“Lawrence! Where are you? Dammit, man.” I sat against the red Ford truck. I draped my hands across my face, feeling defeated. Within about two seconds, I realized I was sitting in the melted snow.

“Hey! The cashier inside said you were yellin’ for me,” Lawrence said. He ran out with a Big Gulp attached to his hand. Inside, a giant hulk of a man looked curiously at him. “What’s the matter? Why are you sitting in the snow?”

“Fuck,” I groaned, slapping the exterior of the borrowed truck. I tried to wipe away any excess snow, but it just made the wetness more defined around my ass cheeks. I glanced back at the beautiful red 1978 Ford I borrowed for a roofing job in Idaho.

“Who were you talking to inside?” I asked.

Lawrence shrugged while pretending to look naïve. “Just some guy. It wasn’t much of a conversation. He just said that I needed to watch my sugar intake,” Lawrence said.

Fucking pervert. Guys were always messing with my brother. I glanced back at the guy with fire in my eyes, but it was apparent that I couldn’t do anything to him. He was at least six foot one inch and his muscles were out of control compared to mine.

Guys like him weren’t rare where I was from in Nevada. In fact, they were everywhere. They drove lifted trucks, worked out every single day, and picked on omegas like me. When he made eye contact with me, I quickly looked away from him. I wasn’t about to get my teeth knocked in when I had bigger fish to fry.

Lawrence could sense my discomfort, and when he walked around to the front of the truck, he knew why I was yelling for him. Our work papers were scattered across the front seat, ripped to shreds. “Dude…” My brother whispered, unsure what to say.

“If you have any smart ideas right now, I could use some,” I said. Silence. Except for the sharp winds that kept rolling uncomfortably against my ears, there was no sound.

“Nothing?” I asked him. “That’s okay. I didn’t think you could offer me any help.” I closed my eyes and felt the hopeless stress swell up inside of me. This type of strain was starting to become a cycle for Lawrence and I. He was my brother, but I gave him too much slack. He could always rely on me and he seemed to celebrate that fact, even when I was struggling.

Lawrence dragged his nimble body into the truck. He bent his old blue baseball cap to block out the bright, setting sun. He turned the key and we didn’t hear anything. “It’s not startin’, Schwartzy,” he said.

“Well, try again. It has to start.” I sighed, tenting up the hood of the truck. I didn’t know a thing about engines, but I knew that if this thing didn’t start, I’d be in huge trouble. Clark was expecting us to come back on Monday.

Lawrence hurriedly turned the key. The clicking noise triggered me into alert mode. “It’s fucking shot,” he said.

I stared at the open hood incredulously. I felt a cold wave of shock hit my heart. The feeling spread across my arms and stomach. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. “Get out the truck, Lawrence,” I said.

He turned the key one more time, before punching the steering wheel with the butt of his palm. “Fuckin’ A, man. This truck sucks,” Lawrence said.

My whole body felt weak. “The engine is gone. We’re stuck here. I can’t believe it. Everything we worked so hard for. Down the drain,” I whispered.

I had to brace myself against the vehicle. I didn’t know what to do, other than give up. We had no money of our own now. We would have to use the earnings from the roofing job to pay for our trip back. Clark was going to fucking kill us.

I looked down at my phone. I had at least ten unread messages from him. Why won’t you respond to me? I knew I should not have lent you my only truck. I held the screen in my hand clicked it shut. I couldn’t answer Clark right now.

“What do you mean the engine is gone? We can get it fixed somewhere.” Lawrence’s eyes were innocent, which made me feel bad for my brother. He was only sixteen, so it wasn’t his fault, even if I had told him to watch the truck while I sold the rest of dad’s furniture to the local thrift shop.

“It’s gone, dude,” I whispered. “Like, someone stole it, so we have no way to get back home.”

Lawrence laughed and bent the bill of his baseball cap out of habit. “You’re fucking with me right?” he asked, jumping out of the truck. He walked to the front and immediately clasped his hands over his mouth. “Schwartz… what’re we going to do?”

“I told you to stay here and watch the truck,” I said, clenching my fists in my pockets. I wasn’t mad at Lawrence, and I didn’t want to scare him. I had a duty to watch him, and I knew he was more fragile than he let on.

Lawrence’s eyes started to water. His face turned red with shame. He looked away, trying to conceal his frustration with himself. I ran to his aid, pushing him into my chest. “I’m sorry, dude,” I whispered. “It’s not your fault. I’m not putting this on you.”

“I didn’t mean to, Schwartzy,” he cried. “I just got hungry, so I got a few things at the store. I left for thirty minutes. I didn’t know.”

“Aw, bub. It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “We’ll figure something out.” I reached into my front pocket and rolled the excess coins around my finger. I felt the crumpled up, hundred dollar bill, pushed off to the side. We had enough for a motel room and maybe eleven gallons of gasoline.

