Play Along

A knock sounds at the door. Why is he knocking? I open the door to see Ang standing in front of me. “I came to get you for dinner.”

My face drops. “Where’s Mac?”

“Apparently something is going on. I don’t know. The boys aren’t back yet, either. Chelsea said she saw them and they said to go without them.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Hopefully everything is alright,” she mutters as we walk down the hall.

“What do you mean?”

“Stuff happens on this ship.”

“Like what?” I frown.

“Well…you know what kind of ship this is and some seedy characters fly in and out. I know a helicopter came in this afternoon. I hope the exchange went well.”

“Oh,” I mutter, distracted. God. “Has anything ever happened before?”

“A guy got killed once. He tried to rip off the dealer and they shot him dead.”

My eyes widen in horror. “Fuck,” I whisper. “Who was that?”

She shrugs. “Some idiot who worked on here. I didn’t really know him. Apparently he was shifty.”

“Who shot him, I mean?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. One of them.”

“Mac? Was it Mac?” Is he really capable of this kind of stuff?

“Who knows? They don’t tell me much. I hear most things through Chelsea.”

“What did they do?”

“They threw his body overboard.”

“Holy shit. I can’t believe this.”

“It’s true.”

Ang’s eyes glance down at me and she smiles broadly. “You scrub up well.”

I look down at myself and smile. “Thanks for loaning it to me. I would love to say I will pay you back, but I have nothing to loan you.”

She grabs my hand in hers. “Your friendship is a gift and you have loaned me that.”

Oh, what a nice thing to say. I get choked up. She has no idea how much that means to me. I have never felt as alone as I have in the last two weeks. It has been so nice having someone to talk to today. She squeezes my hand as if knowing that she just hit a nerve. We take a seat at our normal table with three of the girls. I haven’t really paid much attention to the other girls before and I glance around at them. One has black hair and is kind of rough looking, while the other is a bottle blonde and looks like she would be in her early thirties. They are attractive, but it is blatantly obvious that they have had hard lives. The third girl is Chelsea; the boy’s clear favorite. She is attractive and has a banging body, but it is her confidence and outgoing personality that sets her apart from the others.

“What’s going on? Where are the boys?” Angela asks.

The two other girls shrug and Chelsea leans into the table. “Apparently someone fucked up and Jack had to reprimand them this afternoon, and then Rick and he ended up fighting.”

Angela’s face falls. “Who… J-Jack and Rick are fighting each other?” she stammers.

Chelsea shakes her head. “No. Rick ended up getting into a fight with Stucco and then they had to call Mac to sort it.”

I sit still, unsure what to say.