[get some popcorn, get comfortable, it’s going to be a crazy ride]

To add to Malakai being the worst player ever, he does favoritism. When Noah is on his property and can’t pay, they make deals, instead he will pay half of it or not at all. Noah insists on paying but Malakai refuses to take the money. But Noah does not want to pay and he knows Malakai won’t let him. You think Noah is a cute little thing but sometimes he pulls some very malicious behaviors. I do wonder sometimes if he is really as naive and pure as I think he is. 

Well, I know he isn’t pure, but sometimes his behavior changes without warning, like right now, with him manipulating Malakai into not paying his Monopoly bills.

“Malakai,” he says, with puppy eyes, “if I pay it I won’t have any money left… but it’s okay, I can give you one of my properties…”

“Noah, you only have one property left. It’s okay, you don’t need to pay it.”

“I really feel bad about it Malakai, I have the worst luck!”

We keep on playing and I see Noah in the corner of my eyes, winking at me, like “mission accomplished”.

It’s not the first time I see him manipulate Malakai this way. It used to be very rare, but since he has been practically living with us, it’s been more frequent. I never say anything though, because it’s always for small things, such as asking for food or help with homework, which Malakai would have done even if Noah hadn’t manipulated him into doing it.

As we have been seeing each other more these past few weeks, I am getting to know him more and more, but I am also getting more confused. I love this kid, but something isn’t right, and I can’t put my finger on it.

It’s now 7pm and I obviously won the game. It’s time to order pizza and get some ice cream so we can start our movie night. After calling for pizza delivery, Liam and I decide to go to the convenience store to buy ice cream. It’s just next to our building so it should be safe.

We quickly get to the store and choose ice cream: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, the classics. We also take some popcorn and some beers.

Estelle is as always at the counter at this hour. She gives me a big smile when she sees me.

“Adriel! It’s been a while!”

“Yeah I know, I hope no one bothered you when I wasn’t here.”

She tells me that no one really did, just the usual stupid drunk flirting. She gives a look at Liam, her eyes scanning him from top to bottom before blushing a little. Liam isn’t paying attention, he is looking at the lighters on the counter. She tells us to have a good night before Liam and I left the store. I am holding the bag with the ice creams and popcorn, and Liam the one with the beers.

As we are walking in silence, we get closer to the back alley where Liam and I met for the first time, after 2 years.

“Remember this back alley over there? I had planned on cornering you there the night you found me.”

“Oh really? You thought you could corner me?”

“Well, it’s not like I knew it was you. Besides, it totally backfired.”

“Yeah.” Before I noticed it, we were just next to that back alley. He pushes me and kabedons me there once again, exactly like he did 2 months ago. “Like that?”

He caught me off guard, my chest is rising and falling rapidly, catching with my thoughts. It feels just like 2 months ago.

“Yeah- like that.” I swallow then continue, “I almost screamed for stranger danger.”

He rests his head on my shoulder, his face facing the ground and laughs. “I know this was risky, my crotch is way too exposed, if you had been a random girl I would have ended up in a lot of pain.”

“A random girl?” I push him, “why not a random boy?”

He touches my hair, “well it was dark and your hair is pretty long so…”

I hit him in the stomach. “Asshole!”

He laughs then says, “Honestly, no matter how dark it is, or if you are bald, I would always recognize you in a heartbeat.”

Oh gosh don’t say this like that.

“Oh so how would you recognize me? Thanks to my amazing ass? This could be seen as sexual harassment sir.”

He smirks, “well this amazing ass is holding some ice cream so we should get going.”

“Uh? Don’t blame my amazing ass for melted ice cream, it was your amazing ass who cornered me here.”

“Well thank you for the compliment.” I roll my eyes and we start to speed up our pace to go back home, otherwise we won’t have ice cream but yoghurt.

****

Arriving in front of my door, I stop. Liam asks what’s wrong.

The door is open. But it hasn’t been open from the inside, it clearly has been forced open from the outside. I push the door open.

“Caleb! You’re home!”

Esteban is standing in my living room with open arms and Rafael is sitting on the couch, looking at me.

Rafael has his black hair in a bun, and Esteban seems to have gotten an undercut. Their hazel eyes are starring at me.

