Because we all know how hard it must be for poor Hailey to have to play mommy to her brainless sister every single day," she mocked, her eyes flickering towards Holly who was probably already half asleep on a mattress. "Let me guess... you got your nails done. Wait, don't even tell me! You started working the corners again, didn't you?" she exclaimed, the bitter smile remaining on her face as she poked and prodded at Hailey's dignity, trying to find what would hurt her the most.

It was uncalled for and Brooklyn knew it was wrong, especially with Cara, who was currently a prostitute, standing right there for her last comment. Maybe she was trying to regain her position after Roman lashed out at her, but it was typical for Brooklyn to bully Hailey regularly anyway. She would never call it bullying though because lately, Hailey always seemed to have a snide remark to send right back at her.

Night had nearly when he looked out the window last. The sun had disappeared, leaving only the city's shadows and the cool spring air. A basket of a sad excuse for fries sat in front of him and he munched them mindlessly as he slowly downed his third glass of whiskey. It was an odd combination, but he had the taste for something salty, although these fries were almost as bad as they came. He didn't recall them being this bad, but maybe because when he was here he usually wasn't alone or sober. As the latter began to change, he saw that his food wasn't tasting as bad as it did bland. A twinge of anxiety hit him stomach like a jab once he looked out the window again; he swallowed a fry, taking the lump in his throat along with it. When he was a little kid, he was terrified of the dark. He remember being five years old and sleeping between his parents with the bathroom light on. Then once they thought he was asleep would turn it off, and he'd wake up crying. Roman chuckled inwardly and shook his head. Now he only feared night because of what it meant he had to do.

After some serious consideration, he went to the back where there were two payphones. At first he questioned their functionality but a dial tone greeted him when he picked the phone off the hook. His palms began to sweat and he gripped the phone once more as it rang on the other. A threatening, voice accented with a thick Puerto Rican accent picked up. The conversation was short.

"Hey, Ramel. About tonight..."

On the other side, there was no telling what was going on. There were about a dozen other voices and Ramel shouted in an odd English-Spanish mix, so loudly that even when Roman pulled the phone from his ear he could still hear the man clearly. With divided attention, Ramel called, sounding farther away this time, "Who's on the fucking phone? Tell him he better be there tonight. You know how much money I bet? What the hell does he want?"

A different voice, much younger and about as frightened sounding as Roman felt, repeated a version of what Ramel had said. Roman quietly mumbled a never mind, having second thoughts about his second thoughts, and hung up. The thing about getting bigger on the street was that bigger people bet bigger money on you. It becomes like a turf war until there's just one person that everyone wants to take down. Killens was lucky enough that anyone was still betting on him after his recent play of events. Ramel had made a pretty big bid after getting into a fight with another guy who'd mocked Killens's lack of fight recently. One thing led to another and Roman knew only one thing: if he didn't win, Ramel would lose the money and would come looking for him. "You don't want to end up like my other guy," Ramel had told him once.

Killens reached his spot at the bar and exhaled in exasperation. He stuffed his face with a handful of fries and downed it with the last of his whiskey. When Finn passed, still annoyed with his presence, Roman called him over, asking for another drink. From the look in his eyes it was clear Finn was questioning this. It seemed that even Finn knew him well enough to see that something was off about Killens, and this promptly annoyed him.

"Get me another fucking drink please."

"You should get back and apologize to Nick. Getting drunk won't solve the problem." Finn said. Four, almost five drinks later, and Roman still wasn't in the mood to talk about Nick. It wasn't his fault if he was so sensitive to Brook. He had other things to worry about anyways. Like how the hell he was even going to survive tonight. Roman groaned some as Finn refilled his glass. The buzz was much stronger now, but after what happened on the phone, the nerves were outweighing the alcohol in his veins. "The hell's gotten into you anyway?"

"Hell if I know," Killens said as he took a thick swallow, the burn sending a refreshing flame down his throat.

As Nick walked, his rage only seemed to grow. Every time he replayed the fight in his mind, he managed to exaggerate everything that Killens had said and done into being worse than it really was. His fists were clenched enough that his knuckles were a ghostly white, but Nick didn't even realize that he was doing it. He was too far deep in his mind, in his anger and in his pride to realize how he was overreacting just as badly as Killens had initially overreacted.

