The Kingpin's Possession

61: Sudden Turn of Events

Kit:Kit’s eyes widened as Earth dumped a bunch of snacks on the living room floor, along with a bunch of plastic cups.

“Isn’t that a bit too much for just the four of us?” he asked, eying the fried chicken that was already laid out onto the table. “Actually, make that just three, since Prem confirmed that can’t come.”

“He can’t?” Earth wrinkled his nose. “Damn! He’s missing out!”

“I have an event to go with my father,” Prem had told them apologetically in another call. “But Ben can come, and he’s headed over there right now. ‘You’d better have all the drinks and food ready when I arrive,’ he told me to tell you.”Kit narrated their conversation, before pointing to the food once again. “Still…this just might be too much…”

“Nah,” Earth chuckled, shaking his head. “That won’t be too much once we start drinking. Speaking of which, come with me outside, let’s buy some beer. Or are you feeling some tequila tonight?”

In the end, they went for both, a case of beer and three bottles of cheap tequila. Earth said he had lemon and salt at home, so they didn’t buy any. And since the shop was just around the corner, it didn’t take them too long before they were heading back to Earth’s house in just a span of fifteen minutes.

Like Earth had told them before, his family was relocating and this was their new house, so the whole place was empty except for a pile of boxes that Earth had been unpacking before Kit had barged in. But that situation was to their advantage since Earth’s family was in their old house, packing the last of their stuff, so the gang had the whole place to themselves.

“Aren’t you worried about puking your guts out with two kinds of alcohol?” Kit asked. He wasn’t against it, but he truly hated the feeling of vomiting, so he was a bit skeptical about this combination.

Earth shook his head. “Not at all. The beer is for washing down the tequila!”

“If you say so…” Kit decided to suspend his skepticism; they were here to have fun and get wasted after all, and if puking into Earth’s toilet was a consequence of having fun, then so be it.

When they returned to Earth’s home—a case of beer between them, a paper bag clutched at Kit’s side—Ben was already waiting by the porch. “Great,” he said, licking his lips jokingly. “Nothing like sweet old alcohol after a day toiling away at the library.”

“Alcohol is anything but sweet,” Earth retorted, rolling his eyes as he unlocked the front door. They all spilled into the living room once it was opened. In no time, they were drinking and eating to their fill; Ben even ended up ordering another two boxes of pizza since “the snacks and chicken weren’t enough,” as he put it.

“It’s good that your house is empty,” Ben joked. “So we can feel free to enjoy this feast to our heart’s content. Otherwise…we’d have been kicked out already.”

“You don’t have to feel lonely here now, Earth,” Kit slurred. They were on their last bottle of tequila at this point, and their chips had already been finished, only the two boxes of pizza left for them to eat. “Your friends are here to keep you company.”

Ben snorted, also quite buzzed himself, though nowhere near as gone as Kit, who had significantly lower alcohol tolerance. “Are you still talking about Earth or yourself?”

Earth nudged him, frowning. “Don’t be too rough on the poor guy,” he warned. “He’s been going through a rough patch lately.”

Ben reached for the first bottle of beer, knocking away Kit’s hand when he wanted one as well. “That’s enough for you,” he said, and he clearly wanted to ask Earth what he meant about Kit “going through a rough patch lately”, but when he turned to Earth, he just shook his head.

Earth gave Ben a knowing look. “Kit will tell you if he wants to,” he said. “It’s his story to share, not mine.”

Ben nodded, offering him a smile, but he was now worried about his friend, considering how he was dating the Ayutthaya don, and nothing good ever comes from being with a mafia guy…he should know that all too well.

“I want more!” Kit whined, pushing Ben away so he could cradle the beer bottle in his hand. “Open it,” he told Earth, who seemed skeptical, but did it anyway.

His friends’ eyes widened in surprise as they watched him chug the whole thing in one go.

