Chapter 15

Finally, school ended and now I can spend my time with everyone in the band. We all met up in front of our last classes which were right next to each other, a crazy coincidence right?

We were now walking in the school's corridors as we chatted. When we reached the main entrance I was kind of expecting Jason to appear. When I stepped out I found that he wasn't there. I was glad that he didn't need to be with me 24/7 but I feel a bit disappointed actually.

I've always expected Jason to suddenly appear whenever things were going my way. And now isn't actually one of the times when trouble finds me.

I was mentally scolding myself for thinking about Jason when a voice suddenly yelled for me.

"Hey, Knight!" I turned my head to where the owner of the voice was.

It was Jack and his group of jocks behind him approaching me. And by the looks of it, he wasn't in a good mood.

Daniel who was standing next to me shifted and whispered into my ear. "So, what do we do now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Steven said behind us. "WE RUN!!!"

As he said, we did run. We run like our life depended on it, which is actually true.

We split up in different directions and I ended up running away with Russell running next to me. Everyone just went to wherever they went but I can tell without looking back that I had the most guys chasing me, waiting for me to be beaten up by them.

We slipped through a broken fence and left the campus and escaped the jocks. I had no difficulty in slipping through the fence since my body is small and thin, unlike Russell who had a moment of difficulty in slipping through the fence with his big body.

We continued running until we were sure we were a good distance away from the school. We stopped, our lungs lacking oxygen, and took a sit on a nearby bench.

Russell got up and left me for a moment and came back with two bottles of water in his hands. He tossed me one and I caught it.

I drank the water and I could feel the soothing liquid slide through my mouth. I wiped away the water which was on my mouth and wiped off the sweat on me.

After we regained our energy back we just sat there looking at our surroundings. It was peaceful until Russell decided to speak.

"Are you alright now?"

I nodded my head to his question. "I'm feeling much better now."

"Sorry about that."

"Why should you be apologizing when I'm the reason why they chase us? Besides, our little chase made me remember when we were in middle school."

We both laughed. How I wished that those times would come back.

High school isn't really the only time I got bullied. I was also bullied throughout middle school and Russell would drag me away when we got chased by them.

After a while, when we just sat there, we decided to get up and go home. It was a good thing that we decided to stop right next to the bus station.

The bus arrived just on time and we got on. We decided to talk about our childhood as we rode the bus.

Sometimes people would look at us and give us weird looks when we laugh but we didn't mind them looking at us weirdly.

The bus stopped and I looked out the window to see that I had arrived at my neighborhood. I got up, waved bye to Russell, and then made my way to the exit.

When I waved bye to Russell his smile was immediately gone and he gave a nod to me. I wanted to ask him what was wrong the bus driver was giving me a dirty look so I just nodded back to Russell and made my way to the exit.

I was about to get off the bus when I felt someone holding me back by my wrist. I turned and look to see Russell there with a worried look.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it. After a few moments, he opened his mouth again.

"You know, since we're not so sure that Jack has completely left you off the hook, and I've got nothing to do at home, I was thinking I should stay with you for a bit, you know, just in case."

I was just about to agree but I remembered a certain someone was still living in my apartment. I closed my mouth and look at Russell with an apologetic look. His face suddenly had a frown on his face.

"I'm sorry but you can't, well, not today at least." He looked confused so I immediately came up with an excuse. "I have this huge mess in my apartment and it's embarrassing to let people see it."

"Then I'll help you. Two is better than one."

"No, really, I can handle it. I can't rely on you forever but maybe next time."

We looked at each other until h slowly nods his head at me.

"Yeah, maybe next time."

The bus driver honked the bus horn and we both look at a very bus driver. We both waved goodbye until the bus diver closed the door immediately at our faces and immediately left my neighborhood.

When I saw the bus leave the next corner of a building I securely wore my backpack and headed straight to my apartment.

Russell P.O.V.

After Richard left the bus I went back to my seat and turned to look outside the window to see Richard waving goodbye. When a building blocked my line of sight of Richard I went back and sat properly on my seat looking down at my hands.

I looked down at my hands, frustrated that I didn't go with Richard. That was my plan, to follow Richard and try my theory if I'm really one of, do I even say the word, them.

I looked out the window and watch passerby's walking on the sidewalk. I caught I glimpse of a brunette girl, her hair a darker shade of Richard's.

I looked at the brunette walking with her friends in her mini skirt and white blouse. I then started imagining what Richard would look like dressed like that but before I could imagine it I stopped myself.

I looked away from the window and focused on my surroundings until I heard a sound that was all too familiar to me. I look behind me to see a couple kissing away at the very back of the bus.

I subconsciously reached out to touch my own lips and I remembered back to the time where Richard wipes away the lipstick from my face. The feel of his gentle fingers as his fingers softly touched my lips.

I was trying to stop myself before I started to drool over the thought and memory of Richard but that proved to be useless. More thoughts of Richard only surfaced making it even worse.

My heart started to beat fast. It wouldn't stop and I started to mentally block out Richard, but nothing, it won't stop no matter what I did.

"Please, God!" I started to shout on the bus and everyone's attention was on me. "Please...DON'T MAKE ME GAY!"

Christine P.O.V.

I walked through the apartment building's hallways, tired and confused of today's weird occurrences.

