“For goodness sake, Weston, you can't do this…unless…well, it's your choice. If you succeed in getting an answer to my questions, I'll make you second in command to me but if you end up failing, let's not cross paths.”Weston nods and goes out. He took a packet of gum from his pocket and chewed it. Liam must really think he can't succeed in finding those answers for him to have promised him a position as his second in command.Weston blows the gum in his mouth. He summons the damn crazy resilient spirit that took control of him ten years ago that made him flee from home at fifteen.He can do this. He will do it. Whatever it takes for his father to acknowledge him as a damn precious child. He can't wait to see the fallen look on his father's face when he finally tells him, ‘hey, dad, I took down all the damn bad guys. You're okay now? Now, piss off.’ Just thinking about it sends adrenaline coursing through his body.“Are you okay?” Lorette's anxious voice tears the smile off Weston's
For a couple of seconds, there is silence. “Am I starting to hear strange words in my head?” One of them asks.“Right? I'm not the only one who heard that?” The guy with the cigarette asks.Weston comes out from behind the wall and strides to them. “What could he have done to deserve such beating?”“Come here,” the guy with the cigarette says. “Come here and get on your knees beside him.” Weston chuckles. “Are you some gods…oh…you must be another damn leader of some shitty group.”“Are you drunk?” One of the guys walks over to Weston in a bid to grab him by the collar.Weston dodges, the guy almost lost his balance but he holds himself right in time.“Get on your knees while I'm still being kind,” the guy with the cigarette says.“You still haven't answered my question,” Weston says as if he isn't the one the guy with the cigarette is talking to. “What could the boy have done…” Weston kicks backward at the guy behind him, sending the latter crashing against a wall. One of the guys
He looks relieved. He nods. “You're right. Friends are the ones who can deal best with each other.” He gives Weston another hard look filled with satisfaction before walking off with the other guys. Friends? Santiago? What the heck are they talking about? Is there another Santiago in the campus? Weston tries to make sense of what they are saying but it just doesn't sound all that meaningful. They must have said that to pacify themselves and make it less hurting that the boy they were supposed to be picking on just slapped their commander. The thought elicits a chuckle from Weston. The boy…Weston glances at the boy. The boy isn't shaking now but he still looks scared. “You're cool?” Weston asks. “Those guys, they won't hurt you, right? They won't do something bad to you, right?” The boy asks, fear in his eyes. Damn. Who sent a boy this young to college? Weston is tempted to ask the boy of his age but he doesn't. That might sound a bit rude of him, instead, he shrugs. “I'm not sca
Weston waits. There is a little silence before Lorette says: “I give you two days to sort this shit out.” Quickly, Weston returns to the staircase and pretends like he's just coming. Lorette comes out of the door. She looks quite startled seeing Weston. Weston waits for her to say something. She doesn't. She just smiles at him and race past him. He takes a deep breath and walks inside the room. Santiago is pacing around the room. He stops when he sees Weston. “Hey,” Weston says. “Bro, I'm so sorry for what happened yesterday. I guess I totally lost it because of the stress of moving here. I mean, it's nothing compared to my room.” He gestures at the empty takeout cartons on the ground. “Something up with you and Lorette?” Weston asks. “Not really. She…” Santiago shrugs. “She gets bitchy sometimes.” He walks to the closet. “You're going to the lecture room?” Th
The girl raises her head, her face is red from a few scratches and perhaps from embarrassment. “Weston?” She mutters. “It's really you!” Weston mutters. “Hey, man, I get she's your chick but you gotta give honour to whom honour is due,” one of the guys says. Weston glances at them. “Who are you guys?” “Last night…or is it this morning? Whatever. You saw our Commander…remember?” The grinning guy asks. “Geez. Does he have no shame? He told you guys about it?” Weston shakes his head. “If I were him, I wouldn't want anyone to hear about it even by mistake.” The grinning guy grabs Weston by the collar. “You have a death wish?” “Imma show you who have a death wish if you don't take your hand off my shirt,” Weston says. He looks the guy straight in the eyes. “Guys, deal with that bitch,” the grinning guy says. “Let's show him a bit of what we are. Se
