It didn’t take long for Evan to get settled in his new room. He only had as much as he could shove into his backpack, so setup consisted of dumping that shit on the floor and lying down on the stained mattress to rest his head. Though there were no sheets on the bed and his body was sore, it was the most comfortable night’s sleep he’d had in a while.
He’d never had his own room. When he was younger, he’d shared with his brothers and after he got kicked out of the house he’d crashed wherever he could: friends’ couches, with people he fucked, or shelters in the winter, and the banks of the lake or park benches in the summer if he couldn’t get a bed at the Mission. He regretted not listening to Kane and joining the KKz years ago. He had to remind himself to keep control and not fuck it up.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d slept, but there was sunlight streaming past the kinked blinds when his rumbling stomach woke him, insistent that he put something in it. Groaning as he stretched his achy limbs, he climbed out of bed and headed into the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. He was surprised to find Kane, Jamal, and a guy he didn’t know sitting at the table playing cards and smoking blunts.
“Breakfast of Champions?” he asked with a smirk, nodding when Kane passed him a blunt. He took a deep inhale, cringing when his side reminded him that he’d gotten rocked the day before.
“It’s noon, cracker.” Jamal laughed as Evan looked to Kane for confirmation. His brother nodded and patted him on his bare hipbone.
“Doesn’t look so bad,” he stated, gesturing to the bruises on Evan’s torso.
“All good,” Evan assured, glancing at the guy he didn’t know. “I’m Evan.”
“Luis,” the dude said as he reached out his hand to shake Evan’s. “There are some burritos in the fridge if you want one.”
“Yeah?” Evan asked, raising his eyebrows eagerly.
“Mmmhmm.”
He didn’t waste any time grabbing one and tossing it into the microwave. He could hardly wait the minute it took to heat it up, digging in as soon as he pulled it out. The guys watched as he scarfed it down with fervor.
“Look pretty thin, man,” Kane observed, taking in Evan’s boxer-clad form. “You not eating enough?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Evan mumbled, his mouth full of Mexican food.
Kane tapped his cards against the table and sighed, deciding not to push the issue.
“You and I got a date today, Red,” Luis informed him, taking a sip of his forty.
“Not on that faggot shit.” Evan grinned around the burrito he was still shoving into his mouth.
“Good, ‘cause I wouldn’t want to fuck a bitch without an ass anyway,” Luis teased back, drawing a laugh from Evan, who was in a pretty fucking good mood with his belly full of food and his head getting a nice buzz off the Kush. “Nah, man, I’m not typically on party but I’m doing my boy Micah a favor and training you tonight. We got to go out and get you some clothes, a razor, and shit like that this afternoon.”
“Don’t got any money,” Evan stated plainly.
“You’re a Klown Killer now, cracks,” Jamal told him. “We take care of our own.”
“When you start bringing in some dough, you’ll get us back. We collect money for the house once a week. You know, for groceries, alcohol, and weed. Enough to cover the necessities,” Luis explained.
Evan nodded and noticed the look of warning he was getting from his brother. He didn’t blame him for the nonverbal reminder. He’d spent enough time fucking up in the past to know that the concern was warranted, but his brother had put his own reputation on the line to bring Evan in and there was no way he was going to screw that up.
Of all the things he’d done that he regretted, and there were a lot of them, stealing from the family’s shoebox savings was tops. The first time he did it, he’d intended to pay it back but got himself into some heat with a local dealer and wasn’t able to make it happen. The second time he hadn’t given it a thought. He was desperate for a hit and knew there was a can of money sitting idly in the kitchen. He should’ve shown more remorse when he was caught, but he hadn’t; his mind was too overtaken by the drugs he was flooding it with to give a shit.
Mom and Pops had bolted so his older sister, Emma, and brother, Paul, had taken over running the family. When they’d had enough, they’d kicked him out, fed up with his habit and his propensity to gank shit to feed it. At seventeen he was on his own and now, four years later, he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes again. It meant something to him that Kane had offered him a bed, even though he was well aware of his history. He wanted to do right by his bro and, selfishly, wanted to enjoy having his own room for as long as possible.
“Go throw on some clothes and we’ll hit up the Goodwill for some club clothes. We’re heading up to the North Side tonight to pick up some daddy’s girls.”
“Or girls that’ll call you daddy,” Kane corrected with a cocky head nod.
“What do you know about that?” Evan belched loudly and tossed the aluminum foil that used to hold the burrito into the trash.
“Bitches have been calling me ‘daddy’ since elementary school.” Kane smirked. “Don’t act like you don’t remember that shit.”
