Chapter 34| All my friends are assholes
***
"So...you're like part of the mafia now?"
I sighed, running a palm down my face as Jamal made sense of the whole situation ten years after we all confirmed and discussed it. Yuri slapped him on the back of the head, his blue cap almost falling off.
"She literally just told us ten minutes ago," we all gave him disappointed looks. "She broke...the code..." Yuri whispered the last part looking around just in case some crazy mafia fool jumped up from one of the lunch tables with a gun and decided to shoot, "-to tell us everything. So yes dumbass, Heidi is part of the mafia,"
Jamal pulled a face before moodily stabbing a fork into his pasta. "I was just asking,"
I wanted to eat so bad, I hadn't eaten since breakfast again and accidentally (totally not on purpose) scared Nico half to death...again. He had a really girly squeal I was beginning to realise, like a red fox. No shame in that, I screamed like a man, it was very unattractive. My voice box just couldn't reach high notes, unless someone tit slapped me really hard.
"Hey, so now that you're part of the mafia, can you like tell people to kill other people?" Yuri asked, blinking innocently.
Everyone at the table paused and looked at her in concern.
Jamal was the first to question his girlfriends...question. "Girl, what the hell you want a hitman for?"
Yuri blushed. "I-it's not for me, I was just asking you know, for like asking purposes,"
Rachel rolled her eyes, being quiet this whole time. Something was up with her, she hadn't made eye contact with me throughout this whole conversation. "Yuri, being part of the mafia doesn't get you instant hitman advantages,"
Jamal pointed his fork at her in agreement. "Rachel speaks the truth. You gotta be a cop or something to get all those advantages, like the leader of the pack,"
Yuri snatched his fork out of his hand and began eating his pasta. Jamal sent her a sour look. "That's a capo you idiot-"
"-Yeah that's what I was saying, a cop-"
Rachel intervined. "-How can a cop be part of the mafia?-"
"-Hey cops are real corrupt-"
"-Capo. Like ca-po. The 'a' comes before the 'o'-"
"All of you shut up!" I yelled, slamming a palm on the table. I was met with some sticky residue. "Aw that's disgusting, does anyone have any hand sanitiser or a really good wipe?" Yuri handed me a pack of some cute wipes with HelloKitty on them,
"Thanks, I'm keeping these," she shrugged forking some more pasta. God I needed to grow some balls against Marianne. The bitch had too much power. "Look, yes, the system is corrupt-"
"-Amen sister," Jamal agreed with a smile, cutting me off. I glowered at him before turning to Yuri.
"And to answer your question Yuri, no I cannot hire a hitman. That's stupid...also I haven't asked yet," I winked.
Rachel let out a quiet chuckle. Good, she's not angry with me.
Yuri leaned back in her chair with a frown.
"So what happens now?" Jamal asked, taking back his fork from Yuri's tiny palm, then proceeding to devour the rest of his pasta. I wanted to stab the fork into his eye, grab a handful of pasta with my hand and stuff it into my mouth.
I was really hungry. At this point I may aswell convert to Islam, I'd kept like a whole fast.
I shrugged. "I have no idea. I guess I'll be living with the Genovese for now. Or until the rents decide to come back,"
"I don't think they will," Yuri commented. I furrowed my brows at her. "Not like that, let me rephrase - I don't think your parents can come back,"
"Huh?"
"Think about it, your dad's a drug lord and the MI6 are probably after him. He can't come back, they'll arrest him as soon as he steps foot in the country,"
Understanding clicked in everyone's head.
"Yeah, I almost forgot about that," I responded regrettably.
Yuri shook her head with a small smile. "Mr. Losièr is clever, he's probably discarded his old phone too along with your mums. It's too risky trying to contact them,"
I looked up at the dining hall spotlights to burn my irises and make myself cry since for the past half and hour I'd been explaining my little predicament to the gang, nothing was coming out. My eyeballs were suspiciously dry. "I'll never be able to see or speak to my parents until the day I sadly die,"
Jamal snorted into his pasta whilst Rachel snickered. Lovely people, absolutely lovely people.
