I step over the bloody body and see my target. From what I was told, Mr. Walton is supposed to be a fighter, but now I'm seeing the same man cowering in fear of a 17 year old boy from New York. As I walk towards him, I release my gun magazine to make sure I have bullets. I do. I put my magazine back in and aim for his head.
"WAIT!!" he said. "What?" I say irritably. It was 11:00 pm and I have already had to deal with annoying people at school, so I just wanna go home. "Your father is not who he says he is." Walton tells me. "No shit, dude," I tell him right before I shoot him, his blood splattering against my face. My dad is the boss for our family mafia. I walk out of the warehouse that Walton used for his operations. I get onto my motorcycle and leave for home.
Once I get home, I wash off the blood off of me, and finish some homework and get into bed. I wake up to my father yelling at me to get up. I look out my window and see that it is snowing outside. I get dressed and walk downstairs to see my dad sitting across the table from a man I have never seen before.
"Ashton, this is Alexander Williams. He will be working with us," my father says to me. This man must be someone else's replacement; meaning someone didn't do their job.
"Hello Mr. Williams, its a pleasure to meet you," I tell him as I shake his hand. I grab my backpack and keys from the front room and head out the door. When I finally get to school I park in my parking spot that technically isn't mine, but the kids are too scared to tell anyone about it.
I'm a part of one of the most dangerous mafias in the world people know, I don't know how, but they do. So, basically everyone is scared of me, and they don't try and take my parking spot. I don't mind people being scared of me. It just means that people leave me alone. Which is amazing because people annoy and irritate me.
"Did you hear about the new girl? I've heard she's really pretty," my friend Barney says to me. Seriously, what is with Barney thinking I care about this? "That's so cool, Barney," I say sarcastically while rolling my eyes. I walk past the usual group of girls that all have a crush on me for some reason. There is a pair of girls who I didn't recognize and I overheard them talking.
"That's Ashton, his father is the the boss of his family's mafia. They've been here for like six years," a girl whispers very loudly. " He is lowkey kind of cute," the other says back. The second one I assume is the new girl. The bell finally rings, and I head to class. I soon find out that the new girl is in my first period.
The teacher told us that we had a project we had to be in pairs for. And of course, she chose to pair me up with her. She gets up and walk over to me with her ginger hair bouncing side to side. Eleanor had a very unique look; she wasn't very tall and had long ginger hair, gray eyes, and a lock tattoo on her shoulder. I'd never seen anyone with a similar build before.
"So, Ashie, you ready to get started. We can also do this at your house or my house, but it's still kind of messy from the move," She said. " Oh, I'm Eleanor, by the way!" She adds.
God does this girl like to talk. " First of all, I know your name, the teacher said it many times. Second, don't call me Ashie. And third, we can do it at my house, and I will pick you up after school. Therefore, I need to know your last class," I tell to her. "You know, you don't have to be rude. And my last period is Floral Design." Eleanor says.
"Listen, I'm only doing this for the grade, and if it was up to me, I would be doing this on my own. And normally I can, but you decided to move here, so we now have an even amount of kids in our class." I don't care if this comes off rude; it's the truth and if she doesn't like it, then too bad for her. "Fine, but you better not be late," she says. I get through the rest of the school day with no problems, and unfortunately I get to the part have I dreaded most. Taking this girl to my house and having to deal with her for two or three hours.
I walk to the Floral Design classroom to wait for her; the bell rings, and I find out Eleanor's friend is in this class. This unfortunately means that when she sees me waiting for Eleanor, she Eleanor gives her an excited look.
"Come on, we don't have much time." I say as I grab her hand and drag her out of the building. When we get to my bike and she sees that I only have one helmet, she says, "I can't ride that without a helmet." This is gonna be a long night. "Oh my god fine, here take this." I say to her as I shove my helmet into her arms. "WHAT?! NO. You can't ride without a helmet." she exclaims. "Yes I can, I've done it before. Now get on the motorcycle before I put you on myself," I tell her, irritated.
Still, after that, she stays where she is. "Fine. You're asking for this," I say before I pick her up and place her on my bike. "What the hell?" she asks. " I told you what I was going to do if you didn't move, and you didn't. So that is completely on you." I say as I get on the bike and leave the parking lot.
