Barista Boy (boyxboy)

TWELVE

Zayden's pointer finger tightened on the trigger, feeling for when he knew he was aiming for the target. The black blindfold over his dark brown eyes didn't stop him from seeing his target. It did physically, but Zayden had such perfect aim that he could practically smell the center.

With a small intake of air, he pulled. The sound of a gun shooting filled the room but it didn't affect anyone as they all had ear plugs in.

A large round of applause went around everyone, making Zayden take his blindfold off to see how well he did.

Perfect shot.

His father was right. He was born for this line of work. That didn't mean he wanted to do it. He wanted Landon, and if that meant leaving everything behind, fuck it. Landon was everything to him. And the last week had proven that to him.

Just a week ago, Landon had agreed to be his boyfriend. The thing Zayden would've killed hundreds for. A simple label. But with Landon, it felt like so much more.

He wasn't allowed to think more on it as his father and a few of their colleagues came up to him. Giant smiles on their faces.

"Great job, son! I knew you could do it." His father lightly patted him on the back. As affectionate as a father could get.

"Thanks, dad," Zayden mumbled and nodded slightly.

Their colleagues, Derek, Brock, and Sunny, all stood around Jordan. Derek spoke first, "Honestly, I never doubted you. But I can't say the same for Brock here-" his voice wavered as he reached the end, rubbing the back of his neck.

Brock hit the others arm as Zayden chuckled at them, "Hey! That's not true! I'm pretty sure you were the one who said 'No one can make a perfect shot blindfolded.' Asshole."

Zayden laughed and placed a hand on Derek's shoulder, "It's okay. I don't care. Honestly, a perfect shot is hard to get even without a blindfold. It's cool." He nodded to them before walking away.

Barely anyone had normal conversations there so he didn't feel weird to just walk away or feel the need to hang around.

Zayden enjoyed being in Derek and Brock's presence. They were both very sarcastic and hilarious. They were a little older than Zayden and were best friends.

While Brock was born into the business, Derek was bought off from some other company. It was a hard bargain, but man was it worth it. Everyone loved Derek's energy and work ethic, but Brock was the one Derek attached to the most. The two became inseparable.

Sunny, though, was also born into the business. He had been trying to impress Jordan since the day he was born. Practicing with knives, guns, arrows, anything he could turn into a weapon. That boy saw Jordan as his idol, even though he had his own father to look up to.

Sunny's parents were actually the first couple in twenty years to be in the business. His mother was in it first and then learned how skilled of a fighter his father was and introduced him to the business, they became the best duo at that time.

Sunny was a very skilled fighter but he saw how Jordan spent all his time training his own boys to be better fighters. Since they were each 15, he had put his entire focus into them. Until now, when he showered them in attention and praise. Going around telling everyone how amazing his kids are.

It pissed him off.

But he kept his mouth shut. Knowing the consequences of speaking out against Jordan James. One of the utmost powerful men in the business right now. And he had been since before his kids were even born.