The Three Lies…
Let me tell you right now I felt sort of better when I heard Lea tell me that she wasn't mad at me. But I was still uneasy about what had occurred earlier that day. The whole situation just seemed to overwhelm me. I quite cannot place how I truly felt at the time about Donatello. That WAS very confusing to me. I never felt anything like that before. I didn't know what to think of that. Then the whole invitation I got from a total stranger. I mean even though the guy had spoke to me in the store and recognized me on the subway train; he was still a total stranger. I hardly knew anything about him except for the fact that he really wanted me to go to this concert and come to a meeting tomorrow evening. I didn't even know the guy's name! But then again I hardly knew Don and look how close I had got to him! But I need to get Donatello out of my head. That is just really freaky and I shouldn't even think of him anymore. I can't stress to myself enough that they are not even human and that any thought of having feelings for such a creature is highly ridiculous! But yet I grow sad when I tell myself to forget him. It's like I WANT to be with him. I think I just need to get out of this city! To make things first, I was a little confused on what Lea was talking. The way she was talking about Leo, it was as if she liked Leonardo a little or something. You know, you would think that this would help me feel better but in fact it made me feel kind of worse. If for some reason she had grown to like Leonardo as much as how I was feeling towards Don but even as in a friendship, it would make things worse. I don't know why but I wanted to keep the idea in my head that it wouldn't work out between Donatello and I because we were 2 different species but if Lea had grown to like Leo then it means that perhaps it wasn't so wrong after all.
Lea had asked me what I wanted to do the following day. I still wanted to attend the meeting but I didn't want her to know about it. Lea was very protective of me and I knew she wouldn't go for me meeting these guys. Even if she did let me go, she would go with me and I didn't want her there. My mind was so clouded by everything that I just wanted to be alone and do this without bringing her into this. All of my life I have learned not to get too attached to people. When I was younger I craved for friendship, that's when I never got it. I use to be made fun and pushed aside. Even when I did make a friend, I learned that I would lose them at some point either by them moving or getting a boyfriend or whatever and if they were still there with me then they would stab me in the back by some reason. I kind of felt sorry for the way I was treating Lea. She seemed like she cared for me a lot but I didn't want this. I wanted to be alone. But anyways when I brought up that I was going out with Meredith the following night, I knew I had guilt written over my face because I was so nervous that I knew I was stuttering. I saw Lea staring at me as if she was studying me when I told her this. At first I knew for sure she didn't buy it, but when she told me that it was fine, she understood. I was kind of relieved that she didn't press the matter, but I could sense the sadness in her voice and I felt like crap immediately. For the rest of the evening, Lea and I barely talked. It wasn't that we were mad at each other. My mind was swirling about the following day and I had no clue what she was thinking about. Probably Leonardo.
The next morning while Lea was taking her shower, I decided to try to call my mom from the hotel. I actually now wanted to stay over my time limit in New York, but how was I going to explain it to my mom? I really wanted to go to the concert and yet something deep inside me wanted to see Don a little longer, but I tried my best to block that yearning. I knew I had to keep this from Lea as long as I could. I hated to be so secretive, but this was something I didn't want to drag her in. I quickly dialed my parent's phone number and glanced over nervously at the bathroom door. I could hear the shower running. I fingered the phone cord, twisting the cord around my finger as I waited for someone to pick up. Finally I heard a click and my mom answered. I told her that I was doing okay. I asked how she was and how everything was. My family was doing fine. I finally brought on the question if whether or not I would be allowed to stay in New York City. But why I was asking them? I was 22 years old! Clearly, I had the say in the matter, but then again they were my family. "No, Melinda. I think you better come on home after Friday," my Mom said. I could hear my dad in the background asking what was going on.
"But mom…" I protested. "Meredith said I could stay a bit longer with her."
"But you have been gone for 2 weeks, Melinda! That's long enough! You need to be getting back. Remember we were going to go out of town next week before school started and you have to go to that student teaching meeting," My mom said back sternly.
I sighed some. I knew that school WOULD be starting up soon and I would have to do my student teaching. I really hated my life sometimes especially when it dealt with missing out on a lot of things due to school or my family. My family never understood me. I never felt like I belonged with them or with anyone in my entire life for that matter. "I know," I said sadly. I knew I was going to lose this battle. "But Meredith said I could stay longer! Besides she's taking me to this concert that they are having and I still want to stay in New York more! You know how much I love it!" I giggled some, hoping that my last remark would kind of take the edge off our conversation.
"What concert?" She asked.
