CHAPTER NINE.

"What're you doing here?" Luther spoke, trying to make conversation.

"My niece, Fern, needs a book for school. Came to borrow it from the library to take to her," Graham responded. He looked between Diego and Luther, "Not sure I care, but why are you two here? Full, absolute offense but neither of you strike me as readers."

"Looking for our brother," Diego stated before raising an eyebrow at Graham, "And niece?"

"Yeah, Diego. Niece," he spat.

"I feel like I'm missing something," Luther said as he pointed a finger at both boys, "Do I wanna know?"

"Your brother is just a life invading parasite who gets on my fucking nerves," Graham hissed, a death glare on his face as he stared Diego down.

"Oh, forgive me for wanting to know more about my progressively-getting-weirder friend," Diego held his hands up in fake defense.

"We're. Not. Fucking. Friends." Before anyone could say anything else, Diego looked off to the side as if he saw something. Graham could hear the sound of people giggling and a woman asking where someone's parents were. Luther pushed himself off the side railing he was leaning against and followed behind his brother. Graham wasn't sure why but he found himself, following the two. He was still mad and Diego and wanted nothing to do with him yet here he was following behind to get in on his family's business.

The three rounded a corner to find who Graham assumed to be their brother passed out with the top half of a mannequin under his arm. There were notebooks and an empty bottle of what looked to be alcohol on the ground surrounding him. Observing the boy, Graham could see how dirty the boy also looked.

"So this is the mystery brother I didn't meet then, correct?"

Diego shot a look to Graham, "Five, yeah. But why are you still here? Don't you hate me? Go get your book for your niece and screw off."

"Motherfucker, you started the conversation with me when I came up the steps, you don't get to suddenly catch an attitude with me," Graham crossed his arms over his chest as he scolded Diego.

"Is he, uh?" Luther chimed into the conversation, changing the subject.

Diego looked back to Five, a small joking grin on his face now, "Drunk as a skunk."

Graham rolled his eyes, "Yeah, good luck with that. I'm leaving."

"Good," Diego muttered, side-eyeing Graham. Graham stared at Diego for a moment, contemplating killing Diego then and there before taking a deep breath and turning away.

"I thought you two were friends?" He heard Luther ask his brother quietly.

"It's complicated," Diego had responded. Graham walked into one of the rooms and began looking at the signs above sections, looking for the one that said Classics. Seeing it in the back of the room, he made his way back. He began looking through the books in search of Frankenstein.

After getting the book, Graham started to make his way back to the front where he had seen a librarian's desk only to stop when his eyes landed on a section labeled "Autobiographies." He remembered that Diego's sister had a book and that he wanted to check it out. He figured there was no harm in seeing if they had the book there and checking it out if they did.

It didn't take Graham long to find the book, he nodded to himself and moved to make his way back towards the librarian's desk to check the two books out. But Graham didn't get far. He took two steps before pausing. The thought of reading the book and reading Diego and his family's business felt icky to him. He wanted to read the book to support Vanya, she seemed nice enough. But Graham felt that by reading the book, he would be contradicting himself with the anger he felt towards Fern when she threatened to tell Diego about his time in the facility. What kind of person would he be if spent all that time yelling at Jericho, Diego and Fern about minding their own business but then turned around and invaded Diego's and his family's by reading a book all about their own personal business?

Sighing to himself, Graham turned and placed the book back where he had found it. He turned and headed for the librarian's desk and this time, he actually made it without interruption. He approached the desk, putting it on the table and smiling at the woman at the desk.

"Just the one book?" The woman asked as she scanned it, "You have a card?"

Graham nodded and pulled his wallet out, "Yes to both. Thank you." He pulled the library card from his wallet and handed it over to the woman, who grabbed it. She scanned the card and handed it back to him.

"Alright, here's your book. The book will need to be returned within three weeks and if you need it longer, you can come in and renew it for another three weeks. This receipt just says when it was checked out and when it needs to be returned. If you lose it, the date it needs to be returned can be found by logging into our website. Thank you so much for checking out a book with us and I hope that you enjoy it," she smiled as she placed the receipt in the front of the book before passing it over to him.

