"Why don't you guys take a day off tomorrow if you guys are tired?" Hailey asked Amelia and me as both of us were washing our faces.
"No, girl. I don't know about Amelia, but I can't. I really have to go to work tomorrow," I replied to her.
"Oh, I can't too. I have a meeting discussing a business deal with another company," Amelia said, stepping out of the bathroom.
"Awhh, come on! I have no class tomorrow. Trevor obviously will have classes tomorrow. I don't want to be alone," she said in a sad voice.
"Why don't you spend the day with Jake? Pretty sure he's not going to work tomorrow," Amelia said.
"I mean, I could, but it's been weeks since I've spent time with you guys."
"Well, you could join us for lunch tomorrow. We always go to this diner during lunch. I'll send you the location tomorrow," I said to her.
"That's a great idea! Since we're meeting during your lunch break, you should bring the girl, Chelsea, too," she said in a cheerful voice.
"Sure, I'll invite her too," I replied.
As much as this dress was beautiful, it was quite uncomfortable. I literally had to adjust the belt several times throughout the event.
I changed into a T-shirt and shorts. My body felt free after changing. I was hanging my dress in my closet as a thought crossed my mind.
Where is Trevor?
He did tell me that he will be late tonight, but it's currently 10 pm. Trevor had come home late before when he had a project to do, but he would always arrive home before 9 pm. This made me quite worried. I quickly went to the dining table, where I kept my phone.
I grabbed my phone and called him, but he didn't answer. Now, I'm more worried. Then, another thought came to my mind.
There was one day, the four of us set up something on our smartwatches. It was a feature where if we fell anywhere and didn't move for 20 seconds, the watch would call emergency services and close contacts set up, in this case, Amelia, Hailey, and me.
Even though any one of us didn't get any alerts, I was still worried. I called him a second time, but again, Trevor didn't answer.
Amelia sensed my concern and stood beside me.
"What's wrong? Why you seem worried?" she asked in a concerning voice.
"It's Trevor. He said he would come home late tonight, but it's really late, and he is not answering," I replied in a worried tone.
"Amy, relax. He might be on his way right now. He might have lost track of time," she calmed me.
Despite her reasoning, I still felt worried, and I had this weird gut feeling like something was wrong. Just as I was about to call him for the third time, the doorbell rang.
I felt relieved as I heard that. I ran to the door and opened it.
"Trevor, why didn't you answer my calls? Did you know how I-" I became speechless as I saw Trevor being unconscious in Mr.Durante's arms. My eyes watered at sight in front of my eyes. He had bandages everywhere, and half of his face was covered.
"Amy, before you want to say anything, we have to put him on his bed first. Then, we'll tell you what happened," Mr.Durante said and entered the apartment.
I opened the door of Trevor's room, and Mr.Durante went in and placed him gently on his bed, then tucking him in. He came out of the room afterward, letting out a huff, and rubbed his temple.
"Babe, what happened? Why are you silent?" Hailey asked Jake with her tearful voice.
Hailey and I were full-on crying at this point. Jake went to comfort his girlfriend while Amelia comforted me.
"Jake and I were on a long drive before returning home when we noticed something happening when we passed by the streets of the city. It was a man beating a boy. Both of us quickly ran out to the scene. I pulled him off the boy and started to beat him up while Jake was inspecting the boy. Jake then told me who the boy was, and I uh-uhh," Mr. Durante said, scratching his head.
"Mr. Durante? What happened after that?" Amelia asked him with a severe expression.
"I h-hit the man till he was unconscious. Both of us were pretty panicked as Trevor was unconscious, fearing the worst. So, we took him to the hospital and treated his injuries," he replied.
"Did you know why did the man hit Trevor?" Amelia asked.
"He was calling Trevor the F-slur when Sandro asked him. We didn't know what caused him to say that, but yeah," Jake said.
"Fucking bastard!" Amelia exclaimed in pure anger.
"Never mind, Sandro took c-" Jake was interrupted by Mr.Durante hitting him from the back.
I didn't know about Hailey and Amelia, but I knew what Jake was going to say. I knew what he meant by Mr. Durante 'took care' of the man. I mean, come on, the blood splatters on his shirt and pants were so obvious. Not only that, his fists were clenched.
His face was like always, calm and collected, but his eyes were a different story. Those grey eyes of his were dark and menacing; it held a storm. There were hidden anger, rage. It was dormant inside him, but it was out now. I could see it. I could feel this dangerous aura radiating from him.
He looked at me as he sensed me staring at him. I gave him an 'I know what you did' look. The storm in his eyes somewhat cleared as he looked at me. Those dark, malicious eyes that I saw a minute ago faded away.
The sound of Amelia, Hailey, and Jake's conversation was muffled as my full attention was on him. His eyes turned glossy, the more I looked at him. Tears were threatening to come out of his eyes.
"Sandro? Where are you going?" Jake loudly asked Mr.Durante as he walked away out of the apartment.
"Why, what happened to him? Amelia questioned.
"I don't know, honestly," Jake replied, though his face held an expression like he knew why his best friend did that.
