'I really should stop jinxing stuff,' I thought, staring at the bleach-blond teenager with a lip piercing and a hoodie three sizes too big, leaning halfway out of the apartment door.
"Sorry, bro, you were three minutes late; I already filed a complaint a minute ago. I'll still pay up for the pizza. No tips for being late, though," He said with a scowl that drew my attention to the piercing on his lower lip.
"You live on the fifth floor, with no elevators." I stared while still trying to balance the four stacks of pizza in my arms. "How the hell was I supposed to make it up here in time?" I said to delinquent-san.
"Not my problem, bro." He said, still looking at me with the same scowl.
"You know what, just pay up for the pizza. I've still got more deliveries to pick up." I said to the blond-haired delinquent.
'That's if Tony doesn't have a replacement already lined up,' I thought with a sigh as I watched the customer take out his wallet and hand me a bunch of green benjamins while I handed him the goods.
I counted it, a total of sixty-eight dollars.
"Thanks for your patronage, I guess," I muttered, putting the money into my pocket and turning to descend the same flight of stairs I had ascended a few moments prior.
I reached the scooter in no time, ready to hit the road to the shop back in Downtown Caviar, when a drizzle of rain hit my helmet.
"Rain? Now? Seriously? So much for good karma." I said to myself as I started up the scooter, ready to bring it up a gear to somehow beat the rain.
'Off-roading it is then,' I thought to myself as I sped down more alleys, cutting across streets, and breaking about fifty traffic violations in under ten minutes.
I was on the last alley, ready to head back to another street, when I saw a silhouette running towards me. Man or creature, it was hard to tell with all the drizzle on my helmet.
'Shit!'" Get out of the way!" I screamed as the silhouette came into clear view. It was a man with some black cloth over his face. He was running towards me, looking behind him as if he were running from something.
Hearing me shout, he finally turned towards me, letting me see exactly what was over his face. It was a ski mask with two holes that allowed him visibility, dressed entirely in black, carrying a bulging duffel bag slung across his shoulder.
I veered to the right to avoid the man, but the drizzling rain had reduced the friction between the scooter's tyres and the ground as I slid off the bike, with the vehicle continuing its horizontal motion across the alley floor.
I hit the ground hard, the helmet taking most of the damage that might have scraped off some skin from the side of my face. My vision blurred a bit before coming into focus some moments later.
"Arghhhh! Motherfucker!" I heard, whipping my head to the scene of the scream. The scream was full of pain; it was raw, like someone trying to breathe through broken glass.
The mysterious but almost obvious robber had collided with the scooter, his ankle twisting in ways it wasn't supposed to.
'Shit!' I thought. Looking over my body for injuries. Aside from some scrapes on my knees over my worn-out jeans and some elbow bruises, I was mostly okay.
I sighed with relief.
Nothing was broken. No bones sticking out where they weren't supposed to.
I had to get out of here.
I had to run before the robber came to his senses.
Ah shit, Tony was going to kill me.
I headed cautiously towards the screaming man, side-stepping him, trying to get to the scooter and get the fuck away from this alley, but as soon as my hands were on the handlebars, a metallic clink echoed through the alley, even with the sound of the rain now coming in droves.
I froze.
"Drop the bike motherfucker" I heard as I turned my head to find the man on one good ankle, pointing a gun to my face.
Fuck
Fuck
Fuck
A gun was pointed to my face. A gun! A real fucking gun! I mean, I'd seen them plenty of times on the news; they weren't terrifying then, but none had been pointed at me.
Fuck
Fuck
Fuck
I raised both of my hands and cautiously stepped away from the bike as the robber limped towards the bike.
The gun was still trained on me as the robber slung the duffel bag onto the alley floor and turned to lift the bike while on his one good leg.
I couldn't allow that.
If he took that, I wouldn't have the face to show up at Tony's.
I wouldn't find someone else who'd willingly take in a sixteen-year-old and give him a job.
I had to do something.
The robber was still fiddling with the bike, muttering curses under his breath, when the engine gave a purr.
The bike came to life as the robber swung his one good leg over the bike and bent over to pick up the duffel bag.
Do something!
DO SOMETHING!
My vision blurred back into the fire.
That fire that burnt down our house.
That fire that had burnt down my entire life.
That fire that had burnt out my image of heroes.
'No hero is coming to save you,' a strange voice whispered in my consciousness.
I had forgotten.
No one was coming.
No hero.
No miracle.
Nothing.
I had been sulking instead of saving myself.
'No hero is coming to save you!'
My heart was beating rapidly; I looked around, trying to do something, anything to stop the robber from taking that bike, from ruining my job, from ruining what little life I'd managed to scrape together.
"Arghhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed. I didn't even know when.
The robber half-turned towards me; he had picked up the bag and was ninety percent on his way to escape when everything went black.
[ INITIALIZING.... ]
[ 1%....]