Chapter Twelve
"Guess what?" Bruno started off as soon as they sat down for lunch that day. "Fugo got his acceptance letter yesterday!"
"What? That's amazing!" Mista said.
"Oh, I'm so glad that worked out for him," Trish echoed.
"That's great!" Narancia agreed, feeling genuinely happy for his friend. Between that and his new job opportunity, things were really starting to look up and he was just in a much better mood that day. "When do we get to come over and embarrass him with a party?"
Bruno grinned. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you stopped by. I thought it might be nicer to have a going away party for him at the end of summer since he'll be living in the dorms for most of the semester."
"Ooh, yes, we definitely need to do that," Trish agreed, clasping her hands excitedly. "Luckily we'll have plenty of time to plan something really nice."
"We are still definitely dragging him out for gelato together sometime this week though," Narancia pointed out and the others heartily agreed.
They spent the rest of lunch talking about possible plans for Fugo's party at the end of the summer and Narancia had actually almost forgotten about his new job opportunity until Riccardo caught him between classes.
"Hey, you still want in?" the blond boy asked.
Narancia nodded. "Yeah, I told you I did."
"Good. Meet me in the parking lot after school when we get out. I want to take you to meet the other guys."
Narancia nodded and continued to his classes, trying to concentrate as he thought about his new job. He really hoped Riccardo hadn't been lying to him about the amount of money he could make, but, really, any money was better than what he was making now.
"Hey!" Mista caught him on the way out of school that day. "I think we're gonna try to meet up tonight at the gelato stand. Bruno and Gio are going to bring Fugo. You want to come over for dinner?"
Narancia bit his lip. "Ah, actually I need to do something this afternoon, but I'll meet you guys there later. What time?"
"Maybe around six?" Mista replied. "Let me know if you need a ride."
Narancia gave him a thumbs up and then slipped off to see if he could find Riccardo.
The blond boy was waiting for him, leaning against the back bumper of his car.
"Hey, you ready?" he asked.
Narancia nodded. "Yup."
"Get in then."
Narancia slid into the passenger seat and Riccardo drove them off the school grounds and into town. They stopped at an apartment building and Riccardo parked.
"You live here?" Narancia asked, recognizing that this was one of the places that had been too far out of his and Mista's price range when they had looked into apartments.
"Yeah. Me and the other guys. The three of us share an apartment. Pretty nice, huh?"
"Yeah!" Narancia agreed and followed him through the doors and up the elevator to the third floor.
The others already seemed to be there, banging around in the kitchen.
"Who the hell finished off all the milk?"
"Not me, I told you to buy more yesterday anyway."
"Hey," Riccardo snapped. "Stop dicking around and meet the new guy."
The two other teens looked over at Narancia.
"Oh, you must be Ghirga, then," one of them said. "I'm Angelo, the other guy is Dellucci."
"What's up," the third teen said half-heartedly.
"That one job still available?" Riccardo asked Angelo. "I want Ghirga to run it as a trial."
Angelo jerked his thumb toward the kitchen table. "Yeah, package is right there. It will be an easy one for the newbie."
Narancia followed Riccardo over to the table where the blond boy picked up a parcel and handed it to Narancia, tapping the top where an address was scrawled. "All you need to do is deliver it here. You know your way around?"
"Well enough," Narancia said, glancing at the address. He had a vague idea of where it was at least.
"Here, you can take a map," Dellucci said, tossing him a folded-up map of the city.
"It's pretty far from here," Narancia said. "Am I walking?"
"Nah, we have a couple bikes since I'm the only one with a car now. You can borrow one when you're running stuff for us."
"Okay," Narancia said, glancing at the package again. "You're not gonna come with me or anything?"
"Do you need me to hold your hand?" Riccardo asked mockingly as the others snickered.
Narancia bristled. "No! I just thought—"
"I know how much you're making off it, so make sure you come back with all the money," Riccardo told him. "The two things we value here are honesty, and getting the job done."
Narancia nodded and slid his backpack off his shoulder to tuck the package safely inside. "Show me the bikes then, and I'll get going."
"Great," Riccardo said and motioned Narancia out the door. "You do good with this, I have a couple more things you can run tonight."
Riccardo unlocked a bike from the rack out behind the apartment building, and Narancia saluted him as he rode off.
He stopped around the corner out of sight of Riccardo to check the map, making sure he did actually know where he was heading, and once he got his bearings, he started off on his first delivery.
When he got to the place, it looked pretty run down, but Narancia wasn't exactly one to judge. He simply knocked on the door and when it was opened by a rough-looking man, he held the package up.