He wasn't paying attention to where he was going but the sight of a small convenience store on the corner of the opposite side of the street reminded him that he needed alcohol. Nick made his way inside and found that it was nothing more than an average, dingy shop. It was empty, besides from a middle-aged Hispanic man who sat behind the counter, his eyes focused on a television that portrayed a static-y soccer game. Nick made a beeline for the back wall which was lined with refrigerators containing an array of sodas and juices, as well as one filled with tall boys and other alcoholic beverages. There were a few six-packs stacked besides the machines and although they weren't cold, Nick grabbed one and put it down on the counter when he reached the front of the store.

"Ten dollars," the man said, looking away from the television for only a second to see what Nick had before returning his attention to the game.

Nick shuffled through his pockets and after realizing that they were empty, he threw his backpack onto the counter in a huff and searched through his messy bag. He managed to find six dollars and change but when he tossed that onto the counter and the man counted it out, he shook his head and said, "No good", before pulling the six pack behind the counter.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nick muttered. He was tempted to shove the cigarette rack off of the counter top but managed to restrain himself before leaving the store. He couldn't be angry at some guy trying to make a living who had done nothing wrong to him. Roman was the one person who deserved his anger and Nick wasn't going to waste any of it on anyone else. With no alcohol to bring back to the warehouse and no money, Nick headed to the only place where he knew the alcohol came free: Finnigan's.

By now the fries were cold and on the verge of soggy. He didn't know how long he had been sitting here, but he imagined it was for a while given that Finn kept asking him when he was going to leave. Too nervous to think about that, Roman simply ignored him and listened to the conversations people had near by. It took his mind off of his own thoughts even if it was just briefly. He lingered on the drink in his hand a while longer than the previous ones when a persistent feel of nausea appeared in his stomach. His mouth watered a salty substance and he swayed, feeling the room move. Not being in his right mind for some time now, he hadn't considered the fact that he'd mixed drugs and alcohol. It wasn't long before he entered the subpar bathroom in the back and purged.

The floor was cold, providing a relieving sensation to his body. Momentarily he felt better and even cleansed to a certain degree, but then the smell of bile and the taste of it in the back of his mouth cause him to purge again. This time it wasn't much but a slimy, near translucent paste. The paste was basically void of any nutrition considering his lack of consistent eating recently. It wasn't that he was starving himself so much as he didn't have an appetite for anything anymore. The smell, even the sight sometimes, just caused him to get queasy. Then again he wasn't sure if it was his nerves either. When he was a kid, he had a strange reaction to intense situations where he would get so anxious that he would get sick to his stomach, quite literally. He wasn't sure how his grandparents even tolerated him for the four years he stayed with him, but God were they a patient kind of people.

As he sat against the wall, he pulled out his wallet from his packet and counted what was inside. Three hundred--about. The room was still shifting about him and he was sure he'd double counted or dubbed a twenty a five and vice versa. Regardless, he didn't have enough if he lost tonight, and he wasn't going to have enough. This was basically his last chance to prove himself before people started finding someone else to pay attention to. It wasn't that he wanted to be accepted by that group; they were all psychos to begin with. But he'd sooner be loved by them than be on their hit list. Roman dropped his head back against the wall as he tossed his wallet on the floor.

When he returned to the bar, it was empty and had gotten darker outside even though he'd only be gone for about fifteen minutes. With his fries becoming more indigestible by the minute and the minute getting closer to that inevitably hour, he anxiety began to rise. He took another whiskey after much objection to Finn and then finally paid him just to have some peace of mind, although that didn't keep Finn quiet. As he slowly drank his whiskey to the sound of Finn's rambling, he missed the part where Finn acknowledge Nick coming in. It wasn't until he looked up at the sound of the door opening that he saw the last person he wanted to see.

