After the NYU tour, Ade and I decided to walk back home after getting off near the Brooklyn Bridge from one of the night buses. The area of the crash was heavy with traffic and yellow police tape. A few officers stood by, using their flashlights to see and guide cars through the lanes that weren't shut down. The police cruiser that had flipped was still there, in the same position of damage. The metal parts of the car were twisted and mutilated, glass shattered across the gravel streets.

I spent the last five minutes trying to put the pamphlets and applications I had gotten from the university into my bag, and Ade wouldn't slow down. It was hard trying to walk and shove things in there at the same time. I had to hold my bag with one hand, the papers with the other, and keep walking without stumbling over my own two feet.

"Hurry up." Ade called, a few feet in front of me. He had his hands shoved into the pocket of his jacket and whistled merrily as if he did not have a care in the world.

Glaring at the back of his head, I finally managed to get the papers into my bag (it was my favourite bag because it had a little braided strap and came with a matching lunch box. If you hadn't already guessed, I have a lot of favourite things.) without crumpling them up. Zipping it closed, I had to jog to catch up with Ade.

"You're a real dick, you know that?" I grumbled, falling into step with him.

Ade only grinned back. "I'm your  dick."

"Ew, I don't want your dick."

He stopped and stared at me. "You literally just changed my words around to make it dirty, Florence! I did not  say that."

"You're right." I patted his shoulder nicely. I did put Ade through a lot and I felt bad about it. After all, he was nice enough to show me around. Of course, even if Ade hadn't offered to take me along, I would have come along anyways. Friendship at its finest. I'm a great person, really. Ade just had to realize that sooner or later. "Hey, I have a question. When you get a boner, does it hurt? Like the thing? Does the thing hurt? Does the pee-pee hurt-"

"The only reason you're alive, Florence, is because murder is illegal."

"It's a serious question!"

"I'm not answering you."

"Ade!"

"What?" He groaned.

"I think I stepped on a bug."

"Oh, no." He said heartlessly.

"Hey, hey, hey." I sidled closer, accidentally on purpose shoving him off the sidewalk. Ade glared at me and climbed back up, trailing along with stifled annoyance. I was annoying, I know. It was just so fun to make Ade angry. "Did you see what happened to the Lane diner this afternoon?"

"The one next to the Espresso House?"

"Yes."

"No." He looked up, confusion flitting across his face. I felt one of his hands gently press against my lower back. At first, I thought it was a nice gesture until he began pushing me to walk faster. He wanted me to walk faster. What a polite way to tell me. "What happened?"

"Well, did you hear about the Brooklyn Crowns?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah." Ade nodded. "They're some type of mafia, aren't they? Based in this city, I think. I heard about them on the news this morning. Fascinating stuff, really. Did you know that the leader of the Crowns went to prison after his trial for cocaine smuggling, but he was only there for two days before breaking out? It was a real high security prison too, located in the middle of nowhere. He also initiated one of the biggest prison breaks in history, rumour has it. He and eighteen criminals broke out of Iris Penitentiary in Michigan a couple years ago, but the prisoners that Sterling helped turned out to be all of the guys who committed petty crimes like having weed and such. I also heard that half of 'em weren't even registered in the system- the cops had been holding them just because they wanted to."

"The more I learn about these guys, the more terrified I become." I frowned. A bunch of convicts in Brooklyn, especially after what happened this afternoon, was very bad for business. We didn't even have such good business to begin with, but that metaphorical rock was rolling down even faster now. "Well, you heard about the car crash, right? The one we just walked past?"

"Yes. Poor guy. I wonder if anyone was killed."

"It was like something out of a movie. The car that those guys were in, they swerved out of control and hit the Lane Diner." I cringed at the memory. As a fellow struggling business, I couldn't imagine the stress they felt over this. "Nothing on our property was damaged but the diner and car were smashed to pieces. We only knew about it because this ma-" I paused. For some reason, I decided not to tell Ade about the strange man. "We watched it live on the news."