“I remember you got caught fucking that Gracie chick under the bleachers in seventh grade,” Evan reminded Kane. “Emma was pissed as fuck, but Paul and I smoked you up that night to celebrate.”
“Fuck, those were the good old days,” Kane sighed, seeming to get lost in the memories.
Evan was glad he never got caught doing the same with Ryan Spellman. He would’ve had a lot more explaining to do than Kane ever had, and Evan was sure his brother Paul wouldn’t have gifted him with weed after the revelation.
He felt a stir in his boxers and quickly excused himself to take a shower before he started tenting them. He knew it had been too long since he’d gotten laid if thoughts of his middle school sex life were turning him on.
Since he was going to be on the North Side later, he knew exactly where he was going to go to get fucked. He couldn’t wait to be done with whatever bullshit he had to take care of so he was free to find some dude’s ass to rail.
X
The Drexel was everything Evan hated about the North Side and people in general. It was packed with girls who were fake as fuck from their tans to their hair, tits, and personalities. The guys weren’t much better, wearing douchey pink Polo shirts and talking about their cars, boats, and latest business deals. Evan was pretty sure he and Luis stood out like sore thumbs, despite having picked collared shirts and dark wash jeans especially for the occasion.
“Remember what you’re going to say about your eye,” Luis prompted, studying Evan’s face to see if his black eye would be noticeable in the lighting, which he knew it was. “Rugby.”
“Have no idea how the game works,” Evan informed him. “What if they ask me some questions I can’t answer?”
“You find a way to answer them, Red,” Luke laid it down. “Don’t use rugby. I don’t give a fuck. Just come up with something that sounds rich.”
Evan nodded. He knew the plan. Luis had decided to start small and teach him their credit card fraud tricks since the whole party scene wasn’t really his area of expertise. Though the training wasn’t extensive, Evan felt confident that he’d be able to get the job done, and the thought of indulging in the spoils was amazing. As he approached a busty blonde, he kept repeating the items that he intended to buy with her credit card number. It made talking to her a more palatable exercise. It had only taken a few seconds for her to notice, before she began to flirt mercilessly.
“Can I buy you a drink, doll?” he crooned, giving her the widest smile he could muster.
“Only if you tell me where you got that black eye, handsome,” she flirted, resting her hand high on Evan’s thigh. “Love my men rough.”
He cleared his throat, attempting to steel himself for the onslaught of questions he was sure she’d ask.
“Got in a fight over some dumb shit.” The lie rolled off his tongue, and yeah, he was well aware that he was going off script.
“Sexy,” she sighed in reply, tossing her blonde locks over her shoulder and licking her lips suggestively.
“Lemme buy you a drink?” He did the man-beg as he made a show of staring at her cannonball tits even though they disgusted him.
“I’d love that.” She giggled, shimmying her chest slightly in order to entice him even further, not realizing she was barking up the wrong tree.
Luis had busied himself with another desperate bitch as Evan and blondie requested their drinks from the bartender. When it came time to pay, Evan made a show of pulling out his wallet like he was supposed to and sighed as he feigned his disappointment when he realized his nonexistent credit card wasn’t there.
The girl took the bait, immediately waving off Evan’s faux protests as she pulled out her own card and laid it down on the mahogany surface of the bar. He forced a smile as she placed a hand on his freshly shaven face and then let it drag down the front of his maroon button-down to the waist of his jeans. She looked away as she let her hand move down to the crotch of his pants, while she took a sip of her Amaretto Sour.
He discreetly reached into his pocket and took out the burner that Luis had given him. As the blonde attempted to play it coy, he snuck a picture of her credit card before the bartender had the chance to slide it off the bar top to run it. Within seconds of Evan completing his task, her coquettish act had given way to a more direct tactic. She leaned in close and whispered, “You ever fuck on cocaine?”
Chugging his full beer bottle until it was empty, he raised his eyebrows and followed her as she sauntered toward the bathroom. All of a sudden the club wasn’t as shitty a place to be as it had been moments before.
The women’s lavatory was crowded, but nobody seemed to bat an eye when he entered or when blondie started cutting lines on the brushed metal countertop. It had been so long since he’d had the opportunity to bump the good stuff. He’d had to settle for whatever he had been able to get his hands on and he could feel his mouth begin to water with want as he watched her roll up a Benjamin. Leaning over, she snorted two long lines in practiced succession before handing the money over and gesturing for him to hit the other two lines she’d cut. He did so enthusiastically, licking his lips and closing his eyes when he felt the delicious rush.
When the coke was all inhaled, he left the bathroom wordlessly, hearing her shrill voice call after him over the pounding beat of the hip-hop music that was thumping in the club. He planned to fuck on cocaine, but it wasn’t going to be her who he was banging.