From what Hailey had went through with herself earlier that day made her almost automatically tune out what Holly was talking about. It wasn't that she didn't care about what Holly had to say, but, even though she wouldn't admit it, she was just as tired as Holly was... maybe due to the fact that she'd stayed up all night last night trying to decide whether she was going to go to the doctor or not. Obviously she went... And obviously it confirmed her worst fears. Hailey couldn't stop thinking about Braden, actually. She wanted to tell him about it so bad, but, on the otherhand, she was scared out of her mind of having to tell him. Part of her even thought he would leave the warehouse once he found out. But, she didn't know. It's not like Hailey ever imagined having a family of her own with some kind of family dog and white picket fence. Hailey just knew it wasn't in the cards for her. It never would be.

As Hailey transcended down the steps, all was quite downstairs... except for Cara talking to Robbie. There was no sign of either Nick or Roman, which left Robbie as the only actual male in the warehouse at the moment, since Braden was on the roof. Hailey had almost made it to her mattress, where she could see Holly already laid out on the mattress beside hers. But, before Hailey had a chance to reach the mattress, she heard Brooklyn's snide remark.

"I'd at least prefer bitch... since the devil's sitting right there." Hailey retorted, gesturing toward the mattress. She hoped Holly was already sleeping, since she tried not to use foul language around her, "And, the last time I checked, what I do on a daily basis is none of your fucking business." Hailey flipped her hair behind her shoulders, her body tensing as Brooklyn walked toward her,

I swear to god if she's takes another fucking step... Hailey thought to herself, and even tilted her head to the side as Brooklyn stood right in front of her,

"I hope to whatever fucking higher power there is that you don't have a sister or a brother somewhere far off... Because they have one hell of a pain in the ass as a sister. No wonder you ended up by yourself. Have you ever taken a look in the mirror? I honestly can't believe Nick puts up with you. With the way you treat him, anyway." Hailey gritted her teeth, knowing that she was just asking for trouble. When she first came into the warehouse, she treated Brooklyn with respect, and even feared her. But, now, that was gone, and Hailey wasn't a bit scared of Brooklyn,

"I dare you to insult Holly again. I fucking dare you." Hailey moved closer to Brooklyn, her voice raised on what she said last. Brooklyn could insult her all she wanted to, but once she brought Holly into this, it wasn't just about Hailey anymore. It was about her family. Hailey glared at Brooklyn, just waiting for a reaction.

Happy hour was Finnigan's prime time, so now that that was over, Nick knew there would only be a few stragglers left hanging around. As he approached, he spotted two brawny but balding men standing outside the door smoking cigars. The smoky vanilla aroma was familiar to Nick, whose grandfather smoked a Dominican vanilla cigar on a nightly basis for as long as he could remember. It was a calming reminder of his past and even though Nick didn't know the two men, he offered them a small smile, silently thanking them for the reminder of home. As he entered Finnigan's, the rage escaped his mind for a moment.

He walked into the bar feeling a bit better than before. Finn was tending to customers on the opposite side of the bar so Nick headed for one of the open seats closest to the door. As much as he wanted to rant to him about what had just happened, he was also ready to get drunk enough where he couldn't think straight, even about that. Especially since Brooklyn was going to be working all night, Nick had no reason to remain in a sober mindset.

Finn was clearly involved in one of his endless talks with another customer because Nick was sitting at the bar for a good five to ten minutes before he even got a nod of acknowledgement from him. Even then though, he raised a finger signaling that he would be another minute, which translated to another ten in his book. Being in no real rush, Nick walked back outside and smoked a quick cigarette. When he returned to the bar, Finn had finally detached from those customers, but that was probably only because they had finished their drinks and left.

"Nick!" Finn greeted him with a toothy smile. Nick returned it but it disappeared in half a second when he spotted that in the few minutes he had been outside, Roman had appeared at the nearly empty bar. Since there was only one public entrance to it, Roman must have been in the bathroom earlier but in Nick's mindset, he assumed that Roman had seen him come in and was hiding out back there, and only returned to the public area because he thought Nick had left for good. The sight of Roman made his blood boil again and as much as he wanted to take him on for real now and not hold back, he wasn't going to do that to Finn. Unlike Roman, Nick had respect for people who treated him well and Finn was one of them. He wasn't going to turn his place of business into a boxing ring, especially when he was sure that if he did fight Roman, Finn would get flack for having an underage kid leave his bar in a body bag.