Weston pays the cab man. “Here is your change,” the cab man says. “Keep it, sir.” “Thanks a lot,” the cab man says. He bows slightly and drives off. Weston hurries inside the restaurant. He dials the number his crush gave him. He looks around the room. He sees the man. He ends the call and walks to the man's table.“Good afternoon, sir,” Weston says.“Good afternoon. Have your seat.”Weston sits down. “What your questions?” “Abigail said you know some things about…” “Yes. That's correct.”“Do you by any chance know how many new members are in the Big Boys?”“In fact, I'm going to provide the names of all the members for you according to their hierarchy. This is the first time Abigail will be sending someone to ask about things like this. You must be special to her,” the man says.Weston smiles awkwardly. “Not really…”“Any other question?” “U
Weston looks around. The students taking videos of them are no longer doing that. The hall is suddenly quiet. Everyone seems to be minding their business. Under the table, Weston notices a huge guy's uncontrollable knee jerks.Weston turns around. He sees a rather handsome guy with headphones. He is dressed in expensive stuff. He stares at the guy Weston is holding. The guy with headphones smiles. He walks closer to the guy Weston is holding. He pats the guy, smiles again before walking out of the cafeteria.As soon as the guy leaves, the guy Weston is holding falls on the ground. A frightening noise arises in the hall.“When was the last time Coben came here?” Weston hears someone ask. “Both of them are in trouble,” another person says.Just as Weston is trying to understand what is going on, a guy in black cap walks over to him and literally drags him out of the cafeteria.It is not until they get to the back of a le
“Follow us,” one of the guy says when Weston gets to them. “To?” “You'll know when you get there.”“I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me where it is.”One of the guys took off his sunglasses. He has a tough look with that scar on his face. He looks into Weston's eyes. “You want us to drag you there?” Weston looks around. He has nothing to lose. He might as well follow them. The only problem is that he's damn hungry. Thanks to that fucking Coben's sister, he won't have to eat the precious food the chef chose for him.“After you,” Weston says.He walks with them. For more than five minutes, they walk. Weston is going to complain about his aching legs when they stop some feet away from a black car. “Go to that car,” one of the two guy says. Weston walks over to the car. The car door opens as soon as he gets there.He looks in. A guy he can't recognize is in the back seat. “Come
“Leave him in the car.”Together, they walk toward the building in sight. A woman in a suit comes to meet them at the door.“Hello, how may I help you?” The woman asks, a big smile on her face.“Where is your boss?” Santiago asks, his non smiling face showing the woman he isn't in the mood for exchanging pleasantries.“He's inside, sir. Do you have an appointment?” The damn smile is still on her face.“Lead us to his office,” Santiago says.“Where is the pass card?”“Miss, I said you should lead us to your boss,” Santiago says.The smile slowly disappears from her face. “There is no way you're going in without—” Santiago pulls out his gun. He raises it up. He blows some air on the gun before putting it back in his pocket. By the time Santiago looks at the woman, her hands are trembling.“This way, sirs,” she says, already going.“You scared the shit out of her,” Weston whispers to San
“People do say I'm handsome too.” “They are not wrong,” Lorette says.“I know. But I'm not interested in you.”Weston glances at Lorette's face in the mirror. She isn't just telling lies, she is good at acting lies. Weston's tries not to smile at the way Lorette looks dejected.“You're the first guy who's ever rejected me.”“I don't like girls that don't mind their businesses,” the man says.“Oh…quite unfortunate that I won't be able to work on it before I die.”“I could give you a chance. So, when you change, I'll see if I can date—” there is total silence. Weston glances at them. Lorette's grab the man's neck. The man's eyes are bulging, rolling in their socket. Swiftly, Weston grabs the gun from the man's hand. He pulls over. He watches Lorette tighten the man's nose with two fingers. She uses the other hand to cover his mouth. The man's body is going limp. His eyes are bulging more and more.
