Chapter 5

Sunlight shined in my apartment, I gave Hunter some food to eat so he's now in the kitchen, and now my apartment turned into a mess with my dirty clothes scattered everywhere with a few drops of garbage water on the floor.

Inside the bathroom, I'm washing myself clean profusely and angrily till my soap and shampoo were all gone and my skin turned red from too much scrubbing.

"What was that man thinking? He even called himself my father. Even more so, he actually let someone like him, the guy who almost scared me to death, be my bodyguard!" I yelled to myself, drying my long wet brown hair, making all I said echo in the bathroom. When I was done bathing, I changed into clean clothes consisting of a violet long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. I was also washing my wig because it smelled of garbage and I can't walk around the city with hair that stinks.

My wig was drying inside my apartment for no one outside to see and next on my tasks to clean is Hunter. As I thought of that, Hunter took a seat beside me. I grabbed him and made my way to the bathtub. I dragged him into the bathtub and opened the faucet. I pulled back my long sleeves and tied my hair in a ponytail with a stray rubber band lying around the house and started bathing Hunter.

"Who does he think he is? Some guy who thinks I'm pathetic?" I grumbled to myself as I was busy bathing Hunter. "Really, how did someone like him even come into being?" I was still complaining about Jason even after Hunter finished bathing. My mind then let me think of him, how his looks may look menacing but he still has charms. I did even notice that I was blushing at the mere thought of him. Tired of all that had happened to me, I went to the couch to lay down and rest. My heart was pounding with confusion and pain, but that wasn't the only thing pounding. The door of my apartment was being knocked at.

My brief moment of resting was cut short. I got up from the couch, grabbed the still soaking wet wig, and walked to the door. When I was about to reach for the doorknob, I had second thoughts. What if it's them again? I was starting to panic. What if they're here to kidnap me again? Even so, I'm not taking those chances.

I scanned the room for anything I could use for a weapon when my eyes landed on a baseball bat in the corner of the room Steven left weeks ago and never came back for. I was still thinking if I should use the bat or not but then another knock came from the door even harsher than the previous one. In haste, I went for the bat and held it close to me as I reached out to the door. My hand was placed on the doorknob, shaking as I did, and sweating.

I was about to turn the doorknob but then the door was opened from the other side. I was panicking, so I raised the bat above my head and quickly strike with my eyes close. I heard a thud from someone who must have fallen on the floor and soon followed by groaning.

"Richard!" someone yelled. It was a familiar voice, so I hesitated on opening my eyes slowly.

I opened my eyes to see who the familiar voice belonged to and it belonged to no one other than Lin looking at me with a horrified look on her face. I looked over to where the groaning sounds came from. It came from Russell sitting on the floor while Steven and Daniel were helping him up. Russell's nose was bleeding. He raised his hand to his nose and his fingers came out red. He looked up to me with anger in his eyes and expression.

"What the Fuck, Richard!" Russell yelled but he winced in pain as he did so. "The hell are you doing, you bastard!"

Russell was trying to stand up, stumbling often back to the ground, and Steven and Daniel were still helping him up as Lin still looked at me with horror. I stumbled back to my apartment and fell down. I didn't know when I let go of the bat in the doorway but it didn't matter to me. I could feel my heart calm down slowly and my fear subsiding away.

"Thank God, it wasn't them," I muttered to myself. Just when I thought everything was alright now, Russell hit me with the bat I left in the doorway.

"Now we're even!" Russell yelled to me. He was holding the bat in his right hand and his left hand held his nose which was still bleeding.

"Ouch...ouch," I said, holding on to my head Russell hit me with the bat.

"Don't you 'ouch' me, you idiot!" Russell yelled at me. "Damn it, I'm going outside to get some fresh air."

Russell walked straight to the apartment's fire escape and slammed the glass window shut. I watched him going to the fire escape, stumbling often. When he left, I looked over to where the three were standing.

Daniel was looking at me while he was putting the baseball bat back to its corner. "What were you doing Richard?"

I was filled with guilt in an instant. "Sorry, I thought you were someone."

"Don't say that to us. Say that to someone else who deserves it." Steven said as he came out of the kitchen holding on a wet floor rag and he started cleaning up the blood in the doorway.

"He was worried about you, not coming to school and not answering any of his phone calls or texts," Lin said as she took a sit on the sofa I was just laying on.

"Phone calls?" I said groggily. I reached out for my phone on the kitchen counter. I opened my cellphone and saw missed phone calls and unread text messages from Russell. I looked up to them and they were all looking at me angrily. "I didn't know, I'm sorry-"

"Save the apologies, Richard." Lin interrupted me. "Are you sure you should be saying that to us and not someone else?"

Lin, Steven, and, and Daniel left the apartment and I was left alone in the room while Russell was still outside. I looked over to the window where Russell was standing at with his back turned to me. I felt enormous guilt well up in me. I plan on making Russell forgive me no matter what it takes.

