"Now you are a little thinner than you used to be," Aurora said as she placed a pancake on Soren's plate.
"As a football player, you need to eat well unless you'll become weak. The other thing is if you get so skinny, girls will reject you boy" Nicolo patted Soren's shoulder and his cheeks turned red.
"As a boy, you have to maintain well. Or how do you make a perfect eight pack like your dad" Nicolo raised his eyebrows at Soren.
"I don't want to. Now, stop dad" Soren covered his face with his palms.
"Other dads advise their sons on learning, life, and work but this dad instructs his son on how to get fit and have girlfriends" Aurora pinched Nicolo's hair.
"I'm good at it though" Nicolo smiled playfully and Aurora rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry" While Aurora was talking to Nicolo, Soren muttered to Sarah. Without saying anything, Sarah nodded with wide eyes. Soren actually didn't mean what he said to Sarah because he was intoxicated.
"Dad, today is a party night," Soren said as he left the home. Sarah also followed him.
"What about Shawn?" Sarah had to run after him because he walked so fast.
"I don't know" Soren replied to her without so much as a need.
"You must know. He's your friend" Sarah ran again to reach him.
"No more" Soren paid his attention to his way.
"What?" Sarah stopped where she was, could not believe what he was saying. She was so sad and she was even more worried that she would never see Shawn again and she would not be able to get his company again. But Soren felt guilty about what he had done to Shawn. Soren went to college that day thinking he would apologize to Shawn because there were so many indelible memories between the two of them. He wasn't intoxicated and insane enough to forget it all at the time.
"Did you see Shawn anywhere?" Soren asked Zen because he couldn't find him anywhere.
"Nope," Zen shrugged and moved his attention from Soren.
"Okay" Soren grabbed his bag and walked towards the corridor behind the gym class.
"Where is Shawn?" Soren sat at the foot of the staircase.
"He didn't come. Why are you looking for him?" said Diego who was leaning against the wall.
"I just want to apologize to him. What I did is wrong" Soren rested his head on his knees.
"You are fucking childish man. Don't worry about it like hell. Get ready to chill up tonight" Diego crossed his arms over his chest. Soren nodded and went back to the class.
...In the evening...
"What is this place?" He could not imagine what to do.
"A place to have fun" Zen ran his fingers through his newly tinted hair.
"You told me you were going to a party but this place" Soren shrugged with disgust.
"Yeah, strip club" Diego smirked.
"But these are not allowed to our age" Soren raised his eyebrows.
"The owner is a friend of my dad so there is no problem. The other is I have a fake ID and so do you" Diego showed his ID and Zen also did the same.
"It will be a big problem if dad finds out" Soren rested his head on his knees. He was oscillating between two decisions. As always, young stubbornness and lust deceived him. When the smell of the alcohol was absorbed by his nostrils, his eyes became dim due to the lights. He stared at strippers passionately who were dancing and wandering around, but made sure not to take part in such activities as he still had some control. Soren who was sitting at the bar and drinking alcohol, thought a lot. But his thought was broken when a girl who was working at the bar came up to him.
"I think today is your first day" She placed a bottle on the counter as she asked that.
"Yeah" Soren replied sternly.
"That means if you lived a good life before, today is the last day of that life" That girl shrugged.
"Why?" Soren looked up at her.
"Because it is an addiction" She poured some beer into a shot glass.
"I'm addicted now. I can't escape. I tried but I couldn't" Soren rested his rested on the counter.
"No, you can. But you have to find an addiction that you think is even more important to you" She talked with him although she was busy.
"What?" Soren mouthed.
"I know you don't understand but you will understand someday. I think you are still under 18. And I can see you are not bad at all" That girl smiled at him while she was washing the glasses.
"So, why are you working here? This is not a good place for a girl" Soren poured some alcohol into his shot glass.
"I had no choice. I was only 14 when our mom died. Our dad didn't care about us. He was an abusive father. I have four younger sisters. As the eldest in the family, I had to take care of them. They are still small. Dad spent very little on us because he spent so much on other things. So, I started working without going to high school. I came here after doing a few jobs because I get paid well here. All I want to see is my sister's happiness" There was a smile on her face as well as pain.
"Oh, I'm sorry" Soren wanted to avoid her eyes because he felt guilty about what he was doing by then. He had a good family which never let him suffer. He realized that he was doing something wrong to his family but he was late. There is nothing between the person and the addition.
"Here those four" That girl showed him a photo of her sisters on her phone.