Instead of hurling himself at Roman, he laughed. A simple laugh that probably seemed a bit maniacal in the situation, but between his growing rage and buzz, it seemed appropriate. He tried to assure himself that Roman was a joke. His whole life had been and would be. He was jealous of Nick for having a beautiful girlfriend and a job where he didn't get his ass kicked for a living, and now he was trying to use Finn's as his safe haven just as Nick had in the past. After a few seconds, he shook his head and left.

Brooklyn's walk to work was just less eventful than her shift. There was a group of young men who spent hours there for a bachelor party and after noticing the wads of cash they had, Brooklyn focused on them for the night. They were drunk, obnoxious and smelled like a combination of sweat and beer, but the payoff was worth it. Brooklyn ended up with over seven hundred dollars and although she considered blowing it on drinks with the girls she was working with after they got off work, she opted out of it. She knew that Nick would be at the warehouse and after he and Roman's earlier fight, she wanted to make sure he was actually okay, and that nothing had happened since she had left.

It was nearly three-thirty when she left through the back entrance of the club, where all of the employees usually came in and out of. They had a separate entrance as a safety precaution. Brooklyn had experienced her fair share of times when some weird customer would wait out in front of the building or across the street, thinking that just because she gave him attention inside, that she would do the same outside. It always baffled her how men really believed that the compliments she gave them inside were sincere and real. She would tell Frankenstein he looked like he worked out a lot if he'd slip her a twenty too, but none of them seemed to understand that.

The back entrance emptied out onto a quiet side street but it put her on her way to the gym, so it worked out. Over the past few weeks, there had been instances of some of the other girls being robbed on the street but Brooklyn had never dealt with something like that and she really wasn't scare of the possibility either. She had spent the last ten years living with potentially violent criminals and doubted that some little punk would scare her off either. Besides, the owner of the club had insisted that the girls were lying about being robbed in an attempt for him to give them pity money as a refund.

She made her usual stop at the gym to shower, which like usual, was empty at this time of night. The hot water was comforting and she spent a good twenty minutes in the water before dressing, blow drying her hair and returning to the warehouse.

Showering after a night's work was always such a cleansing feeling for her, and not just in the literal sense of washing away dirt. It wasn't like she did anything intimate with the men who paid her, but touching them and having them touch her, even just briefly, still grossed her out sometimes. She had no idea who they were and where they were coming from, and especially if she was returning home to her own boyfriend, she didn't want to come back smelling like some stranger's musty cologne.

The warehouse wasn't more than a ten or fifteen minute walk from the gym and it was a walk she took every day, even if she wasn't working, so she was pretty familiar with the area. She was only a block or two away when she heard someone approaching from behind her and before she could glance back, she felt someone touch her arm. Instinctively, she shoved back at the person and let out a surprised squeal, but she soon realized that it was Killens. A disheveled version of him, but still the same boy who had berated her earlier that day. She looked him up and down, alarmed at how bad he looked. She was used to him returning to the warehouse with bruises from fighting but this was different.

"What the fuck did you get into? You look like roadkill," she said, raising an eyebrow as she took a step away from him. The light of the streetlamps was enough for Brooklyn to make out his matted hair and damaged face. His shirt was slashed, he was hunched over and his breathing sounded irregular. Although he had clearly gotten himself into some type of trouble, she couldn't help but to smile slightly. It wasn't that she was happy to see him hurt because even after what he had said earlier, she would never wish harm upon Roman, but it was more of a curious smile, one that stemmed from confusion.

However, the next thought that crossed her mind made the smile disappear. If Roman didn't receive the wounds in one of his paid fights, who else would have done it? Brooklyn knew very little about his work life but she obviously knew that when she left, he and Nick weren't on good terms. Could Nick have managed to track him down and done something to him? She doubted it. Nick loved Roman like a brother, but he did seem upset and Brooklyn knew that if he did really want to "blow his pathetic ass up" as he had claimed to want to do earlier, that he could.

Even though it was a thought in her mind, she still doubted that it could be true. Nick's pride wasn't that big. The last thing she wanted to do was relive that fight so rather than following up with a question asking about Nick's involvement, she just waited for Roman to answer.