Alyssa

"Are you sure that's the only way?" Cindy asked me after heaving a sigh

I looked down not wanting to meet her gaze once I told her.

"I don't know Cind's but whenever I find out, I'll tell you." I replied numbness slowly feeling me

We've been at this park for about an hour now, and we've been talking about me moving. She tried comforting me, but deep down we both know nothing good is going to come out of this.

When the streetlight flickered above us, I knew it's time for us to leave.

Except I don't want to.

I don't want to leave my best friend behind, I don't want to leave my house behind, and I surely don't want to leave Aunt Max and Uncle Kyle behind.

Everything is so unfair, and I can't do anything about it.

"Do you... Do you know when you're leaving?" She asked me bringing me out of my thoughts

I turned my attention towards her, but my shoulders slumped even more once I realized what she asked.

"No, my parents didn't tell me, but I do know that it's going to be soon." I replied making her usual happy and preppy self fade away slowly

I hate that I'm the reason behind it, but there's nothing I can do. My parents planned this out and didn't even consider my feelings.

"We can at least do something before you leave. You know like a celebration?" She suggested bringing me out of my thoughts

"What do you mean?" I asked turning towards her

"You know what I mean." She replied with a devious smirk

I chuckled because I knew she wanted us to go to the club.

Our favorite club is The Red Moon, because their most popular drink is the Mango Tango Slurpee.

Cindy and I drunk it a couple of times  and now it's one of my favorites, along the Cherry Hillside Blast.

Where they get their names from I have no idea, but they're delicious.

"The club?" I asked grabbing my things so we can leave

"The club." She confirmed making me smile softly

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xavier

"God, I need a drink." I informed De'Andre who's wiping the stress from his temples

The meeting with the Michael's was very hectic and stressful and it's going to take a toll on the company.

"So do I." He agreed in grieve

"Where do you want to go?" I asked sighing heavily

The only thing I wanted at this point is to forget about the meeting.

The Michael's really did it this time.

"The Red Moon." De'Andre replied smirking

I smirked and nodded at his claim and went to go take a shower.

The Red Moon is a famous club downtown because of their Mango Tango Slurpee. It's one of my personal favorites and it gets me exactly what I want.

A good fuck.

Because it's one of the most popular, they sell the quickest but gets the women in bed the fastest.

But because some of the workers behind the bar know us, we have two or three bottles behind the counter.

Ah, I love the perks of having money.

I walked into my bathroom after I got my clothes then turned on the shower, and went to the mirror to check my exterior.

I heaved a sigh and ran my hands over my face trying to gather my thoughts.

I've been trying to keep up this facade for so long, but it seems as if it's going to bite me in the ass sooner or later.

Even though De'Andre and I have been doing good in the industry so far, I can't help but think of my past. When I was younger, I made a young and powerful man very unhappy.

And he goes by the name Mark Olson.

Mark and I used to be best friends along with De'Andre, and we used to live in California when we were younger. We used to do everything together and we even dreamed of running this company together.

But life fucked that up.

He had a daughter by the age of 17, and told us he needed to get out of the situation because if word had gotten to the press, Uncle Carlos wouldn't let him take ownership of the company.

Uncle Carlos didn't want anyone to know about the baby, and surely he didn't want the press going crazy about it.

But a few months before we were supposed to move to Arkansas, I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I thought I was doing the right thing by going to his baby mother's house and telling her everything, but that day she had another man over.

I felt disgusted because I knew she just had a baby with someone who was like a brother to me, and now she's having sex with some random.

And that made my blood boil.

Without thinking I shot her and the man she was sleeping with, but before I could get out of the house, Mark stepped in.

When he saw the gun in my hand and the dead body in the bed, he flipped and lunged towards me.

He thought it was the girl of his dreams in the bed, but he was sadly mistaken.

But before I could tell him, he started shooting me while threatening my life.

I quickly got back into my car and drove back to my house and packed my shit to move.

I didn't tell De'Andre because I didn't want him to worry about Mark, but when I told him we had to move, I told him that we needed to take over the company early.

He question me so in that moment everything seemed okay because I still had a brother who would go to the ends of the Earth for me.

This happened about 2 years ago but that day still haunts me, because I made his daughter motherless.

Which is why I need this collaboration with the Michael's to go perfect.

I secretly asked Mr. Michael's if we could finish the collaboration in Los Angeles so Mark could never have an exact target on me.

But now that I'm thinking about it I'm even more stressed.

Why am I stressed?

Well, while De'Andre and I were having the meeting, Mr. Michael kept saying he could take part of our company.

Now that was where De'Andre and I draw the line.

This company is our company.

Our father passed this company down to us before he died and Uncle Carlos demanded to never share any profit or ownership to anyone else other than each other after he found out about Mark's daughter.

So when he offered that part of the deal we instantly backed out.

But saying no to the Michael's is a death threat because they're always demanding a 'yes'.

Which means he didn't stop there, and after a while Mrs. Michael's started to take her husband's side which made me angrier.

I told them that the company is ours and we basically took an oath to keep it that way.

But what added fuel to the fire was their final comment, and its still ringing in the back of my mind.

"If you don't give me at least 35% of your company, the entire collaboration is off."

In that moment, I gulped and loosened my tie while De'Andre wiped the sweat from off of his face.

We both knew how it was going to play out, but we hoped it would've been in our favor for various reasons.

Now all we can do is wait.