It was impossible to keep the smile off my face as I walked to the front door of my house. I had a blast at the poker game, got paid, and met a cute girl at the same time. What could be better?
After that douchebag left the game with his tail between his legs, Mia and I ended up talking for a while. She gave me her number before she left and I promised to hit her up so we could hang out again sometime. The crew shut down the games at 3 AM and I didn’t get home until 3:20. I tried to unlock the door quietly so I wouldn’t wake up my mom. Unfortunately, she was already waiting for me in the living room when I got in the house. The look on her face wasn’t a happy one.
“Is there something wrong with your phone?” She said.
“What? No. What do you mean?” I asked.
“You couldn’t be bothered to let me know you’d be staying out late, so I thought your phone must’ve been broken.”
I winced. The passive aggressiveness was a bit much, but her point about me not communicating with her was valid. “I’m sorry that I didn’t call. I went out with Angelo and some friends and the time just got away from me.”
Mom raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Angelo lately. Any reason for that?”
“He’s my cousin. Do I need to have a reason? What’s wrong with that?” I said more defensively than I intended.
“I didn’t say anything was wrong. Just be careful. I don’t want you to get involved in… any trouble.”
I hated it when she tried to dance around the fact that our family was in the mafia. It was clear what she meant but I wished that she’d just say it outright. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“You didn’t give me much reason to worry before, but I don’t know what’s going on with you lately,” Mom said. “You’re out at all hours and it feels like you’re keeping things from me.”
“It’s just one night out. You’re making a big deal over nothing,” I said.
“Maybe if I’d made a bigger deal about things before you wouldn’t have ended up throwing away your future!” She snapped. “I feel like I barely know you anymore!”
That felt like a punch to the gut. I knew that we’d been building to a conversation like this ever since I’d come back home from college but I didn’t feel like I was ready to have it yet.
“You know exactly who I am. I haven’t changed. And I might have messed up before, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a future,” I said.
“Do you know how hard it is to find a job with just a high school diploma? When I see you going out all night and doing God knows what, it feels like you’re not taking your situation seriously!” She said. “Do you have any job interviews lined up or any plans at all for what you want to do with your life?”
“I am taking things seriously. As a matter of fact, I have an interview lined up for tomorrow,” I lied.
“Why didn’t you tell me? What kind of job is it?” She said.
“It’s just an administrative assistant job. The pay isn’t great, but it’s better than nothing. They just contacted me to set up the interview earlier today. I didn’t think I needed to bring it up unless I got the job.”
Her expression softened. “Well, I’m glad that you’re trying to find work. Sorry for yelling at you. I just want to make sure that you’re alright.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s alright. Can I go to bed now? I’m pretty tired.”
She nodded. I hurried up to my room. Lying to her about what I was doing felt awful. I wished I could just be upfront and tell her I was working for my uncle. But every time I thought about doing it, my mind flashed back to how disappointed she was when I got kicked out of college. If that disappointed her, then finding out that I was a mobster-in-training would break her. I knew that eventually, I’d have to come clean, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of a way to do it that would go smoothly.
It was times like this that I wished I had my place. I understood and appreciated that she was concerned about me, but I wasn’t a little kid anymore. I’d gone away for college, so moving back home and explaining my whereabouts all the time felt very restricting. I missed the freedom of doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Hopefully, I’d be making some good money soon and I’d be able to afford an apartment. It had only been a day since Uncle Luca let me work for him and it was too soon to tell if this would work out. I had money saved but it would be dumb to try and move out until I was sure that I was getting a steady stream of income. Plus I still had student loans to worry about.
Instead of getting depressed about the reality of how long I would be stuck living with my mother, I decided to check on the notification that the system had given me earlier. It had mentioned something about a secret quest but I hadn’t had time to check on it while I was still at the poker game. I sat on my bed and opened the Completed Quests section of the Quests tab.
QUEST: BOW DOWN
OBJECTIVE: USE THE SKILL “MEAN MUG” FOR THE FIRST TIME
50 XP AWARDED
It seems strange that the system tells me about some quests ahead of time and keeps others hidden. I guess I’ll have to keep an eye out for things that might trigger another quest. I thought.