"Just some local bands," I lied. I hated to do that, but I knew how she would be. She never trusted any concerts that I went to. I have only been to 2 in my entire life and she hated when I went to those. She was as bad as my ex boyfriend sometimes it seemed. I could hear my dad in the background sighing hard and muttering to her. "Come on please. I can stay a few extra days and I would have plenty of time to come back with you guys and school. I really love New York. Please, Mom…"
My mom sighed hard; I could tell she was angry with me. "Melinda, why are you so damned obsessed like this?" There was that phrase again. Like THAT did not sound familiar! All my life every time I really enjoyed something and wanted to go out and do things, my mom always said that. You would think I would be use to it by now and wouldn't let it bother me. But every time I hear that dreaded phrase and deal with them, I always get sad. It's like someone had stabbed me in the back. I didn't know what to say so I remained quiet then my mom said, "Look, Melinda. Just come home. You can go back another time. I am not going to stand on the line and argue with you. Now call us later." She said and with that I heard the receiver click as she disconnected from the line. I sat there on the bed and looked down at the phone receiver. I felt a huge knot in my throat and I wanted to scream out. Hot tears began to fill my eyes, but I pushed them away, trying to remain strong and not be such a crybaby. I knew exactly why I didn't want to go home from New York. I would have to come back to my family. Anymore I hated to be with my family. Most of the time they put me down and never seemed to love me too much. I didn't feel right. I quickly put the phone away when I heard the bathroom door open. I knew Lea must be done.
She came out, fully dressed and looked over at me. "Are you okay?" She studied my face; I knew it must have looked like I was going to cry. I tried to hold my tears in much as I could.
"Yeah sorry. I uh just sneezed," I replied quickly. ANOTHER lie, but I didn't want to bring her into my problems.
For the rest of the day Lea and I went out some and shopped. I tried to make the best out of the day with my friend but I think both of us knew we were not clicking that day. Finally 5pm came and I was getting ready to leave the hotel once more to go to my meeting. I didn't call the guy yet, but I decided to wait to call him once I leave the hotel so Lea wouldn't find out. I left the hotel and started to walk in the direction of the subway entrance that I would use to get on to Brooklyn. I did this just in case Lea was monitoring me from the hotel or following me some just to make sure I was going to Meredith's. I think after our little Bronx incident, she seems sometimes she can't trust me and has to look after me. And why should she trust me?
I turned the corner and then stopped. I knew she wouldn't be able to see me from the hotel and if she was following me she would have to turn the corner so I knew it would be safe to make the phone call. I was on a road that was from the main road of the Times Square. I was about 2 blocks away from Midtown Comics. Street Vendors were hassling people to stop and look at their paintings of Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge and the World Trade Center. I quickly dialed the number that the guy had given me. When he picked up the phone, I explained to him who I was and he quickly remembered me. He said that I should take the subway to Brooklyn and he would meet me at that subway station. How ironic! I really WAS going to Brooklyn. Now Lea couldn't say that I didn't go to Brooklyn!
I met up with the guy at the Brooklyn station like he said. It was kind of cool that night so I decided to wear jeans, but I also wore my black Inuyasha t-shirt and the tribal chain necklace that I purchased from the store. He introduced himself as "TJ", but everyone called him, "T." He commented on my shirt and told me he really liked the shirt so we had a very long conversation about the show Inuyasha as we walked in Brooklyn. Actually this kind of helped me clear my head. T told me that we were going to meet some of his friends, but the meeting wouldn't officially start till about 6:30 or 7pm, which really didn't bother me since it was already 6pm. I tried to keep my eyes on street signs as I followed him so that way I wouldn't get lost just in case the meeting dragged on later than I intended so I could leave without getting lost. We walked several blocks till we reached a large building, which appeared to be some sort of club where Washington and Greene Avenue intersected. But this wasn't like a club to where you would go and dance. This was almost like a pool hall or some sort of arcade. A neon sign was mounted on the building's right side of the door. It read, "Underworld." "You're going to like this place," T said as he smiled, beckoning me to follow him.
I heard a song from the band Skrape blasting from the inside. "I already am," I smirked some as I followed him. I always get drawn in when I find places that actually play my music. T walked in first and opened the door to let me go in. Inside were loud voices of people talking; the sound of pool balls being hit and tons of beeps blaring from video games. The room was a lot darker than outside and there were huge stage like speakers towards the other end of the building where the music was coming from. I noticed that many people were dressed like T or people from my Hot Topic stores. They had on the gothic punk clothes with the chains and spiked dyed hair. "Go make yourself at home for a bit. I'll come find you when we get ready," T smiled and walked over to a bar counter. I looked around shyly. I hated to be in large crowds of people where I didn't know anybody! Luckily nobody had poked fun at me! At least here I belonged I think. I stood to the side for a bit as I looked around. Then I heard a bunch of laughing and cheering coming from the corner of the darkened room so I decided to walk over to see what was going on. A group of people was sitting on the couch in front of a large plasma screen television. There was a video game console hooked up, it appeared to be Playstation 2. One guy on the couch had the remote control. I looked closely at the screen and smiled when I realized that the guy was playing Grand Theft Auto 3. I smirked when I realized what game it was and stepped in closer. I always played the game back home with my brother. He was an expert at it and I use to have fun playing it when I came home from school or work. I stood there watching the guy play. Then when his character had died from falling into the water, I said, "Hey I'll play next if you want me to."