"They are so cute" Soren sighed.
"Hey! Did you have fun with that bitch" Zen came there and dragged him to the dance floor. Soren looked back at that girl over his shoulder as if saying 'I'm sorry'. Then that girl's face looked like 'I'm used to hearing things like that so it doesn't matter'. Soren who was drunk went somewhere else with Zen. Meanwhile, Diego went to the bar to have a beer and saw that Soren had left his phone at the counter. Diego picked up the phone and saw a message from Shawn. Curious to know what the message was, he touched the screen twice.
"Damn! This guy!" Diego thought so because Soren even had put a password to open his phone.
From Shawn: Hey! Bro... I forgive you. I didn't come to school today cause I went to the hospital with my mom. Plz..give me the notes
Diego read it and smirked he thought to do something horrible.
To Shawn: I don't care... Don't fucking bother me again, shitty.
Diego sent it to Shawn.
From Shawn: What's wrong with you?
To Shawn: Nothing
Then, Diego blocked Shawn. After doing so, Diego gave the phone to Soren saying that he had left it at the bar counter.
...At Soren's house...
"He's a boy. He needs freedom" said Nicolo who was waiting for Soren to arrive.
"But he was not like that before" Aurora raised his eyebrows.
"Maybe, now he is older than he was. We can't cage a young boy. We have to let him do what he wants" Nicolo placed his both arms on Aurora's shoulders.
"If he doesn't come tonight?" Aurora sobbed.
"He'll come tomorrow morning" Nicolo chuckled.
"This is not a joke" Aurora looked away.
"I know honey. When he comes, I'll advise him to let us know if he is late" Nicolo said so to make up Aurora's mind although he had realized something was going on. But he was afraid to accept those things because he hated his old life. Nicolo had experienced a lot of things at a young age as a gangster and even more so as a talented, dangerous, and most wanted gang leader from seventeen years ago.
"Let's go to sleep" Nicolo dragged her to their room.
Meanwhile, I and Luc were in the living room, thinking about Soren.
"Let's go to sleep" Luc rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"No, I can't. I won't sleep until Soren arrives today" I said as I pouted.
"You want to know where he is" He looked at me directly.
"Yeah" I nodded.
"You can track his location" Luc suggested.
"You know, I stopped doing those things a long time ago" I rested my head on my knees.
"Just do it. It's okay to use it when needed. And it's your talent" He smiled with me and his smile made me do it.
"When you start to work, a beautiful curve forms eyebrows, and then I remember how you used to work in our gang. Secret gray hat hacker...Stealing data, breaking down security systems, Imposing others for your stuff bla bla bla" He was so sleepy but he kept talking because he knew that unless I could feel empty.
"Now enough" I looked at him directly. "I found it" I rested my hands on my knees and then I rested my head on my knees.
"Where?" He raised his eyebrows.
"I doubt I was wrong" I pouted.
"No, It's impossible. What is the location?" He asked as he wore his jacket as if getting ready to go somewhere.
"At ONE DANCE strip club," I said nervously.
"What?" I was amazed.
"Yeah, that's the place" I shrugged.
"Whatever, let's go" He grabbed my hand and led me to the door after turning off all the lights.
"Are we nearing the place?" He asked me as he drove along the dark, deserted street and checked out the dark street.
"We don't have to go there now. It shows me he's on his way out" I looked at my tab and looked at Luc through the front mirror. After a while, It showed me that we were at the location of Soren.
"Hey! Stop! Now we are at the location" As I said so he stopped the car.
"But he is not here" Luc looked at me back.
"No, he is" I got out of the car and tried to look through the mysterious darkness. Luc also tried to find him. Suddenly, we both an irregular footstep. We both hurried to the spot where we heard that sound. As we approached the man, he fell down but we couldn't see him clearly. Luc stood in front of me and covered me, probably because he didn't want me to be hurt. The head of the man lying on the ground tilted to the side so I could see his face in the dim light.
"Soren!" I knelt next to him and hugged him tightly and looked at Luc helplessly.
"Are you okay boy?" Luc also knelt near him.
"I'm sorry" Soren mumbled so weakly and it could make my eyes wet with tears.
"He is drunk" Luc ran his fingers through Soren's hair.
"We have to go home now" Luc was trying to stand him up and I also helped him.
"I can't even imagine what Nicolo will do if he sees him like this?" I looked at Soren with my teary eyes.
"No, he won't know" Luc shrugged and we both led Soren to the car and it was so difficult to handle him.