There was then a moment of awkward pause. I stared at him. He stared at me. I decided that he had nice hair.
We both jumped at the sudden sound of a slamming door several feet away. A man, several years older than me, stood with his back to the door, panting horribly, his face red, both light blue eyes wide.
The boy jumped up. �Arik!� he exclaimed.
The man, whom I took to be the said Arik, glared at the boy. �Imbecile! You were supposed to meet me here an hour and a half ago!�
The boy struck a sheepish pose, scratching at the back of his neck. �Yeah, I know, but, you see, I kind of overslept, and my alarm was broken, and I think my watch is slow and��
I got to my feet and waited patiently while the boy rattled off a bunch of excuses, and Arik became increasingly flustered.
�Well, then, how did the delivery go? Did you give Captain Mattson the shipment?�
Arik covered his face with his hand and sank down a bit. �Harris, we picked up the wrong shipment.�
The color instantly drained from the boy, Harris�s, face, and he let out a squeaky sort of noise.
�Heh,� Arik went on, his voice high, �and Mattson is NOT very happy. In fact, one might say he�s pretty darn POed!� He slid his hands down from his face. �You know how he paid us in advance? He wants his money back��
�..and we already spent the money repairing the ship after the storm�� Harris finished.
Both Arik and Harris did that SD �sweatdrop� thing one sees in anime, which I�d previously deemed impossible in real life. But, yeah, they sweatdropped.
Who are these guys? I wondered, highly entertained.
Harris wiped his forehead. �So what are we going to do now?�
Arik pinched the bridge of his nose. �I�m not sure; perhaps we could take out a loan�not that our credit is very good�we might be able to scrape enough together for now and do some odd jobs on the side and��
Arik suddenly jumped as a powerful blow rattled the door from the opposite side. A thunderous voice roared out from behind: �Where�s my money, REDDE?! I WANT MY PAYMENT NOW!�
There was the sound of a small explosion�I�d never heard it in real life before, but I knew instantly what it was�bullets zipped through the wooden door and over Arik�s head, ricocheting off the tar and cement ground and making the door look relatively like Swiss cheese.
�Or, you know, we, could, like, run�?� Arik squeaked, rather out of it. In a flash he was composed and had raced off down the alley. I ducked as a bullet shot past me�I�d never known how fast they were�and I was suddenly thrust forwards as Harris grabbed onto my arm and raced off after Arik down the alley.
�Wait-h-hold on a minute!�
Harris wrenched my arm forwards, making me run before I could unscramble my footing. �Just come with us for now!�
�HARRIS COME ON!� shouted Arik urgently from far ahead�the door behind us exploded into a spray of splinters, yielding to the force of the burly man who followed�I got to my toes and tore off down the alley at Harris�s side.
And thus everything began.