I reached in my bag and grabbed the key to my apartment. Before I could insert the key, the door opened. I knew immediately that Jason was there

Whenever I come home he would mostly be at the headquarters or doing errands but some of his time he would just stay here in my apartment like any other guy.

I was somehow expecting to meet Jason but what I didn't expect was the agonizing sight before me that would make any girl faint.

I came face to face with a bare chest and six-pack abs. I look up from the chest and came face to face with Jason, his dark hair still wet and sliding down his body. The only clothing I see him in is his everyday denim pants.

I tried to look away but my body was stuck in place, making it hard for me to even gulp down my own saliva.

The more I looked at him, the more I find him to be handsome like some Greek sculpture. I looked at him in utter disbelief and he looked at me unfazed.

"...Do you even bother to knock before coming into a room?" Jason said coolly.

I finally snapped out of my ogling and directly looked at Jason. "Why should I knock when this is my home?"

I saw a small smirk come upon his lips and went back into the apartment, leaving the door wide open for me to get in.

I watched him as he went back in and stepped into the spare room of my apartment. I went to the couch and Hunter was instantly greeting me with multiple licks to the face. I wanted to play with him but I can't control the slight bush appearing on my face of the memory of Jason shirtless and wet.

I didn't have any problem with shirtless guys. I hang out with Russell shirtless all the time and during PE class. Wait a minute and slow down people, that doesn't mean I go and peek at every guy's body whenever I like to.

I always go and change inside a small booth. The sight of seeing shirtless guys became a habit and I was cool with seeing any guy shirtless but the sight of Jason shirtless was enough for my heart to beat wildly in my chest.

I think of ways to make my faint blush disappear so I went to the kitchen and drank a cold glass of water in hopes of me cooling down.

I placed the glass on the sink just as I heard a door close shut. I peeked through the kitchen's door frame and saw Jason sitting on the couch, still shirtless may I add.

I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible to ease my beating heart but the problem is my backpack, which was on the couch, is sitting right next to Jason who was watching television.

Inhaling a load of air and easing my heart in the meantime, I went my way to the couch and grabbed my bag next to Jason.

I was about to leave him there with whatever he's watching on television but something caught my eye. I focused on what caught my attention and was a bit shocked.

I looked at the multiple scars on Jason's body, some from gunshots and others from a knife. He seemed too caught on to me staring at him because he had a small smirk on his lips.

"Like what you see, kid?" He teased me, his smirk never leaving his lips.

This wasn't the right moment to joke around with such life-threatening wounds but here he is now, breathing and joking around, at his wounds from God knows where he got them.

But thinking about his current occupation, I shouldn't really be too surprised. I had always thought about what kind of wounds mafia members sustain and here I am now looking at one of those people with those types of wounds.

I kept on a straight face and looked at him both with fascination and shocked. "Where did you get those scars?" I asked him straightforwardly.

His smirk quickly disappeared and looked at me with an unreadable expression on his face. "I thought you didn't want to get involved in the mafia? Why so curious about my wounds? You probably won't want to know about the stories each of my scars have since it all came from the mafia."

He looked at me dead in the eyes and I was stuck in place as I stared into his mesmerizing blue ones.

But he was right about what he said. I may have accepted the mafia a bit but not completely with my entire being.

Just talking about this kind of topic I knew that I'd be venturing further into the depths of the mafia world but since then nothing worst has happened to me yet. Well, except for reoccurring kidnappings from Jason but that's not important now.

From that day I was first kidnapped I was terrified of what was to come but now my future didn't bother me any more than my present.

Little by little I started cooperating with the mafia, having decent conversations with my father, and even though that we weren't very social with each other I trusted Jason and he trusted me but that's what I think about him.

I turned away from him and looked elsewhere. I suddenly thought of a good answer to him but saying my answer will most probably tie me down to the mafia, definitely.

I looked back to him and he looked like he wasn't expecting anything from me since he gave off a vibe that he won.

I didn't like to feel like I was defeated by this guy just because I couldn't answer a serious question, so, I spoke to him, sure of every word that I'll say to him.

"...It's true that I didn't exactly come into terms with a life like this now...but," his eyebrows shot up with curiosity "...I'm ready to accept this inescapable life of mine."

He looked at me with shock but his expression went back to its rock hard expression. "Oh? Do explain how you plan to do that?" He asked me, deeply expecting my answer.

I inhaled a deep breath of air and looked at him seriously. "No matter how hard I struggle I already know that I'd be pulled back. Just as those days ago, when you came to my school and when we saw each other at the club."

I looked away from him and focused my attention on the window. "Why don't I just accept that my father is the leader of New York's strongest mafia gang, that way we wouldn't be wasting our time with back to back arguments of these. I don't like the fact that my father is a mobster leader but we don't pick how we are born, how our parents aren't what we want them to be like, we pick them because through their struggles we could see that they were only trying to survive and take care of their children even though we knew nothing about them we could tell that the only thing they want is the protection and care of their child."

I waited for a bit, waiting for an answer from him, but he didn't say anything. The silence was killing me so I looked at him if there was anything wrong and the sight I saw slightly surprised me.

There was a small smile on his lips and my heart literally started to beat like there was no tomorrow. His smile disappears and his face went calm.

To save me from further embarrassment I turned away from him and walked quickly to my room. When I reached my room I locked my door and slowly raised my hand to my chest where my heart was beating maniacally by just the mere smile of Jason gracing his lips.