"I must've missed it. Sorry about your business." Ade frowned at the cracked sidewalk. "I know how hard it's been lately for your parents. A gang is the last thing we need."

"Not even a gang. A mafia."

"Oh, wow."

I nodded. "You can say that again."

"Oh, wow."

I glared at him. "You know, I'd kill you too if murder was legal."

"Love you, Flo."

"Yeah, thanks." I mumbled. We were almost to the Espresso House, about a block away. The small shops and businesses alongside our coffee shop were all closed. Windows showed nothing but a pitch black darkness inside. In the Espresso House, a small light near the kitchen was on. Mom and Dad had already gone to the apartment. I was supposed to check up on everything and close up shop for the night before going home.

My fingers played with the small heart-shaped pendant on my necklace, the dull edges of the metal biting into my flesh. The metal was soon warmed from the heat of my skin. I tapped the pads of my fingers against it, feeling the intricate designs on the heart. Sighing, I let it fall from my fingers. The pendant swung a couple times before coming to rest against the indent of my collarbones.

Ade and I stopped in front of the coffee shop doors. He shoved his hands back into his pocket and glanced at something over my shoulder. In the glowing moonlight, his eyes had a strange lighted look to them. The reflections caught his eyelashes, illuminating and throwing their shadows against his cheeks. His ears were red from the cold and his eyes bright.

The Crowns car that had smashed against the Lane Diner was gone. Yellow police tape was still around the area. Broken bricks and plaster crumbled to the ground from where the car had hit the building. Strangely enough, there was no one around. I suppose everyone decided the mess could be dealt with the next day.

"Florence..."

"Yes?" My attention wasn't on Ade at the moment, so my reply came out less than half-hearted. Fumbling with the keys, I tried to shove it into the lock until I realized I was using the wrong key. Ade stood back, watching in amusement, as I grit my teeth and found the right key. My fingers were aching from the cold night air, and Ade's presence wasn't making anything better.

Finally, I managed to open the door. The warmth from the shop instantly soothed my aching hands, taking away the biting cold to be replaced with the comfort of the familiar surroundings. The shop was empty, as I expected, with chairs neatly tucked in and the windows covered with the shades pulled all the way down.

I turned around, ready to ask Ade if he wanted to come inside. I wasn't going to let him in even if he did say yes, but it was the thought that counted, really. However, Ade wasn't so interested in coming in as he was interested in adding even more to the pile of emotions I was feeling.

"Hey-" Surprised, I barely ducked down in time as Ade leaned forward, his face dangerously close to mine.

Unfortunately, the movement caused me to shift slightly to the left, letting Ade easily pin me against the cement of the door frame. Stunned, it didn't register to me that I should ask what he was doing, but instead, my quickly frazzled mind decided to play along with Ade's thoughtless actions. I didn't have time to really evaluate what was happening before I felt his lips gently press against mine.

A kiss so hesitant that I could barely feel Ade's mouth on my own. My heart pounded and I froze. I was too much in surprise to actually react to what was happening. Stoic and stiff, I tried to comprehend what Ade thought he was doing. He was kissing me. I was kissing him. We were kissing each other. Best friends, and a violent (kind of) makeout session ensues after three years. Kissing my best friends wasn't exactly something I'd consider doing lightly.

Ade's lips were wet and soft, moving against my own as if this was completely natural and totally not one-sided. Of course, those fleeting thoughts of being anything other than a friend to Ade had crossed my mind, as it does in most boy to girl friendships. But that's all they were...nothing more than a curiosity I had absolutely no desire of pursuing. How did this happen? One minute we were walking, and the next we were kissing besides a crime scene. Things like this were things I was not good at.

Finally, the revelation of it all crashed into me. Gasping, I shoved Ade's chest hard and clamped a hand over my mouth. Ade stumbled back, taken by surprise, but managed not to fall. A hurt look crossed his face for a second before giving away to concern.

