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  “We’re going to have to use your bike, because I don’t have a car and I don’t think you want to take the bus,” she explained. I nodded and let her help me to the bike. She put me on the back of the bike and got on the front.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her as she started up the bike.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked and backed up the bike. I glared at her but it didn’t do any good she just ignored me and continued to position the bike. I put on my helmet and I noticed that she didn’t have one. I was about to offer her mine, when she kicked it into gear and we sped off into the streets. I clung onto her so I wouldn’t fall off as we went down backstreets and ducked through alleyways.

  “Where are we going?” I yelled over the sound of the engine.

  “My place,” she yelled back, and chuckled before ducking down another alley.

  Chapter 5

  Stephanie Wilson

  Boston 10:30am Tuesday February 13th 2029

  I usually don’t bring wounded people home unless it’s after work or they are bleeding badly. But I wasn’t sure if anything else was wrong and I couldn’t very well check him there, in the cold alley. I manoeuvred his bike through the back streets and down dark alleys to my little apartment. I share this apartment with my brothers, my landlady and adoptive mom Jean Winters and my other adoptive mom Betty Clark. I pulled around the corner and almost ran into a friend of Betty’s, Donna Baker.

  “Whoa, where are you off to in such a hurry?” Donna asked as I screeched to a stop beside her. The grip behind me loosened a little. I felt him breath again and I felt his heart pound through his jacket. I knew that I’d scared him and I smiled.

  “Checking him,” I told her in German.

  “Ah, he was in a fight?” she asked in German, I nodded and she smiled. “You have a kind heart, Steph. I’m sure your parents would be proud.”

  “Thanks,” I replied switching back to English, I was a little saddened by the comment but I knew they would be proud. I revved the engine and set off down the road again. Antonio was silent for the whole trip, he squeezed my waist every once in a while to let me know that he was still there. I pulled up and parked right outside the door to my apartment. I turned off the bike and got off. I got my key and I went to open the door.

  I opened the door and turned around to help Antonio, but I found him leaning against the wall beside my door. I gestured for him to go in and he nodded. I watched as he slowly made his way to a chair in the corner of the room. I walked in and closed the door behind me. I looked to Antonio and saw that he was thinking about how to sit in the chair. His expression was so funny that I had to stifle a laugh.

  “Antonio,” I called and he turned his attention to me. I gestured toward the next room with my hand. I went over and opened the door and Antonio followed slowly. This was Jean and Betty’s bedroom. There was another bedroom but that one was the one that my bothers and I shared. I sat down on the bed, looked up at Antonio and patted the spot beside me. He walked around to the other side and looked at me suspiciously.

  I sighed and got up. “Lie down I’ll be back in a minute,” I told him and left the room. I went to the bathroom and dug through the closet. I found the emergency first aid kit and grabbed a cloth from one of the shelves. I soaked the cloth in warm water and rung most of the water. I brought the cloth and the EEFA kit into the room where I had left Antonio.

  When I opened the door Antonio was laying down on the bed on his back, fast asleep. With the light I had coming in through the windows I could see that the side of his face was swollen, and I saw some of the bruises on his arms because he had taken off his jacket. I stood there deciding whether or not to go in and wake him up. I walked over to the opposite side of the bed and sat down beside him.

  “Antonio…Antonio…wake up,” I called to him softly. He groaned and turned over. I quickly looked his backside over and noticed some dried blood on the back of his neck. Without really thinking I reached over and touched the back of his neck. The blood wasn’t completely dried, but it would still hurt quite a bit to clean that.

  “Antonio, wake up,” I said a little louder. He jumped a little, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and turned to look at me. His eyes widened as his face came just centimetres a way from my own and he jumped up off the bed. His eyes contained a mixture of fear, surprise and anger. But his face was emotionless and his hands were balled into fists. I stood up slowly and left my arms at my sides, I waited.

  “What…was…that…for?” he asked his voice shaking with anger. Then there was a change in his face and he crumpled to the ground. Ooh he probably shouldn’t have jumped up so fast. He probably gave himself whiplash or a very bad headache. I walked around to where he was lying. He was holding the back of his head and his chest. I guess I miss judged the damage to his ribs and over looked a couple smaller details in my short examination.

  I knelt down beside him. I had a hand behind his neck and lifted his head up to put a pillow underneath it. Once I had that situated I gently turned him so that he was on his back. He still held onto his chest, but had let go of his head once I put the pillow underneath it. I gently pried his hand off his chest and undid his button down shirt to see exactly what the damage was.

  There was lot of bruising already in several places on his chest. I slid my hands down his sides, from the top of the rib line to the bottom. His body tensed up but he didn’t say anything. But I could tell by the way his body relaxed that it had hurt quite a bit. Four bruised ribs it looks like. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. I turned his head to the side and found the blood that I had spotted earlier. I turned his head towards me and looked at his eyes, they seemed to be a little unfocused.

  “It looks like I’m going to need to make a tonic to help with the pain,” I mumbled to myself, “and the bruising as well as the bleeding.”

