Page 4 of My Best Friend Is Broken
“Oh yeah. I forgot. Have a good one.”
The line goes dead. I shake my head and put my phone back in my pocket. Typical Carlo. No, hello how are you, or goodbye. Just straight to business.
Liam is going to love him. He is going to love all my friends. I’m going to have to beg Dario not to give Liam a job, because getting tangled up with the mafia is the last thing he’ll need after five years inside.
I glance at my watch again. If I go now, I will be able to get a good parking spot. I can wait in the car and listen to music. It’s got to be better than pacing around in here.
Yes, leaving now is a great idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.
With that thought in mind, I check that my car keys are in my pocket, and I head out of the door.
It takes me thirty minutes to reach the prison. All these years, Liam has been so physically close, yet so far away. He was right here yet he may as well have been on the moon.
I look up at the imposing red-brick Victorian wall that is looming over me. These bricks have kept me apart from my best friend for five whole years. Fuck them and fuck everything they represent.
The wall glares back at me. Taunting. It knows I wouldn’t last five years inside its confines. I wouldn’t even last one. I’d be a mess. Not that I’m ever going to confess that to anyone. I’m in the mafia. Reputation is everything. I have to act the hard man. Pretend that I’m dangerous.
Liam will see right through my bluff. But he’ll keep my secret. Play along with it. Even add credence to it by being seen with me.
I bet he made himself king in there. He must be super dangerous by now. He may have been only eighteen when he went in, but Liam could always hold his own among older men. His air of authority was unmistakable, even back then.
I have a strong feeling that everyone, inmates and screws, are throwing him a leaving party right now. There are probably even some tears.
The mental image makes me smile. Flipping heck, now I’m sitting alone in my car, outside Brixton Prison, grinning like an idiot. It is a good thing that nobody can see me.
Suddenly, movement in the periphery of my vision catches my attention. A small door cut into the giant wooden gates is opening. My heart begins to race.
A middle-aged man wearing a gray tracksuit and clutching a plastic carrier bag steps out. He blinks for a moment as if emerging into the sunlight after hibernating in a dark cave. Then he shuffles off, down the road.
Next is a younger, bearded man with a big grin on his face. The moment he steps out of the gate, the doors of a car parked near me fling open and a woman and two children jump out. They run towards the freed prisoner,and he hugs them all in one big squishy embrace. Squeals and laughter reach my ears and deepen my smile.
They slowly make their way to their car, while all still clinging onto him and chatting, laughing and smiling.
I look away and see that a young man has crept out of the gate. His head is down, and shoulder-length blond hair is covering his face. His shoulders are hunched, and the gray sweatsuit is too big for his thin body.
His plastic carrier bag doesn’t look like it has much in it. Definitely not enough to start a new life.
I watch as he turns and slowly starts walking away, sticking close to the wall. Poor kid. He didn’t even look to see if anyone had come to meet him. He clearly wasn’t expecting anyone.
He picks up his pace a little, while keeping his body language as small as possible. Something about him niggles at me. Do I know him?
He stops and turns to cross the road. He looks up, scanning for traffic, and for a split second he looks towards me and I catch a glimpse of his face.
My heart stops. Liam. That is Liam.
The car door is opening, and I’m practically falling out before I’ve coordinated my feet. Somehow I don’t fall flat on my face. I manage to get out of my car, and I run after Liam.
I catch up with him just as he has turned a corner. My heart pounds with how close I came to losing him.
“Liam!” I yell.
He flinches and cowers and doesn’t turn to face me. I’m still running, so I run around to his front before skidding to a stop.
“Liam! It’s me!”
Blue eyes peek out at me through a curtain of hair. They widen. “Nicky?” he whispers faintly.
“Yeah!” I grin.
