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DUST
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Being told to lay low by Shai meant I didn't have to spend my days on street corners, busting my ass trying to make sales. I could go out and live my life, as simple as that sounds, but the moment the heat died down, I'd be right back in chains. For now, I'd take advantage of this freedom.

"Yo, Micky, what's the plan for tonight?" I asked, leaning onto the kitchen counter, shoveling spoonful after spoonful of Lucky Charms into my mouth. I swear, cereal was all we fucking ate around here if his lady wasn't over.

"I don't know, man. You pick," he yawned, scratching the back of his head as he came in. "Hey! That better not be the last of-" Yanking the empty cereal box into his hands, his eyes widened, quickly filling with light anger as he chucked it at me. "You fucker! You're buying me a replacement. Today."

"Yeah yeah, I gotcha, bro," I shrugged him off.

"I'm serious, Dust."

"I know," I restated, looking at him. He was fidgeting. Staring a little longer, I knew something was bothering him, and it wasn't just that we were out of cereal. "Why are you being weird?"

"What?" he questioned. "I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Mick-"

"I'm fuckin' fine, bro! Chill! Like, damn," he exclaimed, trying to convince me. The idiot still hadn't learned that he could never pull one over on me. I knew him like that back of my hand. Plus, his eyes were so damn big I swear you could see right into his soul or something.

Sighing, I made my way over, firmly grabbing his shoulders to still him, since he was still fidgeting like an addict trying to get clean. Something had been bothering him the past couple of days, and I tried to ignore it, give him his space, but that wasn't working. If it was anybody else, I'd let them wallow in their issues, considering I had my own to deal with, but not with him. Micky was my brother in every aspect but blood. I always had time for him.

"This got anything to do with what almost happened to Maizie?" I asked, tilting my head to the side a bit, my eyes squinting slightly as I studied him.

When Micky got home a few nights ago, he went on and on about how Maizie could have died and it would have been his fault. Apparently he got into some argument with his girl and they got distracted. Thankfully, some lady had been there and saved my goddaughter's life. I would have fucking fell apart if anything happened to that little angel. I swear, she's the only pure thing in my life.

"I just want to do right by her, man," he said, exhaling. "I'm tryna' talk Amy into livin' with me, but she's fuckin' stubborn as hell."

"Well, convince her."

"With what? Sex?" he scoffed, which wasn't far from where I was going with this. "I already knocked her up, Dust. Twice. I don't know what else the woman wants from me. I mean, you'd think me askin' her to move in would make her happy. Fuck no. She was pissed, said she was expectin' me to ask her somethin' else. Well, what the fuck am I suppose to do now? I don't know what the woman wants from me."

Nodding my head, I tried to come up with some sort of advice that could help him, but kept coming up short. Eventually, I settled on, "I planned on seeing my Moms today, since I had nothing else to do. You can come, ask her about Amy, see what she says cause I don't have a goddamn clue what to tell you."

Thinking on it for a moment, he agreed. "Yeah. Yeah, couldn't hurt. Plus, it's been a minute since I seen ya' Moms."

After finding something else to eat, since I ate the rest of the cereal, Micky got dressed. It didn't take me long to do the same. Deciding I didn't feel like combing my mess of hair, I pulled a dark grey beanie on and was waiting for him at the front door.

"All set?" I asked, nearly laughing when he suddenly tripped over the rug at the foot of the steps as he came down.

Glaring at me, he grunted, "Shut it."

The humored smile I wore lasted only a few seconds before I stepped out into the cold Pittsburg air. My Moms only lived a few blocks away, so we didn't bother using Micky's car, not that it would have started up if we tried. The old thing was more rust than vehicle and a fucking eye sore.

It didn't take us long before we were walking up the path to the small one- story house I grew up in. The white exterior siding looked more like grey due to it not having a good power-washing in over a decade, but other than that, I saw the evidence that my Moms still tended to her little garden and took care of the place.