  I huffed sigh and got up to get the ingredients for the tonics. I hesitated at the door and looked back at Antonio on the floor. Maybe I should bring him with me. I rolled this idea around in my head for a couple seconds before I decided. I walked back over to him.

  “Do you think you can stand up with a little help?” I asked Antonio. He hesitated then nodded. I helped him get to a standing position which took less time then I thought but I had to wait for Antonio to stop panting before we could continue into the living room. I got him to the couch and got him to lie down without too much hesitation. I went to the kitchen and quickly got all of the ingredients for the tonics. I made a pain relieving tonic first. I needed some dried herbs, some tree bark and a couple other things. I boiled the dried herbs and some of the other ingredients for the base of the tonic. Then poured it into a cup and added orange juice to give it better flavour. I brought the cup out to Antonio for him to drink.

  “You’re going to have to drink this,” I told him. He looked at it with a face full of…nothing. He was completely emotionless…again. I sighed and gave him the cup.

  “I want that gone by the time I get back,” I told him sternly. But he just rolled his eyes. So, I went back to making the tonics. I made the tonic for the bleeding next. This one didn’t take as long as the first one. I glanced at the clock it was 11:05am, I had to be back at work at 11:30. I put some crushed tree bark into the tonic along with some other crushed herbs, and a splash of water.

  Once I was I finished, the tonic, it had a sticky texture to it and was dark brown colour. I grabbed an ice pack from the fridge and glanced back out to see if Antonio actually drank the tonic that I gave him. The tonic was sitting on the table where I had left it, and Antonio was just lying there, staring at it. I shook my head and grabbed the EEFAK (Emergency Equipment First Aid Kit) and the wet cloth, and walked out to him. He looked up as I approached, and then looked back down at the “drink” and pushed it away.

  I set everything down on the table and then sat on the couch beside Antonio. I opened the EEFAK and took out some bandages and placed them on the table. “Turn your back to me,” I instructed h
im, he just looked at me with those emotionless eyes and blank sheet of a face. I guess he gained control of his emotions again, for shame. I motioned with my hand for him to turn around. He narrowed his eyes and slowly turned around so that his back was to the coffee table.

  He really was a suspicious jerk. I don’t know why I’m bothering to waste my time on him. I stood up and moved around so that I was behind him. I searched through his hair to see if I could find the spot where the blood had been coming from. I was using a toothpick and my hand to move his hair when I hit the sensitive spot on his head. He spun around so fast that I didn’t have time to react. He had me pinned to the floor in the blink of an eye.

  “What were you doing just now?” he asked seething.

  “Oh would you just relax, I just found the spot that I was looking for that’s all,” I replied glaring at him. “Now would you mind letting me up.” Cautiously he got up and sat back down on the couch, but his eyes never left my own. I got up, brushed myself off and went back to looking for the gash on his head. I found it much quicker since I had a general idea of where it was. It wasn’t too deep but it was still pretty bad. I grabbed the wet cloth and started to wipe the blood off the base of his neck.

  “I’m going to clean the wound on your head, okay, so don’t freak out like you did last time,” I told him and he snorted. I tried to be as gentle as possible but I knew that it hurt, because he was as stiff as a board the whole time. I bandaged the gash up and finished with the rest of his wounds, and then I looked at the clock. It was 11:25am I had to get him to drop me off at work, or else I could lose my job and I can’t afford that right now. But I guess I could just borrow his bike until my shift ended, besides this shift only has a couple hours left.

  “Hey do you mind if I use your bike to get me back to work?” I asked him as I tightened the final bandages on his ribs just a little bit.

  “I’ll drive you, besides I have to head home anyway,” he told me. “My father is probably wondering where I am.”

  He got up and tried to put his shirt back on without hurting himself. I reached up and helped him into his shirt as best as I could without helping him too much. He got his jacket on by himself then we were off. I told him which alleys to go down to get to the road. And from there he figured it out where the coffee shop was located on his own. I got there just in time to take up my position before a rush of people came to the shop.

  I took orders and made drinks but in the midst of it all I though I saw someone that I hadn’t seen for a while. Then I looked away for a second and looked back and the person was gone. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination. I shook myself mentally and went back to work. It couldn’t have been who I thought it was and even if it was, what was she doing back here?

  My hands shook a little as I thought about what she did to me all those years ago. She had made my life a living hell, even though she used to be my closest friend. She had told me that her family was in with the Mafia, but I didn’t mind because she seemed like one of the nicest people I knew. Man, back then, I didn’t know how wrong I was. Now my family has a debt that’s way over our heads. Everyone is working to pay off the debt but she keeps adding interest, so it’s like one step forward and two steps back.

  I promised myself after my parents died that I would never trust anyone from the Mafia or any gang, ever again. The Mafia was the reason my parents were killed that night, so long ago.

  Chapter 6

  Antonio Caine

  Boston 12:02pm Tuesday February 13th 2029

  I was back at home with my curious father pacing in front of me. He kept mumbling to himself, and every once in a while he would stop and look at me. Me, I was lying on the couch with my arms behind my head trying to sleep. He had taken me to his friend and our doctor, Devin. He checked me over and said that whoever had bandaged me up was more experienced then he was at finding broken bones, bruised bones and muscles, and bleeding gashes.

