Joe

I knew this was a mistake.

I was sitting in my truck outside of Ronnie’s house. I timed this perfectly because Gina was in her first week of classes and she had a late class tonight. So, I figured Ronnie might be home. I didn’t want Gina to get in the mess of what I knew was probably going to be a very intense argument between friends.

Of course, I wasn’t sure how long we’d be friends after this.

I’d run through the scenario in my head repeatedly like some kind of a video loop for the past few days and none of the scenarios ended really well. Nevertheless, this had to be done.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Gina. She was my first thought when I went to sleep, she was in my dreams, and she was my last thought at night when I closed my eyes. I had never felt this way about someone. It was a new experience and I was really loving it. I knew that I wanted to change my life and find someone special. Well, it turned out that Gina was that special someone.

But first I had to be straight with Ronnie. I had to make him understand that I was a changed man and I would never do anything to hurt his sister.

So here I was.

I turned off my truck’s engine and knocked on the door.

“Hey, man,” Ronnie said when he answered. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight. Cool deal, come on in. You want a beer?”

“Sure,” I said figuring out quickly that Ronnie was about a six-pack ahead of me.

“So, to what do I owe this dubious pleasure?” Ronnie said with a laugh as he handed me a bottle of beer from the fridge.

“I just had something I wanted to talk to you about,” I said.

“OK, cool. Well, have a seat, man,” Ronnie said sitting down at the kitchen table.

“Nah, I think I’ll stand,” I replied.

Ronnie’s face got a worried look. He was putting something together.

“Wow, this must be serious,” Ronnie said.

“It is,” I confirmed. “Look, I’m just going to come right out and say it. I care about Gina. She cares about me. And I’m hoping to get your blessing for us to start seeing each other.”

Ronnie’s face turned deadly cold. He looked like I just slapped him.

“What? What the hell are you talking about?” Ronnie demanded rising to his feet. He started pacing around back and forth.

“Just listen to me,” I said. “It’s true. You can ask Gina. We want to be together. Now I would like your blessing, but if I don’t get it then that won’t change things.”

“Like hell it won’t,” Ronnie said.

“Man, I know you are trying to protect her, and I admire the hell out of that, but she is not a kid anymore. And I’m not the same guy anymore.”

“Man, people don’t change,” Ronnie said. “You are going to give her the Joe Simpson treatment and she will be crying on my shoulder in a month. She doesn’t need that crap right now. Dude, you can get any girl out there. Why don’t you stay away from her?”

“Because I can’t,” I said. “I care about her. We have a special connection.”

“Special connection? Man, I never thought I’d hear you say that about a girl.”

“Like I said, I’ve changed. I want something real out there. You say people don’t change, well I don’t believe that. I’m the living proof. What I want out of my life has changed. I want to love, real love. You can call me a pussy if you want, but that’s how it is. And I think I could have that with Gina.”

Ronnie took a swig from his beer and sat it down hard on the table.

“You bastard,” he growled.

I barely saw the punch coming in time to side step it.

It sailed over my head as I dodged and jumped back. Ronnie’s drunken body lurched forward unsteadily.

“Hey! Calm down!” I yelled. I did not want to get into this with him, especially in his drunken state.

“I told you it would be hell to pay!” Ronnie screamed as he charged at me with a haymaker right hand.

I dodged the punch again. I did not want to hurt my friend and I definitely did not want Gina to come home to a mangled mess of a brother. But I was afraid Ronnie was leaving me no choice but to defend myself.

“Man, calm down. We need to talk about this,” I said.

“Nothing to talk about!” Ronnie screamed.

He charged again.

I ducked underneath his charge and tied him up in a bear hug. He was struggling like crazy but I held on strong.

“Ronnie, I’m not going to fight you. This is crazy. We have to talk this out.”

“I said no! I warned you not to date my sister. I warned you…”

“Ronnie, it’s going to happen whether you like it or not. There is nothing you can do about it, so you might as well get used to the idea.”

Ronnie growled and with all his might jerked out of my grasp. As he staggered backwards he pushed off the counter and threw another punch towards my face.

I ducked under it and hooked him in the belly with a hard left uppercut.

He went down to the ground quickly.

