Double Edge | WATTYS 2023 SHORTLIST + AMBYS 2023 WINNER

Chapter 11

September 1st, 2019

My heart raced. Each time a car passed us, sweat slid down my forehead, between my eyebrows, and along my nose. I needed someone to turn on the car's AC. It was eighty degrees outside. Bad enough, Tommy had us wearing black hoodies. None of this shit was discreet.

"Okay, this is goin' to be easy, right?" Mark had both hands on the steering wheel. He was the only one not in a hoodie. He argued the sun coming in through the front window would boil him alive. Heat exhaustion was a thing. A real thing. And that was why I needed the AC.

"Yeah, it's goin' to be easy." Tommy sat in the passenger seat next to Mark. He had a ski mask over his forehead, just ready and prepared to cover his face. Glancing at the back seat at me and Ruben, Tommy smirked. "You boys ready?" he asked.

Ruben nodded. I kept a straight face. 'You boys ready?' This was a game to him. For me, it was life or death. I just needed to save Maggie.

Prepping myself to rob a bank wasn't easy. For days, I was stressed. There were so many mornings when I wanted to throw in the towel. But now, as we sat in the getaway car, I knew it was too late.

"Whatever, you gon' be quiet, fine." Tommy reached into the bag on his lap and handed Ruben and me our guns. Ruben checked the ammo clip without flinching. I didn't even look at mine. Tommy sucked his teeth. "Man, you can at least make sure it's good."

"Why?" I licked my bottom lip before frowning. "I'm not using it."

"Yes, you are," he said. "You practiced. You're ready."

"I ain't ready!" My gaze bounced from him to Mark. My best friend couldn't even look at me. Dark eyes averted to the steering wheel. A quiet hum left him as I gritted my teeth. "Mark, you not gon' say nothing?"

Nope. Silence.

I looked at Ruben. Like Tommy, he had a ski mask halfway on his head. And like Mark, he wouldn't look at me. My frown deepened. "This is bullshit. Y'all know this, right?"

"We're robbing a bank." Tommy blinked. "The bullshit ain't for us. For the inside, sure, but—"

"Look, I'mma go inside and demand the money. That's it. This gun?" I waved it beside my head, so obviously, Tommy tried to take it from me. When he hissed, I pulled back and forced the gun into the back pocket of my jeans. "I'm not pulling it out. No one's getting hurt."

"Ha." Tommy rolled his eyes. "So you think."

Next to me, Ruben sighed. "Don't do that, man," he said to Tommy.

Mark chimed in. "We said we wouldn't do that."

I glanced at everyone in the car. "What?" I whispered.

Tommy looked at me before looking at the two of them. "Do what? Be honest. Hm." He looked at me next. "Just being real, you know. He'll figure it out. For some of us, this'll be a good day."

***

Thump.

Beeps surrounded me. They weren't a hospital monitor. No, that sound wasn't familiar to me. But Kimi's computers were; beeps that lulled me to sleep.

Thump.

Sucking in a breath didn't hurt. It burned a bit, but that was normal. It meant the machines inside me were functioning. The uncomfortable static reminded me I was alive. I wasn't dead, not yet.

Thump.

"His heart almost ruptured." Kimi's voice was music to my ears. Even when she was worried, I loved listening to her. Smooth, soft like silk, her words caressed my skin. Or was that her hands?