Whirlwind

Octavia

The summer when we were 6, Octavia lost her father to addiction. Up until then, she had a normal home life with loving parents and her younger sister, Alessandra. They were completely blindsided by this loss as he had been a closeted addict. Octavia took it surprisingly well and never really let it affect her but it took a toll on her self-image. Her mother had been spiraling for years and she felt that because her father was a completely different person than she thought, she didn't deserve to be loved properly. Our parents were friends but after that incident, it put some distance between them as her mother pushed everyone away.

We never really argued or fought growing up we were always so in sync. But ever since we entered high school, we've been at each other's throats almost every other day.

9 AM

A knock at the door broke me from my thoughts, "what are you doing here," it was Octavia, of course.

"Can we talk please?" I was reluctant to let her in but we sat on the couch. "I'd like a chance to explain, it wasn't what it looked like."

"Oh, so it didn't look like my best friend was conspiring against me with my ex-love interest?" I was using no effort to hide how pissed I was.

"No that is not what we were doing... he came over to tell me what Ace was saying about me..."

"Okay, why couldn't he have texted you?"

"Because... we were planning his murder..."

"What?" I was shocked to hear that Octavia even had thoughts like that. "Wait why does that even concern Brooks?"

"Because he hates Ace for raping his sister"

"What the fuck??? This is crazy"

"That's not the only reason I came over" She paused and looked down at her hands as if what she was about to say would ruin everything. "We want your help"

"My help?!?!"

"Please you are the smartest person I know and I'm sorry for being such a shitty friend but once he's gone I can focus on being a better person and friend" She cut me off frantically pleading her case.

I pondered for a moment before responding, "hell yeah, I'm in."

12 PM

I checked the house for any sign of my father, it was Sunday and he normally was out with a couple of friends playing golf. I snuck into his office and started sifting through his drawers. I pulled out a manilla envelope and pulled out the papers inside. They were deeds to businesses in the city. 'Why does he have these? Does he own them?' I thought to myself as I continued to dig through his papers. There was an envelope addressed to Capo Romano. 'Capo Romano? That sounds like the mafia.' I pulled out a letter, it looked like a little boy had written it:

Dear Capo Romano,
Please have mercy on my family, they mean no harm, they just want to have a good business and make money to give me good things.
Percy

"I killed his father before I received the letter" I about jumped out of my skin. My father was standing against the door frame. 

"How could- Who- What is this??"

"We are a mafia family Parker, I didn't want you to find out this way,"

"We own half of the city!"

"I know"

"You killed a child's father, you are a father!"

"I didn't know he had a family, he was caught scamming me. The day I ordered a hit on him, I received that letter, I tried to stop it but it was already done. That's why I've been on edge the past week. It's torn me up inside." He had sat down at this point, sulking.

"How could you not tell me you were a part of this life?"

"Because the last thing I wanted was my family involved in such a dangerous business."

I was in disbelief, my father was the capo of the Romano mafia, how was that possible? Although I was in shock, I came up with an idea. "Could you help me with something?"

"What would that be?" My father asked, shocked by my response.

"Can you help me commit a murder?" I explained the situation to my father.

"I see... Tell your friends to meet us at your smoke spot, we will discuss things there."

2 PM

"We need to discuss the details of this plan quickly and thoroughly, this can be the only time we meet as we don't want this traced back to us. We do this in two months." My dad explained.

"Two months? I want this asshole dead yesterday." Brooks was tense clenching his jaw, his sister had to undergo many surgeries because of Ace, and nothing was being done to him.

"It has to be this way we don't want anything to follow us." Brooks turned and looked out the window of the Escalade we were sitting in, he was pissed because he knew my father was right. We discussed the plan through every detail and made sure everything was covered.

"Parker, you want to stay over tonight?" Octavia asked, I smiled and had my father drop us off at her place.

11 PM

"It's just like old times," Octavia poured our drinks while I popped some popcorn.

"Yeah it's nice," I smiled looking towards her. We hadn't enjoyed a night like this since freshmen year and I missed it. It was odd being back in our old routine but was also happy, I finally felt the old Octavia was coming back to me.