“Uh…” Earth hesitated, looking around sheepishly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I definitely agree.” Ben had to wrestle with Kit when he once again crawled over to the case to get more beer. “Hell no! Get back here, you brat!”

“No!” Kit protested. He had managed to get his hands on another bottle, but Ben forcefully took it away from him, kicking the case away, which only let Kit to fall back onto the floor, kicking his feet like a toddler whose parents had just taken away his favorite toy.

“We should put him to bed before this gets any worse,” Earth suggested. “That’s enough drinking for him.” He sighed. “I’ll go get some water first; you try and stop him from getting more beer.”

“Why are you stopping me?” Kit cried out, confused and frustrated. “I thought we’re here to get wasted. I want to drink more!”

Ben and Earth exchanged a worried look. They didn’t have any music on, but Kit’s whining was loud enough that they were sure to get a noise complaint. So Ben motioned for Earth to bring the glass over, as he helped Kit straighten up from the floor.

“You can drink this.” Earth pushed a glass of water in his hands.

“What’s this?” Kit asked, sniffing at the glass in his drunken state. His friends had never seen him get this wasted before.

“Um… tequila.” Earth managed to lie, hoping that it worked.

Kit downed it all in one go, making satisfied noises with his mouth. “I love tequila! Give me more.”

Earth was more than happy to oblige, pouring more water into the glass from the pitcher he had brought with him, and Kit gladly drank the water he was given, too drunk to realize it wasn’t tequila after all.

He finished half of the pitcher before he stood up, the floor moving in waves beneath his feet.

“Where are you going?” Ben asked, trying not to laugh at his drunken stupor. He was concerned for his friend, of course, but it was still kinda funny.

“Bathroom,” Kit said, and he managed to stumble to his destination without knocking anything over—good thing there wasn’t a lot of furniture yet in Earth’s new home.

They all thought he was going to puke, but all he did was relieve his bladder. Ben shrugged. “Well, there goes my entertainment. I thought he was going to be hugging the toilet tonight.”

The first thing Kit did when he got back to the living room was attempt to get another beer, which was quickly thwarted by Ben. “Let me drink more! I’m fine!” he tried to convince them.

Earth rolled his eyes. “Stop acting so pitiful and start acting like the grownup that you are,” he scolded.

“I’m not pitiful!” Kit kept protesting. “And I’m not drunk!” Even though he clearly was.

Just then, the three of them heard the distinct sound of an engine and lights started shining through the curtains—probably headlights, meaning that a car had stopped in front of their house.

“Well, there’s your escort,” Ben said, laughing. “P’Kim to the rescue, here to take his precious, drunk boyfriend home.”

Kit glared at him. “I don’t want to go back home. You go tell P’Kim to go back alone and leave me here. I don’t want to see him!”

Ben looked confused once again, but Earth shooed him away.

“Good luck,” Earth teased.

Ben sighed in exasperation as he stood. He marched over to the window to inspect, fully expecting to see the familiar insignia of the Ayutthaya family engraved onto the vehicle, to signal that it was P’Kim inside the car, only to frown at the lack of it.

Something was off. The car’s windows were all tainted, and it just stood there, in the middle of the road, the lights turned off and the windows still up. No one came out of the car, nor did anyone go inside…and when Ben realized that the color and design of the car were the same as the one that had shot at P’First’s car not too long ago…he couldn’t help but worry.

“What’s taking you so long?” Kit called out, annoyed. “Tell him to go away already.”

But Ben didn’t say anything and only kept staring at the car outside.

Unable to take it anymore, Kit got up and staggered over to the window himself, to see what was going on. “Seriously it’s not that hard—”

But at that moment, Ben’s entire body went tense. He noticed that the window was pulled down just a little. And there was something poking out of it.

He realized it a split second too late.

“Watch out!” he screamed, and he threw himself over Kit to push them both to the ground.

The window shattered into a million pieces as a bullet lodged itself onto the opposite wall.