Secrets, Deals and Lies

Chapter 3 - Whisky and Fights

Nothing happened for the next six days and every day that went past I knew more and more about Daniel. Nick came back all the same – drunk and reeking of whisky.

On the seventh night I told The Warden to make sure Nick doesn’t come back reeking of whisky or any beer, spirit and wine. He said fine as long as I didn’t question so much about Nick’s work so I said deal.

A week later he still comes back reeking of whisky and I asked The Warden why he still smells like this and comes home drunk all the time and his reply was, ‘not my problem,’ I looked at him and said, ‘but we had a deal!’

‘And?’ he tried to walk off, and I was really starting to get irritated. I pulled his sleeve and looked into his cold black eyes, ‘you have problems.’ I said coldly shaking my head slowly in anger.

He narrows his eyes at me, ‘me? You’re the one with no Mum and barely a father to look after you -now look at you two no wonder your mother left you guys,’  he says calmly, face a complete blank.

‘Excuse me?’ I shrieked in fury. ‘You heard me,’ he says.

I scowl at him and felt a rising temper forming all around me and before I knew it I slapped him hard in the face and as my hand connected with his cheek and jaw I heard the loud noise echo in the room. Daniel saw what I did and I didn’t even realise he was there the whole time. The Warden’s jaw tenses, his hands clenching and before I knew it I was power walking into my room and slamming the door shut behind me.

I jump on my bed and listened to them quietly, my breathing uneven and laboured, heart pumping hard in my chest. ‘The girls got guts,’ I hear Daniel comment before The Warden scowls and walked off.

When I woke up I didn’t come out of my room once, because I was scared of what Nick would say to me. But as usual Nick left with The Warden, leaving me behind to fend for myself as he’s done for the last eight years.

Daniel stayed outside of my room and for some reason he didn’t actually care that I was still in my room for the whole day.

The next day however, he kept asking me to come out because we needed to go back to the room and said it was really important, but I still stayed in my room.

At 12:30 Daniel gave up with being a “gentleman” and pleading as he opened my door grabbed my arm, gently, and dragged me to the room, he sat me on the chair I usually sit on and then sat on his on chair.

‘Oh, gee thanks,’ I say sarcastically looking at the floor, cross-armed and slouched on my chair. ‘No problem,’ he says back as sarcastic as me. I finally look up at him, ‘can I at least get changed out of my pyjama’s?’

I was only wearing a big t-shirt and really short shorts un­derneath. He looks at me from top to bottom, wondering if he should let me change or not. ‘Fine but you only have 10 minutes then I’ll be knocking on the door. Okay?’ he takes me back to my room and waits outside.

I finish changing within 5 minutes but then had to go to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth and all that. He starts knocking on the door when I’m halfway of brushing my teeth.

‘Come on Remy,’ he yells; I could barely hear him with my electric toothbrush going on. I take my hair out and brush it from head to bottom which was ¾ down my back. When I walk out­side without noticing Daniel went to the toilet I walked all the way back to the room, thinking he would already be there; but obviously not.

An hour later he finds me lying on the floor reading a book I had grabbed before I left.

‘Jeez, Remy! Don’t just leave, I ran around looking for you for ages.’ I can hear the happiness and fear in his voice. I sit up and look at him, he looks like his been running around the hotel for ages, up and down the stairs in and out of rooms, puffing like a dog. He slowly walks to his chair and turns it around to the direction where I am now sitting up.

‘I’ve been ‘ere the whole time silly.’ I joke a small giggle slipping out; his cheeks go a bit pink but smiles anyway. ‘Well, look,’ he starts, getting his breath back, ‘when I'm around don’t go anywhere without telling me okay? You’re my responsibility and if anything happens to you, Nick will probably slice me in half.’

I rolled my eyes, ‘as if Nick would do that.’

‘Alright, maybe I exaggerated a bit. But I'm serious don’t go running off and stuff alright?’ I look up at his serious face.

‘Alright, alright,’ I sigh.

‘Oh, and I wasn't joking about your dad.’ He smiles warmly, holding my gaze. ‘He really does love you.’

I didn’t really believe it, because Nick and I aren’t exactly what people would call “close”, we’re the complete opposite.

A week later I “overheard” The Warden, Nick and some other men in black talking about some stuff and found out it was actually Nick’s idea to getting us here and The Warden who got us all into this mess, I got a bit angry but decided to talk to Daniel about it. He says I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on their conversa­tion because for some reason I wasn’t supposed to find out.

‘Don’t ever do it again okay? They hate eavesdroppers. Bad things happen to little sneaks like you.’ He warns, even though he laughed and said that I'm really cheeky and nosy when I told him that I “over­heard” them talking.

A few months went past and I avoided The Warden, never talked to Nick and spent a lot of time talking to Daniel. We got to learn more and more about each other and I felt like I’ve known him for ages. Although he does keep a lot of things “confidential” and tries to avoid questions I ask about Nick’s work or his past life, most of the time I’m the one blabbing about places I want to go and places I want to see.

Whereas Daniel, he just asks me questions to keep me entertained, but when I ask questions back, he tries to change the subject and says that it doesn’t really matter or he looks at his phone and pretends that he didn’t hear me.

‘Daniel, how old were you when you joined this business thingy?’ I ask.

‘Err why?’ he asks looking at me with one eye brow up.

‘Cos I'm interested about a lot of things, you should know that,’ I smile cheekily putting an eye brow up just like him.

He chuckles, ‘well… I was a street kid and obviously had no parents – god knows where they are – the Warden found me having a punch on in the streets a few years ago, it was 5 to 1 and he saved my life.  He gave me a job; all I had to do was go to the gym to get stronger, learn how to use a gun and then they made me promise something. After that I had a lot of meetings with The Warden and they….’ He stops and gets up. By now I'm beaming with all the information he gave me and I sat there quietly letting it all sink in.

He turns around helps me off the floor looks at me and says, ‘Why do you always seem to make everything come out of me?’ I laugh and look at him but he was serious.

‘Sorry,’ I say straightening up my face and then I promised not to tell anyone what he told me and that it’ll be our “secret.” After that we got over it and walked to the window changing the subject.

‘You’re such a pest,’ he jokes shaking his head with a big grin across his face as he leans against the window sill. I scoff jokingly before laughing, ‘gee, thanks Daniel,’ I grin back. ‘No problem grommet,’ he teases before winking at me to show he was only joking around.

I always thought about it and wondered what he would’ve said if he were to keep talking and not stop, I wondered what they made him promise. Why they choose a street kid? Why he was a street kid? Why they wanted him to learn how to use a gun and why they had meetings, and for what?

Though I don’t dare to ask him these questions because I'm scared it’ll break our friendship and trust, somehow.