When I was younger, people always wondered why I was so different from them. They got their sun-kissed skin and black hair from our Hispanic mother - their mom - while I am as pale as a piece of paper. They got their hazel eyes from our dad - their dad - while I apparently got my purple-y blue eyes from my dad. So I had to explain to people that my parents were not my parents. My dad is actually my uncle and I am his sister’s bastard son. My mother died at birth and never said who the father was. Her death wish was for my uncle to adopt me, which he did more because he loved his sister, than actually out of concern for me. The fact that I wasn’t my parents’ son and, most importantly, not wanted was always made abundantly clear to me from a very young age. My father resents me because he sees me as the reason why his dear little sister died. My mother was always jealous of my biological mother, about how much my dad loved her and prioritized her over everything. Thus, of course, she hates my guts and made it her personal mission to care about me as little as possible. She usually just ignores me. 

I walk inside, Liam right behind me. We both put our bags on floor, against the wall. It’s an old habit, so our hands are free in case something happens.

Noah and Malakai are sitting on the floor, their backs against the window leading to the balcony. James is standing next to Noah, and Colby next to Malakai. A weight drops in my stomach, I feel a panic attack coming. Liam grabs my arm and gets in front of me.

“Liam?” Says Rafael, “what a surprise, weren’t you supposed to be with your girlfriend?”

Girlfriend?

“So you ditched us to come here?” he continues, “you just disappeared one day man, we had to ask your parents where you were. We had a lot of work on our hands, you left us in sh*t, we didn’t like that.”

Wait, Liam works for my brothers?

“You knew we were looking for this one right there”, Esteban says, pointing at me, “and you didn’t say anything? By the way, get here you coward. We gotta talk.”

I move away from Liam, who gives me a mad look. As if I was supposed to just stay behind him. They are my brothers, I can handle them.

“By the way, we didn’t know you had company, so we sorta threatened your two friends here with guns. It was meant for you though, so I hope you don’t mind.”

I glance at Noah and Malakai. Noah has tears in his eyes and is trembling. Malakai is trying his best to keep it together. That’s when I notice the guns in Colby and James’ hands.

“I guess you’re here for your money?” I answer. I just want to get to the point as fast as possible so they can leave.

“Oh c’mon Caleb, it’s been 2 years. Let’s catch up!” Offers Esteban.

“I don’t intend on chit-chatting with you. I want you out of here. So just tell me what you want.”

“Oh you’re no fun,” he keeps going, “you could at least introduce us to your friends! I’m pretty sure they have no idea who we are since they didn’t even know your real name. ‘Adriel’? That’s what they called you. That’s what the people at the bar said too. I guess auntie would be happy, I mean, if she was alive and all.”

I want to punch the sh*t out of him. I also feel anger radiating from Liam. We need to end this quick.

“And your friends are pretty cute.”

It was Colby’s voice. He grins at me. 

“Especially this one,” he squats next to Malakai, putting his gun on his cheek. “He looks tough, how about you suck on my gun to show me how feisty you are, redhead?”

I see Malakai’s eyes start to tear up as he moves his head away.

“Colby, don’t you dare touch him.”

“Or what?”, he stands up again, “you’ll cry about it? You’ll say I’m a bad guy who broke your heart again? That would be f*cking funny to watch. I should do it.”

“Colby, sh*t the f*ck up. Don’t remind me of what you and Caleb did, it disgusts the sh*t out of me.” Says Rafael. “Back to you Caleb, if you are not willing to chat, then let’s make this quick. You’re right, we want our money back. All of it. We saw that there was a stupid little park behind your building. Let’s meet there tomorrow night at 10pm. Bring the money and we will be on our way.”

“That’s it? What’s the catch?” I ask. Just asking for the money and leaving? This sounds too good to be true.

“Listen Caleb, we just want our money back. We won’t tell our parents or the f*cking Kellers. Can you believe they teamed up? That’s the biggest joke I’ve ever heard. Just to find your ass. I am astonished.” Rafael stands up and explains, “since you left, Esteban and I have stopped working with our parents. First, they refused to recover you from the Kellers, then they get mad when you leave and steal their money, enough so to team up with the enemy? Nah, that’s bullsh*t. We’ve been trying to sabotage their stupid alliance since then, Liam didn’t tell you about it?” I shake my head, and briefly take a look at Liam. He is staring at Rafael.

Liam has always hated my brothers. A few years ago we both worked with my brothers. He hated it. I don’t understand why he would go back after I left. 

“Weird?”, Rafael continues, “anyway, give us our money back and we will be gone. We’ll tell our parents that we came here and didn’t find you or whatever. But you owe us.”

There it is.

“Owe you?” I ask.

