The rendezvous point was somewhere we’ve never met-up at before. I couldn’t recognize the address but from the street I could tell it was definitely downtown. This was confirmed when I put it into my maps app; however it didn't show anything besides a building that was vacant and presumably awaiting a buyer.

“That’s pretty weird, the address brings up nothing but an empty retail space, you know anything about that Lee?

“I dunno, that's just the address. I don't know man.” He muttered with his eyes closed without a care in the world. He has to be plastered. How irresponsible could you possibly be?

“What the hell did you do last night?” I asked, making my turn onto the interstate. The benefit of living in a small town is there's never traffic this early in the day.

“Cosupray.

“What?”

He opened his eyes and looked me dead in my face

“Cosupray, like cosplay, dressing up as characters”

“You did cosplay? You’re just full of surprises aren't you, but what’s with the accent? Is that some kind of character or-”

“I had a sex with a cosplayer Leon” He finally readjusted the passenger seat to a normal position. “I got drunk with a girl I met at the convention center. You know those girls are real freaks, you should come with me sometime man. Those 'animcon' girls will do anything if you act interested in the crap they ramble on about.” This guy is insatiable.

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Ah come on Leon take the stick out your ass you should live a little or are you saving yourself for that goody two shoes Jessica girl. You and me both know she’d never deal with a criminal, she’s going to law school, this isn’t a fairy tale Leon.” Before I could even properly retort my phone sounded off. It couldn’t be. The call was from none other than Jessica, the girl I considered to be my closest friend since high-school.

“Son of a- If you so much let out a peep I’ll break your fucking neck got it?!” I gave Lee my best death stare.

“Yeah sure whatever” He mumbled reclining his seat back. I answered and positioned the phone between my ear and shoulder.

“H-hey Jessica what’s up”

“Hello Leon, I was just calling to remind you that my semester starts in two weeks and since the university is across the state we won’t be seeing each other much. So I wanted to plan a get together with you and some of my friends as a farewell party. What do you think? Or is that too lame for you?”

“What? Of course I’d love to hangout with you and your friends. What day are you thinking?”

“Hey, am I invited? To this hangout whatever ya call it.” Lee just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“Is Lee with you Leon?” She asked

“Yes, I’m driving him to a meeting with our boss.” I grimaced.

“Oh that’s perfect! Please ask him if he wouldn’t mind coming. I'm sure you’d feel awkward if you were the only boy in my group of girlfriends.” I could hear a giggle at the end of her statement. Lee and a group of girls is the absolute last thing I want to be around.

“Yeah I’ll talk to him about it.” I got off the interstate to turn onto the street of the meeting place. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lee holding back laughter.

“Oh, I also wanted to ask if you could come by Saturday to help me pack, just you, it's not much but I could use your help with some of the heavier things.”

“Oh yeah it's no problem, I'll try to ask the boss man if I could take Saturday off.” Jessica and I haven’t spent much time together after she applied to that law school after our graduation.

“Take the day off for what?” Lee shouted. He really doesn’t know when to shut up.

“Ok sounds good I’ll let you go now since I know you’re busy I’ll add you to the group chat so we can all brainstorm.”

“Alright Jessica, thanks for having me, talk to you later now buh bye.”

“Buh Bye??” Lee snorted

“Bye Leon, tell Lee I said hi ok?”

“Will do.” I hung up. The rest of the ride was completely silent besides the morning radio. We finally got to our destination at 7:45am; we were early. The building seemed to be a restaurant of some sort; there weren’t many cars in the parking lot besides Lee’s and two others. I finally decided to break the silence.

“Why can’t you just let me enjoy the few small things I have Lee, what's your deal man.”

“What’s my deal? What’s yours softie? The last thing I need is for you to turn into some pansy for a girl that’s kept you perpetually in the friend zone.”

“Pansy? Friend zone? I thought you were drunk, not mentally handicapped I’m not taking relationship advice from the guy who can’t keep his dick in his pants, and just in case you’ve forgotten, I’m the only reason you’re in the position you have, you vagrant.” I got out of his car and made my way towards the front door ignoring his wailing, upon closer inspection the building seemed to be freshly renovated. I pushed the front door open and I heard a familiar nasally voice come from a booth you’d see at a restaurant.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Bonjour monsieur Leon, how are you doing, mon ami.” It was my boss Norvio sitting at the booth in his usual attire: black leather jacket no matter the weather, jeans tighter than they oughta be, and a black beanie that I've never seen him take off his head. He's a small-time drug boss but makes it up with his eccentric larger than life personality. He’s a hardcore francophile that claims to be born in France ‘somewhere on the Seine’, don’t ask him what town though he’ll never give you an answer. On top of that he’s got a great aversion to firearms and carries enough knives on him to open a butcher shop, and if that wasn’t strange enough he decided to give himself the moniker ‘Le Fantome’ or the Phantom because in his own words ‘I’ve cheated death so many times she’s taken me to divorce court in my dreams.’ Despite all of his quirks he’s absolutely no nonsense when it comes to handling his business.

