“He’s real bad news, Jared.” I walked over to him. “We don’t get involved in that stuff.”
“I know, I know.” He sighed and turned around to me. “There’s nothing to eat.”
“What do you want?” I looked around the kitchen and realized that there was no space to make anything, even if I’d wanted to. “Let’s just order a pizza.”
“You sure?” Jared’s eyes lit up and I pulled him towards me. He was my little brother but he was still taller than me, with his six feet and four inches. I patted him on the back and let him go.
“Yeah, go and call them.”
“You the best, bro.”
“Oh, I’m your bro now and not a bitch?”
“You’re still a bitch.” He laughed. “What up, Vincent?”
“Just trying to get ready for this exam tomorrow.”
“Tell Logan to go and take it for you.” He wiggled his eyebrows and we all laughed as we sat down at the table. I looked at my brothers and felt at ease; these were the guys I would give my life for. Even though I was only three years older than Vincent and four years older than Jared, I felt a huge responsibility for them. In fact, I often treated them like they were my sons. Ever since our mom died twelve years ago, we had been essentially alone. Dad had only been good for a few things: teaching us how to steal, how to drink, and how to not give a f**k about anyone else.
“Shh, Jared, Vincent can do this. And so can you.” I looked at him pointedly, and he gave me such a glazed look, that I knew he wasn’t going to remember this conversation in the morning.
“Vincent’s going to become a lawyer so he can keep us out of jail.” Jared laughed. “We only need one college boy in the family, Logan.”
“Whoa, hold on. I’m a far way from law school.” Vincent’s voice was gruff, though I could see the hope in his eyes. Vincent’s dream had always been to go to law school. He had this idea that if he got into the system, he could change it. I didn’t really want him to go become a lawyer; I felt it would distance him from me. But I wanted the best for him. His dreams were important to me, more than my own worries and concerns.
“You’ll make it, Vinny. And Jared, you get your ass working on that college application.”
“Shit, Logan, I’ve got two months until the deadline.” Jared rolled his eyes at me, and it took everything in me not to deck him.
“That’s what you said last year and you missed it.”
“How was the pier tonight?” Jared changed the subject, and I turned away from him with a shrug.
“Okay. I got a Corolla.”
“I noticed, sweet ride.” Jared laughed.
“Stay away,” I warned him.
“You taking it to Marty?” he questioned me.
I shook my head. “Nah, not this one.” I kept my voice monotone and jumped up to grab a beer. Marty was an old friend of my dad’s. He ran a mechanic shop in River Valley and always took the cars we gave him. He either used them for parts or sold them through an auto dealer magazine. However, recently he had been paying less and less and acting shadier and shadier. I think it was because he didn’t like dealing with me. He was used to my dad, who just took the money and shut up. By the end of the night, Marty would have most of the money back, either in his belly as free beer or as winnings from poker night with my dad and some of their friends. I didn’t participate in either of those activities and Marty wasn’t too happy about it. So now he offered less and less. In fact, the last time I had taken him a car, he had given me a veiled warning: take the cash offered or the car might make its way to a police parking lot in the middle of the night, and he’d hate to see them catch the thief due to fingerprints. I took the money instead of socking him in the jaw because he had his two henchmen next to him. But I knew after that, I couldn’t take another car to him.
“Where you going to take it?” Jared questioned me.
“I’ll have to see.” My voice was rough and strained. “Anyways, I gotta help Vinny now. You go wait on the pizza and we’ll talk later.”
“Shit, I better go outside and wait before Dad goes crazy at the pizza guy for ringing the doorbell again.”
“Yeah.” I nodded in agreement. “Do that.” I watched as Jared walked out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and out the front door, and I let out a deep breath.
“What’s up, Logan?” Vinny’s voice sounded worried.
I looked up at him with a weak smile. I had forgotten he was still in the room with us. “Nothing.”
“Something going on with Marty?”
“Yeah, but it’ll be okay.”
“He’s shady as f**k, isn’t he?” Vincent sighed and I saw that his fists were clenched. “You let me deal with him, or all of us can. You, me, Jared, we should go down there and show him that the Martelli brothers don’t play.”
“We can’t go down there and intimidate him, Vincent.” I shook my head, trying to talk reason into him, even though his idea sounded good to me.
“I wasn’t talking about intimidating.” Vincent smiled a wicked smile. “I’m talking about using him as a punching bag and not stopping until he cries like a bitch.”
“We’re not going to do that, Vinny.”
“Pussy.”
“Watch your mouth.” I laughed. “You can’t afford to get caught for anything anyway, you know what the judge said.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“We got enough money for rent next month?” I could hear the concern in his voice and I was angry. Angry that we were in this position, angry that I hadn’t been able to do anything to make our lives better.
“We got enough,” I lied, not wanting him to worry. I knew what he would do if he knew I was worried, and the last thing I wanted was for him to go to jail.
“But not much more, huh?” He sat back, still worried but less stressed. “You think you’ll be able to sell the Toyota?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“We could always ask Joey …?” Vincent’s voice trailed off, as I glared at him.
“We don’t do business with Joey.”
“It can’t hurt to do it this once.”
“No.” I shook my head vehemently. “We don’t deal with the likes of him.”