He grabbed the book, held it up slightly, and nodded, "Thank you so much. Have a good day."

"You too," the woman called as he began walking away from her. He made his way out of the room and back towards the steps down to the first floor.

࿏

After dropping the book off to Fern, Graham sat in his car. He looked down at his phone, reading the message he had received when walking out of the school. It was information about another job he had. He shot Jericho a quick text, telling him he'd pick him up in a couple of hours. Jericho didn't really have any official work to do today, but the two still planned to just hang out around his office since neither really had anything else to do. But now since Graham had a job, he would be late. Jericho responded almost immediately, telling Graham it was fine, that'd he'd be waiting at home, and to be careful. Graham didn't bother responding as he locked the phone and sat it down under the side of his leg.

He made his way out of the school's parking lot as he typed an address into the GPS on his car. The destination wasn't too far away from the school. It would be a quick ride there, quick handling, and quick exit. All Graham's job was today was to get some high-profile person he had never heard of before from point A to point B. Simple enough. Granted, the jobs Graham did were never simple. There was always a catch somewhere. Whether it be Diego showing up during a job or there being some person hiding in wait to ambush Graham, it seemed something always happened.

Today, it was the latter of the two.

After picking the person up, who he learned was named Thomas, the ride was silent. Well, talking-wise at least. Thomas stayed looking down and typing on his phone the whole time. Graham kept his music going somewhat loud to fill the void. Thomas had asked that he turned the music off, wanting a completely silent ride. Graham's response was turning the music up more and telling Thomas "fuck off, I might be driving you around right now but I'm not a fuckin' chauffeur. If I want music on, there's gonna be music on."

When Graham was nearly halfway to Thomas' destination, a car pulled out from an alleyway, swerving in behind Graham. Graham watched the car in the rearview mirror as the car rode closely behind him before speeding up and pulling up next to him.

"You got a hit on you, Thomas? Or you just piss people off?" Graham questioned casually, eyeing the car speeding along next to him. The car swerved to the right, slightly away from Graham's car.

"Piss people off, I guess," Thomas stated, looking up from his phone, "Why?"

Graham shot him a look over his shoulder, "'Cause I know this car next to us ain't after me." He pointed a quick finger in the car's direction.

"Lose the car. They can't find my safe house," Thomas's voice was nonchalant as he looked back down to his phone, "And do it quick. I'm kind of tired and would like to get to my safe house as quickly as possible to take a nap."

Graham turned himself, completely looking away from the road to look back at Thomas. Sure, he was obviously gonna get rid of the car and handle it. But he didn't need Thomas bossing him around as if Graham works for him. Graham knew his job, including the parts of the job that come out of nowhere. Graham was prepared to send sass Thomas's way when the car next to him slammed into Graham's car. Surprised, Graham turned back to face the road and attempted to get control back of his car.

He looked to the side for a moment, checking to see what the car was about to do. He watched the cars back window roll down and a gun stick out. Boy, were they lucky they were down a less frequently traveled road, huh?

Graham pressed on the gas, 'You might wanna put your head down, Thomas."

"Why?" The man didn't even look up from his phone. It was like he didn't even feel that the car had been hit. Completely unaware of the gun pointed out at the car. Graham could see the shooter moving the gun around, trying to find a shot at Thomas.

Graham let go of the wheel, bringing his knee up to it before pushing his body back towards the backseat and grabbed Thomas's head. He pushed Thomas's head down as a bullet hits the window, shattering the glass.

He let go of Thomas and went back to the will, "Well, because as it turns out, it's not just pissing people off you do. It turns out you do have a hit on you, fuckin' idiot." Graham leaned over slightly to the passenger side of the car, opening the glovebox. He pulled a gun out. "Stay as far down as possible," Graham hollered as he sped up more, looked back, and aimed the gun out of the open window. He pulled the trigger and watched as the driver's window shattered. He sat the gun down as the car swerved to the side in shock. At this point, Graham was pushing the gas pedal through the car's floor. He quickly hit a left, in an attempt to lose the car. But soon after the car turned down the road after them. Now, there were guns coming from both sides of the car pointed at Graham's car.