"Dustin!" she beamed when she answered the door. Her greying dark hair was messily tied back, her glasses were sitting at the top of her head, and she looked like she hadn't gotten the best rest as of recent, but she still looked beautiful to me, of course. The things this woman had to endure, I was so fucking proud to be her son. "What are you doing here?!"

Giving her a hug before going inside, I chuckled, "What? A man can't just stop by to see his Moms?"

Playfully slapping me, she shook her head and then gestured for Micky to embrace her as well. 

"Michael," she greeted, squeezing him tightly before letting go. I tried not to laugh at the fact that my mother was almost as tall as him. "Good to see you, boy. How's that cute little girl of yours?" 

"She's doing great, Mrs. Munroe. Talkin' in complete sentences and everything. So proper. I swear, her mama don't want her talkin' anything like me," he laughed. 

"That may not be such a bad thing," my mother teased. 

After a little bit of catching up, I headed into the kitchen for something to drink, noticing how little has changed in this place. It was always hard visiting my mother, not because of her, but because of the house. He was still fucking everywhere. In the pictures decorating the walls, in the furniture he built himself. Everything reminded me of my Pops. Everything reminded me he was gone. 

"Dustin, come in here when you finish! I have something I need to talk to you about!" my mother yelled from the living room she and Micky were still in. 

"Okay!" I called back, already on my way. 

I would have taken more time if I had known she was going to drop a bomb on me in the next seconds to come. A bomb I was not prepared for.

"So, she's thinkin' of movin'," Micky reminded me as we walked through the doors of the local supermarket, not long after leaving my childhood home. I could still feel the numbness that hit me the moment the words left her mouth. I could see on her face she was nervous of what my reaction would be, but it was clear she'd given the subject a lot of thought. "You never said how you felt about that."

"Am I supposed to share my feelings like a little bitch or something?" I questioned, heading to the cereal aisle without paying his expression any mind. My eyes caught sight of a bag of powdered donuts near the registers, and I made a metal note to pick one up on the way out. "She wants to leave the state? That's her business. It's probably a good idea anyway, with Shai always breathing down my fucking back. She'd be a hell of a lot safer."

"I know, but...she'd have to sell your Pops place to do it. It's all you have left of him after Shai raided the house, right?"

Why you gotta bring that shit up, Mick?

At the mention of Shai's raid, I scanned our surroundings, making sure no one was getting too nosey and listening in. Shai wasn't a secret to the locals. Most of us knew who he was, or knew of the idea that some drug lord was working his cartel out of this area. Many tried to play ignorant, as if it made them safer. Maybe, in some ways, it did. They didn't have to always look over their shoulder, much like I was right now.

Thankfully, everything seemed to be in order. Old ladies slowly pushed their shopping carts while kids ran in between customers, causing people to stumble. Workers were busy restocking shelves and sweeping the floor. They were in their own world of fucking ignorant bliss, no one paying our conversation any mind, just the way it should have been.

Turning down the aisle lined with boxes and boxes of different cereals, I sighed. Micky's words were true, and I'd be lying to say it didn't bother me. That house was all I had left of my old man. When Shai killed him, he had the whole place looted, barely leaving us anything. My mother was terrified, but alive, and me? Fucking scarred beyond repair.

But, this wasn't about me. It was about my Moms. She survived Shai, when she just as easily could have been offed along with my Pops. She was still breathing, still smiling, even if it was less than she used to. Still, she was alive and that's how she had to stay, even if it meant selling the house and moving across the country.

"Pick your damn cereal," I mumbled, crossing my arms and waiting. I was tired of living this way, being under someone's thumb and watching life pass me by. I wanted out, but apparently that was asking too much.

Watching my big eyed friend look over every name was even more tiring, to say the least. I don't know why he did that when he always defaulted back to his favorite, time and time again.

"Will you just-"

Slapping my arm, he cut me off, whispering, "Shit, dude! That's her!"

Furrowing my brows in confusion, I looked at him like he was unstable. Right now, he was acting like it. One second he couldn't pick a cereal and now he was peeking over my shoulder and slapping my arm.

"Micky, what the hell are you doing?"

