Always

Axel picked Brooklyn up the next morning as planned and they headed over to Al’s, meeting his friends there. Sat in a booth, she stared out the window and jumped slightly as Axel spoke in her ear.

“Anything interesting out there?”

“A pretty average view if I’m honest,” Brooklyn replied with a small smile.

“You’re quiet today, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t sleep all that well last night... I couldn’t switch off.”

With a nod, Axel put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head. She hated lying to his face, but telling him the truth was out of the question and so, she’d just have to suck it up.

Their food was soon brought over and Brooklyn ate, swatting at Axel’s hand with a playful glare as he attempted to steal one of her chocolate covered strawberry's. The conversation bounced around for a while, until Nico brought up Axel’s birthday and she listened as Axel told them about the party his mum was planning.

***

The rest of the day seemed to drag and Brooklyn’s anxiety grew, but, finally, the time arrived for her to leave. Not wanting to come up with an excuse to use Jared’s car, she decided to just take her bike instead and made her way to where she was meeting Felix.

Every rotation of the pedals brought with it a new rush of dread... of guilt, but she pushed forward and arrived at the park at the same time as Felix.

“Glad to see that you can follow instructions,” Felix said, climbing off his bike and handing her a backpack, “There’s a phone in there with a list of addresses, deliver the packages and drop the bag off at the final address.”

“What’s in the packages?”

“You don’t need to concern yourself with information like that, just make sure the people get their stuff and I’ll know if they don’t.”

Without another word, Felix left and Brooklyn slung the bag on her back it’s just a few packages. It didn’t take her long to make the first two drops and she’d been surprised to find that each address was just a regular house on a quiet street, but the same couldn’t be said for the next one.

The building that stood before her was in need of major repairs with smashed windows and profanity spray-painted on the walls, but it was the people outside that concerned her. To most people, it would look like any other dodgy gang hangout, but Brooklyn could tell by the subtle bulges under their shirts that these guys were armed and that made the situation a lot scarier.

“I think you made a wrong turn somewhere along the way little lady,” one of the men stated as she approached the gate.

“I’m here to make a delivery,” Brooklyn replied, fighting the urge to flee and handing over the package as the man motioned for it.

There was a tense few minutes that followed as the contents of the package was inspected and the man nodded, giving Brooklyn the go-ahead to leave. It was late by the time she got home, heading straight upstairs and dropping onto her bed with a sigh.