I felt like kicking the shit out of him, but I held my composure. He was my oldest friend after all. Hell, we’d been through so much together I never thought a woman would come between us, but this was Ronnie’s sister so it was a much bigger deal.

“You have to get a grip on yourself,” I said. “Ronnie, Gina and I are going to see each other. I hope it isn’t the end of our friendship, but if it is then that is all on you. That is your decision.”

Ronnie staggered to his feet. The fight seemed to have been knocked out of him for the time being but the rage in his eyes was still there. He wanted to kill me.

A clapping sound erupted from the doorway.

Standing there was Victor Silas, and two other men I didn’t know, except of course that they were in The Cobras. I knew that alright.

“Very entertaining,” Victor said as he sauntered into the room. “Um, sorry, but we knocked. There was no answer.”

I knew he was lying. This guy didn’t know the meaning of the word “truth”.

“We just came by to discuss a private matter with Ronnie,” Victor said. “But if this is a bad time…”

“No, it’s fine,” Ronnie said. “Um, Joe I’ll talk to you later.”

The urgency in Ronnie’s eyes for me to leave was almost heartbreaking. I wasn’t sure what was about to happen, but it definitely wasn’t good. There would be nothing good to come of it.

“Ok,” I said.

I left Ronnie’s house wishing I could have stayed. But I knew that involving myself, at least directly in whatever Ronnie had going on was the wrong move to make here. I had to find out more about what was going on if I was going to hope to help my friend.

If I still had a friend that once was.

I hated that Ronnie had attacked me. To see the rage in his eyes that extreme that he wanted to hurt me of all people was heartbreaking, but that was the way it had to be. If I wanted to be with Gina and give us a real shot then this is the way it was. Ronnie would either get over his issues, which I hoped he would do with time, or he wouldn’t. It was as simple as that. I was not in charge of him.

But I still wanted to help him. Whatever “The Cobras” were going to ask of him was going to be something highly illegal and if it went wrong Ronnie’s life might be over. He would definitely go to prison and probably do hard time.

I decided not to go home right away. I was going to hang around and talk to Ronnie. Whether he wanted my help or not I was going to help him.

I drove my truck around the corner and parked out of sight, but where I could still see the SUV that “The Cobras” had pulled up in. About fifteen minutes later Victor and the other man got into the car and drove away. I waited until they were out of sight and pulled back into Ronnie’s driveway.

I found him still in the kitchen talking to himself and on the verge of tears.

He tried to straighten up when he saw me walking back in.

“Man, what the hell are you still doing here?” Ronnie asked.

“What did they want?” I demanded.

“Ah, man I think I’m in deep here,” Ronnie replied.

“Just tell me what they wanted so I can see how to help you.”

Ronnie looked at me in total despair. I’d never seen my friend so broken.

“They want me to help them with a drug deal tomorrow night,” Ronnie said.

“What kind of a deal? Where?”

“They want me to carry the product to the meeting,” he said. “They need an extra guy just in case anything goes wrong.”

“Jesus, that sounds really bad, man,” I said. “You’ve got to go to the cops.”

Ronnie looked at me with sadness in his eyes. He knew that it was the right answer, but it was obvious that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Look, these are serious guys,” Ronnie said. “I can’t put my family in any more danger. I’ve got to do this.”

“I know how serious they are,” I said. “Guys like that bank on your fear to get what they want. They are intimidating you, making you think they really are more powerful than anybody and that not even the cops can protect you. Please, don’t fall into their game.”

Ronnie smiled weakly.

“I know you want to help, and if it weren’t for Gina and my mom, I’d probably go to the cops. But I can’t take the chance.”

I stood there gazing into Ronnie’s frightened eyes for several seconds, before saying goodnight and heading towards my truck. I knew there was no talking sense into him. He was as stubborn as they came, and for all I knew he might have been right. Could the cops protect Gina and his mother from Cobra retaliation if he talked? I couldn’t give him that guarantee and neither could the police.

There was too big of a risk.

All we could do right then was wait and see what came of it.

But as I drove home my heart leapt out to my friend. I felt powerless to help him, but he’d gotten himself involved in something very serious.

I wished I could tell Gina what was going on, but it just didn’t feel like my place. Besides, Ronnie might have been right that the less she knew, the better.

I wished I could hold her in my arms right then. I’d thought of nothing else since that kiss the other day.