#13
“Please Beck. Don’t. This, this isn’t you,” I pleaded.
“You don’t know me anymore,” he replied coldly.
I looked to the ground, then realized Steve was looking happily at Beck. Wagging his tail and sticking his flappy tongue out.
I thought to myself, “Why would he be doing that…. unless….”
I stood slowly as I said, “But I do know you.”
Beck squinted as I added, “Steve couldn’t have gotten up that ladder himself.”
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What Is The Painful Choice
His eyes widened and I continued, “But you…, lifted him with one arm out of the sewer. You…, you knew they’d kill him to get to me, so you helped him get up here. Which also means…. You could’ve already killed me.”
Beck tightened his grip on the gun and looked to the ground.
“You’re still the same Beck I used to know. Maybe you cut your hair a bit shorter, well, a lot shorter, but you’re still my old college roommate.”
He took a deep breath and replied, “I can’t be your old college roommate. If I am, we’ll both be dead,” he held the gun higher, “I don’t have any other choice.”
“There’s always another choice,” I argued.
“You know, you probably do have another choice, options even. With your family, your money, your fancy degree. But I have nothing!”
“Beck, I dropped out of college about a month after you did.”
He reeled at this new information.
“Because I did, my family cut me off. I have no money, I haven’t been able to keep a job for more than three weeks, and to top it all off, I’m about to lose my apartment.”
“So… So how can you say there’s always another choice? You’re just as stuck as I am.”
I began walking forwards as I said, “I could’ve stayed in college, but I chose not to. I could let my empty bank account and my soon-to-be homelessness drag me down, but I’m making the choice to keep going. To find a better situation. To find a better life. And so can you.”
I laid my hand on top of Beck’s gun.
“It’s your choice Beck. Do you want to shoot me, and stay with these people? Or do you want a different life? One where you call the shots?”
“But, where would I go?” He argued.
Without much thought I answered, “Well, I might not have an apartment for much longer, but you’re welcome to come with Steve and me. We could look out for each other. Help each other stay afloat.”
Making The Painful Choice
Beck squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his gun.
“They’ll never let me go alive,” he added.
Now that I didn’t have a gun pointed at my chest, I could think a lot more clearly.
Glancing around, I could see the faint outline of the tool box.
“Beck, there are some cables lying around up here. Find them, and I’ll see if there’s any matches in that tool box.”
I can only imagine the confused look on Beck’s face as he followed my instructions. In a matter of minutes though, I had found the matches, Beck had grabbed the cables, and my plan was ready.
I lit part of the building on fire by the elevators, and had Beck hold the gun to my chest once more after we tied a cable around Steve and dangled him over the side of the building.
Our shadows from the fire were projected over the building next to us, leaving out the tiny detail that was the cables tied around our own waists. Thus, our play started.
Beck thrust the gun forward as the flames began consuming the surrounding support beams. I grabbed the weapon in a mad struggle, then Beck carefully aimed the gun around my side, and fired. Both our shadows froze, and we fell off the side of the building together. Hopefully giving the people below a front row seat to our glorious demise. Would you believe Beck was more of a theater kid than me?
Anyways, I had Beck wrap the cables around one of the beams before our performance started, so we were able to slowly slide down the side of the burning building with Steve.
We untied Steve and ourselves as quickly as possible then ran to the alley as the top three floors began crumbling to ashes. A sight our enemies couldn’t take their eyes off of.
Making It Home
I’m pretty sure we ran for about an hour straight before we finally reached my little apartment.
I slid open the sliding glass door, and the three of us piled into the living room completely exhausted.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Beck quipped.
“Didn’t I used to say, don’t doubt my genius?”
“Yeah, but you usually said that before you ran into someone and dropped all your books,” he replied with a hearty laugh.
Now that was my old college roommate.
Then, a knock came at the door. Beck froze on the floor as I got up and looked through the peephole.
“Oh,” I said, “I know him.”
With that I opened the door to the man who dropped his flash drive in my Chinese take out. I almost didn’t recognize him without the massive B.O. and sweat stained shirt. He was actually in a fancy suit and tie this time.
“Hello Comet,” he greeted pridefully.
“Um, hi Orion.”
I could hear Beck snickering behind me.
“Yes, well, as you can see, I’ve moved up in the world. After suing my old company, I gained quite a large sum of money. And, well, I guess I felt like I owed you or something. So here. I won’t waste anymore of your “valuable” time. Take this, and I hope to never see you again.”
With that, he left, leaving an envelope in my hand.
“What’s that?” Beck asked.
I carefully opened the white paper, and pulled out five crisp $100 bills.
I looked at Beck in shock and his mouth fell wide open.
Behind me, the door swung open, and I whipped around to see my landlord sneering at me.
I shoved the $500 in his hand and said with a grin, “Same time next month?” Before slinging the door shut.
I took a deep breath before sliding down the door, trying to take in all that had happened.
That’s It!
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