“What…?”“Hop in. We have to save Tyler,” Weston says.Quickly Lorette goes to the other side and gets in the car. She almost hits her head on the car's dashboard as the car takes off. “Where the fuck did you get this?” She asks as she applies her seat belt. “I borrowed it.”“From?” “That's not important. What way did he go?” Weston asks.She points in the direction. Three seconds later, they are right on the damn guy's tail.“Where did you get the car, Weston?” Weston glances at her. He smirks. “You didn't kill anyone, did you?”“I'm not insane, Lorette. And even if I were, I wouldn't want to commit a murder in a public park.”“So…?”“Saw this guy with crazy drugs. I showed the dude my ID. Literally thought I was a cop. Dude froze and I moved into action. Grabbed his key and yeah, here's the car.” Lorette's eyes widen. “Don't look a
He plants kisses all over the boy's face. “Excuse me, sir?” The announcement guy says.The man looks at the announcement guy. “Thanks a lot, sir. If not for you, I'd have killed myself. Tyler is the only thing left to me in this fucked up life…” his voice gets croak. “I…ever since his mother left me, I have…I would have killed myself if not for Tyler. He's the best thing that has ever happened to me…”“But, he said he came here with his mother,” Weston says.“What? Tyler? You said that? Didn't we come together?” The man stares at Tyler. He uses a thumb to wipe Tyler's face, and the boy's eyelids drop.The man looks back at them. “You know how kids are. I've been trying to tell him that his mother left us but I guess he doesn't want to accept that.” “Excuse me, sir. If he said he came here with his mom, we can't release him to you without having evidence that he's your son,” Weston says. “Oh…that?” The man shakes his h
“Mommy?” The boy tries to touch a woman's clothing, and the woman quickly walks away. The boy tries a couple more times but no one seems to want to have anything to do with a boy looking like that. “Mommy?” The boy keeps calling.A guy looks at the boy and rolls his eyes. His girlfriend—or whosoever the girl clinging to him is— laughs at the little boy. One damn girl brings out her phone. At first, Weston thinks she's going to call for help but to his uttermost shock, the girl is taking videos or maybe pictures of the little boy.Angrily, Weston storms to the girl. He grabs the phone from her. He deletes the pictures and tosses her phone in her bag. He walks closer to the boy and carries him in his arms, not caring about the fact that his shirt might get dirty in the process. “Hey, Weston?” Lorette whispers to him as he leaves the place with the boy. “What the fuck are you doing?” Weston doesn't reply to h
“You brought it up. You've been doing that since last,” Lorette says.“Me? When did I?” “Anyway, I feel like I am on a mission to discover some hidden treasure anytime I'm in a museum.”“So, have you gotten today's treasure?” “No. You've been a hell of a distraction.”“Wish I could help, but I'm just not feeling it here.” “Come on, you just have to open your mind. Um… This…” she walks closer to a painting. “It was painted by Van Gogh the blue part here, makes it look like the sky…like you can touch the sky…” she glances at Weston. The way he's looking at her makes her feel like she's some nasty teacher forcing a dumb kid to learn the physics quantum theory. “Forget it,” she says. “Just think of it like you're looking at a series of pictures.”Weston sighs. “I'd rather read iTunes terms and conditions than think of this as looking at pictures.”Lorette scoffs. They don't say anything for a
“We might not be able to see everything today,” Weston says. “Why? Thought you're fully booked by me today?” Lorette asks. Fully booked? Is he some sort of hotel? “I have some things to do—”“Colt, can we start? I can't wait,” Lorette says. She licks her ice cream, a devilish smirk on her face. Ten minutes later, if there is any advice Weston can give anyone, it is: on no condition should you agree to go with Lorette to the museum if you're not ready to become some museum freak.For the life of him, Weston cannot tell why someone would be so interested in just a painting.He means no disrespect to Lorette's interests in those stuff but…but! How can you be so obsessed about trying to imagine what a painter was thinking while he was painting something about some hundreds of years ago?!“He is probably thinking about nature here,” Colt says. He points at a spot Weston can swear is not any different from the whole paintin
By the time Weston gets to the campus gate, he is breathless. He stops and tries to catch his breath. He looks around, sees Lorette and waves at her. He walks over to her. “You've been waiting for a long time?” Lorette shakes her head. Yeah, she's been waiting for two damn hours but she isn't about to look to Weston like some clinging girl. “Just got here two minutes ago. By the way, did you run here to meet me? You're sweating.” “Yeah. I thought you must have been waiting for too long.” “Oh…sorry.” “Let's go.” Lorette glances at him. Can't he see? Can't he fucking see her makeup? Hell, her lack of sleep last night isn't going down the drain! She actually deciphered all the makeup on Liam's sister's face, went through the fuss of ordering for them and getting them this morning. And what? Weston isn't taking note of it? “You look cool,” Weston mutters.Okay he actually has eyes. She shrugs. “Actually, I on
“Fuck me!” Weston exclaims. “What?” “I was going somewhere. I forgot.” “Where? A date?” “No.” Weston hurriedly takes off his clothes and heads to the bathroom. Less than five minutes later, he's out, already pulling his shirt on. “You must really be heads over heels in love with the girl,” Jose mutters. “It's not a date, man.” “I have advice. Been to countless number of dates.” “Thanks. Don't need them,” Weston mumbles. “If you don't want her to be tired of you, don't tell her you love her yet. Wait for at least six months…” “Dude, you know how many girls I've gone on dates with?” “Ten?” “That's crap. I'll be lying if I told you how many there are,” Weston says. “I'm sure they can't be up to a thousand. Mine are more than that.” “Then trust me when I say th