When we get to my house, I tell her to stay on the bike, so I can see if my dad has his gunman at home. I walk through the opening of the door and see that no one is here. I walk out and yell at her to come on.
We walk up the stairs, and I get to the top of them and turn around to see Eleanor looking at the pictures of my family. "Your mom is really pretty. Will we see her tonight?" she asks. "Yeah, she was. And no you won't cause she's been dead for nine years." I tell her.
"Oh I'm sorry about that. What about your sister?" She asks.
"It's fine. My sister is studying at Stanford, so no you will not."
"Oh, did she not wanna be a part of your family business or something?" She asks. "No offense, but you ask a lot of questions. So this is the last one I will answer. No, no, she did not. She was super smart and decided to make something of her life." I say a little irritated. "Um, I'm sorry this is the last question, but are you going to do that? Everyone keeps telling me that you are super smart and stuff." she asks curiously.
"I haven't decided yet, but probably not." I say. "Why not?" she asks. "What part of I'm not answering anymore questions do you not understand?" I say angrily. "Sorry I wanna get to know my partner for this project," she replies defensively. I just roll my eyes and say, "Just come on."
We've been working for about two hours when I hear the front door open. I then hear my father's footsteps coming up the stairs. I hear a knock on my door and my father walks in. He glances at Eleanor then looks at me angrily. He walks up to me and grabs me by the collar of my shirt, pins me against the wall, then continues to say, "WHAT THE HELL IS A GIRL DOING UP HERE? WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT HAVING GIRLS UP HERE." He proceeds to punch me in the face and stomach.
When he's finally done yelling at me, he leaves my room, and I'm left curled up against the wall trying not to cry in front of Eleanor. After about a minute, I feel two arms wrap around me. I look up to find Eleanor hugging me and crying. At this point, I can't denay, that her and I have some sort of connection. I get up hug her, and whisper into her ear, "Please don't tell anyone about this." I don't need people knowing that my dad does this to me over stupid stuff.
"Of course. Here's my phone number if you ever need someone to talk to or even just a shoulder to cry on after something like this. Call me. My house will always be open for you." Eleanor says. All I can do to not start crying again is nod. I walk her out of my house and I drive her home.
When we get to her house, I get off my bike and walk her to the door. I stop her before she can open the door and say, "Listen, Eleanor I'm sorry for the way I've acted towards you. It's just no one has been like this to me before." I tell her. "It's fine, Ashie. But, I was wondering why your dad doesn't want you to have girls in your room?" she replied. Although, she had seen me at essentially my worst, I didn't really want to tell her. But I did anyway.
"My dad doesn't want anyone to know about what my family does, even though essentially everyone already does."
I get on my motorcycle and drive around the neighborhood for about thirty minutes before I decide that I'm ready to go home. I get home and walk quietly upstairs trying not to attract attention to myself and have my dad start talking to me about everything that happened earlier. This plan however did not work. He somehow sensed me and called me over to him.
"Yes? Is everything okay, Dad?" I ask cautiously. "I simply wish to ask you a few questions that's all. All I did was nod, so he wouldn't yell at me for being disrespectful and shit. "Did you tell the bratty girl to not tell anyone about what she saw, and what the hell was she doing up there?" He says in a stern tone.
"Yes, I did tell her. She and I were doing a school project together, but next time, we can just do it in the living room." "Good. Okay. Well, you may go to bed, Ash." It's not even the fact that he hit me that makes me mad; it's the fact that when he talks to me, he acts like he didn't just beat me up an hour ago. I get in bed not even bothering about changing clothes.
The next morning, I wake up around 6:30, so I can get out of the house before my father wakes up. I drive to Eleanor's because last night she had texted me asking if I could take her to school today. I knock on her door and when the door opens, there is a little girl standing there. I give her an odd look and ask, "Hi, is this Eleanor Harper's house?" This girl couldn't be more than nine years old.
"Yes. Why do you wanna know?" she asks. " Sasha, what did Mom tell you about answering the door? Oh hi Ashton I didn't realize it was you." Eleanor says. "Come on in, sorry about the mess. My mom is making us breakfast. Have you had anything yet?" she rambles as she kicks boxes around. "Um no, I was trying to get out of the house quietly," I tell her. "Well I'll ask my mom to make extra for you." she says. "Oh you don't have to do that." I say. "Too late. Mom! My friend is here. Can you make extra breakfast." She yells to her mom in the other room. We sit down and eat breakfast. I thank Eleanor's mom for the food, tell her that it was nice to meet her, and Eleanor and I get on my motorcycle to go to school.
