06

I HATE COLLEGE.

Granted I've never even attended one and for good reason. College is a scam. They spend most of your childhood telling you about how important it is and how you have to go to be successful when in reality the average person who attends college ends up in debt for the next thirty-plus years of their life and by the time they pay it off they're one foot into their grave when the realization that they've spent the majority of their paying a bills for a piece of paper they left sitting in storage. My father tried his best to get me to go and said it'd be better for me than any of the things I was interested in. He was wrong, so terribly wrong.

If I would've gone when he told me to a lot of shit would be different around here and I'm not just talking about our household. The entire city of New York would feel like a parallel world if I had gone to college instead of staying home to help out my father. While most eighteen-year-olds worry about grade point averages and college acceptance letters I was flying overseas to meet with cartel leaders to discuss the drug trade. My exams were learning the language and cultural norms of different countries so I could converse with their biggest criminals or kill them — depending on the day.

I didn't have a normal upbringing like most people. Even with all the money, all the private schools, and the countless gifts at the snap of a finger, my life has been anything but average from the time I was able to hold a gun in my hands at the ripe age of seven.

I guess that's why my father tried his hardest to make sure my siblings had the typical ordinary life when it came to their upbringing and it worked out for the most part. My sister Allure went to college, some fancy fashion school in London. She lived a life like a normal girl until I had to ask her to get married. Do you know how uncomfortable is to ask your younger sister to marry someone she's never met? Very. It's very uncomfortable but it's something that had to be done and Allure knows that which is why she went through with it without much hesitation. Her only request was that she meet the guy beforehand. I complied and flew the Russian bastard over and we forged an alliance that day.

Out of all of my father's children, Allure is the bravest. I tell her that all the time though she just laughs and brushes it off. "Just doing my duty as a Bellerose." She always says.

The youngest Enzo however, is not so compliant like our sister. He's the complete opposite. Despite having the most freedom out of all of us he still someone manages to fuck shit up. When he randomly decided he wanted to go to school to study fucking music my father let him, and paid his tuition in full and now we get calls and emails almost every day about how Enzo hasn't been seen in any of his classes in weeks. He hasn't been home either which stresses Father out even more when Enzo knows that's the last thing he needs right now.

"Fucking idiot," I mumbled my thoughts aloud as I watch my little brother send me to voicemail once again. He's such a fucking pain in the ass. I shake my head shoving my phone back as I walk around this stupid college campus. I shouldn't even have to be doing this. If he would just answer the phone and I tell him which building and apartment number to go to he could simply ask one of his fellow college students for the hard drive. There's a password on it so there's no doubt that Kylo guy has it just sitting around on his desk or whatever college students have in their damn rooms.

Now I'm the one having to come on this campus. I should've just sent one of my men to do this. It would've been a hell of a lot easier but knowing them they'd probably just scare the guy and change the trajectory of his life when all that isn't necessary for the simple taste of getting back a hard drive. The last bit of information Maurice sent over to me regarding this Kylo character was his building number and apartment number which if my navigation skills are correct (which they always are) I should be coming up to it in a while.

I don't know what I expected for a performing arts school called St. Mary's but it's surely not this. Even after midnight, the school grounds are very lively. Students are walking around with red solo cups, some getting out Ubers together in outfits fit for the nightlife of the city. I can see a couple of them sitting together sharing a joint by a statue of who I am beloved to be the founder of the school. Thankfully none of them seemed to give me second glances as I made my way around campus. Mostly because their eyes are too glued to their phones to notice but even still I had expected even a few questionable looks. I remember it's college and everyone's adults here but I don't look like the average adult now, do I?

I walked around a little more until I heard something that made me stop in my steps. It was a muffled thump of something or someone hitting the wall that caught my attention, followed by a yelp of pain and other voices rising just out of sight, one more of a snarl than anything else. I followed the noise until I found myself coming upon a scene I surely wasn't expecting.

"Woah woah woah, no need for all that man!" Enzo's voice is painfully recognizable for me and I watch from afar as he's pushed up against his black Ferrari by some guy whose face I couldn't make out because he was facing the opposite direction. I get closer.

"What the fuck do you mean no need for all that? You stole my shit! I had some important people about to buy that molly and you fucking gave it away for free, like a dumbass?!" The darkened figure yelled at Enzo, his voice growing more intense by the second. He raised his hand preparing to land a punch.

Within what felt like a millisecond I'm closer to the scene, the man's raised first now wrapped around my hand as I stood over him. It happens so quickly that both Enzo and the man are caught off guard and once they notice me both their eyes go wide. "Touch him and I'll kill you," I said to the man. He made a face at me. "Who the fuck-" I don't bother to let him finish his sentence, using my strength to bend his wrist back hearing that satisfying bone crunch that sends him to his knees in pain.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Enzo questions me like he's in any right to ask me questions.

"Where the fuck have you been?" I asked him. "Everyone's been trying to reach you the past few weeks. Dad has been worried sick-"

Enzo scoffed. "He's always worried."

"Because you make him worry!" I found myself getting irritated, even with the man's broken wrist still in my hand.

"I don't need your protection Stone."

It's my turn this scoff now, my head shaking at him. "Really? It seems like you fucking do. If I hadn't come this fucking bum would've socked you square in the face." I looked down at the man in pain getting annoyed by his wailing so I planted the bottom of my shoe against the side of his face knocking him over on his side. "What are you doing with this fool?"

"Not everything I do is your business. Can't you and Dad just leave me the fuck alone for once? I'm doing my own thing and I don't need you two playing captain save a hoe. I could've handled this myself."