Getting as much XP as possible seemed like a no-brainer. Mean Mug had been ridiculously powerful. It was like I had complete control over the people around me until the time limit ran out. The 75% chance of it not activating was a major drawback, but if my guess about being able to upgrade my skills was correct then I needed more XP to make that happen. Not to mention all of the other new skills I could unlock. It was late and I was way too tired to be thinking about this though. I quickly changed into some pajamas, brushed my teeth, and collapsed onto my bed. Sleep came within seconds.
I woke up the next morning at 10 AM feeling like a zombie. For some reason, it felt as if I hadn’t slept at all. There was nothing I wanted more than to stay underneath the covers and pass out again, but I knew that there were things I needed to do. It wouldn’t be a good look to skip out on “work” when it was still my first week. I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day. Mom had already left for her job at the hair salon, so I was able to eat my breakfast without having another awkward conversation.
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After devouring a delicious bowl of cereal, I drove to Angelo’s place. I’d called him after I woke up to find out what work he needed me to do and he just told me to meet him at his apartment. Traffic was backed up because of an accident, so it took forever to get there. I passed the time by listening to the audiobook for The 48 Laws of Power. It’s basically a guide on how to become a sociopath and manipulate people into giving you what you want. It was one of the books that popped up a lot on lists of recommendations for self-improvement. I wasn’t that into it. Most of the laws in the book are pretty cringe, but I thought the historical anecdotes that the author brought up were kind of interesting.
After a painfully slow car ride, I finally made it to my destination. Angelo lived in one of those ultra-modern, newly constructed buildings that had a gym, pool, game room, barbecue pit, movie theater, and every other amenity you could think of. It was in a trendy semi-gentrified neighborhood that had a lot of cute coffee shops and street art everywhere. Naturally, I was insanely jealous. I’d kill to live in a place like that. One lightning-fast elevator ride later, I found myself knocking on the door to Angelo’s apartment. He opened the door and I saw Joey and Mello lounging around in the background.
“What’s up?” I said, walking past him. The apartment had a minimalist vibe to it that felt sleek and elegant.
“Not much. Same ol’, same ol’,” Angelo said.
Joey waved at me. “Hi, Nico. Good job last night, man!”
“Thanks. It was no big deal,” I said.
“The guys filled me in on what happened after I left. You should’ve just knocked the guy out instead of making a bet like that. If you’d lost, we would’ve lost our authority and credibility,” Angelo frowned. “Things might’ve worked out this time, but you need to think about these things more carefully going forward.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” I said. “So what do you need me to do today?”
“We don’t have much going on right now but you can chill here for a while if you want to,” Angelo said.
“Really? You don’t have any jobs that you need me for?”
“Things are kind of slow right now. We don’t have any collections to do at the moment and the next poker game is a week away. On Sunday mornings we deliver some untaxed goods to local stores, but that’s still a few days away,” Angelo said.
“I thought you guys would’ve been involved in more things than that.”
“The older guys in the organization have their own businesses going on and they toss the shit jobs that nobody wants to do our way. If anything comes up, they’ll give us a call. But thanks to the Carusos there’s less work to go around for everyone,” Angelo said.
“Who are the Carusos?” I asked.
“A family of lowlives who we should’ve dealt with a long time ago,” Mello grumbled. “If things keep going the way they’re going, it won’t be long before they control half the city.”
“What? There’s no way that’s true.” I turned to Angelo. “Right?”
Angelo sighed. “He’s not really exaggerating. The Caruso Family just keeps getting more powerful every day.”
He went on to tell me all about the beef between our two gangs that had been going on since before we were born. We used to be on equal footing with them but after my dad died the Carusos started to get more aggressive. Without him around to keep them in check, they felt like they had free reign to do whatever they wanted and started muscling in on our territory. Local businesses that used to be under the protection of the Morettis started to go with the Carusos instead. My nonno got sick a couple of years later and it was a struggle for Uncle Luca to fight them all by himself. The Moretti Family’s territory and influence had been on a downward trajectory ever since. Every time that we tried to find another stream of revenue or regain some of our former territory, the Carusos came down on us hard.