The guy looked up at me, kind of surprised since majority of the people around him were men. "Sure," he said some as he got up and offered me the remote. Some of the guys muttered some as I sat down. I think they weren't too happy thinking that I wouldn't do much. But I did my usual thing. I made my character go around and start to beat up people to get my stars up so the cops would come after me. Then I quickly hijacked a car to get away. I started to swerve around the traffic cars on the game to get away from the cops.
"You're pretty good," One of the guys commented.
I smiled some to myself and kept on playing. I then made my car smash through into the army base so I could get the tank. More of the guys commented and I started to make the tank go into the highway and blast and run over cars. The guys started to cheer and tell me to hit certain cars or people walking on the sidewalk. So I did and laughed when they did. I actually felt kind of happy.
I am not sure how long I played that game, but it must have been awhile even though it didn't really feel like that because later on I felt someone touch my shoulder. I paused the game and looked back to see it was T. "Hey, Mel. Some of us are going back now to the backroom for the meeting." I nodded my head as I got up from the couch and handed the remote control to the guy next to me.
"Dude, you rock!" One guy said to me as I walked by to follow T. I chuckled some and smirked. If only my brother was there. I hate to say it, but I did feel happy at that very moment. Nothing came into my mind at that time. It seemed almost that I had totally forgot about being in New York, worrying about my family, Donatello or even Lea. I followed T to another door at the end of the main room. That room wasn't as big but it was spacious. There were several couches and tables with chairs. T sat down on the couch while I sat in an empty chair near the couch and eyed the room carefully.
"You still going to stay for that concert?" He asked as he sat there.
"I don't know," I replied sadly, remembering the conversation I had with my mom. "I don't think my family is going to let me stay."
"Family? Bah! Don't listen to them. Families are stupid. You don't need one. All I have are my brothers right here and that's all you really need. These guys treat you like family," T said huffily as he lifted some from the couch to grab a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, then sat back down. He opened the box and put one in his mouth. "Other families don't understand you. They want to control you and not live your life. That's why you need to just stay here with us in New York City. Here you will have fun and do whatever the hell you please." T said as he lit the cigarette with his lighter.
"Alright, you hoodlums! We are going to make this very short and sweet tonight. So you better shut up and listen!" a voice boomed from the front of the room. I looked over to the front of the room to see the same large man I had seen before. He was very huge, maybe 6 feet if not taller. He had 2 tattoos on each of his huge arms and he had a blonde pony pail. There also appeared to be some sort of claw marks on his face towards the bottom right cheek. Just the appearance of this man sent chills down my spine. I heard some of the other guys chuckle in the room after he spoke. Were they not scared of this guy or was he just playing with them?
T chuckled along with the other guys and smirked over at me. "That large guy up there is Hun. You can really feel the love with him."
"I heard that," Hun growled. "Well fortunately we have no news to report. Just a reminder that the concert is next Friday night at 9pm at the Civic Center. You need to get your ticket if you haven't already. Also the Master is looking for more recruits who know martial arts. So go out there and find them!" He bellowed. I was more confused. What did he mean Master? And also what recruits? "That's it." Voices started to fill the room once again. I looked over at T and asked, "What did he mean Master and recruits?"
"Oh well Hun also runs some sort of martial arts training thing. I am not too sure; I am still pretty new here. I think the Master is his teacher or something. Nobody has seen him, only a chosen few. Some of my buds kind of know who he is because they went and got trained to learn martial arts. I was thinking about learning myself," T shrugged as he smashed the cigarette butt into the ashtray on the table.
"Sounds cool," I said some, my eyes going from him over to Hun and back. This whole setup was very mysterious and yet sometimes I think curiosity gets the best of me. "I actually wanted to take karate in high school, but I never got the chance."
"You should talk to him. I am sure he would train you. I was going to talk to him tonight." T said
"I guess, but I am not even sure if I am staying or not…" I said sadly. Suddenly the sound of Hun's voice stopped me.
"Yo, Hun. You taking any new recruits?" T said as he got up from the couch.
"Depends," Hun said he stopped to where T was and then eyed me.
"Well I was thinking about joining and my friend Mel here is interested as well if she decides to stay in the city," T said. I grew quiet.
"We shall see. I am taking the group at our next meeting after the concert. IF you want to join just come then," he said and walked past us.
T shrugged at me and said, "Well I guess that's that."
