I yawned as I woke up, feeling surprisingly fresh as fuck. Looking around the apartment, I noticed that I was by himself and at Zack’s place.

“Zack?” I called out.

There was no reply so I picked up my phone to check for notifications, I noticed a message left by Zack. It essentially told me that he had to run out for an emergency errand and most likely won’t be available for most of the day.

This made me frown, considering Zack had sort of. promised that we would hit the gym today but it is what it is. Guess I might not be getting the quality bro time I was after.

Kicking over the blankets I got up and stretched, the couch was surprisingly comfy so I didn’t suffer from any aches which were good for a change.

I headed over to Zack’s bathroom, used his mouthwash, and then took a quick shower. Grabbing a towel and tying it before heading to Zack’s bedroom, I caught sight of the box from yesterday.

The tape covering the flaps of the box had been sliced open and I wasn’t sure if it was always like that or it had been recent. If I recall correctly ,the guy that came to give it to Zack told him to get it delivered and there just so happened to be an address on it.

Was this something to do with his job?

When we spoke yesterday, I noticed how bummed he felt and I just got the vibe that this needed to be taken care of.

So I headed upstairs to grab my clothes and got fully dressed, picked up my bag, and returned back to the kitchen. I went on Google Maps and entered the address to find the intended location, which was simply a restaurant not that far from here.

The map was quickly replaced by a phone call, from Zack so I answered it.

“Yooooo.”

“Don’t ‘yooooo’ me ass-hole, you said we’d hang out today,” I chided.

“Bro listen…” he started as if he could provide the perfect excuse; it wasn’t. “I really, really had to get pulled into work. Shit, I had to leave before you even woke up.”

I sighed.

“Fine, you got your reasons. So what do you need?" I checked.

I could hear the fake offense he felt through the phone.

“You think I’m calling you because of ulterior motives?”

“So you called me just to apologise and/or check up on me?” I replied, letting all the accusation fill my voice. “Is that it?”

He said nothing because we both knew that sure as hell wasn't it.

“You remember that box I yesterday?” he asked.

“Yup, I’m looking at it right now.”

“You opened it?”

“No, no man, it just caught my eye as I came out of the bathroom,” I mentioned.

“Cool, do you mind delivering it for me? I can send you the address.”

I thought about telling him that I already had the address on my phone but it sounded like he didn’t want me knowing too much about it.

“Sure.”

He texted me the info and we both said goodbye.

With my mind made up, I picked up the box and my stuff and left Zack’s apartment. I walked to the nearest bus stop and hopped on a bus that was heading past in my destination’s direction.

A few minutes into the journey I got curious as to what was actually in the box I was carrying. The contents didn’t feel heavy and when I shook it a little there was barely any noise. There was a bit of a pungent smell coming from the opening that I couldn’t place and that just made me want to look into it even more.

I didn’t though, because it might be something I wasn’t supposed to look at or that I might accidentally damage, so I just rode out the remaining minutes of my journey. The closer I got to my destination, the more I was having second thoughts about having whatever was in this box with me. I knew that Zack had my back but, there was still this underlying thought at the back of my head that he was involved in some not-so-legal business.

Me getting involved now may come to bite me in the ass later but I was almost there, overthinking shit was something I had to work on. A few minutes later I got off the bus, crossed the street, and then over to the restaurant.

The restaurant wasn’t all that different from the typical Italian-themed establishment. Looking through the window I saw that nobody was present even though it looked open. Stepping through the open double doors, I was able to get a better view of the bar and caught the eye of someone working.

The guy looked at me but then scrunched his face when his eye caught the box I held in my hands. He gave a nod like I knew what the hell it meant and then retreated to some staff restricted area by the stairs.

I looked around and even though I had been out to eat at places like this before, the whole Italian aesthetic made me think of Roman architecture. Sure they looked nothing alike side by side but my nerdy mind still made the connection. I’m probably transporting drugs and my head was drifting off to thoughts of ancient Rome, the hell was wrong with me.

I didn’t have to wait much longer as the same guy came out again, minus the cloth he had placed over his shoulder. He had dark brown hair and glassy green eyes.