“Well yeah,” Esteban answers, “you didn’t think we would be so nice to you right? We will call you when we need you. For now, you’re free. On the condition you give us our money back.” He stops and looks at Noah and Malakai, “or we have some fun with carrot and strawberry.”

Malakai starts to tremble. Noah is surprisingly calm, starring at… Liam?

“Don’t worry, you’ll have your money tomorrow. Now leave my apartment.”

“You’re a terrible host. But it goes with your disgusting personality.” Retorts James.

“Let’s go,” finally says Rafael. “Tomorrow, 10pm. And come alone.” He starts walking towards us. I step away from the entrance.

He ruffles my hair, “glad to see you again bro. And you,” he turns to Liam, “we had so many plans for you, we trusted you Liam. You’re like family to us, this truly hurts.”

“I-”, Liam can’t start talking that Rafael slaps his cheek twice, as if he was a drunk uncle at Christmas, “it’s okay, we always knew you were f*cking him anyway. Guess our little Caleb got a magic assh*le everyone wants to dip in.” Colby chuckles, and Rafael continues, “you sh*t it over there, we all know he f*cked you, not the other way around. Anyway, this whole thing disgusts me. Caleb, don’t bring your whole boy harem tomorrow”. He steps out, followed by Esteban, who also ruffles my hair before leaving, then James and Colby. I follow them to lock the door behind them.

F*ck, my heart is beating so fast. I have been trying to avoid this moment for 2 years, imagining it and trying to prevent it. But it actually went worst than I could ever imagine: Malakai and Noah were there.

I calm myself, my back on the front door, when I hear a loud noise.

“You were supposed to protect us you piece of sh*t.”

I run to the living room to find Malakai still on the floor, eyes wide open. To my right, Liam is pressed against the wall, Noah in front of him.

“You’re a f*cking liar, I should have put you out when I had the chance.”

Wait.

Wait a damn minute.

What is he saying? 

Noah turns to look at me. Those eyes, I don’t recognize them, they are filled with rage and they… scare me. I take a step back, but he walks towards me and grabs an empty beer bottle from the kitchen counter. He puts his arm in the air.

Wait, is he about to hit me with it?

As he swings the bottle toward my head, I grab his forearm and squeeze it tight. I can see pain in his eyes and he lets go of the bottle.

He didn’t like that.

He looks at me and laughs, before grabbing my throat and pushing me.

I can’t breathe.

After being slammed to the floor, I open my eyes to see one of my best friends, his hands around my neck, choking me.

How the f*ck did it come to this?

“You put us in danger Adriel, I can’t let that slide.”

I am frozen, my hands around his wrists. I don’t understand what’s happening. First my brothers who I have been trying to hide from show up at my apartment, and now one of my best friends, the sweetest kid on earth, is trying to kill me?

“You f*cking lied to us, he shouldn’t have saved you that day. I should have pushed you off that roof instead!”

Liam grabs Noah’s arms and shouts to let me go.

“Stop! You know he wouldn’t want that!” He screams at Noah, before Malakai pushes Liam violently away and grabs Noah from behind, his arms around his chest.

“Noah stop, let him go! It’s okay, we are okay.”

Noah’s grip loosens and he turns to face Malakai. I quickly get away from them, Liam coming next to me.

“Caleb are you okay?” He says gently touching my neck.

Without saying anything, Noah falls into Malakai’s arms in silence, before calling out his name after a few seconds.

“Kai?”

He straightens his back, facing Malakai, before falling into his arms once again, crying.

“Kai… I was so- so scared.” He is crying so hard that his words are cut by hiccups.

I push Liam away and stand up, one hand on the kitchen counter to support myself.

“What the f*ck was that? Why did he attack us?” I shout at Malakai, then turn to Liam, “and why did he attack you?”

“Shut up,” shouts back Malakai, still holding Noah tightly in his arms, both them still on the floor. “You have no right to be the one asking questions right now. Who were they? Actually, who the f*ck are you? You better explain yourself right now.”

He is right.

I don’t understand what happened with Noah, but whatever this was, it was because of me. Because of the secrets I keep from them.

“You’re right, please just- all of you please go sit on the couch.”

We all move to the couch area. I keep my distance from Noah and Liam, and sit on the table between the couch and the TV. I take a big breath.

This is it, this is the end of my life as Adriel.

“I’ve put you in danger tonight, and I am terribly sorry for that. You are right, you guys deserve an explanation. My name is not Adriel, it’s Caleb, and I am going to tell you everything.”

- Part 1 : End -