"...Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) I don't need no money As long as I can feel the beat I don't need no money As long as I keep dancing...
~ SIA
...♛...
I wake up to the beaming sunlight. I lift my arm to block the light entering my vision as my eyes peel open. The empty lot comes in sight making me wonder where the bikes are. They must've moved them down to the underground lot.
I look next to me at the open door. The whole night I was freezing cold. Winter is only days away and I'd be surprised if I haven't come down with a cold.
Last night was something else. Everything is such a blur that I only remember the main parts. Alice is alive, and I promised America to Kai. I must've been high or something, because I still have no idea how I'm going to commit to the deal.
Deciding to ignore everything, I stand up on my feet and head inside. On my way in, Cole comes down the stairs. His right eye is swollen like mine once was.
I call out his name when he's passing by. He stops but doesn't look at me.
"Cole, what happened?"
He doesn't answer so I walk up to him, "Cole what happened to you?"
He lifts his head. Immediately, I wish we'd never crossed paths. His eyes are full of hatred. He pushes my back against the wall. The air is pulled out of my lungs as his forearm blocks the flow of air through my throat.
"You did this to me. I told you to keep her away and because of your mistakes, everyone else except for you is paying."
He let's me go and leaves. I breathe heavily taking in what just happened. He can't blame me for whatever happened. I wasn't even a part of it. And if he's talking about Alice, he has a choice whether he hurts her or saves her. A choice which is no longer in my hands.
I place my hair behind my ear and out of my face as I head upstairs. I stop at the bathroom and grab my box before heading to my room. Once I'm there, I tuck the box under some clothes in my closet.
I grab some clothes and head into the shower. After I'm done showering, I blow dry my hair and put it up into a messy bun. My stomach growls and I head to the kitchen.
The kitchen is empty. I look up at the clock hanging up on the wall which indicates that it's eight-oh-seven. Weird, I thought they're always here for a meal.
My stomach growls again and I start to search for some food. I spot leftovers from last night. My nostrils flare smelling the meat. Coming to a conclusion, I decide that the food is good to eat. Not being able to wait, I quickly warm it up and start eating.
Alec walks in about ten minutes later, his shirt stained with sweat tells me he returned from a morning run.
"I have something for you," I say.
He pulls out a protein bar and starts eating.
"What?"
I pull out the guns from my back and put them on the table. He looks at me skeptically.
"You're not going to keep them for protection or when you decide you've had enough of Kai, and decide to kill him in his sleep?"
"No, I told you that I was going to help, and that starts with trust."
He nods taking the guns off the table, "We're going to tone it down today and just practice some shooting in the backyard. We'll go out after Kai and Cole come home."
"'Kay," I reply. Alec heads up to shower and I finish my food. I admire the various paintings hung in the lobby as I wait for Alec to finish eating the pancakes he cooked for himself.
As I walk around looking at the various paintings, one in particular catches my attention. It's of a crowd. People dressed in magnificent gowns and suits almost like the gang ball. Everyone in the picture seems to be happy. Everyone except for one person. A boy at the back, his face holds a smile but the tint of red in his eyes displays pain. He faces the stage where another man holds up a glass of wine toasting.
I walk up closer to get a better look at the guy with the red in his eyes. When I'm close enough, I see a miniature drawing in his eyes. It's of the same guy on the stage laughing with a girl at his feet.
I back away from the painting and look at it again. It has a double meaning. No one except for the one boy could see the truth behind the man's smile and the boy is helpless, forced to watch as the man stays happy at the expense of someone else.
"Like it?" I gasp as I turn around to face Alec.
"Uh- yeah, i-it's nice."
"Kai painted it. Actually, Kai has painted all of these," he says.
"He paints?"
"It's his hobby," Alec adds.
"Oh," I reply. "Do you know when he painted this?"
"A while ago, it was here before I came. Kai doesn't like it for some reason and that's why he keeps it on this wall. Someone hardly ever spots it."
"Alec, what do you see when you look at this painting?"
"Well, I see a bunch of happy gangsters at the annual ball. I mean, that's all there is. It's hard to miss," his reply full of cockiness. Anyone would say what he said.
I step away from the painting and clear my throat, "Can we go shoot, I wanna rest before we have to go out tonight?"
"Mm-hm," he says. He makes his way to the backyard and I follow. The backyard is a large grass field with a forest at the back.
A few machines along with targets are set out on the field. We stop about fifty metres away and he hands me a gun.
"What, no speech?"
"Nope, I feel like you already know how to use a gun," he says. I point the gun at the target; a fake dummy and shoot. The bullet pierces through the spot a real human would be caring its heart.
"Nice," Alec compliments. He runs into a glass house and speaks through a speaker, "Now shoot these."
