Nor (Wattpad Featured Story, WriteAffair finalist)

Chapter 41: Up To No Good

A week later, Wes comes to the apartment. But it isn't to see me. It's to see my dad. It's late, one a.m., but I'm still awake, looking up stuff online. That's when I hear voices outside, low and controlled, like they're trying to keep from being overheard. Well, too bad. I already know. I switch off my computer, creeping over to my door to listen. It's impossible to hear anything exactly, so I turn the knob, pulling the door ajar slightly.

"This is crazy," someone's hissing in an angry voice - Wes. "I don't do that sort of thing anymore."

"Well, you're going to do it now. I know you can and I need you to."

"How do you even know for sure?"

"I just know."

"Who? Who told you?"

"Someone I trust, OK?"

"More than me?"

"What are you talking about? Don't get sappy on me."

"It's not about being sappy, Dan. I'm saying, don't fool around with this sort of thing."

"This guy did it, OK? And I want you to get him for me."

"No."

"If you have any interest in keeping your job, Wes, you'll get him, and you'll bring him here. Where do you think you'd be if it weren't for me? I taught you. I gave you this job. I made you what you are now."

Silence. Oh, God, Wes, what is he talking about? What is he trying to get you to do?

"Bring him back here," my father insists one last time, starting for the bedroom. "Take him to my office on sixth. I'll be there."

"This is wrong."

"He's the one who started all this."

There is the sound of a door opening and shutting. And then nothing. My father's gone into his room, leaving Wes outside.

I wait, listening anxiously. Should I step in or stay out of this, whatever this is?

That's when I hear the sound of another door - the front one. He's leaving! Without even thinking, I dash out into the hallway, after him. Wes is gone, the elevator doors shutting on me. I reach for the button, but it's too late.

Damn! Wait, wait, wait - stairs.

I pivot, shooting through the door to the stairwell. I'm in a giant T-shirt, shorts, and pig-decorated socks, but I can't turn back now. I fly down the steps, every flight, seven floors, until I hit the bottom. I burst out into the lobby with a massive exhale, and the doorman, the only one around, turns to stare at me. Or at my piggy socks, rather.

Ping! The elevator's here. Hey, I beat it. The doors slide, a leg appears, and there he is. He notices me right away and stops dead; I would have been hard to miss, a gasping, wild-haired kid in bright yellow. He blinks a couple of times, a finger up. "How ... ?"

"What are you going to do?"

"What?"

"I heard you and my dad. I know he asked you to do something. What is it?"

He stops, his eyes stretching slowly. I can't help thinking that he seems to be looking at me in a completely different way for once. As if just by my knowing more than I'm supposed to, I am someone more. Someone more than he thought.

"Well?"

He sighs, his shoulders slumping inside his coat. He takes a short look around, then gestures toward the stairwell. "Can we ... ?"

I guess I don't mind, so I turn, heading back. He follows, the door swinging creakily behind him. Just as I'm twisting round to face him, I feel hands grip my sides. In that one second, that second where I think it's all coming true and he's going to kiss me, my spine stiffens, my lungs stop, my blood flows practically whistling. Then I'm lifted to a stair a little way up, and I find myself level with his eyes.