CHAPTER 15

Asian friend would sit next to her. Hiro was a beautiful young man.

He had the type of looks that most teenage girls who were obsessed with Asian men would adore. He reminded her of a movie star that she had seen in a few K-dramas.

"I can't believe I didn't even notice when everyone left."

"Me neither. So, tell me," he poked the side of her head, "what's going on in that head of yours?"

"I don't even know Hiro; I just feel like something isn't right."

"And when is anything ever right in this school?"

"No, not like that. I mean, I just feel like something is about to happen, and I may not like it."

"Well, I don't know what to say. But my mother was religious, and she always prayed each time she had a bad feeling." "You think praying will make the problem go away?"

"I have no idea how prayer works, but I do know that it made my mom quit stressing, and who knows, it just might help you quit stressing as well."

"Yeah, I'll take that into account." Hiro got to his feet, flung his backpack on his shoulder, and looked down at Halo. "Hey, I'm ditching school today, and you don't look like you can focus on anything. Want to ditch with me?"

Halo thought about it for a minute. He was right about her being unable to focus on anything else, so there was no point in trying. "Do you think that you could help drop me off at my place?"

"You live in a scary neighborhood, but sure, I could do that." Halo got to her feet and picked up her bag.

"My neighborhood isn't that bad, Hiro."

"The last time that I was there, I watched somebody get shot." "It was just a flesh wound." She began to walk out with Hiro. "Plus, you see people get shot in movies all the time."

"I am too soft to even watch those kinds of movies, thank you." "Well," she said, placing her arm around his shoulder. "You're amazing for this."

"I don't need your compliments, child. You owe me." Halo rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Are you seriously going to make me do your assignments again?" "Only a small price to pay. I'm the one driving you to the belly of the beast."

"Fair play" Hiro and Halo had walked out of the main building where they usually held classes, passing by other students who looked like they hated being there or had no idea what they were doing with their lives and just wanted to go through the motions.

Halo felt like she was going through the motions as well. She found herself unable to focus on anything for too long and struggled to engage herself in a conversation with Hiro, and by the time they had gotten into his Honda, he had given up on trying to get her out of her head.

The drive was quiet except for moments when Hiro would yell at other drivers for not driving properly. It could have been fifteen minutes or maybe even more, but Halo could not tell how long it took for Hiro to drive her to the front of her apartment complex.

He had to honk the horn to snap her out of wherever her mind had wandered. "Jesus Christ, Halo. You need to declutter your mind." Halo looked outside and sighed when she saw the entrance of the building.

"I'm sorry, Hiro. Thank you so much," she kissed him on the cheek. "You're my hero," she giggled, "see what I did there?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You owe three assignments."

"One assignment,"

"Two"

"Hiro. You do know that you need to be able to take care of your schoolwork."

''Come on, Halo. Two assignments, that's it''

"Ugh, fine then." Halo and Hiro shared a brief hug before she took her belongings and stepped out of the car. He drove off the instant the door was shut.

"Such a scaredy cat," she laughed, and she walked into the building. The minute that she was in there, something felt wrong. The feeling that had been eating at her since the previous night had come back in full force.

She ran into the elevator and ran out when it took her to her floor. What was going on?

"Please, God. Please don't let anything happen to Dom."

She got to the door, only to find it ajar. She pushed it gently and shut it behind her. The house was quiet, and that made her even more concerned.

"Dominic?" she called out and got no response. "If you're in here, you really shouldn't leave the door open."

Still no response. She walked further into the house and found, to her horror, her brother seated on the couch with a gun pointed at his head. There were armed men in the living room. The only ones who were not armed were a man most likely in his fifties seated on one of the sofas and a larger man that stood by his side.

They all wore expensive suits, and Halo's heart dropped when both the thought of members of the mafia being in her house crossed her mind and when she had a gun pointed at her head.

"Leave her out of this! She had nothing to do with this, please!''

Dominic yelled at the man who had his gun pointed to her head. Halo had never heard her brother sound so scared before. She was scared, too. She did not look forward to dying today.

"Young lady," the older man called out to her with a smile on his face and his legs crossed. "So happy that you could join us," he gestured to the couch where Dominic sat. "Please, take a seat. There is much for us to discuss."