the face, then I stomp his head three times for good measure before my father can pull me off of him.
“Hey, what the fuck is wrong with you?” he asks.
“He was reaching for his pocket,” I explain. My father looks baffled, then he looks down at the driver who’s covering his face in pain. Dad pulls his gun from his waist band and kneels down next to him.
“What did I tell you? Are you trying to die out here on this road? Huh? You want me to fucking kill you out here? How about I give you a closed fucking casket so your mother never sees you again, you fucking cock sucker!” Dad hits the driver in the face with the pistol and I see a couple of his teeth fall out. Then my father stands up and directs his attention to Stephano. “And you, you fucking moron. I told you watch him, and you take your eyes off him so long my thirteen year old son has to come save your ass. You stupid son of a bitch!”
“I’m sorry, Donnie,” Stephano says.
“Hey, we don’t have time for this shit,” Frankie interrupts. “We made the score, now it’s time to go. Wrap it up.”
Right on cue, everybody starts moving. Frankie shuts the door in the back, Stephano climbs into the driver seat of the truck, and the rest of us run towards the cars that are hidden in the darkness up the road. My father hits the driver in the back of the head with the gun, knocking him out, and we leave him there in the darkness.
Once we’re back in the car and driving away, my father can no longer hold in his excitement about how things just went down.
“Holy shit, this is huge!” he exclaims. “Did you see how much shit was in the back of that truck?”
“Fucking beautiful,” Frankie agrees. “You know what else was beautiful? Fucking Boy Wonder back there. Did you see him kick the shit out of that guy?”
“Oh my fucking god, I know! What did I tell you?” Dad yells.
“He’s a fucking natural, Donnie,” Frankie says, turning back in his seat to look at me. I smile, because I don’t know what else to do.
“You did real good back there, Dominic,” my father says, looking at me in the rearview mirror as he drives. “Real fucking good. I’m proud of you. You hear me?”
“I hear you,” I answer, still smiling. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Fucking Boy Wonder,” Frankie says again, still looking at me and shaking his head like he can’t believe it. “Congratulations on your first score, kid.”
Alannah
I get to the bench before Dominic does today. It’s not as beautiful outside as it normally is. Maybe that’s my subconscious making it seem worse than it actually is, I don’t know. I feel nervous. Anxious, even. On one hand I’m excited, on the other hand, I feel terrified and I don’t even know why. I have no reason to fear Dominic. Other people might, but not me. Yet, as I place my back pack on the ground in front of me, I feel like he’s about to be upset with me, and these days, nobody wants Dominic Collazo to be upset with them.
I hear the door to the school slam behind me, and I know it’s him. My heart quickens and I have to make myself breathe or I might not do it right. I hear his footsteps because he’s big and he walks heavy. Even his walk is intimidating. He sits down across from me and smiles, so I smile back to keep it light.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi.”
“Why you looking so nervous?” he asks, so I know I already messed up the smiling part.
“I don’t know. I’m not nervous.” That’s a lie.
He chuckles a little. “Okay. So, you said you wanted to talk to me, and now I come out here and you look like you’re about to get the electric chair. You’re making me nervous. What’s up, Alannah?”
“Nothing’s up, really. How was your day?” I ask, stalling.
“My day was fine, but you ask me about my day all the time and you never look this nervous. Your note said you needed to talk to me, so just get to it, crazy.”
He’s being playful and smiling, so maybe this will go better than I thought.
“Okay, so I need to tell you something,” I begin. Dominic puts his big arms on the table and leans forward to listen. “Do you know Bobby Pistone?”