Devil on the Rooftop [Book 1]

Chapter 16 - Khaleel.

Hino Matsunaga was a pretty outstanding guy.
I knew him the longest and contrary to what my peers thought, he was my best friend. We were causing trouble long before Loyal transferred in. Our priorities were a little different at the time. I was trying to stay in my old man's good graces by giving up fighting and taking on a constructive hobby, while Hino climbed the social ladder. He was the most popular guy at Jackheights Middle, loved by both teachers and students. Prior to my friendship with the soccer prodigy, people took one look at me and got scared. They heard about my old man's business back home and gossiped about how our training facilities welcomed notorious thugs and goons from all around the world. Girls who flocked to Hino turned the other cheek when it came to me. I never hated him for it but I never planned on becoming his friend either.

If people were going to be afraid of me without any real reason then I wanted to give them a substantial one to fear me. Something so frightening and terrifying that it would be a cause for concern. I picked fights with people who bumped into me on school grounds. I swore and toppled desks to scare teachers who disrespected me. I teased girls that I was attracted to because I knew they would be too scared to retaliate. I broke bones, windows, a sink in the boys' bathroom, doors to the girls' bathroom, the basketball net in the gym, the French teacher's car lights, and anything else that pissed me off. The school board insisted that my old man put me in juvenile detention, to which he responded, "He won't learn anything there."

Instead, dear old dad sent me to Pakistan for the summer. He left me with my bat-shit crazy cousins, who managed to bring new meaning to the word scary. They hauled me out of bed one night, dunked my head under water, and kicked my ass to the point where I couldn't walk anymore. I had no idea what I did to piss them off but the more I questioned them, the more they tortured me. Thinking back on it now, I think they were trying to make sure I knew my place. Just because I was my old man's kid didn't mean shit and they were happy to remind me how weak I was.

A whole month passed and I woke up every day more terrified than the last. It wasn't until my thirteen birthday that I finally decided to retaliate. I wreaked havoc on the six of them. I thought my father was going to be displeased when he heard what I had done—how I shattered a spine, dislocated a shoulder, broke three fingers, a nose, and a leg. Instead, he sent me back to Canada that same day. He paid a massive fee to have me enrolled at Jackheights Middle and left Kumar to pick up the pieces. I felt so lost and unsure of myself having to return to school with my body stitched up and my face bandaged. It added to my bad boy persona but it also left me feeling very lonely.

The teachers were too scared to address me, the students too shaken up to walk in my path, but there was one person who saw through the rumours and assumptions. Hino Matsunaga. He approached me with a huge smile and asked, "Man, what the hell happened?"

I didn't want anyone talking to me out of pity. "What's it to you? Go find a ball to kick, you prick."

Hino laughed. "Want to come kick it with me?"

"W-What?" I was taken aback. "N-No!"

Hino nodded. "Yeah, you do!" he said, gently pushing me towards the soccer field. "Come on, I'll go easy on you."

"Don't do me any favours!" I yelled, getting caught up in the moment. I couldn't help myself. It had been so long since someone wanted to have a normal conversation with me. Hino didn't retaliate with mean words just because I did. He didn't pry into my life even though he had a million questions. He didn't talk to me as if he were walking on glass, as if I were damaged goods, which I absolutely was.

"If you're good at it then you should consider joining the school's soccer team," Hino beamed. "We're desperate for players."

"Over my dead body," I scoffed.

"Perfect! You're halfway there in this condition."