I exhaled a low sigh. Not this whole I'm my own man now spill again. "I get it. You think you're hot shit now and doing your own thing because you sell fucking party drugs to college students? That's nothing Enzo. Once you're helping move 300lbs of cocaine through the border of Mexico via moving truck, communicating through a walkie-talkie with a guy whose language you don't even speak then come talk to me about doing your own thing because what you're doing right now is little boy shit."

"You've fucked up now man!" A voice came behind me and I turned around the see the guy from earlier not standing on his feet, a Glock 26 in his hands — that one I didn't break. There's another man behind him, his hand stuffed in the front of his jeans showcasing another gun.

I immediately grabbed ahold of Enzo, both of us ducking as the man fired a shot that flew right over our heads and into the window of Enzo's car, the glass shattering everywhere. I moved around to the other side of the car, my back pressed against the black Ferrari for cover while Enzo crouched beside me covering his ears as gun shuts sounded off around us.

"Fuck man, I'm gonna have to get that fixed now." He groaned, eyes rolling as bullets flew overhead.

I reached inside the brim of my pants grabbing ahold of my own semi-automatic pistol. "I do not feel like doing this tonight." I sighed. "Stay down."

Enzo nodded as I crouched and walked over to the trunk of the car, peering from the side to see the two still firing carelessly. A shot is fired in my direction and I quickly duck and move from my position. Another window is shattered over us and I use the debris as a cover to quickly stand and fire a shot through the not shattered windshield. I'm good at shooting guns, naturally. First time I shot a pistol I was right on target. I enjoy it. Feeling that there was a thing I could do that well gave me quite a boost as a child and now I'm more than qualified. So I don't think twice before pulling the trigger back with my index finger, I hold it tightly letting my shoulder intake the recoil from the rifle, a small "click" sounding off once I release the trigger.

One shot is all it takes. One shot is all you need.

One of the men falls back onto the ground which catches the other shooter off guard and I use that to my advantage, standing and firing another shot. I can see the red staining the cigarette pocket of his button-up as he slowly slumps to the ground. The gunfire around us ceased and I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding.

Great, more mess I'm gonna have to clean up.

"My fucking car!" Enzo cried out as he made his way around his battered vehicle. The windows completely burst and bullet holes decorated the side like Swiss cheese.

I sent him a look. "You have like two more." I remind him.

"I know but this one was my favorite," He said, running a hand over the shot outside the rearview mirror. "and you ruined it!" he shouted at me.

"Me? It was those fucking bums you were chatting it up with, speaking of which . . ." I made my way over to their lifeless bodies on the ground. Knowing what was coming Enzo turned his head elsewhere as I fired a few shots into them for safe measure.

"That wasn't necessary." He said turning back around.

"It's always necessary," I say to him before making my way back over to him grabbing ahold of him. "Now come on I'm taking you home."

Enzo snatches away from me. "Fuck all that. I'm not going back to that depressing ass house with you and dad." I opened my mouth to say something but the flashing of blue and red lights followed by sirens cut me short. Fuck me. I don't want to deal with this shit right now.

"Good luck explaining to the cops why you're on campus with no student ID big bro!" Enzo gives me the middle finger as he jumps into his driver's seat through the shattered window and starts it up. He speeds up and takes off in the night leaving me right where I stood. All I could do was shake my head. He's such a pain in the ass, my ass specifically.

I don't think about it for much longer and start running in the opposite direction of the oncoming police. I took a sharp right turn down another street until I reached a fence and cursed under my breath. I looked behind me still flashing blue and red. I began scaling up the fence, completely disregarding my clothes that were getting scratched up along the way. I just needed to get as far away from the scene as possible. I reached the top and looked over at the cops a few feet away with flashlights in their hands. I try to scale back down but I misstep and lose my balance, falling straight to the hard ground, my arm scraping against a few loose wires of the iron fence slicing my triceps a bit and that's when I noticed the small bulelt graze along it.

"Shit," I hissed rubbing my shoulder. There's a trial of blood and a small slash, a stinging sensation coming along with it. I don't have time to complain now so I'll save it for later. I jump to my feet before taking off again. I made a left into a parking lot of a building, the word "student housing" on a sign nearby. Fuck. All this other shit happened and I completely forgot about the hard drive which is the only reason I'm even here in the first fucking place. I pull out my phone checking to see if this is the right building number and to my surprise it is.

There's no way I can walk inside especially looking like this. They'd alert the police almost immediately. There has to be another way in. I run around to the other side of the building seeing a fire escape. I count the number of windows I can see from here and when I get to the fifth floor I start again searching for the right one or for what I can hope is the right one. My finger lands on a window that's already on, the light on, and the curtains open.

No way it's that easy.

But I don't have time to second guess. I run over to the fire escape, having to jump with all my might to just barely cling to the first ladder and bring it down to my level. I scale it until I'm on the first balcony and then I take the stairs the rest of the way up until I count up to the level fifth of the fifth floor. The window on the fifth level of the fire escape leads directly into a hallway as did most of the levels so I begin to scale the windows. I hold my own body weight up as I climb on the outside windows from the frame, trying my best to ignore and sting in my shoulder and the five-story drop below me.

Once I reach the open window I pull myself inside with the little strength I had left, my body falling face first into hard flooring. I roll over my back for a second to catch my breath. There was a loud alarm sound coming from outside the door and as I listened closer it sounded like an alert.

"ATTENTION STUDENTS! WE ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING LOCKDOWN. THERE ARE ARMED INTRUDERS ON CAMPUS, I REPEAT THERE ARE ARMED INTRUDERS ON CAMPUS PLEASE GO INSIDE YOUR ROOMS AND LOCK YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS UNTIL WE ANNOUNCE OTHERWISE!"

I shot up from my position on the floor.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

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EXCUSE ANY MISTAKE OR ERRORS