Before I got to the window, I first went to the kitchen to get an ice bag for Russell's head. I placed my hand on the window sill, nervous. But still, I have to face this and makeup with Russell. The life I've known until now was all shattered by the truth. I don't want to lose another thing related to my life since the past. I opened the window and went out. I smelled the polluted air of New York and I saw Russell looking up at the sky like he would always do whenever he was in deep thought.

I hesitated. Was it really alright for me to be near him right now? But since I'm already here, it's too late to change minds now. "The fresh air of New York, you were always looking at the sky when you were a kid." I started to talk, hoping for a decent conversation to start. "...I brought you an ice bag."

"..." At first, there was silence between the two of us. It took a few minutes for Russell to finally talk to me. I was hoping for him to start joking around, I didn't expect him to sound so angry, that I felt like I wasn't supposed to be here. "Where were you?"

"...I was doing some errands," I replied back, lying as I did.

"What kind of errands?"

"Um..." I couldn't say anything to him. I couldn't just say that I was brought to a mafia headquarters and I was chatting to my father who I thought was dead. I decided to give him an excuse even though it was useless if I'm dealing with Russell when he's angry. "...Hey, did you know that there was these cool instruments shop that-."

"Don't you dare change the subject?" Russell interrupted. "Do you even know how many times I called you? I thought you were kidnapped!"

That's what really happened is what I want to tell him but I couldn't. I tried another excuse. "I was just tired and fell asleep. You know how deep I can sleep."

Russell didn't say anything to me. We started at each other. I was extremely nervous about being near to him. Russell's unpredictable when it comes to situations like this. Who knows what will happen next. Russell lifted his arm and reached for the ice bag in my hands. I gave it to him reluctantly and looked at him lifting the ice bag up to his head and placing it there.

"You know, you're buying dinner for me tonight Richard," Russell said to me then went back inside the apartment through the window. I was left there smiling to myself. I was forgiven by him but lying to him was also dragging my happiness down.

"How does pizza sound?" I yelled at him.

"Pizza, sweet and delicious pizza," Steven said as he shoved another piece of pizza down his mouth. The others were laughing at his actions and some were chatting to each other. I had ordered pizza right away after I made up with Russell. Seeing him eating to his heart's content made me relaxed a bit but the fact that I wasted my money when it was supposed to pay for the rest of my apartment still bothered me.

"I see you guys made up," Daniel said while he held a bottle of water in his hand. "We always expect you guys to get back together again."

"How can you guys even get back together?" Steven said as he started eating a 5th pizza slice. "I mean, Richard, the guy made of brains, and Russell, the guy made of girls. How can you guys still be friends?"

"Funny story, actually," I said to him as Hunter sat beside me.

"Is this what they call 'opposites attract'?" Lin said as she stared at the two of us.

"You could say that," Russell said as he put away a pizza box he had just finished. "We're not complete opposites; we do have something in common."

"And what's that," Lin asked. Everyone was curious about what Russell would say, even me. It's what Lin just said, I and Russell are complete opposites. I can't think of one thing that the two of us had in common.

"We both have names starting with R and we're both males." Are what Russell said.

Everyone stared at him for his dumb answer. I threw the tennis ball Hunter was playing with at him.

"What kind of answer is that?" I yelled. Never have I ever heard such a stupid answer that what Russell had said. It wasn't good getting my hopes up for something this dumb.

Everyone laughed all around us at our constant bickering. I enjoy such moments as this even though they don't know who I really am. And since there's been a new edition of secrets more for me to keep, lying to them keeps on piling up every day. I felt guiltier for not telling them the truth, especially Russell who's been my friend for a long time. But since my new discovery of being related to the mafia was clear to me, I'll try to keep away from them as much as possible.

Finished with the pizza, we all went out of my apartment and went our separate ways. Steven was going to try to find a club for them to perform in, Lin went to the arcade to try her luck on a game she heard so much about, and Daniel went his way home to do his chores. I was walking with Russell, chatting as we did, and finding a taxi for him to take. We were still looking for a vacant cab until one passed by. I called for the taxi and it came to park beside us.

"Well, here's where we leave. You better go to school tomorrow, if not, I might just kill you in your sleep." Russell said as he went in the taxi.

"Don't worry, if I broke that promise, you might even break my legs," I said sarcastically.

"Damn right I will."

Russell got in the taxi and left. I stayed there to wave him goodbye then I started walking back to my apartment. I was walking when a car honked beside me. I looked and saw the golden-haired man from the mafia headquarters waving at me inside his blue GT 500 Eleanor. He had a smile on his face, the same as the one back then.

"Need a ride home?" He offered to me.

I was surprised, how can a mobster like him say that with such a happy face. I expected mobsters to be awful but he didn't look like one, he looks like any typical man with a smile on his face.

"No thanks," I answered back to him and started walking again.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Besides, don't you want answers?"

"..." Of course I want answers but am I right to trust someone I've only just met? Even more, I'm not even sure if I really want to find out but it may also lead to my mother. A moment of hesitation, I gave him a weak reply. "Alright."