"Do we call the cops?!" I half shouted at Blade. The whole thing had freaked me out to the max. There was a dead person lying on the ground for crying out loud!
"We can't..." He said slightly drifting off.
"What?! Why not?!" I said a little louder than before.
"Because Zach has already warned us. Believe me, you don't want to mess with him. He knows what he's doing..."
"So that's it? We are just going to leave Robert laying here?!" I shouted in a panic.
"We don't really have a choice Aly!" Blake yelled back.
We silently turned around and headed down the stairwell. Once we got outside, we looked out at an empty driveway.
"Well I'm guessing the car we heard driving away was Zach..." Blake said blankly.
~
After a 6.5 mile walk, we had finally made it to downtown Miami. With no destination, Blade and I kept walking until we came across a Taco Bell. It wasn't until then that I realized I was starving. I looked at Blade and he had the same hungry look as I did.
"Do you have any money?" I asked.
"I do.... In the fucking car," He said. He was obviously pissed that I had even brought it up.
Although we didn't have any money, Blade was acting as if he had a plan. He took out his phone and flipped through his songs. After searching for a while, he clicked on one that read "Beautiful Soul". He put his phone on the curb and sat down next to it. After the intro was done playing, he began to do the very last thing I had expected: sing.
Blade, the bad boy who had kidnapped me, wore dark clothes, And Jordans was singing. Aside from that, it was GOOD.
Before I could even process what was going on, people were giving him money left and right.
As the song came to an end, I realized that I had heard this cover before. Austin Mahone had made a YouTube video of himself singing it a long time ago. That's when it all made sense: the bad boy that I had been with for the past day, was my idol from my childhood.
Soon, he turned to me with a fist full of cash- about $15. Even though he had just made us enough money for some food, he looked very upset.
"What's wrong?" I asked trying to hide the fact that I had just put the pieces together.
"It's just... It's... Well.... It's been a while since I've done that" he finally got out.
I smiled and gave him a pat on the back. "I thought it was great," I said with a smile.
We walked in to Taco Bell and I ordered 3 soft tacos and Blade ordered 4 burrito melts. We sat down at one of the many empty tables. Blade started to unwrap his first burrito but all I could do was watch him.
"What's your problem?" He said.
"Ah nothing... I was just thinking about this one kid that I used to watch on YouTube."
When the words came out of my mouth, Blade froze.
"He was very good," I continued. "He sang that same song that you sang outside. His name was also the name of a city in Texas... Dallas? No... Oh yes! It was Austin! Austin Mahone!"
I was having fun with this. But by the look on Blade's face, he wasn't enjoying it at all. Which made my pleasure increase even more!
"Fine. You caught me.." He said. "But can we drop it please."
I was surprised with his comment.
"What? No way! I have so many questions for you! Like what happened? Why don't you still make the videos? You still have a great voice! And why are you calling yourself Blade now? And-"
"Because it's I'm the past. That's why." He said not budging.
I looked at him and grabbed his hand. He started to pull away, but then relaxed. I looked deep into his brown eyes. "Please?"
"... Okay," he gave in, "As you know, I made the YouTube videos. They we a lot of fun as a kid and it was just kind of something to do in my free time. Soon, I was getting viewers that would request more videos. I called my fans 'mahomies'," he blushed. "Anyway, after a while, the kids at school got mean. They would make fun of me and call me a 'wannabe' and stuff. But of course, I ignored them just like everyone told me to. The next step was to try and get signed by a record label. But every label I went to would tell me the same thing as the kids at school. Soon, I began to believe all the things everyone was saying... So I have up on the dream. In order to forget it all, I told everyone my name was Blade, started wearing darker clothes, got a few tattoos," he rolled up his sleeve.
"But you didn't get ride of the Jordans?" I asked with a wink.
"Well... No..." He smiled his genuine smile. "But to this day, I don't sing much. Only if I really need to and only for people who I trust."
"But you sang in front of me," I said with a slight questionable tone.
He didn't answer. Only a smirk.