"Got a delivery for you," he said.
The man grunted, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a wad of cash that he handed over to Narancia.
Narancia tried to keep the shock off his face as he took the money and swiftly tucked it into the inside pocket of his coat. Those were some steep delivery prices! "Thanks, enjoy," he said and turned back to his bike.
The ride back was quicker and he reappeared at the apartment to find Riccardo and the other two going through several more packages on the kitchen table.
"Hey, you made it," Angelo said with a smirk.
Narancia reached into his coat and pulled out the money to hand to Riccardo. "Here's the money."
The blond counted it swiftly and nodded. "Good job. How do you feel about doing a couple more tonight? Dellucci's got a date, so he'd really like a night off."
"Yeah, sure!" Narancia said.
Riccardo separated the rest of the packages between himself, Angelo, and Narancia and the three of them headed out to do the deliveries.
Narancia grinned as he sped through the streets on the borrowed bike. Not only did the job seem easy enough so far, but if he made as much as Riccardo promised, this really was a score! He could definitely get used to this.
They were the first ones to pull up to their favorite gelato stand so they sat in Leone's car for a couple minutes, waiting for the others to get there.
"Only about four months left of the year," Bruno commented as he closed his eyes and craned his head back, listening to whatever operatic piece was currently playing on Leone's stereo.
"Can't come soon enough," Leone replied. "Problem is, the closer we get to graduation, the pushier my parents are getting about law school." He rolled his eyes.
"Well, you know my stance on fuck parents," Fugo said from the back. "But you'd think they'd know better than to push."
"I still think you'll be able to convince them," Bruno said. "But tonight we're celebrating Panna's win, so don't worry about it too much, okay?"
Leone grunted, but nodded in agreement.
Giorno glanced out the window. "Ah, there's Mista."
Mista's car pulled up next to them and they got out, greeting him and Trish.
"Congratulations, Panna!" Mista said, patting Fugo fondly on the shoulder. The blond even allowed Trish to give him a soft hug.
"Thanks," he mumbled with a pleased blush.
Bruno looked around. "Where's Narancia? I thought you were picking him up."
Mista shrugged. "He said he had something to do tonight so he would come later? I don't really know, but I don't think he'll pass up on gelato, especially in honor of Fugo."
Fugo rolled his eyes. "Well, we can wait a few minutes to see if he shows up."
They sat against the cars and chatted for a little bit, but as the minutes dragged on, Narancia still didn't show up.
"He probably forgot," Mista said with a shrug, glancing at his watch.
"Well, I'm getting my gelato," Leone announced and pushed off from the car to head toward the window.
Bruno shrugged. "I don't think Narancia will mind if we get ours now. Something might have come up."
"Or he got lost on the way here," Fugo added with a shake of his head.
"Well, there's no point it waiting if he's not going to show up," Trish commented. "Come on, Giorno, help me decide which flavor I should get—I'm always stuck between the strawberry and the chocolate."
"Why not both?" Giorno replied. "They're good together."
Once they had all ordered, they sat around laughing together, but Narancia still didn't show up. Bruno had to admit he was slightly surprised—maybe a tiny bit concerned—but it wasn't necessarily unlike Narancia to forget things on occasion and he had seemed to have a lot on his mind lately. In reality, what had probably happened was he had fallen asleep doing homework and would probably wake up at midnight furious that he had missed gelato.
"Welp, Narancia missed out," Mista said as they headed back to the cars. "I gotta get home though and finish up my homework."
"Same," Bruno told him and they bade goodnight to each other as they climbed back into their cars to head home.
Narancia made his way back to the apartment after the final delivery. He was pretty tired from riding the bike all over town, but it had been nice to have a job where no one was looking over his shoulder. And he was proud of himself for only getting turned around twice.
"You did a good job tonight, newbie," Riccardo told him with a grin as he counted the money Narancia had handed to him. "What do you think? You want to stay on?"
"Hell yeah," Narancia said. "It was pretty easy."
Riccardo smirked. "Well, we made sure to give you the easy ones, but the job itself is pretty much always the same." He peeled off several bills before putting the rest of the money in the lock box. He handed the bills to Narancia. "There you go. That's your pay for the day."
Narancia's eyes widened as he took the money. "For real?" he had to ask.
Riccardo snorted. "Yeah. I told you you'd make a lot. And this was a slow night. You can usually double that."
