"Hey, Spike, wake up already, it's noon," said a friend of mine—well, as close to a friend as you could call him. Sometimes I spent the night at his place when things got boring. But right now, I just wanted to keep sleeping…
"Ow, ow, ow! What the hell was that for?"
He had just smacked me over the head with the frying pan he was holding. Seriously, there are far nicer ways to wake someone up.
"I told you once. That should be enough."
"Ouch… If this leaves a bump, you owe me, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah. I made you breakfast. That should be enough."
"Man, how did you even get in here?" I asked groggily, rubbing my eyes.
"I don't know what's going on, but your door was open. I came to check on you since you haven't replied to my messages in days."
"Tonny… Don't tell me you were worried about me?" I asked, mockingly.
"Shut it. Put something decent on. You're probably still wearing yesterday's clothes."
He wasn't wrong. I was dressed in casual clothes rather than sleepwear. Guess I should get changed and join him at the table. You wouldn't think it by looking at him, but he's a great cook—used to run his own place before the big economic crash forced him to shut down.
I changed quickly, wondering when the last time was that I'd eaten a proper meal. Sitting down, I dug in.
"So, tell me—why was the door open? Probably not a break-in. There's not much to steal here," he said, grinning curiously.
"No idea… Yesterday I had to chase a guy halfway across the city. Only caught him because he ran out of gas. Nice car, though. Anyway, I was dead tired afterward and just crashed into bed. Besides, bounty hunters don't exactly make much."
"Haha, so tired you couldn't even close your door properly, huh? Well, at least it didn't look wide open. Still, you should get yourself a proper job—one that does more than just help you scrape by."
"Yeah, yeah."
I've known Tonny for about four years. Back when I was seventeen, I was sitting in his diner and he gave me some fries on the house. We've hung out from time to time ever since, even though he's a bit older than me.
While I ate the meal he'd prepared, enduring the same lecture he always gave, he eventually got up and said, "Well, now that I know you're fine, I can get going. I'll leave the dishes to you."
1.1
Luckily, the bounty from yesterday earned me 3,000 credits—which, for a pickpocket, was surprisingly high and enough to last me a few weeks.
I was sooo bored… but driving around in the middle of the day wasn't exactly thrilling either. I lit my first cigarette of the day, thinking about what I could do to kill time.
"Well, what can you do… life's not easy when you're a day laborer, huh?" I muttered to myself with a smirk. Maybe I should stop by Rodrigo's place—he almost always had work for me.
Finishing my smoke, I headed to the garage, hopped on my motorcycle, and rode off toward him.