Graham found himself sliding down further into his seat as the car behind him began opening fire. Graham took another sharp left turn and looked around the area for somewhere to possibly turn into. He crossed over onto the wrong side of the road, thankful there were still no cars around them, and turned down another road to the right. He could hear the sound of tires squealing, telling him that the people chasing them would be this way soon. As Graham canvassed the area around him, he realized there was still nowhere he could turn into and turn the car off to lose them.

Graham leaned his head back towards Thomas, who was somehow curled up and hiding on the floor of Graham's car, "Is there anything on the floor back there? A book, water bottle, box? Anything?"

Thomas popped his head up slightly, "I don't think now's the time for a book, you nimrod. Get us out of here." His head shot back down and he let out a scream as bullets began hitting the car once again.

Graham groaned and looked to the gun next to him. Shrugging to himself, he picked it up. Sighing to himself, he rolled the car window down. Looking between the gun and the road, Graham gripped the gun tightly. Thomas was hiding on the floor, oblivious as ever, he wouldn't know what Graham was about to do. And he sure didn't seem like the type to question things. Graham could get away with using his powers here and no one would know. The car behind them, if they survived, would just be confused about what happened really. They wouldn't know that Graham used scientifically generated powers on them.

The more Graham thought about it and the longer he held the gun, he could feel the molecules in the gun speeding up. He sighed and rolled his window down and slowed the car down. The car caught up, confused as to why Graham was slowing down. He brought his knee up once more to hold the wheel. He looked down at the gun one last time before turning his body to get a good angle and throwing the gun as hard as he could at the that was now on his ass. As the gun was flying back towards the car, Graham hit the gas as hard as he could. The gun hit the car's windshield, exploding as it did so. The car swerved, hitting a pole.

Graham continued speeding down the road, making random turns just to ensure that they were away from the car before reaching back and patting Thomas on the back, "You can get up now."

Thomas sat up and crawled back into the seat, "I heard an explosion. You keep grenades in your car or something?"

"Or something," Graham stated before reaching over and turning the radio as loud as it could go. He turned the car's air off--his back windshield and two passenger side windows were blown out, they would be getting more than enough air like that. Graham groaned silently to himself as he thought about his ruined windows. He just had the car cleaned a couple of days ago. Which was now a total waste of money since his car was absolutely fucked with broken windows and bullet holes.

࿏

After dropping the man off at his safe house, Graham had made his way back across town to pick Jericho up. The two had sat across from one another on the couch in Jericho's office and played UNO. There was a bag of pretzel sticks laid on the couch between the two. While the two played UNO, Graham had recounted the events of his job with Jericho. Eventually, after too many way too competitive games of UNO, Graham and Jericho had left to pick Fern up from school. They made their way back to Graham's apartment, but not before stopping and picking up a couple of pizzas for dinner.

As they were walking into Graham's apartment, Fern spoke up, "Oh, hey, Jericho. I'm taking this computer science elective and I was wondering if you could take a look at my homework and tell me if I've been doing it right or not later?" She placed her bag down by the door, turning to face Jericho, who was crouched over to take his shoes off.

He looked up, nodding, "Totally. Yeah, after dinner?" He raised an eyebrow as he stood back up straight. Fern nodded with a smile.

"Drinks?" Graham called out as he sat the pizza down on the coffee table in the living room.

"I got 'em," Fern responded, jogging her way over towards the fridge. "Cokes for everyone, I assume?" She opened the fridge door, reaching for three Coke cans.

"Water for me," Graham answered, sitting on the right end of the couch, "Movie?" He grabbed the remote from the middle of the couch, flipping the TV on. He kicked his shoes off and used his right foot to push the shoes under the coffee table so no one would trip on them.

"Something action-y," Jericho plopped down into the middle of the couch. He leaned forward and moved the pizza boxes so they were side by side before lightly tossing the tops open on both. He looked up, patting his knees, "Plates. I'm gonna grab some plates."

"Why dirty the dishes up when you can just sit the slices back down in the box when you don't wanna eat it?" Graham shook his head, motioning at the boxes.

"I want ranch," Jericho defended.