Dummies start to pop out from the ground all around me. No thought in my head, I shoot as they come in sight. One after the other, I'm done in less then thirty seconds.
"Okay... that was unexpected," Alec clears his throat and I smirk. "One last thing before we're done."
He presses a button and I hear a whooshing sound, I look up at the air spotting a yellow disk. I curse under my breath. This is exactly why I prefer knives over guns. Shooting is easy when the target is still and large, but that rarely every happens in the field. For some reason, I don't have good enough aim to shoot a moving target.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I lie. Another disk goes flying and I suck it up. My arms lift and I close one eye aiming at my target in the direction it's going at. The longer I wait to shoot, the sweatier my hands get. Nervousness only rises as it feels like the gun is going to slip out of my hands.
Since I wait too long, the disk falls to the ground, "Go again."
I aim. The disk is perfectly in my sight and I shoot a little ahead of where it's going and it shatters as the bullet pieces through it. I sigh in relief.
"Nice, nine more to go."
"What?" my jaw drops open.
Fuck my life.
Almost one hour, and two hundred and seven disks later, I manage to shoot nine disks.
"Uh... we're gonna work on that," Alec says coming to me.
"Yeah," I reply. "Alec?"
"Yeah?" He asks as I hand him the gun and he tucks it under his waistband.
"Why don't you hate me? I mean you probably do, but why haven't you done anything to show you do?"
He starts walking so I walk with him.
"Like hit you to show you that I'm angry and you ruined my life? Hitting a girl isn't really my thing. I could hold you down or pin you to a wall, but I would never hit a girl. I mean I would never want anyone to do that to my girlfriend, sister or mom. You're no different."
"Why?" I question, "The other two don't seem to have a problem doing that."
"Cole's never hit you, Summer. Kai on the other hand has short temper. We've never dealt with someone like you. If you were a guy, you'd simply be dead, but because you're a girl, he's not sure how to deal with you. You and Alice were the first girls we had to deal with, gang related," he finishes.
"Okay then, what about your girlfriend? I mean, how'd Kai deal with you even having one?"
"He didn't really care because she works for us."
"Ohhhh... everything makes so much more sense now."
No wonder a girl accepted his work of line.
"Yeah," he laughs. "What about you? Anything you can tell us that doesn't have to remain a mystery?"
I laugh, "Uh- my favourite colour is black, my favourite flowers are black roses from Turkey, and I'm addicted to things that'll end up killing me."
"Really, like what?"
"My life," Alec stops and eyes me curiously.
"You know, you're something else."
"Kind of," I smile. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna take a Tylenol and head up to sleep until we have to go."
"Okay, someone will come get you," he informs.
"Sounds good," I say heading inside. My whole body is still in pain from yesterday and I can use all the sleep I can get before tonight.
...♛...
"You see that guy over there?" Alec asks. His head indicating towards a guy on the middle of the dance floor with his lips locked onto a girls neck.
"Yeah, unfortunately, I do," I reply. It's close to midnight and I was awoken from my nap almost three hours ago. All I was told was where everything was going down; not how. So here I am, staring at a guy who looks around his early twenties with short brown hair and arms that display massive veins.
"He's your target. Get close enough to him to steal the ring he wears on his right, ring finger," Alec explains. Cole and Kai stand on the other side of Alec not uttering a word.
The party is on Loyola Beach which is almost an hour long drive from home. I expected Kai to give me a speech or a warning on not to screw this up, but he didn't. He has been quiet the whole day along with Cole.
Since the event this morning, I can still feel the awkward tension between us. Alec even questioned us about it, but I just said that it's normal.
It's weird to think that out of all three of them, I'm closest to Alec. If I ever look back to all our meetings, he's the only one who really stayed away. In most cases, he either stayed away or caused the least amount of physical pain he could. Not that it's better that he did nothing, it's just, I think he's different than Cole and Kai.
"All of these people are from college or university, so you don't have to worry about any of them recognizing you. Us, on the other hand, everyone knows us," Alec continues.
"Cocky much," I mumble under my breath.
Alec gives me a skeptical look, but I tell him to go on. "As I was saying, we'll be around. Make sure the piece in your ear is on so we can communicate. After you're done, I'll pass by you, hand me the ring and you'll be free to party for as long as you want for your success."
"Thanks, Alec," I reply with a smile. My eyes travel past him towards Kai, his face full of anger. Knowing him, he's probably pissed at how Alec told me to have fun after this.
"Start whenever, we'll be watching," Alec says.
"Sure," I say. The boys start to leave, "Oh, and Kai if I were you, I'd fix the look on my face before I start growing wrinkles."