“Enchante Norvio, what's with this spot? You got a connection with the owners?” I asked

“Oh Leon, I am the owner. I thought I told you I was becoming a franchise owner of a ‘La Vida Loca’ Tex-Mex restaurant. It has always been a dream of mine. What a Madman.

“Oops, sorry there’s just been a lot on my mind lately it must’ve slipped.” I didn’t forget I just thought he was joking, he’s infamous for making claims and not following up with them.

“Ah oui the slipping mind syndrome, very unfortunate. Ah Lee there you are please come sit with us, oh and order whatever you’d like by the way.” Lee had finally made his way inside and took a seat next to Norvio.

“Hey boss man. Don’t worry about it I already had breakfast at Leon’s” Lee said all the while glaring at me. We’d have to handle our squabble another time.

“Ah so you two have been becoming close. It's good to see that time can truly heal all wounds. It wasn’t too long ago that I had to keep you two from ripping each other's head off, ah the folly of youth.”

“Yeah you got that right.” I replied half-heartedly.

Lee nodded, avoiding eye contact.

After graduating I had begun working for Norvio under the guise that I was assisting him in running a small-scale tech company that focused on mining crypto. In reality I was, in simple terms, a manager for his goons in the city. A position Norvio entrusted to me after he became my mentor after saving my life years ago. Graduation was not as kind to Lee, he barely managed to leave with a diploma and his athletics simply were not enough to get into any academic institution so he hopped around from couch to couch finding a place where anyone would let him stay. By chance one day Lee was trying to sell in our territory, luckily it was me that found him and not one of the other guys. Even though we gave each other hell in high school, I couldn’t stand seeing him as a bum…so why couldn’t he at least be a bum for us?

“Anyhow, I called the both of you today to tell you I plan to go clean.” Norvio’s statement caught both of us off guard.

“Go clean? you mean you’re done pushing?” Lee took no time to question him. I don’t blame him, Norvio has had it made for him ever since he showed up here to throw all that away so soon seems strange to me.

“Oui, I’ve decided to invest fully into cryptocurrency. It is the future, you know.” He said with an almost childlike demeanor. He can’t be serious. He continued: “I apologize that was a very tasteless joke, but I do intend to go clean completely by the end of the year, I have to start living honestly if I ever-” He stopped himself before he could finish. What could he possibly be talking about.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful here but what happens to us when you go clean? I can’t exactly start over.” Lee said exactly what I was thinking.

“You will be given positions either in my offices or as managers of my establishments, O’Neil will handle the rest of my subordinates. I know it will be a rough transition but, this life never ends well for people like me, when you get to my age you’ll start to understand.” A waitress came to our table and brought Norvio an orange soda in a glass bottle which he quickly popped open using one of his knives from the inside of his jacket. The waitress enjoyed that trick. “Your life can go down hill just as quickly as I opened this bottle, you boys are young and have much more to look forward to in life besides being my crony.” He put his knife back in his jacket.

“So this is it huh?” I asked.

“I’ll need you two to continue as you are until I no longer need your services.” He took a swig of his drink. “I know it’ll seem hypocritical of me to ask this of you just after telling you I plan to retire from this line of work, but Leon I need you to handle one last transaction for me on Saturday.” That's the day I was supposed to help Jessica move. Damnit. “You don’t look too pleased” He must’ve seen the disappointed look on my face.

“Oh it's nothing really important.” I uttered.

“Bullshit.” Me and Norvio both looked at Lee. “He’s got a date planned with his little law girl.” It wasn’t a date!

“Oh Leon, it shouldn’t be a problem, it's scheduled to take place early in the morning unless you had her booked for breakfast perhaps. I’m not one who enjoys interfering in young love.” He did seem to look pretty remorseful after finding that out.

“Really? Well I guess that works out after all.”

“You're welcome.” Lee smugly let off. I really was relieved that Lee said something. I really am my own worst enemy sometimes.

“I’ll have O’Neil tell you the rest of the details.” He looked me dead in my eyes and all of his usual silly charisma drained from his face. “I need this to be done for my- no, our future. Don’t fuck this up.”

“Yes of course, I haven’t failed you yet have I,” I laughed awkwardly. He was so carefree before, it really is a shock when he gets serious like that.

“Well I’m sure you had more plans for today than to just listen to your boss, that was all I needed to let you know for today.” He went back to his goofy persona. “Be sure to meet with O’Neil tomorrow at Mickey’s bar he’ll tell you everything.”

“Right.” I slid out my booth seat and Lee followed suit. “I almost forgot to give you this, it's from my mom.” I handed Norvio the envelope.

“What could this possibly be?” He opened the envelope and exposed the contents. I didn't get a good look at it but it seemed to be a handwritten message.

“Well I think we should be going right Lee? I winked at him and I think he understood that I didn’t want to get involved in whatever my mother and Norvio had going on.

“See ya around Norvio, au revoir.” Lee and I made our way out.

“Yes, see you around.” Norvio said, making a shooing motion with his hand, not matching our enthusiasm one bit.

I decided to let Lee drive now that he sobered up. When I took my seat in the passenger side I could see Norvio through the restaurant window. He was still seated staring at the note my mother gave him. Just what did my mother give him?

“So what now?” I asked, reclining back my seat; the day was still just getting started.