When Lawrence got emotional, it broke my heart. He reminded me of myself when I was his age. Now, at 28 with no real family to rely on, I had to toughen up. But I didn’t want Lawrence to have to go through those hard lessons like I did. I wanted him to have a real teenage lifestyle. But so far, I was failing at allowing him that.

He wiped his eyes off and sharply exhaled while pushing out his cheeks. He always did that when he wanted to seem more stable than he felt. I remember being sixteen and it was awful. Everything felt way too emotional.

I tried to make him feel better in the best way I could. “It’s okay, dude. We can camp out in the truck and listen to The Clash all night. I’ve got that portable space heater and Clark’s Netflix password. We can make a night of it,” I said.

“Okay.” He sniffed and forced a smile.

The bells hanging on the door to the corner store jingled, as the giant I noticed earlier walked out with a protein shake in hand. He walked aimlessly to his lifted, black truck, ignoring the two of us.

I was already in a shit mood, and I knew I was pressing my luck, but I kept my eyes on him. Something about him didn’t sit right with me. He was invasive and that mimicked in the way that he carried himself.

I did something stupid. I acted on my emotions, once again. “Hey, do you mind leaving my brother alone?” I walked up to him, losing confidence with every step.

The Giant stopped before getting to his truck. He didn’t even bother turning around. He just juggled his keys in his hand. “Excuse me?” he asked.

I should not have confronted him, but sometimes it was hard to check my erratic behavior. Knowing I was doing the wrong thing only had me turning up my intensity. I ran toward him and looked up at his chiseled face. “What’s your angle? Why were you talking to him?” I pointed at Lawrence, who cowered behind the truck.

His eye twitched with annoyance. “The fuck you talking about? He came up to me, not the other way around,” he growled. He looked over my shoulder and shook his head. “Hey, kid! Can you tell your psycho brother that you were trying to upsell me on those Magick cards?” He held up Lawrence’s old green binder of cards.

Lawrence pretended to look inside the hood of the truck. “What’s he talking about?” I asked Lawrence. “Are you trying to sell your cards, Lawrence? Dad gave you those for Christmas two years ago.”

Lawrence kept his eyes pointed away from mine. “I’ve outgrown them, I guess,” he said, shrugging.

I knew that wasn’t the case since he had been playing with them the whole trip. We were tight on money, but it broke my heart that he was trying to sell things with a sentimental value attached to them. He was just a kid. He wasn’t supposed to worry about money yet.

The husky jerk clicked the unlock button on his keys. “Are we done here, guy?” he asked me. “I don’t have time for confrontations, especially not with a guy like you.”

Before I could respond, Lawrence slammed the hood of the truck down. He walked around to the driver’s side and kicked the tire. “Shit!” he cried out in pain.

I looked back at Lawrence’s binder of Magick cards. “Just give them back, and we won’t have any issues,” I said.

“It was a fair trade,” the Giant said, anxiously looking at his unlocked truck. I was determined to get those cards back.

“No, it wasn’t. The cards weren’t for sale,” I said.

Lawrence took off his cap and threw it onto the curb. “Stop it, Schwartz. We need the money to get back home,” he said.

I gawked at the man when he took another step forward. His body was close to mine now, and his invasive cologne made its way into my nose. I anxiously looked away from him, for fear that he might attack me. Instead, he placed his hands on my shoulder and raised the binder of cards in front of me.

“These cards are that important to you? Then, take them. I’m done here,” he said, reaching into his pocket. He took the wad of money my brother gave him and dropped the bills and binder onto the ground. I scrambled to pick everything back up before he jumped into his car, but it was too late.

The Giant rolled down the window. He leaned outside his truck and taunted me, saying, “Since you’re obviously not from around here, let me give you one word of advice. Don’t fuck with a man two times your size. You’re bound to wind up in a neck brace.”

I felt my face turn hot with rage as he sped away. “Piece of shit!” I screamed. The black lifted truck stopped, rubber screeching against the wet pavement. He put the truck in reverse and got out. Once again, he walked toward me, but this time, I knew I had fucked up.

I scrambled, putting my fists in front of my face. He barreled toward me with this sleeveless shirt, flapping against the wind. “Hey, I didn’t mean it. I just—”

He shoulder checked me and made my way toward Lawrence and the red truck. “Move, kid,” he muttered to Lawrence. My brother stepped aside.

The Giant lifted the hood up and ducked inside. I stood and watched, appalled, but I stayed silent. When he came back up, he rubbed his greasy palms together and coughed. His eyes scoped the inside of the truck, seeing the space heater, loosely cradled in the center of the vehicle. He sighed and walked back over to his truck.

“Get in. I’ll take you to someone,” he said.

I opened my jaw and struggled to find the right words to say. “You’ll… what?” I asked.

“You talk too much. Get in the truck. I know someone who might be able to get you fixed up,” he said, sipping on his melting protein shake. He held the door open. “Come on now. Get in.”