Yuri (the only decent person at the table) leaned forward, placing a comforting hand in mine. "Probably...yes," I took my hand away with a squawk of shock. Okay, all my friends are assholes.
"Just wait until someone in your family suddenly jumps up and tells you they're part of the mafia," I said bitterly.
"That would never happen," Jamal said as a matter of fact. "If you haven't noticed, my skin is the colour of mama's delicious rich, spicy lamb stew. I mean I'd rate y'all like a five out of ten - combined - but me, damn," he fanned himself. "I be looking sexier than my boy Idris Elba,"
I rolled me eyes. One day they'd get stuck up there and I'd gladly go blind. "First of all, no one can be as beautiful as that hunk of a man." Jamal scoffed waving a hand. "Second of all, I'm like an eight okay, I got all this from my mama," I gestured to my delicious face.
Rachel nodded. "True," I sent her finger guns.
"And third of all, what does skin colour have to do with being in the mafia?"
He sighed like a middle aged woman about to divorce her husband. "Have you seen any black folk in the mafia?"
I paused, recounting all the mafia movies in my brain. "Uh...no,"
He inclined his head. "There's your answer."
"There was the Philadelphia black mafia though," Yuri commented. We all turned to her deeply puzzled. She blinked at us. "What? I learnt about it in business class." We continued our staring. "Okay fine, it was a branch topic and we all really got into it,"
"Why didn't I take business?" Jamal asked to his pasta. Honestly I wanted to eat it so bad. He'd been playing around with it for too long. It probably tasted like plastic now. My god, am I starving. This was the second time I'd skipped breakfast.
Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I love my morning feast. Pity a frightening Italian named Faust ruined it for me. I avoided him at all costs, even when I saw him watching me from the little gap in the kitchen door, all broody and hot holding a cup of (probably) whiskey, whilst I sped out the house to endure another awkward, tense car ride with his siblings.
"You failed the entry exam," Rachel replied casually taking out her phone. Jamal frowned. She appeared to be reading a bad text which made her knit her brows at the screen. I needed to have a little talk with her later. She was being unusually quiet.
"I gotta quickly run to performance hall." Performance hall? Our school took private to another level. Who the fuck called it a performance Hall? It sounded like some sex thing. Everyone knew it was a theater. Like the whole red curtain, centre stage shit. Performance hall my ass. "Darlene called an emergency meeting." Rachel picked up her bag and began walking away backwards. "I'll see you later, keep me updated on the sitch D." And turning around she ran, almost bumping into Cruz who sent her a polite smile making my very pale friend blush bright pink. The little shit.
Yes, I had made it known what a horrible person my cousin was and now he was temporarily shunned from the group. Hah in your face, my friends aren't your friends anymore you loner.
Am I being petty? Maybe. It was all for good reason.
We all watched Cruz sit with his loser backup friends. He glanced over at us and all of a sudden we all found Yuri's pretty nails really interesting. Primary coloured French tips - groovy. I needed to get mine done sometime soon.
"He saw us," Jamal whispered, playing with her little finger. I caught sight of a subtle blush graze Yuri's cheeks and my heart dropped. I was so single it wasn't even funny. No one would play with my little finger (still scabbed from the traumatic events of last night) casually and make me blush. I'd be single for the rest of my life.
"Of course he did idiot, we weren't being nonchalant,"
He narrowed his eyes at me. "Nonchalant, who the hell says that? What are you, some sort of professor? Some kind of-"
"-I literally just said nonchalant-"
"-Like some kind of english person-"
"-Nonchalant is such a basic word, like everyone says it-"
"Or like maybe a fancy rich white man, what is that? Nonchalant my bottom," he scoffed.
I paused, looked at him for a second then flicked his forehead.
"Ow, you dick," he whined.
Yuri didn't so much as glance at him when he turned to her with puppy dog eyes, pouting his bottom lip. I snorted, about to reach out and high five her, but them saw she wasn't looking at me either. Jamal snickered evilly at me and I pulled a face before we both turned to look at what exactly Yuri was so fixated on that she wasn't looking at my sexy face.
Ah yes, my favourite people: The Terrible Trio.