When we get to the school, I get off my bike and help El down. When we walk through the usual group of girls they all look at Eleanor angrily. Then I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around to see Barney. "Dude, can I talk to you? It's important." he says hurriedly. "Yeah what's up." I say. "Um, can we talk alone?" he asks me. "Fine." I tell him.
"What's up, Barney?" I ask him. "What the hell. I thought you couldn't stand her." he says. "I changed." I say simply. "Changed? No you don't change. Does your dad know about this? Are y'all dating?" he asks in a panicked voice. "Barn, I'm allowed to change. And if my dad did know I wouldn't be here, now would I? Also, no, we are not dating; we are just friends" I laughed
. "I guess not. Fine, but why didn't you tell me?" he asks. "Because, it's none of your damn business." I tell him. When the bell rings, I find Eleanor, and I walk her to class. I walked her to class no matter what it was. When the school day ends, I take her home and we do homework at her house.
The bell rings and we walk into class, Eleanor and I sit down next to each other and we start to get to work on our project. Finally, the bell for second period rings and I ask," Hey Eleanor do you need a ride home after school," I wasn't sure if she was going anywhere with friend after school and I didn't wanna leave without her. "Um yeah, I would love that," she says. "Okay. Just meet at my bike, and be there by 3:45 or I'm leaving your ass," I say walking away.
Afterschool I wait for her on my bike. After 10 minutes, I finally see Eleanor walking up to me. "Hey Ashie, thanks for the ride," Eleanor says in a singsong voice. "It's no problem and don't call me Ashie. It's annoying as hell," I answer back rolling my eyes as I hand her my helmet. "Thanks," she says with an annoying smirk on her face.
We get on the bike and head to her house, and she invites me in to hang out. We chill for about two hours, before I get a text from my dad telling me there is someone I need to torture and get information from or something like that. I tell her I have to leave and head out onto my bike and head to the location I was needed to be at.
I get to the warehouse that I was supposed to meet a couple trainee gunmen or something. Why do ever bad guy choose to have their "lair" in a warehouse. Anyway, when I walk in I see the other men had already tied our guy in a chair with his hands behind his back. "What is this every stereotypical spy movie ever made? Untie his hands. It's not like they are going to try and runway from me are you sir?" I spat at them, rolling my eyes. The man tied up just shook his head fast telling me that this man was scared and wouldn't dare try anything. It only took about ten minutes for me to get all the information I needed.
When I got home I checked my phone and saw two texts from Eleanor saying "Hey Ashton I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date on Saturday," and "If not that's fine".
I answer back, "Yeah sure I'd love to." On Saturday I pick out my best suit and I go to pick up Eleanor and take her to a fancy restaurant. I knock on the door and Eleanor walks out with black corset dress on. She looked like something was radiating off of her. I was stunned, never in my seventeen years of living have I seen anyone so pretty.
I helped her onto the bike and we drove to a place called Luxe Loft. I ordered a New York Strip Steak and Eleanor ordered a chicken wrap. After about an hour and a half we finished eating and I paid for the dinner. We drove around for about 20 minutes until Eleanor asked me to stop so she could take sunset pictures. As I watched her take pictures I couldn't help but laugh and smile. She then pulls me over to take a picture with her. I took her home and before she went into her house she kisses me on the cheek.
Eleanor and I have been dating for around six months. My dad still hasn't found out about us. At least I don't think he has. In the past few months, I have been cutting down on my duties from the mafia, so I can focus on my studies. Eleanor and I have decided that we want to go to Yale together. Since then, I have gotten more and more punishments from my father. This week my dad has just ended up having one of his goons to do it.
This Saturday, I wake up around twelve o'clock and check my phone. I have a really weird text from Eleanor and a ton of missed calls. When I open the message, it says, "Ashton, help I'm home alone. My mom and sister are a swim meet in Albany, and there is someone walking around my house," I immediately call Eleanor back, but it goes straight to voicemail.