“What can I help you with?” he asked when I said nothing.

“Oh, sorry, I might be late but then again you probably weren’t expecting me anyway.” I blurted out and then raised the box in my hand. “My friend Zack asked me to bring this to you?”

The guy looked at the box and put out his hands to receive it. I gave him the item and he pried open the top flaps a bit to have a look at the box's contents. The bartender then looked at me for a sec and in my nervousness, I gave a quick small smile. He smirked and waved for me to follow him.

We walked through the doors that the bartender, who I still noticed hadn’t told me his name came out from. We moved past a somewhat narrow hallway into a spacious kitchen.

A portly woman was at an island table cutting vegetables on a chopping board.

“Did Stan respond?” my host asked.

The woman turned up from her work to look at him and then at me.

“Oh damn it totally slipped my mind, my name’s Vince,” expressed the bartender.

He looked at me for a while and my dumb-ass finally registered what he said.

“Niko, my name is Niko,” I introduced with a nervous smile.

“Gotcha,” replied Vince and then he turned back to the chef.

“I think he might be outback sorting out a shipment,” she answered.

Vince nodded slowly.

“Alright, Niko can you wait here for a second?”

I blinked.

“What for?”

“I need to grab something for you to give back to Zack,” Vince told me.

Before I could ask any more, Vince walked past me through the way we came. I stood there awkwardly for a while with nothing but the sound of vegetables being chopped, man I hoped he didn’t take too long. It got to the point that there was an uncomfortable build-up in my bladder and I was too hesitant to say anything but eventually built up the courage to speak to the chef.

“Uh, excuse me,” I said trying to get the lady’s attention.

She was on her phone looking at God knows what and I wasn’t sure if she had heard me so I moved closer.

“Hey, I’d like to ask something.”

Still, she kept looking at her screen and even smirked, so this time around I chose to raise my voice a little.

“I was wondering if there was a toilet that I could use, I really need…”

“Go out the way you came and go through the door under the stairs. Take a left down the hallway and then the next door on the left,” she said not even looking up from her phone.

“Thanks,” I said and she still didn’t even look at me.

I followed her instructions and found the restroom, divesting myself of the waste with satisfaction. Zipping up my fly, I exited the restroom and bent over to pick up my bag.

As I was about to head back, I noticed the door opposite the restroom had been swung open a bit. Curious, for some reason I went to look in and noticed that it must have been a storeroom of some kind. The area was poorly lit with most of the light coming from narrow rectangular windows on the side. My attention was drawn to the far side of the space though, as something shook under some drapes.

“What the- AH!!” I yelled in pain as I recoiled at the sudden sharp pain in my calf.

Something had stung me and all I got was the faint sight of a tail with whatever was attached to it scurry deeper into the dreary room.

I shut the door close and rubbed at my calf muscle in anguish. It really fucking hurt. Doing my best to shrug off the pain, I half limped back to the kitchen.

Vince was there and he nodded when he caught sight of me.

“You good?” he asked.

He could clearly sense that something was off with me and I considered telling him what happened but then decided against it. I don’t even know what the hell happened myself. My wound was mostly numb so I did my best to hide it and stand as normal as possible.

“Yeah just needed to use the bathroom is all.”

Vince handed me a brown envelope.

“This is for Zack,” Vince informed.

I took the package and flipped it in my hand to inspect it from multiple angles.

“And this,” he said getting my attention, “is for you.”

He then handed me a thinner envelope and in my curiosity, I inspected the contents to find a bunch of fifty-dollar bills. I blinked in surprise and stared back at a grinning Vince.

“There’s about five hundred in there for you,” Vince informed. “You make sure Zack gets his alright?”

As he spoke, I realised that the first envelope must have contained even more money than mine. It made me wonder what was in that box and what my best friend was actually involved in.

I was pulled away from my daydreaming when a hand fell on my shoulder.

“You make sure he gets that money you hear?” Vince instructed with a steady look.