"Ade!" I gasped, staring at him in horror. "What the fuck? What the fuck was that? What the fuck are you doing? Why the fuck would you ever do something like that!" Never in the eighteen years I'd been alive had a curse word ever left my lips, but now, suddenly the F-word was my favouritest word in all of the English language. "Ade! Why? Fuck! What the fuck? Why the fuck? Who the fuck?"

"I'm sorry!" Ade's mouth dropped open. He looked shocked, to say the least. "I thought that's where this night was leading? Was this not a date?"

"No! This was you showing me around my future college so I know where everything is. This was a friend helping a friend." I emphasized on the word 'friends' to make sure he got the message. "This was you being a nice enough person to show me around. A date, Ade! Where in the everloving fuck would you ever get that idea?"

"I don't know, Florence!" Now, it was Ade who seemed to be getting flustered. "I thought you were interested in me as more than just a friend-"

"What gave you that idea? I have literally never shown any romantic interest in you. What the fuck, Ade. What the actual fuck."

Ade covered his face with his hands. "This night was not going how I imagined it." He mumbled through the crevices between his fingers.

"The feeling is mutual, buddy."

Ade lowered his hands. "So you're not interested in me."

"I will shove ten leaves up your asshole."

"Well, I guess the answer is no." He shrugged and looked away. "Sorry about kissing you, Florence. I guess it was a bit uncalled for, but I'm glad we gave this a shot. It didn't work out, but it was nice to experiment."

"There's a tree right there, Ade, and the leaves are low enough for me to specifically grab ten of the biggest ones I can find to shove up that-"

"Okay!" Ade winced. "I'm sorry, Florence."

Regarding his apology with a skeptical look, I stepped back into the warm interior of the Espresso House. My heart was still beating hard and fast after the surprised high. Words twisted themselves in my head, words that I could not force off my tongue because they didn't even make sense to me. Ade's cool brush off of the whole incident had my mind reeling, as if this was no big deal. It was a very big deal...I just didn't know how to go about speaking of it without complicating things even more.

I sighed. I couldn't just leave this as it was. Obviously there were some unresolved feelings between us, and I was determined to fix them before the night was over. Ade, thinking he had nothing else to say or do, was already making his way across the street. Before he could step off the sidewalk, however, I gathered up what little courage I had left. "Ade, wait!"

"What?" He said without turning around.

"I hope this doesn't make things weird between us. You are my best friend, Ade, and I don't want that to ever change." Leaning against the doorframe, I watched his back. "Please, can we just forget this ever happened?"

Finally, after what seemed like the longest time, Ade turned around. In the darkness and how far away he was standing, I couldn't make out the expression of his face. He couldn't make me out so clearly either, and the mask of secrecy was very much appreciated at the awkward moment. Ade sighed heavily, his breath whistling out from between his teeth. "Okay." He said softly. "We can forget this ever happened."

"And never talk about it again?"

"Okay."

"And go back to being how we were before?"

"I promise."

I clicked my teeth. "Thanks, Ade."

"Goodbye, Florence." Even though I couldn't see his face because his back was to me, I could hear the smile through his words. Ade, looking up and down the street before crossing, crossed the street and made it safely to the other side. Not that any cars were passing through. The police tape took care of that. It always made me antsy to watch Ade cross the street. He was always so distracted, mind on something other than reality, that I was afraid he was going to get hit by a truck one day and die. Which would be a terrible thing to happen, of course.

I watched Ade until he finally turned and disappeared around the corner. Closing the door behind me, I didn't bother locking it since I was going to leave in a few moments anyways. The counter was still wet from the lemon-scented wipes. The coffee machines were all turned off. The kitchen was the same, all neat and proper with dishes put away and food tucked safely into the big steel refrigerator.

