Leo

Chapter One

[Ria's POV]

New York’s a jungle and I’m a lion. It’s where I belong.

“Hey! Watch it!” I yell as a motor cycle misses me by mere centimeters. Wind blows through my black hair. I run towards the other end of the street. The thing about New York is that no one will wait for you. Waiting is for the weak and I am not weak. It’s either you catch the prey early or suffer starvation. I pant, I will never get tired of the city lights of this place. The loud arguments of the locals, I won’t get enough of it. Even if I’ve grown used to everything.

I run towards the apartment block by the corner. 2045 and everything is the same for me, Alexandria. I look at the wall separating us from the Aviators or the wealthy people. I live somewhere called Vesperin or what used to be Brooklyn, right now I still haven’t figured out where we currently are. Every three months or so we would move, the longest time we’ve stayed in one place is half a year. I turn left and see gangs running around with guns. We’re in the deepest part of what used to Brooklyn where the gangs ruled, where drugs became the closest trending topic next to Justin Bieber but that was a couple of decades ago. I run towards the old apartment that looks abandoned. Its bricks coming off one by one, someday this might collapse.

I push open the door, it won’t budge. Tsk, not again with this! I push open the door, harder. It banged open.

“I’m home!” I yell so everyone can hear me. Immediately, Marvin, my older brother comes charging in with a gun in his hand. No surprise there. (PS the gun is real). He points the gun directly at my head and I stare at him with my best poker face.

“GIVE ME ALL OF YOUR MONEY!” he yells with a little bit of spit coming out of his mouth.

“Very convincing, Marvin, if you’d talk insteada spit! Now take your gun and shove it up your a –” I begin.

“Ria?” Stephanie calls out.

“sssss” I finished reluctantly. “Yeah Stephanie! I’m here!”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Ria.” he says tucking the gun in his pocket. Under the broken lights, I looked at Marvin. Eighteen and he’s pretty good looking, black hair, green eyes, tanned skin, huge body (Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t work out, that’s from the steroids), and a great actor. He’s a part of a downtown gang who does the big deal around the city: they rob banks, steal from stores, you know the basics. But not once has he been ever caught. He pretends to be someone else to gain the confidence of others, especially the girls who are willing to trade millions of dollars just to be with him a night.

“I won’t. How about you, how many panties have you twisted this week?” I ask.

“Twenty and got $ 500, 000 three nights in a row.” he says proudly. “Speaking of which, I gotta go. I’m meeting a new one tonight.”

He’s wearing a tux, very classy. “What’s her name?” I ask.

“Who cares? It’s only a night, Ria.” He says, smirking and then pushing me aside so he can exit the door. I shake my head in dismay. I’m ashamed of him. I walk through the hallway, looking for Stephanie. I found her in the kitchen, cooking. There are two things that I love about Stephanie: One, she can tolerate my brother way better than I can. Second, she can cook anything from nothing.

“What’s for dinner?” I ask checking the pot she had over the stove. When I popped open the lid, an eyeball comes popping out of the red broth. I slam the pot shot. “Do I even wanna know?”