Chapter 6: Pictures

Jaime and Mina resisted the urge to laugh once I finished telling them my story about Jamila. I rolled my eyes and shifted on the bed that I was sitting on. "Is it really THAT funny?" I asked the two of them.

Mina didn't answer, she just looked to her blond haired boyfriend as he said, "Dude, it's freakin' HILARIOUS! I can't believe all this has happened to you in just a few days!" Mina went from a giggle to a laugh. As she laughed, she tossed her shoulder length black hair (with red streaks) to the side. She always looks so cute when she does that. Oops. If Jaime ever knew I thought that, he'd beat me to a raw pulp!

Jaime stood up and walked towards the door. "Alright, I promised Steve I'd go skate with him, so I'll see you two later!" He left and closed the door, Mina still giggling a bit. I began to get a little nervous as I looked over at her. 'I hate these co-ed situations!' I yelled mentally. Suddenly, Jaime came back into the room and pointed his finger at me.

"Hey Pete. Don't steal my girlfriend while I'm gone!" he said. Mina fell off the bed in laughter and all I could do was smile a bit. "I'm just playing around with ya! I'll see you guys later!" Jaime said as he left the room again. I exhaled when he left the room, laughing a bit as Mina calmed herself down.

"Why don't we go do something?" she said to me. I looked at her and smiled. 'That would be awesome!' I thought. Pretty girls never usually gave me attention, even though I'd overhear them saying I was handsome. They all thought that I was creepy because I liked to fight. Mina on the other hand, seemed to accept me no matter what. She seems pretty cool like that.

"Sure! What should we do?" I asked.

"Why don't we go talk to Jamila, your FAVORITE person?" Mina replied. I gave her a nervous look, almost one of desperation because she sounded so serious about it.

"I'm just pulling your leg. Man you are so easy to fool!" she said as she began to laugh again.

"Oh. Yeah, right, I knew that!" I said as I chuckled nervously. Mina stood up and took me by the hand. This made me blush as she pulled me to the door. She began to speak.

"I promised Christie that I'd go with her to the mall. You know you want to come with us!" she said as we left the room. I stopped in my tracks and thought about it. 'Hmm..following two shop-oholics around the girl shops…not my thing.'

"Uh, I actually think I'll hang around here. I don't really like the mall this time of day." I said, hoping that she would buy it. Surprisingly, she did.

"Well okay, but if you want us to come back and pick you up, just let us know!" she said as she made her way down the hall. I exhaled silently as I replied, "Okay, will do! Have fun!"

After waving goodbye, she was gone. I decided that I would go back to my room and see what King was up to. Walking back to the room, I practically tip-toed, expecting to see Jamila, or Lady Devious as my friends and I like to call her. 'Good. No sign of her!'

I opened the door to my room and looked in to see King. He was sitting on his bed going through my art book. 'Uh-oh' I thought as I got closer. I usually like to draw dart art to make myself feel better. Many kinds of pictures could be found in my book, things ranging from nude art to gothic pain to portraits of King and friends to monsters. King just happened to be going through the dark art section. He had a look of displeasure on his face.

Once he saw me, he closed the book and said, "Pete…we need to talk." I sat down on my bed and looked to the floor. King began to speak to me.

"I thought you promised me that you wouldn't draw things like this?" he said as he flipped open the book and showed me a piece of art that was particularly gory and disturbing. It showed a man holding a knife in his hands, cuts all over his body with tears falling from his face as blood fell everywhere.

I cringed a little, even my own art was too much for me sometimes. I could totally see his point and why he was upset about this, but I had too much pride and didn't want to admit that I was wrong.

"What do you care? You're not even my real father!" I yelled as I stood up and grabbed the book from him, taking off from the room. I slammed the door and immediately sank down the wall, crying tears of regret. 'I can't believe I just said that to him.' I thought as I got back up and walked away.

King was trying more than anybody I know to get to know me. He put up with all the negative things I carry around and did his best to make them positive. I always wondered why he cared so much, but then I realized that it was because he knew all about negativity. He would always tell me stories about some of the things he had to go through in his childhood, and how they still bother him. He's strong and I envy him, but my pride always gets in the way of me apologizing to him.

I started to cry harder as I turned the corner. Not looking where I was going, I slammed into someone who was turning the corner as well. My pictures flew out from my book and scattered all over the floor. I tried not to cry in front of this person, but it was no use. I felt so alone and weak, powerless even. Now I had just hurt King's feelings and I didn't know what to do.

I turned my tear-filled eyes to the person I had bumped into and I began to cry harder. It was Jamila. 'Just my luck. Now she's going to think I'm a wuss on top of being a loser!'

I bent down to pick up my pictures, embarrassed at what was showing. All the gothic pictures were showing, all of them gory and disturbing. Jamila stood for a second before she even moved. Surprisingly, she knelt down and started to help me pick them up as well. I stopped crying, this was a moment that I just couldn't ruin any more. Once I had taken the pictures from Jamila's waiting hand, I wiped my tears from my face and said, "Thanks."

Jamila said nothing as she stood up and dusted herself off. "You should be more careful." She said in a semi-concerned tone. I looked up to her and watched as she walked away. A smile crossed my face. 'So there IS a heart underneath all that red leather!'

I decided that I would go back to the room and apologize to King. I heard something loud that practically deafened me. It was an explosion, and it sounded like it had come from my room. I turned the corner and looked down the hall to see Jamila crouched in a low tiger-like position as she looked towards my room.

"Oh no…King!" I yelled as I took off running past her. As soon as I reached my door, I slammed into it. The next moment seemed to go in slow motion as I watched my life flash before my eyes. Fire burst forth from my room and I thought that was it. I was surprised when someone grabbed me and pulled me away from the flames. The fire shot out of the room and rushed out of the window across the hall, the sound of glass shattering could be heard as well as screams of shock below.

I looked over to see that Jamila was on top of me covering me with her red leather trench coat. "Didn't I tell you to be careful!" she yelled as she helped me to my feet. I blushed and followed her into the room. The window inside was smashed. I closed my eyes, tears swelling up as I said "My dad was in here…"

A moment of silence passed between us before Jamila broke it. "There's no body."

I opened my eyes and looked around. There really wasn't a body in there. Was the fire so bad that it burned King to ashes? Oh please God don't let that be the case…

A round ball spun around on the floor and a hologram appeared in front of us. It was a man who looked Middle Eastern. He wore a black trench coat to match his all-black outfit. Jamila gasped in shock.

"If you ever want to see you're father alive again, come alone to the abandoned warehouse down the block at eight o' clock…Peter Colόn." The hologram said to me.

Jamila gasped as she said, "Nexeu…"