Together.

Chapter Five

You sit in the front seat next to Gally in his car and look out your window to see your plain old house staring back at you washed yellow in the dim light of the street lamps. You only hesitate before opening the door because of your surprising amount of enjoyment from today's events. You don't want it to end, but a part of you knows there will be many more chances to hang out with Gally like that again. It's strange, you think to yourself, how connected you feel to Gally only after knowing him for a short amount of time.

You turn to him in this moment, his face shadowed by the dark sky and lack of light inside the car, "I just wanted to say that–

But suddenly, Gally shifts his gaze, and looks towards the road in front of his parked car, "Y/N?"

Your chest tightens and you feel as though all of the oxygen is sucked out from your lungs, "Yeah?" You don't like his tone, you don't like his alertness, and you don't like the fact that you are feeling real fear.

"Go to the back of the car and hide behind your seat."

You do as he says, sweat droplets forming on your face and hands, "Gally?" Your voice comes out, only barely, and it seems to hang in the air between you for a couple of seconds.

"Don't say anything." His voice is deep and threatening, but not threatening to you. Just threatening, as if he's using his fear to work with him.

You shrink further into the car's carpeted floor, the smell of cigarettes and stale booze, but also somewhere in the air, the smell of Gally, the smell you have come to know in recent days.

A knock raps over the driver's window, Gally rolls the window down and you feel a sudden cool breeze wash in through the open gap; it helps get rid of the feeling of suffocation. "Gally," the voice rasps, wheezy and hoarse, "You know, my boys came back last night with bruises and cuts all over. Now, who do you s'ppose did that to 'em, huh?"

"Look,"

But the mysterious man cuts him off as he grabs Gally's shirt collar and pulls him closer to the window, and closer to the shadowed face. "Do not, 'look' me, son. You have a problem with my boys, you talk to me. If they have a problem with you, well, it's probably best to just let them do what they want to do without any arguments." He pushes Gally back from him in one single shove movement and coughs for what seems like minutes on end, a nasty phlegm cough too that brings nausea to your stomach and throat. "I still need that money. Don't you forget."

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'll get it. No worries." These words seem to stumble form Gally's mouth in a voice of uncertainty, but more so, fear and anxiety.

A few minutes go by, silence suffocating the scene. You still sit in the crook between the front passenger seat and the back passenger seat, that stale smell from before growing heavier by the second after Gally rolls his window back up again. You know that the man is gone, or must be on his way to disappearing back into the shadows of the streets, but you don't move. You won't move. You're scared to be in a place of vision, and you're even more terrified to have to face Gally now after his conversation with that man. What does this all mean? What kind of mess is Gally caught up in?

"Y/N, you can..." He shifts in his chair and suddenly you lock eyes with him, only seeing that brilliant flash of green, "He's gone."

You get up and slide back into the front seat, your huff of breath from cramped areas and tight movements brings a small gust of fog to your vision. "I don't want to ask but..."

"Then don't." He suddenly leans in very, very close to you, almost past you perhaps, his shoulder against your chin and his arm around the front of you. You hear the passenger door click and then swing open, letting in chilly air of the frosty night. "It's none of your business anyway."