"FUCK!" I hissed to myself. I run down the stairs, grab my keys, gun, extra ammo, Eleanor's house key, and jump onto my motorcycle, not even thinking about my helmet. When I get to her house, I unlock the door and run upstairs immediately. I open her door, I see splatters of blood and a note that says, "Ashton, if you ever want to see your girlfriend again, then come to 1565 Morton Rd in Brooklyn."
When I look up the address, it comes up as an old warehouse. It takes me twenty minutes to get there. When I get off my bike I look at the warehouse, "This place looks really familiar." I whisper to myself. I walk in and hear the screams of Eleanor in pain. "ELEANOR!! WHERE ARE YOU?" I yell.
I keep running towards the sounds of her voice; I finally find her in the middle of the warehouse with her hands tied behind her back. Her ginger hair and gray eyes are shimmering in the sunlight that the tiny sunroof provides. "El, don't worry. I'm coming to get you." I say trying my best to keep my own voice calm.
` "Ashie, stop. I'm fine you need to get out of here." Before I can answer I hear a dark familiar voice. "Ash, you finally decided to wake up and join us," the voice says. The person who was talking stepped into the light. "Dad? What? Why?" I ask. "Simple, this girl is distracting you from your work," he tells me as he points his gun in Eleanor's direction. At this point all the gunman that were here had disappeared.
"She's not distracting me from work. I'm trying to do well in school so I can go to Yale. So I can make something of myself; instead of having to worry about wether or not I'm going to get caught in this mess." I tell him with a distinct plea in my voice.
"Oh please, you will never be able to go Yale. You will only ever be good enough for this gang. You could never be able to do what your sister did." my father spats back at me. "Yes, I can. I will get out of this mess. I can and I will change for the better. I will not be what I was born into." I tell him. "You can NEVER be anything but a gunman. That's all you're good for and all you were born to be. You really think I wanted you kids. No! I only needed you so we would have an heir. So, I could train you to be a boss, like me." he roars.
I looked into his eyes stunned by what he had just said. It shouldn't have surprised me,but it does "Now, if you don't mind, I'll go back to killing your girlfriend here." he said with a sense of pleasure and excitement in his voice. I looked at him then at Eleanor's pleading eyes.
"Wait! Don't kill her, she is the only person I have felt safe with since the other gang killed Mom." "Oh right, about your mother. Another mafia didn't kill her. I did." he says it so casually that it makes my blood boil. "Why? She was pregnant with your son." I yell at him. "Correction. She was pregnant with someone else's son. She cheated on me then lied to me about it being mine. So, I did the only logical and humane thing to. I killed her." he tells me. All I can do to not kill him is stare at him with pure anger.
I start walking towards my father who was still by Eleanor; my gun is cocked, ready to fire at any moment. I'm about to reach Eleanor when my dad fires at her. I'm able to push her down and shoot him, causing him to fall to the ground. I fall moments later; I can feel my heart beating through my shoulder. My dad must have shot me instead of Eleanor.
I can feel Eleanor's hands cupping my face. When I push her down, her hands must have come undone. "Ashton! Oh my god. Where did he shoot you?" she asks. Seconds later, I feel a sharp pain from her hand pushing on my shoulder trying to stop the bleeding. "AGHHH!" I cry out. "I'm sorry Ashton," she cries. A minute later, I manage to tell her to call 911 and tell them what happened. I then pass out from all the blood I had lost.
Later, I wake up to a bright light shining in my eyes and a beeping sound to my left.
When I try to sit up I feel a small soft small hand push against me. "You need to lie down and rest Ashie." Eleanor said. "I'm fine, El." I tell her. When I try to sit up and get out of bed, I feel a tugging on my right wrist. "What the-" I start to say.
"Stop right now, son." a low gruff voice says. "I'm sorry who are you?" I ask. I still can't see that well. "I'm Officer Thorn. I'm here to watch you and make sure you don't try to escape."
"Oh ok." I say.
It's been a week since everything went down with my father. He was given a life sentence in prison with no chance of parol. I was lucky and only given a year in juvie, two years in federal prison, and two years of house arrest.
Five years ago, I stopped my dad from killing my girlfriend and he went to jail; Eleanor and I have been married for two years. We also just found out that Eleanor is pregnant with twins. They are both girls and we are gonna name one of them after my mother, Isabella and Carmen. I can't wait to meet both of them and give them a life I wish I could have had.