I nodded, putting as much sincerity behind the gesture. Vince moved past me and escorted me out of the restaurant and glad to be out, I was finally able to inspect my leg. Moving off to the side, I noticed some swelling in the shape of an angry-looking red rash.

I would have said that this was panning out to be yet another shitty day but then I realised that I had five hundred dollars in my hand. This situation was completely out of my depth and this rash wasn't doing me any favours, wellbeing wise.

I got onto another bus headed to my campus, during the journey I got a notification from Sophie about meeting up later for something. There wasn't enough in me to bother with opening it, so I just glanced over it and decided to check it out when I got to my room.

Getting off at my stop, I pulled my nearly life-less carcass to my dorm building. After fighting with the door I headed up to my floor and into my room. Chucking the bag onto the floor I grabbed my shower stuff and headed to the other side of the hallway to get myself cleaned up.

I let the shower flow over me not thinking about anything but the sensation of the slightly hot temperature of the water. The heat began to get unbearable so I slowly adjusted the temperature to get cooler, except there didn’t seem to be a change. I was still burning up and glared at the temperature knob as my attempts did nothing. It wasn’t until the water had shifted to the extreme cold that it was just manageable for me.

Once I was satisfied I toweled myself up and headed back to my room, slipping on some shorts before collapsing into unconsciousness into my bed.

It felt as if I blinked and had not gotten any sleep at all but when I picked up my phone off my desk it had shown that a few hours had gone by. I flipped to lay on my back and went through my phone and noticed I had gotten some notifications from Zack. My mind was racing through multiple scenarios as I went to see what he had sent me. He had tried to call me twice but just settled for sending texts that amounted to how I was doing and when he was going to get his package.

I responded telling him that I was okay, which was true because my hundred-degree body temperature was no longer present. My reply also told him that I may be heading to the gym and that if he really needed it that we could meet up and I could hand it to him. Letting my phone rest on my chest and I stared up at the ceiling waiting for his reply. It seemed that I didn’t need to wait too long as a vibration drew my attention back to my chest.

I opened my mouth a little at the response he sent.

‘I’m in no rush, just hand it to me the next time I see you.’

If my guess of what was in that envelope was correct then Zack should have been eager as hell to get it but it also spoke to the amount of trust he had in me. I was also surprised he hadn’t been angry that I took the box without asking him.

It really meant a lot that I could finally do him a favour as our friendship could be really one-sided at times.

With that sorted, I moved on to Sophie’s messages and they were asking if she wanted me to do yoga at hers.

The images of those two stretching their perfect bodies in interesting ways began to flood through my mind and I hit back with a reply saying that I would definitely be down for it.

Leaving the phone on my bed, I tidied up my wardrobe of a room a bit as I awaited a reply. Checking my phone once more I saw that Sophie had replied through her ecstatic use of emojis and GIFs, I couldn’t help but shake my head. So I put on some sweats then fished into my bag to pull out both the envelopes and starred at both once again with awe, once I was done with ogling the packages I stowed them away in the back of my wardrobe.

Usually, I would say that breaking into my room would be a waste of a robbery but I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I said I had the most expensive room in the dorm.

It was late afternoon and the trip to Sophie’s apartment building didn’t take that long. There was no one at the desk as I walked to the elevator and took it all the way to the floor Sophie’s place was on. Knocking on the door I was welcomed by the sight of my gorgeous female best friend who was wearing an equally gorgeous gym outfit.

“Come on,” she offered with a wide smile.

I stepped in while returning her smile and caught sight of Jess who was leaning against the counter while snacking on a protein bar. As usual, she didn’t acknowledge my existence immediately and it would be like that until she really needed to.

Jessica was of the handsome variety with a strong jawline, tanned skin, and bright almond eyes with thick eyebrows and full lips. Her hair however was in the form of thin dreadlocks all tied in a loose ponytail. Jess’ body was that of a swimsuit model with arms that were well-toned to perfection but still incredibly feminine and with her washboard abs, it was obvious that she never skipped a day at the gym. Her chest appeared to be full with perfect round breasts and her butt was well sized and shaped. Finally, the model’s muscular legs were well defined and if I was being honest, your boy wouldn’t mind being crushed by said thighs.

