Something Hui hated most about himself was that he was the type of person to continuously debate running away from something but never actually had the guts to do it. Nights like this where he walked around bruised and in pain, yet, surprisingly, totally at ease with his surroundings, he couldn’t fathom how years before he ran away from home. It had taken an intense amount of courage and rage to leave, yet it had taken four years for Hui to finally turn into the confident person working for Honcho. How, then, had that lonely seventeen-year-old sprinted out the front door of his superficial “American Dream” family?

Despite all the growth he underwent over those past few years, Hui couldn’t recreate that same intensity that had pushed him to leave. As he walked, though, Hui realized that through working with Honcho and getting hazed by people like Lighter, the thug was finally beginning to recreate that intensity. What he found odd about the intensity, though, was that this time he wanted to not escape his mother, but the city that had sheltered him from her over these past four years.

As he glanced at the crumpled piece of paper and the neon signs hanging above the bars and clubs of the neighborhood, the blonde boy recalled the previous week. How stupid he had to of been to believe he could have bought off one of Honcho’s guys. Sure, the volunteer police at the Independence Day festival would have taken the bait, but Honcho’s men were “ride or die” when it came to working for H. Bribes amongst each other didn’t exist unless it was with a pack of cigarettes or an ounce of weed. Ajax probably kept quiet for no more than a few hours with that money, Hui accepted.

His pity-party came to a halt as the young pickpocket strolled up to the address scrawled out on his small piece of paper. The neon green sign signaled to him that he had arrived at Daze, the nightclub and bar hybrid known amongst the neighborhood as the joint that has its customers leaving in a perfect high, drunken, and ually satisfied daze. Knowing that the escorts he was after were lurking around the bar of this joint, Hui knew that they were after distressed businessmen exhausted from work and upset they couldn’t party on the Fourth. They’ll be leaving in a Daze, Hui smirked as he walked through the front door, but they’ll have to find another car to hook up in with the girlies.

Waving to the bouncer, the blonde boy straightened his collar and ignored the smell of sweat and body odor from running around in the same clothes for two days. As he entered the dimly lit bar, he spotted the two escorts Lighter and the others had mentioned. They stood out perfectly amongst the fine men littering the dance floor, one of them was bobbed blonde, her hair clearly bleached beyond repair, and the other was pierced with a fierce set of braids accenting her look. Though Hui would have found them slightly intimidating, he could make the attempt to find them attractive if he was at least three drinks into his night.

Hui walked up to the girls and quickly jumped over to their spot at the bar. He leaned forward abruptly and hung his arms over their shoulders as he let out a fake laugh. Although he didn’t have any alcohol wreaking from his clothes, he could tell the girls hated the smell of sweat mixed with his obnoxious attitude. Ignoring their grimaces of shock and disgust, Hui swiftly swiped the set of car keys on the bar next to Braids. It was in his dress-pocket before the girls could even shrug him off of their shoulders.

“Get lost kid!” The bob hissed at him, threatening to splash his drink into his face. Hui only smiled playfully at the ladies of the night. Noticing the nickname of unfamiliarity, the young thug was thankful that Honcho’s employees didn’t know each other unless they worked within the same line of business. Having never met any of Honcho’s pimps or escorts working for the man, Hui knew he wouldn’t need to worry about either of the girls recognizing him as anyone but an annoying “kid.”

“What?” He asked, his hands up as if to protect himself. “I only wanted a little fun on a Friday night, aren’t you interested in younger guys?”

“We’re interested in money, loser, and seeing as how you’ve clearly been wearing those clothes for more than a day, I’ll break it to you that we’re not interested in wasting any more of our time talking to you.” Braids replied, shooing him away with her freshly manicured hand. Grateful for their easy nature, Hui casually stepped away from the two women, nodded at the bouncer once more, and vanished from the club like a ghost. Within five minutes, he was at the parking garage.

“It never is anything but easy, yet it never gets old.” He whistled to himself as he ducked under the gate of the garage and strolled throughout the floors of the concrete building. The only difficult part of car swiping to the young pickpocket was having to actually find the car. After only four floors, though, a reassuring “beep” called out to Hui as he made his way to section “F.” He confidently approached the car as if it was his own, when it came into view, though, the thug stopped to question himself.      

Immediately, Hui noticed something was off about the vehicle. It wasn’t the worst set of wheels—it had a white paint job dirtied from only at least two years of driving, and its make couldn’t have been made before the year 2000. Even with those wonderful features, though, Hui would willingly give Lighter his jobs in defeat if that car was anything close to being worth the one million dollars that the pimp stole from Honcho.

“It’s not my problem,” Hui muttered indifferently as he hopped into the car and revved the engine. Ignoring the puttering of the engine, he pulled out of the parking spot and made his way out of the garage.

H*H*H*H

His eyes watched the dashboard clock switch to an even ten as he drove down the same roads he used earlier to escape a future of jobs like this one. Recalling his time with the three brutes earlier in the day, Hui noted that he didn’t need to be back at The House until midnight to give Honcho the car back. If he arrived two hours earlier, though, he wondered if it would gain him more brownie points with the boss.

The barely-legal boy sat back in his seat as he reached a red light, and pondered the potential that came from the next two hours. He looked out his window and saw how the building in front of him created a fork in the road, separating the slums and the financial sections of the busy city. He thought for a moment about the power the road held for him in that moment. As if having slept during the earlier portion of his job, Hui’s sense of courage began to wake within him once again. It was then, for Hui, that he realized he was making the same decision as the young panic-stricken teen that stood in his family’s kitchen four years prior to this red light.

To turn left, meant a life of running errands for thugs. Stealing from the honest-living citizens of the city. Taking beatings from men like Lighter, and hoping to win them over with dirty drugs bought off some cousin gang. To turn left, Hui thought, would end any chance I had at starting fresh.

To turn right, meant taking the path towards the same bridge his train would have taken earlier this morning. If he were to only curve the path of the car’s wheels slightly to the right, Hui wouldn’t be “the young thug” anymore. No more pickpocketing. No more ruining people’s holidays by swiping a wallet. No more bribes. No more drug deals. No more living at The House with the dirtiest beings within the city walls. To turn right, Hui thought to himself, as the light turned green, would mean I could finally start over.

His wheels curved to the right and began to follow the line of cars leading him into the financial district. He glanced out the window of his car and watched as couples walked into the restaurants that lined the street. He noticed a mom and pop barbershop’s lights still shining strong into the night. Hui smiled as he imagined the family working hard to clean up the shop for the next day. He admired them but chose to ignore any thoughts straying to his own family he had left surrounded by shattered dishes. With a full tank of gas and comfortable clothes, despite their smell, Hui drove towards what he believed, was a pure life over the other side of a bridge.

What he found, however, as he turned down a side street to avoid any sights of Honcho’s men, was an enticingly thin frame with skin tanned by the sun, a fiery head hair, and eyes staring blindly into the bright glare of the headlights. As he slammed his foot down on the brake pedal, Hui took in the sight of blood, too, splattered over the frantic girl.

They stared at each other, and, as if used to this sort of thing, Hui merely waved her over to the car. As she approached, warily, he rolled down his window and looked up at her. Her lips trembled as she stared down into his eyes.

“Believe me,” He said, attempting a smile, “I’m the best person that could have found you right now.”

Within a moment, there were two warm bodies in the car