Second Chances

Chapter Two

Author note: Here it is~Chapter Two! Thank you to everyone that has read the first chapter so far. Please vote & comment~how else am I going to know if anyone likes this or what direction the story should go in?!  :D    

     I looked at my watch to see how much time I had before I had to leave. My stomach rolled uncomfortably when I saw that I only had about twenty minutes to go. I went back to staring at the ceiling as I thought about the mistake that I was about to make.

     I had been in auto shop a few days ago, sitting up against the wall and praying that I didn’t have to do anything mechanical when he’d walked into the garage. The leader of the Mustangs himself. He went by “Boss”, though I think that his real name was something like Nick. He didn’t go to our school (I think he might actually be in his early twenties) but no one questioned his right to be here on school grounds, not even the teacher. In fact, Mr. Anderson went out of his way to cross to the other side of the garage when Boss walked in, even as half the class greeted him with a lot of complicated hand signals.

     I looked up curiously and then quickly lowered my gaze when it collided with Boss’s unusually light blue eyes. I continued to watch him out of the corner of my eye as he walked towards the group of guys standing around the Chevy that was sitting on the hydraulic lift.  With his white blonde hair and his unusual eyes, he reminded me of a Siberian husky. His face was blank from any emotion as he calmly returned the attention with a curt nod even as those freaky eyes scanned the garage looking for something. Or someone. His eyes fell to where I was huddled on the floor and he started in my direction.

     My heart stuttered in my chest before resuming with a frantic beat and my breath froze in my throat. I knew that if Boss wanted to kick my ass for whatever reason that no one in this room, Mr. Anderson included, would lift a finger to stop him. The teachers and even the principal were scared to cross Boss for fear of retaliation.

     “It’s Chris, isn’t it?” he asked me as he casually leaned against the wall next to me. I could only nod at him. My tongue felt like it was glued to the top of my mouth. “I heard about your dad. I understand they never caught the guy that did it.”

     I nodded at him again even though it wasn’t a question. I was still trying to figure out what Boss wanted from me. He wasn’t the type of guy to wander in off the street for some random conversation. I just couldn’t for the life of me see what information I would know or what I could have that Boss would want.

     He lit a cigarette and inhaled as his eyes never left my face. My eyes flickered to Mr. Anderson, who was resolutely trying to pretend that he had gone deaf and blind to what was going on in the corner. My eyes returned to Boss’s face as he continued with, “What the police don’t know is that it wasn’t a simple robbery. Holding the store up was a gang initiation for the Chaos Kings; your father was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

     I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I literally doubled over while still kneeling on the floor and tried to catch my breath. Boss just continued to lean on the wall above me, puffing on his cigarette and waiting patiently for me try to get control of my emotions.

“I can help you take care of this. That is, if you want me to.”

     “What do you mean?” I spat the words out, still trying to get my breathing under control.

     “You meet me and I’ll take you to the guy that did your father.”

     My mind was racing with a million questions. Did Boss really know who killed my father? Why would he bother to help me with this in the first place? What was in it for him? And finally, would my conscience allow me to watch the guy that killed my father die? Cause I wasn’t completely naïve. I knew that Boss wouldn’t go to the trouble of leading me to my father’s killer if that person wasn’t already on his hit list. I just didn’t know why I was being dragged into this. Yet.