Narancia carefully pocketed the money. He almost opened his mouth to ask about where they got all these packages to deliver, but something stopped him. Frankly, he would rather not know, so he wouldn't have to feel bad about it. Ignorance was bliss, right? Especially when he was making money like this.
"When do you want me to come back?"
"I'll let you know," Riccardo said. "We usually make runs three to four times a week depending on how much stuff we get, so probably soon."
Narancia nodded. "Well, I'll head out then. See you later."
He made his way out of the apartment building, feeling light on his feet from the amount of money in his pocket. If he was able to keep this up, then he and Mista would definitely have enough put away to get an apartment at the end of the school year. Maybe even a nicer one than they expected.
That was when he remembered what Bruno had told them at lunch.
"Oh shit." Narancia glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost seven thirty. No way would they have waited that long for him at the gelato stand. How could he have forgotten all about that? It had been Fugo's celebration night too!
Feeling like a pretty horrible friend at the moment, Narancia hurried home, forgetting about his empty stomach as he went straight for the phone, calling Bruno's house.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me," Narancia said as Bruno's voice came over the phone. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't make it tonight…I hope you didn't wait too long for me."
"Oh, it's all fine, Narancia," Bruno assured him. "We just figured you might have gotten caught up with something. Did you fall asleep doing homework again?" he asked knowingly.
While that was not an uncommon occurrence, he actually hadn't this time, but he still gave a short laugh. "Yeah, pretty much," he replied. He didn't know why he didn't just tell Bruno the truth. He knew his friend would be happy if he told him he'd gotten a job, but…well, he kind of wanted to keep it to himself for a little while longer. Just to see how it went. So he let Bruno think he'd just been slacking off and forgot. "Look, just tell Fugo I'm sorry for skipping out on his celebration gelato? I'll stop by to see him soon."
"No problem," Bruno said. "And I'll tell him. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Narancia echoed and set the phone back in its cradle with a sigh. He was going to have to learn to balance work and friends as well as Mista did, otherwise he was going to miss out on everything.
He trudged into the kitchen to find something to eat, glancing over at the glow under the door to his father's office. Bringing work home again, it looked like.
Narancia sighed as he turned on the television and vegged while he ate his late dinner. Maybe it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to be away from home more often.
Leone thought he would have a quiet night to finish off his homework and maybe get some reading in before bed but he knew something was up when he came in the door and caught Sylvia giving him a knowing look.
"What?" he demanded.
She didn't comment and instead darted upstairs, apparently leaving Leone to defend himself against whatever was coming.
"Leone, there you are," his father called from the living room.
Leone poked his head around the corner. "Do you need me for something?"
"Come here, I have some good news," his father said and Leone reluctantly entered the living room, not sure exactly what to expect.
"Do you remember that old friend of mine who's teaching law now?" his father asked.
"Dad," Leone started warningly, having an idea of where this was going.
"Let me finish," his father cut in firmly, holding up a hand. "He just called me today and said he has a free weekend next month to give you a tour of the campus. I thought we could go up there together and you can get familiar with it."
Leone's fists clenched at his sides as he tried to school his voice so that it might come off as something not quite confrontational. "Dad, I'm really not interested in going to that law school."
"Leone…" his father sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "We've been through this and frankly, I'm done with this conversation."
"So am I!" Leone snapped. "How many times do I have to explain that I don't want to be a lawyer?!"
"Leone—"
"You can drag me there if you want, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stay. We'd just be wasting your friend's time."
"I really think that seeing it will make you reconsider."
"No, Dad, it won't," Leone tried to appeal. "Look, you might like being a lawyer, but that's not for me. It's not like I'm running off to join the circus or something!"
"You might as well be," his father growled. "Leone, trust me, the amount of corruption I see on a daily basis…"
"Then maybe I'll be able to make a difference!" Leone spat. "Don't you think that's an honorable ideal to have? You wanna pretend there's not corruption in your profession?" He'd seen how Giorno's stepfather walked despite the case they'd put together. Leone didn't want to be responsible for that part of the justice system. It would make him sick.
His father sighed again, looking tired. "I know you have a good heart, Leone. That's why I don't want to see it broken."
That made him even more furious. "You think I'm made of glass or something? I know the world is full of shit. That's why I want to be out there stopping it, not stuck in a court room all day waiting to see if a jury agrees with me or if a criminal walks because he has enough money to grease the right palms."
His father didn't even try to reply. "The date is set for February 18th. Don't make any plans for that day, okay?" He made to leave the room, but stopped and tugged the short ponytail tied at the back of Leone's head. "And maybe get a haircut before then. You'll want to make a good impression."