  I would not tell my father who it was who I got in the fight with because frankly I don’t know, and I would not tell him who fixed me up. That really frustrated him so that was why he was now pacing in front of me. I closed my eyes and turned my head to the side so that I was looking at the couch. Devin said I wasn’t allowed to sleep until three o’clock this afternoon. Not being aloud to sleep really was starting to bug me because I was completely exhausted, and I would love nothing more then to fall asleep right now.

  I just kind of lay on the couch and watched TV and read books until three o’clock came around. Then Devin came back and gave me the okay to sleep, and I slept. All the way up ‘til four o’clock this morning. I realized that, first, it was a Wednesday and second I was still sleeping on the couch. I sat up and felt achy everywhere, some places hurt more then others, but it was bearable pain.

  I got up and went to my room to have a shower. I turned the tap to a comfortably hot temperature. I stripped and jumped in but not before noticing the bruises on my body. There weren’t as many as I thought there would’ve been. Then I remembered that Stephanie put some sort of lotion on my sore areas to lower the bruising. At least I think that’s what it was for. She gave a gross looking one and told me to drink it, but I didn’t drink it. In fact I didn’t even touch it, but now, I’m kind of wishing I had. The water hurt coming down on my bruises and scratches, but the pain was bearable, sort of.

  Tomorrow school was to start and I was to stay there for my final year of high school. This was Darcy’s idea but my father agrees, so I can’t fight it. I would’ve liked to have stayed in one school, in one area until my school ended but father’s work kept us moving. And now that we are staying in one spot I didn’t like it, not just because this was new to me but because Darcy suggested it.

  I washed and rinsed before I got out of the shower. I got changed into my favourite set of ripped jeans and one of my favourite graphic t-shirts. Once I finished changing I went to go grab some breakfast from the kitchen. We do have a chef, but if you wake him up early he is a very cranky chef (and may get your order wrong, or burn it.) I decided that I was going to have oatmeal instead of waking the cranky chef.

  I went to the kitchen and made myself some oatmeal. I ate in silence not really thinking, my body seemed to be on autopilot. I guess doing this so many times can really burn it in to your mind. I was ready and on my way to the school within 25 minutes. The school I was suppose to be going to was called Boston High; it was suppose to be a well renowned, fancy, private school.

  It’s a little pricy, but not for people with money like me. And almost all of the people there have cash to burn. So I don’t expect anyone to be anything but snooty and stuck up, especially the women. Thinking that they can get anything they want with money, even a guy. But no one, and I mean no one, will ever get me using money. I will not be some girl’s boy toy.

  I also think that most of people at the school are part of a gang, so I have to be careful who I make friends with and who I make enemies with. I slowed down to a stop at a set of street lights. I highly doubt this school will be any different then the other schools that I’ve been to. But I felt this odd bit of hope that it might be different, that Stephanie might be there. I squashed that little bit of hope with one thought, it was a really expensive school. I doubt her family could afford to feed themselves, let alone go to an expensive school.

  The light turned green and I sped forward. When I got there it was just as I pictured it would be, the women were talking in small groups about silly things like hair, nails and what guy was the cutest. The guys were checking out the girls and everyone was ignoring me. That is until I took my helmet off, then everyone turned to look at me. Everyone that is except a couple of the people that were headed off into the school, they probably didn’t think too much about a new kid.

  This really is like every other school I’ve gone to in the past couple of years. I put my kick stand up and took the keys out of the ignition. As soon as I stepped off the bike everyone returned to their own conversations. I
sighed grabbed my bag and headed toward the school. Girls flirted, giggled and chattered, some pointing in my direction.

  A couple girls even tried to flirt with me, but I just kept on walking. Guys gave me dirty looks and I just glared at them and they quickly looked away, muttering. I glanced at my watch; it was almost time for school to start. I headed to my locker, number 3247, which is on the third floor of the school. I opened the door to my locker, hung my bag up, shut the door and put my lock on it. I glanced down the hall and thought I saw someone I knew. I was about to see if I could get a closer look when this petite blonde popped into my vision.

  She was smiling but her eyes said something else entirely. In fact the look in her eyes was a little disturbing. It was this kind of a stalker-ish and possessive look. The kind of look I sometimes see on Darcy when other women are around my dad. But my dad didn’t care if she was with other men because he doesn’t truly love her. It’s more of a fake love…I hope.

  “So, you must be Antonio,” she said, I nodded wondering how she knew my name. “I’m Hayley Williams. It’s nice to finally meet the son of the great mobster, David Caine.”

  Oh great, she’s in with the mob, too. I wonder, which section? Well by the way she dresses (skimpy and sexy) I’d say she is in one of the higher up ranks, probably illegal weaponry shipping or drug trade.

  My dad owns several businesses around the world and does illegal weaponry shipping, so we make good money. Plus he is one of the highest ranked Mafia leaders, so that gives us a little bit of a boost.