MAFIA'S LITTLE OBSESSION

It was dinner time... finally. Earlier, when my parents were toasting a glass of wine with Nole’s boss, I had used the distraction to run up to my room and draw. My solitude hadn't lasted too long, as my mother called me for dinner not even a half an hour later. Somehow, even the aroma of pasta didn't tempt me enough to enjoy my current situation. "So, Jude," Nole injected after a short pause from the earlier conversation, "how is school going? Still getting good grades?" My mother answered. "He's doing fantastic, aren't you, Jude? Top of your class." I nodded dubiously. "You just said it mother." With my fork, I played with a stray noodle, watching as it sprang across my plate like a grasshopper. "Fantastic…" This was so boring. All I wanted to do was go up into my room, listen to music and draw. As the minutes rolled by, I was getting more annoyed that my parents insisted on calling Nole’s boss 'Mr. DeLuca' instead of his first name. But then again, it wasn't as if the man wer

Nole wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I stood at the entrance of the school, dressed in my bedraggled school uniform. The collar was stiff and irritating against my sweaty neck. I had opted out of taking a shower in favor of getting food as quickly as possible. Around me, students were scattered around the school grounds. I lived in an influenced neighborhood, that much was obvious from all the luxurious cars rolling in and out of the school parking lot. The show of status did not sit well with me. From personal experience, most of these parents neglected their children and made up for it by purchasing a flashy car. My parents were that way. While they expected much, they rarely supported me, they were rarely there. Instead, they bought me plenty of things to make up for their absence. I didn’t want or need the things my parents purchased me, but I wasn’t about to be ungrateful. I sold most of the things my father gave me in order to save money for art utensils and create a separate ac

I couldn’t even find it in myself to be annoyed with her flirtatious implications when the food was right in front of me. I bit eagerly into my hamburger, nearly inhaling it before I realized I was in public. It took some restraint, but I was able to slow down and make myself look like I had manners. Against my better judgment, I began to think more about what DeLuca had said earlier. He wasn’t old. In fact, he looked only a few years older than myself and Nole. If what he said was true, about his father owning a business and the constant security, then I could understand why he would want to be around someone he could unwind with. The man had been stiff and proper, almost cold and unfeeling at my parents’ dinner. Even if the man still appeared frosty, he seemed to have lightened up a bit with me. If I didn’t have Rhys, I wouldn’t know how I would have survived all these years. “Does it bother you?” I asked cautiously. “Being in your father’s business and having to be professional

Nolan “Nole” Harlow stood awkwardly in the parking lot to his old school.Around him, a couple of police officers lingered. His mother and father were standing next to him, speaking to a police officer and offering details. His mother kept repeating it wasn't like Jude to skip school. Technically, they couldn't officially file a missing-person report, but the police were here to investigate a kidnapping at the request of the infamous Harlow lawyers.What made the situation even more ironic was that Rhys was missing as well, Jude's best friend.That was all Nole needed to know. Jude hadn't been kidnapped, but rather manipulated to do something he shouldn't have done in the first place. Nearby, Rhys' parents were standing, their expressions not at all amused if not a bit daunting.Nole had been called by his hysterical mother. She had informed him that the school called and reported Jude's truancy. As it happened, Nole had been in the same car as Roman DeLuca at the time of the call. En