Music blared from every direction, the floor-to-ceiling speakers producing some sort of grunge rap that reverberated through Kasey’s entire body before he was fully inside the threshold of the front door. It wasn't his house, and he didn't knock; none of the dozens of degenerates getting wasted throughout the trap would've been able to even hear a knock over the music and themselves. Instead, he just walked in as if he belonged, and barely had time to appreciate the graffiti and signatures on the walls before he set out to do what he came here to do. The party didn't stop, and none of the degenerates so much as batted an eye as he maneuvered himself through the crowd and up the steps, trailing his fingers daintily behind him on the banister.<br/><br/>Should he have been this cocky walking into his own untimely demise? Probably not, but that didn't stop the smile that he forced on as he came to a stop in front of a formerly-white, presently-graffitied door. He took careful note of the sporadic sections of duct tape that undoubtedly were poor attempts at concealing bullet holes, took a deep breath, and threw open the door. “Honey, I'm home!” he sang out, followed shortly by the sound of his head hitting the wall of the hallway behind him.<br/><br/>“The<span style="font-style: italic">fuck</span>do you think you’re doing here?” hissed a small gremlin of a man that stood half a head shorter than Kasey himself. However, having a height advantage didn’t help him out much when the gremlin-man had him pinned. The gremlin, who vaguely recognizable as some douche named Aaron he went to high school with, had his fists tangled in the fabric of Kasey’s shirt to keep him against the wall. Kasey’s hands reflexively shot out, one wrapping around Aaron’s wrist and one grabbing at his shoulder to keep him back. The back of his head throbbed once, sending a shockwave of pain emanating out from where he’d hit the wall.<br/><br/>From somewhere inside the room that he’d tried to enter and successfully got bounced from, Kasey heard a gravelly, choked voice call out a, “Yeah, yeah,” before coughing up a cloud of smoke that danced and ghosted its way into the hall. One pierced brow shot up expectantly as Kasey waited - patiently, in his opinion - for the lackey to realize he’d been called off. It took a second to get through his head, but to Aaron’s credit he let his vice grip on Kasey’s shirt go. But it didn’t come without a final push against the wall before Aaron jerked his chin in a gesture for him to go inside. Kasey obeyed, a feat that could not be said for him on most days, and crossed the threshold from moderately-breathable air to air so thick with weed smoke that he struggled to take a satisfyingly full breath.<br/><br/>“Kasey, Kasey, Kasey,” echoed Reno from the corner of the room, reclined on his bed. The blunt in his mouth obscured his speech, and most of his concentration was on the wall opposite him, at the mounted flatscreen that had no business being embedded in a wall that trashy and drawn-on. Kasey recognized both his name, and the video game that Reno was playing. He turned his attention suddenly away from the game and onto Kasey. For being so… not very big, his stare was incredibly intimidating. “So, let’s talk about how you lost my money.”<br/>_____________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Blue eyes burned with a particularly cool fire as Kasey considered his black eye and busted lip in the rearview mirror of his sedan. He tested his jaw with his hand, grabbing it and moving it from side to side. The popping noise was certainly new, and his labret had seen better days, but overall he would be fine. He rolled his eyes at a scoff from the passenger seat. “Shut the fuck up.”<br/><br/>“I didn’t say anything,” Cass countered immediately, putting his hands up in a mock defense. He slowly dropped them to his lap and waited almost long enough for Kasey to believe he actually wasn’t going to say anything. And then he said something. “I<span style="font-style: italic">did</span>tell you that was going to happen, though.”<br/><br/>Kasey slammed his hands on the steering wheel, silently thankful that they were parked. “Jesus<span style="font-style: italic">fuck</span>, Cass,” he yelled in frustration, hitting the steering wheel one more time for good measure. Cassius just looked at him. It was infuriating to see his own face looking at him so condescendingly, but Kasey knew that trying to hit him wasn’t going to do much good. “Do you<span style="font-style: italic">ever</span>fucking shut up?”<br/><br/>Cass sighed dramatically, leaning his head against his window as his eyes studied the coffee shop that they were parked behind. “So this is it. This is your grandmaster plan to get in the green with Reno?” he all but spat. His armed crossed loosely over his middle and he slumped down in his seat. “What’s this place see a day? Less than a $400 deposit?”<br/><br/>Kasey considered it for a moment, absently rubbing one hand with the other to massage out the pain from hitting his wheel so hard. “It’s got employees, though.” He looked to his mirror image sitting in the seat next to him, as if he was searching for some sort of approval.<br/><br/>“If they deposit<span style="font-style: italic">anywhere</span>around $400, chances are they’re not very well-paid employees.”<br/><br/>“Pessimist.”<br/><br/>Cass balked at him. “<span style="font-style: italic">Realist.</span>You’re better off just taking the risk and hitting somewhere bigger.”<br/><br/>It didn’t matter what Cassius said, though, Kasey was already getting out of the car with his hands stuffed into his overly-sized jacket pockets. He turned his head over his shoulder to ask Cass if he was coming, but he was already gone. Kasey hated when that happened; he hated that Cass could just appear and disappear out of his life when it was convenient for him. Kasey hummed under his breath as he moved to where he would wait. It was almost closing time: a fact that he was acutely aware of because he was unfortunately hipster enough to peruse this coffee shop from time to time. They’d be coming to take the trash out soon. He’d get the employee for what they were worth, then he’d walk them inside and right to the register, and then he’d leave before anyone got hurt. But for now, he had to wait.