I smiled some and looked over at the wall to see that it was almost 7:45pm. I went back out into the main area with T and hung around with some of the people. Getting to know them. That's the only plus sign of my personality is that after awhile I can easily talk to people. I stayed there till about 9pm and decided to make my way back to the hotel. I said goodbye to T and some of the new people that I just met and walked out of the building. It felt weird walking out because now it was totally dark. Brooklyn wasn't nearly as loud as Times Square. It seemed almost like my hometown, but with a few more cars. I started to make my way back to the subway entrance. Suddenly I felt someone grab my shoulders and pull me into an alley from the street. Scared I squirmed some and jerked quickly away from their hands, but then I saw his face. It was Leonardo. He didn't look too happy. But I was more confused on why he was there. He stood there with his arms crossed, eyeing me. "You care to explain yourself?" He hissed at me.
I got taken back by this. I had clue what was going on and why he was so pissed off at me when I haven't seen in awhile. Surely he couldn't be that mad at me for running out from Don again. "Huh?" I asked.
"Nice FRIENDS you are making here.." He said again, his facial expression still as hard. I knew exactly what he was referring to, but I wasn't too sure on why he was so concerned. But I didn't know how to respond because I was totally in shock and confusion. So he spoke again. "Does Lea know that you're here with them?"
"Look, Lea does not control me," I snapped some. "I came here on my will. I met a friend and he told me to come here. So it's harmless."
"No it is NOT harmless. It's plain stupid. I really hope you are not seriously thinking about joining them…are you?" He said again, his arms still crossed. I remained quiet, I didn't know what to say to him. I was still shocked that he was there and I don't like confrontations. The way he was standing there and his tone almost scared me. "You didn't answer me…"
I felt like I was being attacked for some reason that I had no clue on. "Look, Leo. Why the hell are you HERE anyways!" I snapped back at him. I felt my emotions soaring because I felt like I was being pinned against the wall by him.
"I was doing a nightly run and for your sake, I spotted you," He said again.
"Look, Leo. Don't even try to control me. You don't know me. You are nothing to me," I said again, clenching my fists. I felt almost as if I was talking to my one of my parents. My rage was soaring through.
Leo didn't back down at all. His tone remained the same, I could see that his eyes had narrow almost becoming tiny slits. "Fine do as you please. But stay away from my brother, Donatello. He does not need someone like you to drag him down. He's way too good for you," Leonardo growled lowly in his throat. "Have a good evening." With that he turned his back and started to walk away over to the alley's fire escape ladder.
My eyes were wide with shock. I felt almost hurt especially with his last sentence. I watched him walk, anger building so much in my body that I finally spoke out, "Fine. Just stay away from my friend too! Because she's WAY too good for you, Leonardo!" I screamed loud, unable to control my rage anymore. "You HURT her. Don't you dare act like you're so damned high and mighty. None of you are!" I felt the tears coming to my eyes. "You don't KNOW us so just stay out of our lives!" I said as I started to cry some…my tears were so hot, I clenched my fists so tightly, I could feel my nails digging into them. I looked at him, breathing hard, my eyes were burning.
Leonardo stopped and paused there for a moment. His shell was to me. I heard him gasp some as if I had struck him hard. Then I saw his fists clench as he turned around to face me. "You don't KNOW us either! You know what? Donatello was wrong!" He screamed at me. "He thought you would be different from the other humans! He thought you would understand us! I was stupid enough to believe him! You are LIKE them! WE try to help you and you just push us away!" I could tell he was angry…very angry. But it was like he was not only yelling at me. but someone or something else. I almost pitied him.
Suddenly I heard T speaking from behind me. "Mel! Guys come here! It's one of those turtle freaks!" I turned my head some and saw T run up to me with about 6 guys from the club. My eyes went wide and I looked from them over to Leonardo. Did they know about the turtles? I heard Leonardo swear to himself and he withdrew his katanas. I stepped back some in surprise. T and the other 6 guys ran up and stood almost in front of me. T and 3 other men pulled out a knife and some chains. While the other 2 pulled out small handguns. Leonardo growled as he eyed them, looking at their weapons. I felt frozen as if I couldn't move or speak. "Did this freak attack you?" T asked as he looked at me then at Leonardo.
"Oh I ATTACKED? How nice," Leo mumbled. "Why don't you let HER speak for herself." I felt Leo's gaze fall on me. Some of the others turned their heads to look at me.
"Do you know who this freak is?" T asked at me, his eyes wide with astonishment.
I looked at T scared. I didn't know what to do. I had NO clue that the turtles and these guys were bitter enemies. I kind of felt happy with them, but yet I did not want to lose the turtles. I heard Leonardo growl again as he stood there, ready to defend himself. I felt like I couldn't talk at all! "Mel?" T asked again. I looked at him then at Leonardo and frowned.
"No, I have no clue who this turtle freak is," I lied again. I felt so cornered that I didn't know what to say.
I heard Leonardo growl again louder when I said this.