It’s Been A Minute…
Song: “Been A Minute” by Bakar
“Hurry, hurry. The money in the gray, the jewels in the green, let’s go,” the masked man said, waving his gun around as he talked to the other three robbers with him. Two of them broke glass, scooped up the jewels, and filled the green bag as the other emptied out the cash registers in the store.
“Shhh… you hear that?” the first masked man said. A hooded figure wearing wired earbuds walked down the back hallway, playing the air guitar.
“It’s been a minute, since you saw meeee,” he sang to himself. As the light from the “EXIT” sign he passed glew on him, Zak smiled.
The first masked man raised his gun and pulled the trigger, but Zak was already on the ground. He slid into the masked man’s knees and knocked him over. The cash-grabber wrapped his arm around Zak’s throat, but Zak jumped off of a display case and slammed him into the wall, knocking him unconscious. One of the jewel theives swang left at Zak, but he blocked it and returned with his right in the guy’s side. Zak stood him up and pushed him into the wall. The second thief ran over, picking up the first masked man’s gun. He aimed it at Zak right as Zak threw a shard of glass at his hand, cutting the man’s pointer finger clean off. Zak charged at him, laying him down and punching him, once, twice, three times with his left hand. Zak grabbed another shard laying beside him, going to stab him, but was kicked over by the first masked man. Zak stood up quick, right as the man pinned him against the wall.
Zak’s left earbud fell down. “Where’ve you, where’ve you? Ain’t seen you in time” the song played through his earbud. Zak pushed the guy off of him, taking out his earbuds and as the man steadied himself. Zak jumped off of one of the displays and wrapped the earbud wire around the man. They tripped over the fingerless thief as the masked man finally grew unconscious. Zak’s wire snapped and his phone played out loud, “It’s been a minute, since you saw meee.” Zak kicked the fingerless thief down, then walked out the front door.
He stopped by the convenience store next door, buying new earbuds. He plugged them in and went to put them in, but was grabbed from behind. “C’mon, man, I cut your friend’s finger off, aren’t you scared?”
“What?” Max said, shoving Zak into the alley next to them.
“Oh, you.” Zak said, realizing it was Max.
“Yeah, me… where’ve you been? Delta and I have been worried sick!” Max snapped.
“Delta doesn’t get sick…”
“Oh, so you’re gonna be like that, huh? You disappear for a MONTH and you’re gonna act like you know everything? Cole has asked about you every night, we’ve run out of school excuses, Delta hasn’t gone to work in a week and a half trying to find you.”
“Then let her find me, why do you care anyway? All you all did was fight, why are you helping her? She forced you to cut things off with your blue friends and pulled you into this, why are you helping her? She knows I do this, anyway.”
“You’re kidding, right? Like I don’t care for you as much as she does. Once she realized you weren’t at Spencer’s and I saw her get worried, I wanted to put out a missing child report but she didn’t let me. So I had to wait for some kind of… sign.”
“You saw the paint, huh?” Zak asked.
“Yeah, I saw the paint, you sprayed it on the Mayor’s car.”
“Nice, right? ‘Mayor? I barely know her!’” Zak chuckled, quoting his own paint job.
“Get up, let’s go.”
“No, I’m not going back there. If Delta wants me, she can come talk to me, but I’m not going with you. Sorry I didn’t say anything, but you all were fine without me. I’m watching the news, you all have done a lot more without me than with me.”
“You just took down 4 guys twice your size, I need you to help us and Delta just… needs you. Like, around the house and in the car and… man, she just needs you. Come home, please, she’s sleeping less than normal. Come home.”
Zak stood there, looking at his shoe laces. He looked back up at Max, and started to walk toward him. Max followed as Zak walked back to the apartment… unsure of how Delta would respond to his return.