Picking up a bottle of water, I took a sip. The cold liquid soothed my parched throat. I had a tendency to get dry-mouthed in nervous situations. Taking in the silence, I took a moment to remember how Ade's lips felt against my own- until I realized I was once again dazing off. Time was ticking and I needed to get home soon before my parents got antsy.

Why would Ade do something like that, though? Was I somehow leading him on without knowing it? I didn't intend for our relationship to go anywhere other than the boundaries of a best friend. He had to know that. I thought he knew that.

Suddenly, a thumping noise startled me out of my reverie.

I froze, listening intently for the sound again.

I stood around for maybe a minute or two. When all I heard was silence, I sighed and snapped out of it. I was going to drive myself crazy. It was probably just something that fell down in the basement. Ade's kiss already had my mind twisted, I didn't need to stand around and freak myself out even more.

The sound came again, a bit muffled but still audible. It definitely came from the coffee shop cellar, though.

Now, I wasn't one to go investigating anything or sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. The way I saw it, as long as the supernatural creatures left me alone, they were welcome to do whatever the hell they pleased as long as it had not one spiffing thing to do with me. I saw enough horror movies to never go down into the basement alone at night, but when it had to do with my parents' careers, you bet your sweet little butt I'd be sticking my nose everywhere.

When in doubt, eat a Twizzler. Taking one out of my bag, I put it into my mouth and chewed the end slowly.

My heart flitted in my chest but I tried not to focus on that. I didn't creep along slowly until I got to the top of the basement steps. I mean, come on, that was like the start of every killer scene. The frightened, clueless girl ventures into the unknown and gets herself brutally killed with some macabre weapon of the killer's choice, usually by some rusty axe or a French knife...yeah, I watched it all and I wasn't about to put myself in that position. Not that I thought anything like that was ever going to happen.

Striding towards the door, I pulled it open. Looking down, all I could see was darkness, but that didn't last for long as I flicked the lightswitch. I'd been to the cellar many times before, it should be nothing too terrible now. However, the fact that I was alone added to the fact that I was also completely defenseless (well, I could throw a good punch or two but that was basically it) did make a shiver crawl down the back of my neck.

Standing at the top of the stairs, I realized how late it was and how much time I was wasting. I wasn't going to take my merry time with this. Just go down, check out everything to make sure it's okay, and then get home. With a deep breath, I climbed down the stairs and jumped down the last one, ready to get this over with and get into bed. I walked over to the cellar door and pulled it open.

When I saw what I was looking at, however, every thought of home was replaced with a blinding panic and fear.

And what I was looking at was three very big, very intimidating men. Two of them were sitting on the couch that was set in the middle of the room. They had matching brown hair and brown eyes. One of them had a beard. The other was in the process of setting up a Monopoly board on the coffee table. He was very tall and bulky, with dark blonde hair that was tied in a little bun at the back of his head and blue eyes. When I entered, they all froze and stared at me with wide eyes.

I screamed.

The one who was setting up the game screamed back, frightened of me as I was of him. The two men on the couch stood up. Panic crossed their faces as they grabbed their crash helmets sitting next to the couch on the floor and pulled them on.

"Oh my God!" I was the first to break my silence. In simple words...I freaked out. They freaked out too. For a moment, I was too stunned to even move. When three strange men break into your cellar and play Monopoly, there isn't really a normal way to go about from walking in on them. Suddenly, all of the chips clicked into place.

They were the same three guys from the white car that crashed into the Lane diner. The Crowns members. I guess the police didn't catch them after all, if they were making an encore performance beneath the Espresso House. The question was, how did they end up here?

The answer wasn't hard to find. Beyond the cellars were a couple tunnels that ran beneath the sewer lines of Brooklyn. I never got up the courage to go more than a few feet past the first tunnel. The twisting pathways and darkness was enough to make a person so turned around they'd never find their way back. However, the end of the tunnels that led past the cellar ended right besides the Lane diner, near the electric fence. The directions to get there from start to finish was a dangerous maze that led everywhere and nowhere all at once. They must've gotten in here through the end of the tunnel and made their way to the cellar. How, I'd never know.