“We set out some mats,” Sophie elaborated as she gestured to the floor of her living room.“Jess is going to lead us through it.”

On queue, the lean huntress like babe moved to the mat that was in-between the other two yet apart from them. I took my hoodie off and put it on the couch before getting into position.

“We'll start off with some stretches to get warmed up,” Jess told us.

So for the first couple minutes, we stretched and I was able to loosen up some of my joints and the knots in my muscle which was beyond needed. There seemed to be no pain in my legs so I was glad for that.

I was also glad for the opportunity to scope out both of the beauties from time to time as we did the actual exercises, both obviously aware of what was happening. I did my best to focus on Sophie’s form rather than Jess’ as her impassive expression seemed to get somehow darker whenever I looked in her direction.

My fun however ended when I was no doubt caught staring at Sophie’s derrière a little too long while she was in what was called a ‘cobra pose’.

“Alright, next position,” Jess instructed in a stern tone. “Plank.”

That was definitely a form of punishment that I was supposed to endure for my transgressions but fuck it, I thought it was worth it.

I was well aware of the hellish exercise and knew that I wouldn’t even last ten seconds but I did it anyways.

Seconds passed by as I waited for the inevitable huffing and puffing that was supposed to occur but it never came. Again I had no idea how many more seconds passed by but I wasn’t even fazed so I looked around to compare myself to the others.

Sophie was trembling while Jess’s eyes bore into me so I went back to facing the ground beneath me.

The tension was starting to form in my core as the seconds went by and it was only a matter of time before I heard Sophie collapse next to me.

“Holy crap,” she exclaimed as she rolled on her back. “I can’t believe you’re still going.”

I gave a tight smile to her and focused on maintaining my posture and tightened my eyes to keep it going as long as possible.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold out much longer and I collapsed onto my stomach, desperately sucking in some air.

“Man, I think that was the longest that I’ve ever lasted,” I said catching my breath now that I was sitting on my ass.

Jess was still going hard at the plank and she was still staring at me uncomfortably but when I turned to look at Soph she was grinning at me sinisterly until I realised where her eyes were.

“I certainly hope that you last long with what you’re packing.”

She finished her statement with a wiggle of her eyebrows and I noticed that I was ramrod stiff.

“Oh for fu-“ I began as I tried to shuffle my position to hide my chub.

Jess finally got out of her plank and for the first time ever she smirked at me just as lasciviously as Sophie did but she said nothing.

“No need to be shy…” Sophie fake soothed as she entered a predatory stance as she stalked toward me on all fours. “We’re here to relieve stress after all.”

I was so embarrassed at this point I wanted to hide but I took some very small solace in knowing that they were at least somewhat impressed.

Sophie must have noticed my discomfort and shifted her smile from hungry to sincere.

“Alright I think you’ve suffered enough; do you want a ride home?”

“I dunno…” I muttered. “I don’t really feel safe around you…”

Sophie put on a crooked smile and cocked her head to the side.

“Do you want me to keep going?” she asked with a level gaze. “Because you won’t win this game Niko.”

I quickly shook my head and Soph nodded before turning to Jess.

“I see you in a bit.”

Getting up I made sure to conceal my stiffy that thankfully was starting to lose its stiffness and I grabbed my hoodie off of the couch.

Sophie had grabbed her keys and was waiting at the door for me. As I went to her I passed Jess who said something that sent my blood pulsing upwards rather than the other way around.

“You did pretty well so don’t take it too hard.”

Soph giggled as she gestured me out the door and I knew that I wouldn’t live this down for a while.

The drive back started off with Soph making subtle jabs at me but I couldn’t be bothered to respond. Not because I was embarrassed or upset but because I suddenly felt really ill. Sophie soon recognised that I wasn’t myself and tried to seek the cause but I just waved off her concern that I was tired and needed some rest. Thankfully the drive back was short so there wasn’t enough time to make a huge deal about it.

Once Soph dropped me off I told her that I would catch her later and I eventually made it to my room and quite reverently collapsed on my bed.