"What is it? What are you seeing?" I whispered, leaning over the table, my flat ass out so I could move closer to her line of vision. I skimmed her face (she had impeccably clean skin), followed the direction of her eyes, even closed my left one to see better, but still. Nothing happened. It was just the trio, being the trio.
Gio was sat moodily staring at his tray of delicious food. I heard my stomach rumble. Nico was writing something in a book, and Aurora was twirling her perfect blonde locks around, giggling at something Nico whispered in her ear, before grinning at Gio. It seemed Gio didn't get the joke because his glare intensified.
I even felt Yuri wince.
Moving back to park my tush in my seat, I broke the silence. "What are you looking at so intensely? What am I missing? What's happening?" I spoke in a hush.
She shifted her gaze to mine, worry reflecting off those hazel eyes. "I can't believe the rumours were true," I plopped myself back onto my seat. "Are true."
I nodded so hard I felt something click. Muttering a colourful word, I went to rub the back of my neck. Yuri gave a slight grin whilst Jamal slapped me on the same spot where it hurt.
"What the hell?!" I shot out. "Why'd you do that for?"
He gave me a duh look. "You have to put more pain on it to cancel the other pain out,"
This guy...
"Bloody idiot," I muttered, rubbing it twice as hard (that's what she said). "I'll cancel you out,"
He snorted, pushing away his cold plate of pasta. "That's not possible,"
My glare was enough to heat his food back up.
Yuri sighed, done with the both of us. "I can't believe it. This is something straight out of a movie,"
"I know right?" Jamal agreed. "This whole situation - it's bloody crazy. Like Losièr's whole world just got flipped upside down in one night,"
I fist bumped him. "I know right. Maybe it's because I'm special,"
"Yeah, special needs," he coughed into his fist. I glowered at him and he smirked.
I glanced back at their table in deep concentration before turning to Yuri who saw the eureka moment transform my face.
"What is it Heidi?" She asked curiously.
"That's what I don't get," I pointed out, the couple in front of me tilted their heads at the same time. They were so unintentionally connected you might say it was cute. I was going to dry heave, but then remembered to elaborate. "Someone knew about my dad's...hobbies," both of them snorted, I waved them off. "Shut up. What I'm saying is, someone chose to rat out my parents on purpose,"
Yuri frowned, meeting my eyes. "That's usually what ratting someone out entails. A purpose,"
I smiled. "Exactly, a purpose."
Jamal looked between us as Yuri's face brightened with awareness. "Um, explain this to me like I'm five,"
Snickering at the idiot, I plucked his cap off, turned it around and put it back on over his curly hair. Thinking cap on.
"If my parents, or specifically my dad, was already under watch by a group of detectives-"I explained to Jamal who was trying to calculate all this in his brain. "-Who didn't have a valid reason to arrest him yet, how did they all of a sudden get information to arrest him in the middle of the night?"
"Eh?"
I rolled my eyes but Yuri came to the rescue. "Colby, the detective Heidi was questioned by, said he was on Mr Losièr's case for years and that one night he finally got a lead. The question is how? Where did that lead come from?"
It finally clicked.
I continued. "They could've arrested my dad a long time ago, but instead they chose to do it that night. As if it was planned or something,"
"Damn," Jamal replied. "This is too much too think about," Yuri slapped his arm. "Okay seriously, you women are getting very abusive. I don't like it,"
"Maybe if you stopped saying dumb shit we wouldn't have to resort to hitting you," Yuri muttered.
"She's right." I responded earning a dirty look from the lanky boy. "Anyway, what we're trying to say is, someone who wasn't a detective or part of that whole squad ratted my dad out,"
Jamal's mouth formed an 'o' and I wanted to throw a grape in it except I didn't have grapes. Damnit.
Yuri eyes widened. "Oh shit,"
"Oh shit," Jamal whispered.
"Oh shit," I agreed. "Somebody has it out for my dad," I whispered all dramatically.
"But he's not here." Jamal whispered back. "You are,"
"Then that means," Yuri added, hunching forward with a worried look in her eyes. "They're coming after you."
"Oh shit," I breathed out.
Jamal clicked his tongue with an eye roll. "You said that already."
Yuri was already grabbing him in a headlock.