"Ahh!" I pulled the Twizzler out of my mouth and held it like a knife. The shock of seeing three strange men in my cellar was a bit of a mind-boggler, really, and my mind was definitely boggled. I held the stick out in front of me, taking a protective stance. Maybe I could, I don't know, use the Twizzler to wrap around their necks and choke them out. "Get out! Get out, get out, get out!"

"Holy shit, Brice!" The blonde one with a ponytail leaped over the couch in one big hurdle and fell to the ground as the two others scrambled desperately towards the tunnels.

"Don't say my name in front of her, you idiot!" The brown-haired one with the beard snapped. He grabbed something off the floor and pushed the other man towards the exit. "She can't know who we are!"

"She saw us!" The blonde one hysterically shouted.

They were now at the foot of the tunnels that were opposite of where I stood, open-mouthed. Beardy turned to me, or at least I think he did because I couldn't see his face. In his hands was a black assault rifle. He stuck one gloved finger towards me. "You didn't see anything." He warned. Somehow, that warning sounded a bit worried and a whole lot hysterical. They seemed to be in as much of a panic as I was.

I stuck my half-eaten Twizzler back into my mouth. "I didn't see anything." I repeated.

"You said it was empty!" The other brown-haired one turned to Beardy, his voice holding accusations. He also had a gun. So did the third man. Since they were wearing crash helmets, their voices came out muffled. "What the fuck, Brice?"

"Don't say my name in front of the girl!" Beardy snapped again. He gave a shove to both the other men. "Come on! Just go."

"Yeah." I nodded, fear still clenching my stomach. Dealing with members of a dangerous mafia wasn't the way I wanted to end my night. Not that I'd ever win in a fight against them, anyways. They had real scary guns and I had a half-eaten Twizzler, so the odds were very much stacked against me like pancakes. "You should probably go."

"Yeah." Beardy said sourly. He had a very short temper, I noticed. "We were just about to do that, thanks."

I watched, my heart rate going back to somewhat normal, as they all turned around and scurried out to the tunnels. A moment later, they disappeared into the darkness. Footsteps faded out until the silence was replaced. For a moment, I stood in the middle of the cellar, trying to make sense of what just happened. Two occurrences with the Crowns was a very big deal.

But they didn't kill me. What a polite thing to do.

Do I call the cops or not? It was the right thing to do. But they already left...if the dogs couldn't find them, then neither could the police. Not at this time of night, anyways. Besides, navigating the tunnels was a job itself. They probably already got lost, and then a rotten smell would turn up for one whole month until someone went down to investigate and then we'd find their rotting corpses one hundred feet deep into the tunnels. So yeah, it'd all work out.

Dashing to the door, I locked and bolted it so the tunnels were closed off. In the darkness, they'd never be able to find their way back here, or so I hoped. The electricity lines didn't run as far as the tunnels did. After a few lightbulbs along the way, it was pitch black in there. I just hoped they'd be like pigeons and be able to find their way out.

Being alone in the cellar was giving me the creeps. I could deal with the mess they made in the morning. Right now, I wanted nothing more than to flop into bed and never wake up again. So kinda like dying. Except I didn't want to die. At least, not right now. I mean, not that I'd ever want to die...but when it was time to go, then it was time to go, you know? Wow, it was definitely time for me to go...home, I mean.

Flicking the lights off, I locked the other entrance, checked it three times, made it halfway up the basement steps before turning back around to make sure the doors were still locked, and then turned the basement lights off after I made it safely back into the shop. I checked everything until it was up to my satisfaction. Locking the front doors, I shoved the keys into my bag and crossed the street to the apartment complex, shaking my head at the sheer ridiculousness of everything.

What a mess this night was.