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I returned Tony's smile.

“My best friend stood me up anyway.”

I got in, closed the door, and adjusted my school uniform skirt.

Until just two weeks ago, I had never thought it was too short or that I would rather wear pants or longer dresses, but since the party...

Quickly, I pushed the thought aside, grateful that Tony was here.

“You're still hanging out with that blonde bitch?”

He put the car in gear and drove off with the windows down to the next traffic light.

“Tony!” I blurted out. “She's totally fine. Don't call her that!”

Sometimes his language, which he had picked up from his questionable friends, bothered me. Friends who were anything but friends. They were always borrowing money from him or dragging him into trouble that Dad had often had to get him out of. With money, too. Until he had drawn the line at some point.

Dad hoped that things would get better. But nothing had gotten better. On the contrary. Tony was deep in debt that his job would never be able to pay off.

“Totally fine, my ass,” he muttered, steering the car across the intersection. “She's one of those rich, pretty girls who will later trample on people like us.”

“Don't say that. We'll be successful too.”

Tony laughed, and there was a bitter edge to it.

“You might, if my brother shoves as much money up your ass as he does Ezra's. I mean... not that I wouldn't wish it on you.”

“When are you two finally going to make up?” I sighed.

All I wanted was a stable family. One where we did things together every weekend, got along with each other, and where everyone gave Tony a second chance.

But Ezra studied around the clock, Dad was at the hospital from early morning until late at night, and as a nurse, it was the same for Mom.

I looked at my uncle from the side, observing the many small scars on his chin and eyebrow, and the long one on his upper arm. All of them were from fights with the local biker gang.

Tony was misunderstood. The younger of two brothers, one of whom had received all the love and the other barely any.

I often told him that he was special and that he shouldn't let my grandparents' words get to him, but even after my grandfather had passed away three years ago and my grandmother shortly after, nothing had changed in the relationship between Tony and Dad.

I tried to be there for him, hoping that he would eventually talk to me about everything that had happened in his childhood. What my grandparents had done to him.

I was old enough to know that this world wasn't a rainbow pony land. Parents hurt their children. Men hurt women. Something dark ran through our human existence. Something I still didn't want to fully accept. I was sure that there was always light at the end of the tunnel.

“That ship has sailed for me, Mads.”

I swallowed my growing frustration.

If only Dad had never kicked him out...

We had spent so much time together back then, listening to music and him teaching me all kinds of card games and sleight-of-hand tricks.

Tony had been my best friend, but since he had moved down to the harbor next to the workshop, he had been different. More distant, more withdrawn.

They’ve All Gone

Mr Kamera

I had become friends with Vivienna, the pretty girl from the wealthy neighborhood who had been sitting all alone at her school locker after school, crying. I had sat down next to her, and she had told me through her tears that her grandmother was hurting her and making her drink something strange, but that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone.