Romeo of the Streets

by Taylor Hill

  Nonetheless, I did as he asked, promising to call back that evening, and took a bus up town to the CCU campus. As I sat leaning against the window, scanning over my economics book, my phone buzzed with a text from Lisa.

  “MEETING LOU-BEAR FOR LUNCH AT 2.30” it read, “COME JOIN US PLZ! XXX P.S. ROMEO MIGHT BE THERE ;)”

  I stared at the phone. I could think of better ways to spend my lunch than watching my best friend and my brother make loved-up fools of themselves in front of the whole cafeteria—and why dear Lisa, for that matter, would I care if his hoodlum friend was also there to see the sickening display as well? I was about to click the phone closed again and get back to my books when it dawned on me that, regardless of whether I should or not, I did care. In fact the thought of seeing Romeo that day brought a warm flush to my cheeks and filled my belly with butterflies. That was why whatever I did, I had to stay as far away as possible from their company that day.

  So anyway, at 14.35 that afternoon I walked into the crowded and noisy campus cafeteria and looked around me. When I spotted them I almost turned and walked right back out again—but just then Lisa looked up and her face broke into a smile. What the hell was I doing there, I wondered?

  “Hey!” she waved, “I knew you’d make it. See Lou, I told you.”

  My brother shrugged as I walked towards the two of them, all the while wondering where Romeo was and trying to hide my abject disappointment that he was nowhere to be seen.

  “Well one out of two ain’t bad,” Lisa said, “maybe you should tell that friend of yours to get his act together.”

  “Oh come on baby,” Lou protested, “she’s my sister, for Christ’ sake. I don’t want to set her up with anybody.” He looked up to me as I joined them at the table and smiled. “Hey sis, sorry to disappoint you, but Romeo ain’t here.”

  “Shut up donkey-breath,” I frowned, pulling a face, and then sat down across from them.

  “You know Valentine’s Day’s coming up, right Sandy?” Lisa said, letting the question hang in the air for a moment.

  “Yeah,” I replied, “so what?”

  Lisa and Lou exchanged a glance, obviously getting the message, and then Lou changed the subject.

  “So you decide to let us help you with Gino yet?” he asked, innocently popping a breadstick into his mouth.

  “Jesus, Lou, I’ve only just sat down and you’re onto this already? Do you want me to just leave again? I already told you no.” To be honest, I almost would have preferred to stay on the subject of romance—and that was something I really didn’t want to talk about right then, at least not with those guys.

  Lou shrugged, “well hell, it ain’t like it’s your decision now that Gino’s woken up anyway, is it?”

  So he knew that Gino was awake, did that mean he’d been talking to him today too? Oh crap, I thought, don’t tell me he’s said something to him… With a sickening feeling I realized why Gino had looked at me so funnily that morning—Lou had probably already made the offer…

  “Lou went back to the hospital after he dropped you off last night,” Lisa said, “he stayed there all night in case anything happened. He went home again and got some sleep after Gino woke up at 5.30 this morning.”

  “Yeah,” Lou said, “but first we talked some stuff over.”

  I felt the color drain from my face. I was overwhelmed, both with gratitude for Lou for going back to the hospital to watch over Gino, and with horror to think that between them, the two most important men in my life may have just signed a contract in their own blood with the devil himself.

  My voice was small when I spoke and I got straight to the point. “What did he say?”

  Lou smiled. “What did he say? He told me to ask you, Sandy.”

  I blinked slowly. “He what?”

  “He said the café was as much yours as it is his now. He has nobody to pass it on to after he’s gone, you know that. If you ask me he’ll probably leave it to you in his will, if he still has it by then that is. So here’s the deal, either he has to sell it on to pay his hospital bill and then, I don’t know, waste away in his apartment for the last few years of his life or something while you go find a job somewhere else, or—and believe me when I say this Sandy, I can make this happen without any trouble at all now—you let me and Romeo cover the bills, a loan that Gino will pay back, and you keep the café open part-time until he’s ready to go back to work.”

  Lou and Lisa stared at me, their eyes wide as they waited for my answer. I kept my arms folded tightly across my chest. “A loan?” I asked.