I held Lawrence’s Magick card binder inside my armpit loosely. I looked back at Lawrence who seemed nervous. Guys like him loved to fuck with guys like me. I was a lightning bolt of intensity, but I was skinny and way too “emotional” for most alphas’ liking. All of my life, guys like him tormented me. If we got in his truck, I was afraid he might overreact.

“Take it or leave it. I’m trying to help you get out of a bad situation since you were robbed,” the Giant said. The truck engine was idly running. “But I’m not waiting around all day for you to make up your mind.”

I had no options, and he knew it. I waved Lawrence to follow, as I got into the truck. My brother grabbed the binder of cards and climbed over me. He flipped through the pages, eyes lighting up with nostalgic excitement. The Giant shut the door and sped off in a hurry.

He drove the truck across the melting snow. It was freezing outside, but everything was starting to melt. Even so, I knew that space heater wouldn’t have kept us too warm, so I was mildly glad that someone could help us get situated with the truck, even if it was from a total hick-dick from Idaho.

His radio was playing some new country song with heaps of auto-tune and lyrics talking about getting wasted and losing his baby mama. That was the second red flag. He turned the music down and kept his eyes fixed on me instead of the winding road. “So, I’m going to need you guys to spill it. What’re you doing out here?” the Giant asked.

Lawrence ignored his question and leaned over the center of the truck, clicking through this guy’s music. “Dude. Don’t you have any Clash? What’s wrong with you?”

I anxiously looked at the Giant and then back at Lawrence. I coughed awkwardly. “We’re roofers,” I said.

“You got a business card?” he asked. His eyes slowly met Lawrence’s when he realized my brother wasn’t going to stop messing with his dials.

“We don’t have any business cards yet,” I said. “We’re just starting out.”

The Giant furrowed his brow and grinned. “You’re just starting out, and you have no business card. And you’re somehow able to get a job up in Idaho?” he asked, shaking his head.

I felt my heart beat anxiously. His questions just reaffirmed the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. I was trying to do the whole “American Dream” thing, but I wasn’t educated enough to follow through with the logistics.

I wasn’t like him, or anyone else. I was a total fuck up. It showed.

“We do what we can,” I mumbled.

The Giant chuckled and came to a stop at a red light. He turned to both of us and said, “Why don’t you come out and tell me the truth? You’re getting into some sketchy shit.” I shifted my legs against the seat, uneasily.

“We’re not. We completed a job, and now we’re just trying to get back home,” I said. We barely made any money. Now that the engine was torn out, we’d have to spend the last of our change.

This trip was for nothing. The amount of stress it brought me made me want to break down and cry. Lawrence had done his best to make me feel better about the situation, but my ex-boyfriend, Ethan, had fucked me over once again. Since he set up the job in the first place, he had the house owner electronically send him the money. We only got the tip.

“Okay,” the Giant said, raising his palms off of the steering wheel. “It’s not my business.”

“You’re right,” I fired back. “It’s not.”

And just when I thought tensions couldn’t get worse, Lawrence reached into the backseat. “Dude, what’s this?” he asked, holding up something shiny and big.

In his hands was a solid 35mm pistol. My eyes darted toward the barrel that was pointed directly at my face. Then, I noticed the safety. It was off. “Lawrence!” I screamed, grabbing the gun away from him. “Don’t you ever touch one of those things!”

“Why because only gangsters and criminals own guns?” Lawrence asked with a smile.

He knew he was taunting both the Giant and me. I glanced sideways at the large man, who was now visibly pissed off. He pulled the truck over and angrily put the vehicle in park.

He didn’t say a word, but the silence was deafening. I slowly handed the Giant his gun back. He stared at me, placing the long barrel under his jeans. He draped his shirt over the pistol.

“I’m not going to say anything,” I said. “I mean, I don’t think you’re a gangster or a criminal.” I choked on my words, understanding how dumb and scared I sounded.

“I’m deciding whether or not I should just leave you on the side of the road right now,” The Giant said. “But I believe in charity, so I’m going to go ahead and pretend that you didn’t just touch my loaded and registered pistol.”

I held my hands around my chin. “That’s fair. We don’t want to make this hard on you. I’m sorry,” I said, calming myself down.

People liked to tell me I was too passionate. No matter where I was, I wound up in dangerous situations. It was my mouth, people said. I ran it too much. I egged Lawrence on. Whatever the truth was, I needed to reevaluate the current situation and start to play nice.

“I’m like really sorry,” I shakily whispered, gulping down. “I know I’ve come off like a dick and it’s for reasons that don’t involve you.”

“You’ve been a real judgmental douche,” he growled.

I nodded, knowing that he was probably right. I put out my hand. “Well, maybe you can learn to forgive me,” I said.

He laughed, gruff. “The name is Jax,” he muttered.

“My name is Schwartz,” I said. “And you’ll probably regret meeting me.”