Green Cheese #24, Chocolate Gelato #20 + pocky chain + cherry
Story: Blaze Mafia Family
Title: Moving On Up
Prompts: Green Cheese #24: satellite, Chocolate Gelato #20: bona fide (in good faith) + pocky chain + cherry (Jamie Gonzalez’ 1st person POV)
Rating: PG13
Words: 493
Summary: A pocky chain from Jamie’s point of view about his time in the Family. I use the green cheese prompt metaphorically, like Jamie has a more removed view on all the Family drama.
I did what no one else from my childhood neighborhood could: I gave myself options. I stayed away from drugs and I actually paid attention in school so I could get the hell out of that shithole and go to college to get my diploma because that one piece of paper opened up the world.
College proved that I could fake being a normal schmuck but the problem was I wasn’t a schmuck. I was street-born and college-educated, and looking for the option where I didn’t have to hide either side of me.
The Blaze Family gave me that option.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Jamie? What do you think?” Tommy asked.
“Yeah? Which Blaze are you going to go with?” Handsome Willy asked.
“When we joined this Family,” I said to my two closest friends, “We all swore that we would go to our graves loyal to Boss Blaze, not her uncle.”
“But Firebird’s just a kid,” Willy pointed out.
I pulled out the ultimate trump card. “Atlas believed in her.”
Tommy was the first one to break the silence left in the wake of my statement. He raised his glass. “To Boss Blaze. May her reign be a long one.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“This is going to be a clusterfuck if we don’t get on top of these idiots now,” Romeo said.
Firebird made a noise of agreement. I stiffened at my post by the door when she suddenly looked at me. “Jamie.”
“Yes, Boss?”
“Romeo and I have enough on our plate right now. Would you handle this mess for us, please?”
My heart jumped. The Boss was giving me a job. An entire job that I would organize and lead. I’d been waiting for a chance like this. “Yes, Boss.”
She smiled at me. “Keep us updated.”
- - - - - - - - - -
I felt someone’s eyes on me and looked up from my work. Nicky Nails was leaning against the door, chewing on his cigar while he looked at me with a thoughtful expression. “What are you doing, son?”
I motioned to the ledger books, feeling a little like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Romeo asked me to review the warehouse inventories and client payments.”
“And how long as Romeo been asking you to do that?”
“Uh, this is the fourth month I’ve done it.”
Nicky Nails smiled then. “You’re a good boy, Jamie.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“Jamie, stop looking so worried,” Firebird said. “I’d hardly kill one of the most useful members of my Family.”
I stopped playing with my salad. She’d finally decided to stop tormenting me and tell me what this mysterious lunch was about.
“As you know, the Family is in the process of starting a new business with the Sorentini Family. Mac has finally stopped hedging and has agreed to be our CEO. I want you to be his second in command.”
“Well,” I croaked through my sudden dry mouth, “That’s better than when I thought Paul was going to shoot me.”