  “That’s right, a loan,” Lou nodded.

  “And what if he can’t pay you back? What are you going to do, break his arms to go with his legs? And what kind of interest are you putting on it by the way, fifty percent, one hundred? Two hundred?”

  Lou shook his shaved head vehemently. “Jesus Sandy,” he grunted, “Gino’s family, cut me some slack here. There is no vig—no interest. He pays us back when he can, sets up something with his bank account maybe, and if he misses a payment, no biggie, he can just get us back the next month after that…”

  I thought about the alternative, about Gino giving up the café that his own grandfather had founded decades ago. It was all he had left in the world, besides me and Lou that was. And ok, there was no way I would let him waste away in his apartment, I’d visit him every day of course, but how could I face him knowing that at the end of the day it was my decision that had cost him his livelihood?

  I bit my lip, eyes downturned to my lap as I thought it over. “It sounds like you’re making me an offer I can’t refuse here,” I said.

  “No,” Lou said, “you can do whatever you want. That’s what Gino said, right? Just think very carefully about what effect you’ll be having before you do.”

  “Tell her about the other thing,” Lisa said, nudging Lou in the ribs.

  “Oh boy,” I said, “there’s more? What now?”

  “Ok,” Lou said, leaning forward, his expression serious again, “so whatever happens, the café’s going to have to stay closed for a little while right? That means you’re going to be hard up for cash on top of everything else…”

  “I’m not taking your money Lou,” I said, “whatever about Gino, I’m not taking your money.”

  Lou smiled. “Yeah, no shit,” he said, “damn Sandy, you’re the most stubborn person I know—if you weren’t such a straight-edge I’d be glad to have you at my back out there.”

  “Get to the point Lou.”

  Lisa sat forward and blurted: “Let me move in with you. If you want me to that is...”

  I stared at her for a moment. “But I thought you were going to move in with Lou, Lisa?”

  “We can wait,” Lou said, “let Lisa move into your spare room, just for a month or two to take care of the rent.”

  “I’m not a charity case guys,” I said, “and besides that room belongs to Rebecca.”

  Rebecca was my roommate—away for three months on exchange in Italy. She’d said it was ok if I gave the room up while she was gone but I’d opted to leave it empty, since up until now I’d been able to afford it and I enjoyed the extra space. But now… Well they were right. Without my paycheck from the café, I would be behind on rent in no time.

  “Hey Sandra,” Lisa said gruffly, her face contorting in a mock hard-ass sneer, “this time, it’s me who’s making you an offer you can’t refuse.”

  I stopped by with Gino on the way back home and told him my decision. I was surprised at just how surprised he wasn’t. Maybe he knew more about me than I knew myself. Regardless, I was just happy to have the weight of it off my shoulders again so that I could move on to the other challenges ahead. Things were going to be tough, but at least we had the support of each other to rely on. We were a strange little family, but I guess we were a family nonetheless.

  Lou and Lisa were due to arrive at eight pm that night with Lisa’s things and I sat on the couch, curled up in my cu
ddly lamb onesie watching TV while I waited for them. I must have drifted off because the next thing I knew the doorbell was ringing and I hadn’t had a chance to change into something that was less likely to invite Lou’s absolute and unrelenting mockery once he saw me.

  “One second,” I called, rushing into the hallway towards my bedroom. Ok—there were clothes strewn all over the floor (I’m usually much more tidy, I swear, but since Gino’s accident I’d reverted into full-on floordrobe mode), where to begin, I wondered? The bell rang again three or four times in rapid succession and I knew only Lisa could be that impatient. I sighed and stepped out into the hallway.

  “Ok, ok,” I called, opening the door.

  “Jeez, about time,” Romeo Mancini smiled as the door opened and then, when he looked me up and down, his eyes widened and he let out a gruff burst of immediate, delighted laughter. “Oh man,” he grinned, “Sandy had a little lamb? Amazing.”

  I couldn't believe it. What was he doing here? And he chooses now of all times to show he has a sense of humor? Great, just great…

  I scowled back at him. “What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.