"Just put ranch in the corner of the box," Fern stated as she sat the three drinks down, sliding Graham's water across the table to him and sitting Jericho's in front of him, "No reason to dirty dishes when you can use what's already there."

Graham pointed a finger out to Fern, "Exactly. She gets it."

Jericho playfully rolled his eyes and made his way towards the kitchen to grab ranch, "Fine, weirdos." He grabbed the ranch and headed back to his spot between Graham and Fern. He grabbed the ranch and headed back to his spot between Graham and Fern. Jericho grabbed the remote from Graham and began scrolling through the movies before clicking on one and starting it. He didn't bother checking with either Graham or Fern to see if they wanted to watch it. Granted, neither protested it.

The three fell into a comfortable silence as the movie began. Each of them leaning forwards to grab a silence of pizza before leaning back into the couch and eating in silence. But the silence didn't last long.

About twenty minutes into the movie, there was knocking at the front door.

"Not it," Graham spoke, his finger flying to his nose.

Jericho scoffed, "Your house, your door, you answer."

"Fe-"

"Don't Fern me. When I first showed up here, you were all mine, mine, mine. Like Jericho said: Your house, your door, you answer," Fern joked, her eyes glued to the television.

Graham let out a loud sigh and threw his head back for a moment before pushing himself off the couch, "Fine, assholes. Movie sucks anyway." He tossed his half-eaten slice of pizza down into the pizza box and made his way to the front door. He slid the door open and was greeted by Luther, "What are you doing here? More importantly, how do you know where I live?" Confusion was written on Graham's face as he spoke.

"Can I speak to you outside for a moment?" Luther asked, pointing behind him.

"It's late as fuck, dude. And again, how do you know where I live?"

"I did some research and it won't take long, please. I need you to talk to you."

Graham groaned, rolling his eyes, "Fine." He threw his hands up in front of him. He looked over his shoulder to Jericho and Fern, "I'll be back in a moment." He waved the two off before stepping outside and shutting the door. He looked up to Luther, "What?"

"Have you talked to Diego?"

"Not since earlier. Don't really have any interest in talking to the ass, truthfully."

Luther sighed, "Can you talk to Diego?"

Graham crossed his arms over his chest, "Did you just completely miss what I just said?"

Luther pinched the bridge of his nose, "No, I heard you. It's just some stuff happened and you're Diego's friend. I thought you might be able to comfort him."

"First off, Diego and I are not friends. Not one bit. Second off, what stuff happened?"

Luther looked down at his hands and then back to Graham, "Well, remember the two people that broke into the house when you were over? Well, they ended up kidnapping our brother Klaus except we didn't realize that until recently. I'm not sure about all the details but after we left the library with Five, we took him to Diego's place so those people couldn't find him." Luther paused for a moment, "But the guy who owns the boxing ring and said Diego had a call from someone named Patch that needed his help. Diego returned a couple of hours later and it turns out they killed Patch. Now, he--"

"Whoa, back up. Patch is dead? Eudora Patch?" Graham asked. Though he didn't care all that much about the woman, he knew what she meant to Diego.

"I guess if that's who that is, yeah," Luther shrugged, "But like I was saying, Diego is swearing he's gonna kill the two people that did and Five thinks he's getting in over his head, and really, I think he is too. I was hoping you could talk to him. Or even help him. Just anything to make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

Graham knew Diego would be hurting right now. He knew that Diego wouldn't wanna talk to anyone and especially not him with the fight they were currently in. But also knew how much it sucked not having someone to talk to about something like that Or even just someone to sit there in silence with them while processing what happened.

"I'll think about it, but I can't make promises. Diego really doesn't want anything to do with me right and I sort of feel the same," Graham explained bluntly.

"Everything alright between you two?"

"It's complicated."

word count. 3572
I'm currently working on Chapter Ten and am not sure if I'll finish it tonight but hopefully it'll be up soon!! I've also written a small possible snippet for a future chapter so I'd like to think that I'm getting a lot done tonight<3 Feeling very productive and motivated so hopefully I can get more done tonight <3

posted. april 22, 2021
hexgiris