Gregory crossed the bustling street and neared the area where he'd be meeting up with Erick. Once there he looked around. This was the spot, but there were no signs of Erick. It wasn't like him to be late, he knew his best friend and if he wasn't here on time that meant something was up. Gregory grabbed out his phone and dialed Erick's number.
He could hear the ringtone behind him. He turned and found the location it was coming from. A grimy old dumpster. "Please don't be dead." He grabbed the lid and pulled it open, gripping his nose to avoid catching a whiff of the crap that was in there. Erick was digging through the mountains of trash.
"What the hell are you doing?" Gregory asked, not releasing the hold on his nose.
"Just trying to find some good shit." Erick used his forearm to scrape some of the crap to the side. He grabbed a silver watch and looked closely at it for a moment before sticking it in his pocket. "The spoiled assholes in this town really do throw away some pretty cool junk."
"This a new low, even for you." Gregory observed.
"Fuck off." Erick snapped, sniffing some old loafer before tossing it away. "Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help?"
"Ughhh.... I think I'll just stand here."
"Suit yourself, watch out for the fucking pigs, will ya?" Erick asked.
"What if the old homeless guy that sleeps in this dumpster comes back?"
"Just do what you do best." Erick was examining the contents of a plastic bag and happened to find a few scraps of some discarded food.
"And what would that be?" Gregory asked.
"You know, distract him." Erick shrugged.
"I don't exactly think that's something I'm good at." Gregory pointed out. On one occasion he tried to distract a cop from searching Erick and it was him that ended up handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser for trying to depants a cop.
A cop car passed, going slow. It appeared as if the patrol car was stalking them. "Hey Erick, bacon squad is here. Can we go?" The car came to a stop at the end of the alley and two officers stepped out of the vehicle. They started to make their way to them. "If you don't hurry up in there I'm leaving your smelly butt behind to rot in the pen!"
Erick vaulted over the edge of the trash bin and took off down the narrow alleyway, with Gregory following distantly behind. got to quit smoking, he thought, as he felt himself begin to fatigue already.
"Hold it!" One of the cops shouted, giving pursuit.
Gregory rounded the corner to where Erick had gone and he had seemingly vanished, Gregory was panicked only to hear Erick shouting down at him. He looked up to see that he was climbing a stairwell to the rooftop of a building. Gregory stumbled up the stairwell and climbed up after him. Once both had made it to the top they were confident they lost the cops. Gregory was hunched over, trying to catch his breath.
"Of all the reasons to get arrested." Gregory coughed. "You somehow make digging through a dumpster almost one of them."
"Those dumpsters are a goldmine. Maybe you should try it." Erick snickered.
"My mom already thinks I'm trash. If she heard about me getting arrested for digging through a dumpster I'm quite certain she'd disown me." Gregory joked. After the coast had cleared the two came down the staircase and parted ways at the intersection.