  Romeo shrugged. “Lou asked me to help him and Lisa move in. They told me to go on up and surprise you while they unloaded the car.”

  I blinked. “Lisa, you mean,” I said, “only Lisa is moving in.”

  “Oh,” Romeo said, “right.”

  Well I didn’t like the sound of that, but I was too embarrassed to press him on it. His face lit up with a smile again as he stared at me standing there before him in the hallway covered in my lamb onesie, from my wooly little toes to my fuzzy little head. With a hiss, the laughter erupted from his lips again and I turned and ran into my bedroom, leaving the front door open for him to enter the apartment behind me.

  “It’s been a hectic few days!” I called, “don’t you dare judge me!”

  “Hey,” Romeo called back, “I feel you. There’s nothing I like more myself than to snuggle up in my body suit when I get home after a long, hard day out busting balls. My one’s a dairy cow.”

  I smiled, despite myself. I should have known he’d show up here with Lou sooner or later once Lisa moved in. I just couldn’t have imagined it would be this soon. I undressed quickly and scoured the clothes-strewn floor and bed for something that was both casual and laid-back and yet also stylish and sexy. Who was I kidding, I didn’t have anything like that available to me. My best outfits were in the laundry basket and had been for days. I pulled on a grey CCU t-shirt and a stylish(-ish) pair of jeans, then slipped my feet into a pair of bright red converse. I stopped on the way out to look at myself in the mirror and quickly tried to fix up my hair. Ok, just about acceptable. I stepped back into the hallway, all of a sudden feeling a whole lot more excited about helping my buddy move in than I should have been.

  Lou and Lisa were standing in the hall now and Lisa let out a wolf-whistle when she saw me. “Wow,” she grinned, “looking good babe.”

  “You should have seen her a minute ago,” Romeo said, stepping back into the hall from the living room.

  My cheeks burned at the tease and I shot him a look of warning. Romeo shrugged.

  “Her hair was a bit messed up, that’s all,” he said. “This is a nice place you got here Sandy.”

  “God,” Lisa frowned, “some men are so hard to please. Why don’t you two make yourselves useful and carry my stuff up from the car. Sandy, you still got that cocktail-making kit I got you for Christmas?”

  Our eyes met and suddenly I had a feeling that my quiet night in was going to turn out a little less quiet than I’d initially expected.

  The guys carried Lisa’s stuff up in shifts while me and Lisa unpacked and sorted through it, all while drinking delicious home-made mojitos (ok, so I had to use mint essence instead of fresh leaf, but still, at least the limes were real).

  “This seems like a real imbalance in work-load here,” Lou protested, after carrying a particularly heavy suitcase up the stairs. “Where’s my drink?”

  “Oh, you’ll get one baby,” Lisa soothed, in a girly voice, “just as soon as you carry up the rest of my stuff.”

  “Man,” Lou groaned, turning back to the stairs, “what ever happened to third-wave feminism?”

  Me and Lisa exchanged glances. “He’s been spending way too much time in that campus bar,” I laughed, “God knows what kind of hip conversations he’s been listening in on. It can’t be good for his primitive brain.”

  After the guys finished bringing up the stuff, Lou took over with the cocktails and me and Lisa put the last of her belongings away. After that, we decided to microwave some popcorn and watch a movie while drinking the last of the mojito mix. And naturally, settling on which movie to watch turned out to be an issue of far greater contention than it really had any right to be. Straight away Lou opted for “Goodfellas” (typical) and then, when Lisa and I chastised him for being so unoriginal, the ass suggested “The Departed” instead, because “the gangsters in that one aren’t even Italian”. This time Romeo protested, saying that he hated that movie (Lou actually looked hurt, I was amused to see) and wanted something else. While Lou and Romeo argued over the merits of “The Departed”, me and Lisa put the foot down and gave them a final pick between “Legally Blonde” and “Miss Congeniality”, which we had both of already downloaded and ready to watch.

  “Legally Blonde,” Romeo said immediately and Lou gave him a funny look.

  “What?” Romeo shrugged, “I watched the other one before with my ex, I don’t want to sit through it again.”