"Will you just look?" he snapped in a hushed tone, turning my body until I was looking at the only other person in the aisle with us. "She's the one that saved Maizie."

No shit? Seriously?

With that new piece of information, I turned with interest, taking in the image of the woman in front of me. She was a few meters away, but it wasn't hard to tell she was attractive, at least to me. Her hair was a dark shade of chestnut, cut short and tapered on the sides, but long enough to fall just above her eyes. It was a bold cut for a woman, but suited her well, despite her petite frame. Edgy. Fucking sexy. That was the vibe she gave off.

But, something told me it wasn't just a vibe. Not because of the many piercings she sported on her ears, or the small hoop in her nose, which I definitely liked. No, there was something about the guarded way she stood there, flipping through a stack if coupons in her hand, that caught my attention. The story of how she also ripped into Micky and Amy before she ran off only fed into my belief that she wasn't just sporting a trend.

Lazily glancing in our direction, her eyes traveled back to her hands before darting to us again and staying firm. "Can I help you?" she questioned, her voice surprisingly different than what I expected. Instead of a girlish soprano, more fitting for her tiny frame, a sexy rasp came out, matching her accusatory stare.

Fuck me.

"Um, yeah," Micky spoke up first, stepping out from behind me, giving me time to come out of my daze. "I don't know if you remember me, but you saved my kid and-"

"I remember you," she stated, eying him up and down before bringing her sights back on me. The sweep of her eyes went a bit slower as she looked me over before crossing her arms and turning back to the shelf like I wasn't even there.

Grabbing a box, she flipped it over, reading the back of it, seemingly now disengaged with us. Micky just stood there, trying to find another way to speak to the woman.

I took a more direct approach, not liking how overlooked I felt within the few seconds of being in her presence.

"So, what's your name?" I asked, taking a step closer, which she caught out of the corner of her eye. Damn, she was observant, but so was I, catching the color of her eyes in that split second. They were a deep brown, placed just above freckled cheeks, and were almost warning in the way they hit me.

"And why do you want to know that?" she questioned ratherly bluntly, placing the box back on the shelf before grabbing and inspecting a different one.

The edge was definitely not an act.

"I just want a name to tell my goddaughter next time she asks about you," I lied. Maizie wasn't bugging me about this woman. In fact, she was rather content in calling her, 'Superwoman', according to Micky and Amy. But, I wasn't above using a toddler to get somewhere with this woman.

That's pretty fucking sad.

I didn't care.

Quickly backing me up, Micky agreed, "It's true. She won't stop asking us about you." When that didn't seem to move her, he added, "Sometimes she even cries."

In that moment, as she sighed and threw the box of cereal in her basket, I knew we got through to her.

"Why don't you come by our place for dinner? So she can thank you in person?" he offered.

The hell? Don't push it, dude.

Shaking her head, she scoffed, "I don't think so." However, afterward her small features softened for the first time since meeting her. "But...you can tell her my name is Ashley, and I'm just glad she's okay."

"Sure. I'm guessin' a number is too much to ask for, then?" Micky threw out there.

Smacking him upside the head, resulting in his beanie slipping off and falling to the floor, much to his dismay, I turned to Ashley and urrged through a tight smile for her to, "Ignore him."

Surprisingly, she smiled, humored. It was weak, but there. "No, no number this time..." she held out, waiting for something.

"Micky," he filled in the blank for her. "And this is-"

"Dustin," I answered, fully capable of doing so on my own.

When I spoke, her eyes held mine for a moment, until they didn't. Nodding her head, she grabbed her cart and started rolling it away. "Well, it was...nice meeting you, Micky and Dustin."

A part of me knew she was only saying that as a formality. She was a guarded person, no doubt about that, and came off a bit rude in the beginning, but I had a feeling we caught a glimpse of her natural self at the end.

"You, too," I replied, watching her go.

Author's Note:
When Dustin says "my Moms", he's referring to his mother, quantity of one. He does not have two moms. He just calls his mom, "Moms", and his dad, "Pops".