"I think our job here is done then. Besides, it's already late," Jake said.
"Yeah, babe. You should go back. You look tired," Hailey said, rubbing her boyfriends' head softly.
"Goodbye, guys. Take care, ladies," he said.
He and I walked out of the apartment.
"Before I forget, here are the meds the doctor gave for him," Jake said, handing me a small bag containing medicine.
"Take care of him, Amy," Jake said to me.
"Of course," I replied.
He glanced at his friend and me, then walked away.
I turned my head to Mr.Durante and was already looking at me. His tears were gone, and his face was void of emotion. He gave this look, which made me squirm a bit.
"T-thank you for what you did. Trevor would be forever grateful to you," I said to him.
Something in his eyes flickered before he said, "You're welcome," and muttered something along the lines of protecting someone.
"Did you injure yourself?" I asked him, my eyes on his bandaged knuckles.
"Oh, uh-uhm, it's nothing. Nothing like the injuries I've got before," he replied in a low voice, his eyes showing something unknown.
All the times I've met him, I realized that he would give me this look, his eyes looking brighter than ever. His eyes always showed this emotion that I can't really comprehend, well, not really. I knew the look of sincerity in his eyes, but what was he sincere for? I've never met him before until about a month ago. My relationship with him was more or less like acquaintances.
I felt the pad of his thumb grazing over my cheek. I didn't dare to look at him as I knew that his eyes would play tricks on me. I closed my eyes completely, feeling every inch of his electrifying touch. My whole body shuddered, and my heartbeat was increasing. I've never felt this way before.
"mio bell'angelo," he whispered at me in an unknown language.
He looked at me for a brief moment before walking away, leaving me frozen and flustered. I watched him walk towards the lift. I went back in after I lost sight of him.
Slowly opening the door of Trevor's room, I walked in and knelt beside his sleeping form. Even when he sleeps, he would have this smile on his face, but it wasn't there now. His face was pale, with half of it was covered. I could see his swollen eye through the bandage. Again, tears involuntarily welled in my eyes.
Why would someone do that to him? He is the most caring and sweetest person I know. He treats the three of us as his sisters, seeing that he never had a family throughout childhood.
I felt tired, so I kissed him on the forehead and went into my room. I scrolled through Twitter for a while before closing my eyes with a mysterious grey-eyed man in my mind.
The loud alarm woke me up early in the morning.
I forgot to turn my alarm off yesterday night. Amelia and I decided not to go to work tomorrow because both of us didn't have Trevor's mood.
I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep.
I woke up with the smell of bacon, and my stomach instantly grumbled.
After having a shower, I wore a hoodie and track pants as the day was quite chilly. I went to Trevor's room to check on him, but I met with nothing.
"Boo!" I heard a deep voice with arms on my shoulder, making me scream.
I turned around to see Trevor laughing at me, hard.
"I'm sorry babe, I had to do that," he said in between laughs.
"I swear to god, Trevor!" I replied, my voice mimicking anger.
"First and foremost, why are you even walking in the first place? You should be resting, Trevor," I said.
"The injuries might've looked bad, but it doesn't hurt a lot," he replied.
"Can you walk properly?" I asked him.
"I'm just limping a bit for now. It'll get better as time goes on. Come on, let's have some breakfast," he said.
Both of us walked out of his room when Hailey prepared the plates and drinks on the table.
"Good morning, you two. I've made some bacon and eggs for breakfast today," she chirped.
Both of us sat down at the table.
"Where's Amelia, by the way?" Hailey asked.
"I'm here!" Amelia yelled from the living area.
"Come here, let's have breakfast together," Trevor said.
"Coming," she said and walked to us.
She sat down, and four of us started eating. Hailey, Amelia, and I didn't let out any word about yesterday's incident as we didn't want him to have panic attacks. Despite the gravity of what happened to Trevor, he seemed to be okay. He was laughing here and there when Hailey joked, just like he had always been. I guess this is his way to forget about the incident altogether.
I debugged the code that I was assigned to check on yesterday since I had the paperwork and the codes were on my laptop. Even though I didn't go to work today, I still need to finish my tasks.
"Amy, come here. You have to see this," Amelia said to me.
I went to the living area to see the news was on TV.
The caption of the news read:
Middle-aged man found dead caused by significant blood loss from both legs being shot.
I turned to look at Hailey; then I realized Trevor was beside me.
His face held a questioning expression.
"Why, Trevor? What's wrong?" I asked him, worried for him and also curious, but he didn't answer. His face had this confusion.
"Babe, hey, what's wrong? Why do you seem uneasy?" Amelia asked.
I placed his head on my shoulder as he was deep in thought.
Everyone's curiosity was piqued at this point.
"For afar he looks like the man who beat me up, but I don't think that it's him," he said.
"Are you sure?" Amelia asked.
"I don't know, his build looks similar to the guy but we don't know the person's identity as they didn't show a close-up shot. Besides, who cares about what happened to him?"
"Well, you said so," I said and everyone nodded in agreement, completely forgetting that Alessandro Durante was the one who took care of the man.