  “Legally Blonde it is,” I laughed. “Sorry boys, outsmarted by the girls once more.”

  Lou groaned and Lisa gave him a dig in the ribs, hissing at him to shut up.

  The movie started and we settled back on the couch, me sitting in between Romeo and Lisa. As the film progressed I found myself distracted by the warm and muscular masculine body beside me. I found his presence so close to me somehow comforting—and yet also paradoxically unnerving—and when Romeo shifted slightly on the seat, I don’t know why but I felt almost certain that he was feeling the exact same way.

  A light appeared somewhere down the deep, dark tunnel and with a deafening roar that sounded for all the world like the vengeance of God himself, another train hurtled at top speed into the chamber, rumbling to a standstill with a crunch and a hiss. This one neither was theirs and so they continued to wait.

  Ferret bobbed his scrawny head forward like his namesake rodent and spat a thick wad of saliva at the bright-blue line between him and the train.

  “Oh Marone!” he called, throwing up his hand, “when is this damn train going to get here?”

  Slightly behind him, casually leaning against a pillar in such a way that he could not be seen from any but one of all four directions around them, Eyeball smiled at his friend. “Patience,” he said, “don’t you know it’s the very best virtue?”

  “Yeah,” Ferret snorted, “virtue. What the hell do you know about virtue?”

  Eyeball simply shrugged, the strange, thin smile still curling his pale lips.

  An old man stepped off the train and kept his eyes firmly to the ground so as to avoid the aggressive and threatening glare of the young hoodlum in front of him. Eyeball could say all he wanted about patience but Ferret was getting antsy now—he didn’t like having to wait for anything—and when Ferret got antsy, trouble was never far behind.

  The only other passenger to dismount the train was a young Asian woman dressed in a studded denim skirt and punk-rocker tank top and Ferret’s expression changed from dumb anger to dumb lust in an instant—probably even faster than he could have consciously registered for himself.

  “Oh!” he barked, “where you going dressed up like that? You some kind of whore or something?”

  “Get lost asshole,” the girl muttered.

  She furrowed her brow and quickened her pace towards the big sprawling staircases that would le
ad—eventually—back up to the main hall of the archaic building above, the main thoroughfare of the station that was, with its turrets, arches and general gothic architecture more like a vast and ancient cathedral than a modern train station. To the hoodlums below though, it was just another haunt to dominate and control.

  “Hey, is this asshole bothering you sweetie?” Eyeball called to her, stepping forward from his perch and surprising his prey, “you want me to break his nut for you?”

  The girl frowned as she glanced quickly at his face and then quickly away again. She didn’t know what to think or who to trust, which was, Eyeball had to admit, probably the smart move for her to make in this situation.

  “I’ll show her my nut, if she wants it?” Ferret sneered, bobbing after her and gesturing with his crotch.

  “You hear that honey?” Eyeball asked, “You hear what he say to you? How do you let him talk to you like that?”

  “Leave me alone,” the girl warned, speeding up as she approached the stairs and more obviously frightened now, though still trying to hide it. “Dumb assholes.”

  Ferret began to move after her, his grin dropping off immediately in place of a far more predatory, vicious expression. But Eyeball reached out with his hand and softly stilled him as he passed.

  “No,” he said, “not this time. We got work to do.”

  Ferret nodded silently, his eyes still on the girl’s back as she hurried upstairs and to eventual safety. Watching him, Eyeball smiled.

  “Ok honey,” he shouted after the girl, “here I go then, I’m about to bust his nut! You asked for it!”

  Ferret started to smile and laugh now too and Eyeball let his hand rest on his friend’s shoulder for a further moment before releasing his partner in crime.

  Not long after that their train arrived and Eyeball, nodding “here’s the L”, led his friend on-board. They strutted through the carriages, occasionally stopping to pull faces or jeer at the other passengers—making sure to let everybody know that they were the biggest boys on the train—and then they settled down in a quiet carriage with only one other passenger far up the other end. They’d be able to speak in private here without having to worry if anybody was listening in on their talk of criminal activity.