I crossed my arms and adjusted my position on the couch. “No offense, but why are you guys just sitting back and letting this happen? There’s got to be something you could do.”
“Like what? The Carusos outnumber us five to one. If we move against them, they could easily squash us like bugs,” Angelo said.
“Letting them push us around seems pretty weak though. And even if they do have more manpower, you could still find other ways to make money that wouldn’t interfere with their business,” I said.
“This guy’s only been here five minutes and he’s already trying to tell us how to do our jobs. What a joke,” Mello snickered. I shot him a glare.
“If you can think of a way to get some cash without stirring the pot with the Carusos or bringing too much heat on us, then I’d love to hear it,” Angelo said.
I mulled it over for a bit. “You could make the poker room look nicer and try to get wealthier people to play in the games.”
“We’re already working on remodeling it, but that’s not exactly cheap. The Carusos have been poaching all the best players for a while now. And after paying our dealers, the bartenders & security, there’s barely any money left over,” Angelo replied. “We’d need a shit ton of cash on hand before we could be more serious about fixing the place up. Nice try though.”
“Okay, well maybe you could make one of those GoFundMe videos for a fake cause and then disappear with the money. That could work, right?” I said.
“Your account would have to be connected to a bank account or something like that, wouldn’t it?” Joey weighed in. “Between the bank, the cops, and the IRS, someone would be able to trace the money back to you eventually, and then you’d be screwed. We tend to stick with operations that only deal with cash.”
Angelo put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t stress over it too much. Things will turn around eventually. Dad always finds a way to keep money in our pockets.”
I refused to accept that. Mafiosos were supposed to be all about finding ways to skirt the law and make money. If we put our heads together, it shouldn’t be hard to think of new ways of bringing in a steady flow of cash. But it wasn’t as simple as I’d originally thought. Every time a money-making scheme popped into my head, it didn’t take long for me to see all the potential issues. Eventually, I gave up. This wasn’t an issue that I could solve in ten minutes. I’d give it more thought and research other opportunities later. I felt bored so I looked at my YouTube subscriptions on my phone to see if anyone had posted any new videos.
“Oh cool, there’s a new Harry Xtreme video,” I said out loud.
“Never heard of him. Who’s that?” Angelo said.
“It would be easier to just show you,” I said. “Mind if I play some of his videos on your TV?”
“Knock yourself out,” He said.
Harry Xtreme was a YouTuber and Twitch streamer from Miami who’d gained popularity over the past few months for making videos where he partied hard and did stupid stunts with his friends, The Xtremers. His videos were like a fusion of Mr. Beast and the old reality TV shows Jackass and Jersey Shore. He’d do crazy things like using cars to do a medieval joust and then get blackout drunk at the club until 5 AM with the rest of The Xtremers. There seemed to be no limits that he and his friends wouldn’t cross if it meant that they’d get more views and fame.
Their strategy seemed to be working because they were throwing around money like it was nothing in their more recent videos. They’d upgraded to a much nicer camera, moved into a mansion together, and seemed to show off new jewelry & sneakers in every video. Their videos didn’t have much substance but I’d be lying if I said that they weren’t entertaining. It wasn’t a surprise to see that Harry Xtreme had already made it to one million subscribers in just one year. I played their latest video on the TV and we watched Harry throw a wild party with an ancient Rome theme where the guests got to drink from real golden chalices and watch MMA fighters compete in fake gladiator battles. Harry gave away $10,000 worth of gold coins to the champion.
“Those guys are idiots. If they keep flashing around money like that, somebody’s gonna jack their shit,” Mello said.
“Maybe we should rob them” I joked.
“That’s got to be your worst idea yet.” Angelo laughed.
“Relax, I was kidding. There’s no way I’d ever try something like that.”
NEW ACTIVE QUEST
QUEST: JACK HIS SHIT
OBJECTIVE: ROB THE YOUTUBER HARRY XTREME
TIME LIMIT: 48 HOURS
REWARD: 300 XP
“Then again, it might not be the worst idea in the world,” I said.