Kai turns around glaring at me. He starts to makes his way over, but Alec stops him. Kai's glare falls upon Alec making him let go of Kai. Alec says something which makes Kai turn around and walk away angrily. I stand there as Alec comes over to me, frustration plastered across his face.
"Do you have a death wish? Stop pissing him off and maybe, just maybe he won't hate you as much."
"Maybe isn't a chance I'm willing to take. So no, I won't stop being me. The day he decides I'm actually worth something, is the day I'll show him some respect. Until then, you are not obligated to stop Kai from doing what he likes to me so don't expect to get anything out of saving me from him. But all that being said, it doesn't mean that you're actions are not appreciated, so thank you," I end off.
"You are so complicated it's scary and annoying," Alec comments sounding annoyed.
"I know," I laugh. "Imma go start my work now."
Alec gives me his consent by nodding and walking off into the crowd. I stand there and spot my target groping the same girl he was with on the dance floor with earlier at the back of the club. Feeling awkward, I make my way over to the back and take a seat at the bar only a couple of feet away from them.
I order a glass of beer and play with the cup in my hands waiting for the two 'lovers' to finish. They're going to stop soon to find a room and that's the only time I have to take what I need.
Almost ten minutes later, they stop. The brown haired man whispers something into the girl's ear causing her to blush. The guy takes her hand and I immediately slip off my seat. I walk in the same direction he pulls her in but ahead of them.
I unexpectedly stop and turn around. The guy bumps into me and the beer in my hands stains his white shirt.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry," I apologize. I attempt to wipe his shirt along with him. When our hands touch, we both look up into each others eyes.
"I-it's okay," he looks up at me. Curiosity flashes across his face, "I've never seen you around."
"I'm not from here, I'm just here visiting a friend and she dragged me along," I lie.
"Oh, it's Callum by the way," he smiles. His green eyes roam my body lustfully.
I bite my bottom lip in an attempt to keep myself from smiling like a lunatic.
Guys are so stupid.
"Isabel, Bella for short."
"Cute," he responds. He's about to say something else when the girl he was on his way out with, tugs at his sleeve eagerly. Even in the dark, I can see Callum's cheeks turn a little rosy. "Uh- I have to go, but I hope to see you around. How long are you here for?"
"A while," I reply as the girl pulls him away.
"It was nice seeing you... Bella," he yells. I laugh as I look down at his blue stoned antique ring in my palm. I can't believe he didn't feel me slip it off his finger when I was wiping off his shirt and our hands met. The cliché tactics always work.
"My work's done. Take it, so I can have some fun," I say directing my words towards the contraption in my ear.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around, "Never thought I'd see you smile so much."
I hand Alec the ring, "I never thought you'd ever be nice, but here we are."
"What's so important in the ring?" I question as Cole and Kai group around us. I take out the ear piece and hand that to Alec as well.
"He's the son of a new forming gang in the area, we just need information on how they formed without our knowledge and if they're planning on attacking. This is the key to all of it," Alec explains.
"Cool. Now if you don't mind, I have shots with my names on them and a guy waiting for me to be on him," I sheepishly grin.
I try to walk past Kai to a cute guy who keeps starting at me, but Kai stops me. I look at him as he states, "Night ends at one."
"Night ends when my brain goes numb," I retort pulling his grip off of my arm. I make my way over to the dance floor and start dancing. A guy around his early twenties comes up, behind me and I let him take a hold of my hips.
I turn around in his arms and the smell of alcohol hits my nose. I don't care though, I keep dancing in his arms under the loud music. Things start to get intense as the guy starts kissing my neck. Naturally, I give him more access by lifting my head up.
I don't know how long we make out for on the dance floor before I tell him I need a drink. His features, his face, I don't remember and I don't plan on meeting him after the miniature make out session.
Once he goes off to get a drink, I walk towards the side of the club. The pack of cigarettes I slipped from his pocket fits perfectly in my hand. On my way out, I stop at a table and drink out of the red cups that have leftover liquor in them.
I lose count after the fifth cup as everything starts to blur. My mind no longer drills to think about the grey eyes constantly following me or the task I did today and how it could effect me in the future.
All I can hear is the pounding of music deafening my every sense. I can no longer make anything out. Where I am and what I'm doing here is all a big fat mush in my brain.
For once in almost a year, I have lost all feeling and it feels marvellous.
A/N:
Ivy: The first task was very easy for her obviously, because she's done this kind of stuff before, so please don't harass me about it.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one is going to be so much fun for me to write because it's going to be in a new POV and an interaction between two characters I've been dying to write. It should be up soon (this weekend or some time next week) and I pray that you guys like it just as much as I will like writing it.
Have a great week guys! Let me know what you thought about this chapter! Lol me down there