Leone jerked away. "I'm not gonna chop my hair off just to make a good impression at a school I'm not going to," he snapped and hurried toward the stairs, slamming the door to his room once he got up there. He tried to calm himself down, realizing he was acting immature about all this but, seriously. How many times was his father going to refuse to listen to him? What did he have to do, actually leave home, just to make a point?
He flopped down into his desk chair and yanked his workbooks from his backpack. He felt like his parents were just deluding themselves thinking he was actually going to go through with law school like they wanted. At least he hadn't sent in an application (which he was definitely not planning on doing) so hopefully it would be too late to get into the fall semester and by then he would already be at the police academy.
Still, the whole situation pissed him off.
In fact, that was the first thing he dumped on Bruno when they got to school the next day.
"You're not exactly going there to register," Bruno pointed out, playing devil's advocate. "Though I understand why it's frustrating."
"It's just the point of the matter," Leone growled. "I feel bad for wasting everyone's time. This guy's giving me a private tour and I'm sure my dad has been feeding him lies about how excited I am to go. When I actually show up, he'll probably run for the hills."
He caught Bruno's smirk before he hid it. Leone bristled. "Hey! It's not funny."
Bruno smothered his face by coughing into his hand. "I'm not laughing at your situation, I'm laughing at the mental picture of you stepping onto the campus dressed like a punk rocker and your father explaining how it's been your dream since you were a little kid to be a lawyer."
Leone glowered at his friend, folding his arms over his chest, which only made Bruno 'cough' harder. "First of all, I'm a goth, second my dad will probably cut my hair and hide all my makeup in my sleep so I don't have a lot of hope of getting out of this unscathed."
Bruno sighed, finally seeming to have contained himself. "If it gets too bad, we can kidnap you and keep you on the boat that weekend."
Leone made an annoyed cluck with his tongue, and looked up to see Mista heading over to where they were talking against Leone's car. Bruno apparently didn't seem to think the situation was a lost cause, so maybe Leone was just overreacting.
"Morning!" Mista called. "Hey, you ever figure out what was up with Nara last night? I called after I got home but his dad said he wasn't there."
Bruno frowned. "That's odd. He called me a little before eight and said he'd fallen asleep doing homework."
"Well, it's not entirely uncommon for his dad to not realize he's home," Mista muttered.
"True," Leone agreed.
The bell rang and Leone looked up to see Narancia hurrying through the gate before greeting Trish and Giorno who had been chatting with Illuso on the school steps. "Well, there he is, just in time." He reached out to elbow Bruno in the side. "Don't worry so much, okay?"
Bruno hummed in acknowledgement as they all made their way toward the school.
Leone realized that maybe he should take some of his own advice.
Narancia played it cool with the others that day, allowing them to razz him for last night, shrugging it off.
He didn't see Riccardo or the others that day, and wondered if they'd even come to school. They seemed to be partial attendees at best. Narancia honestly wondered how they were able to keep their grades up good enough if they only showed up for half the time. Maybe he was just stupid.
That was until Riccardo caught him outside by his lockers at the end of the day.
"Hey, you mind delivering a package this afternoon? I got something going on but this has to get out today."
"Yeah, sure," Narancia said.
"Great." The blond reached into his backpack and handed a small package to Narancia. "You can keep the money for this one too, I'll just work it into your pay next time we work together."
"You sure?" Narancia asked.
"Yeah, I know you're good for it," Riccardo grinned. "Just give me a call if you run into any trouble, okay?"
Narancia nodded and hurried out of school before any of the others could catch him. He glanced at the address and made his way in the proper direction.
The delivery went off without a hitch and Narancia pocketed the wad of cash almost gleefully before heading back home.
As he was walking, he saw a bookshop and drew to a halt, staring in the window for a few seconds before heading inside.
He looked around a little bit, and then hurried up to the register to ask the bookseller about this one book he had heard Fugo talking about the other day, saying how much he wished he could find a copy of it.
To his surprise, the bookseller led him down several aisles, and pulled the book from the shelf. Narancia grinned and bought the book with his new earnings, getting it gift-wrapped too. This would definitely make up for skipping gelato the night before.
He took the bus toward the coast and hurried through the lazy fishing village until he got to the Bucciarati residence. He could see Bruno down on the docks helping his father with the boat, but hopefully Fugo was inside. He knocked on the door.
Giorno opened it, pencil behind his ear as if he had been doing homework. He smiled when he saw Narancia though.
"Hey, did you come over to study with us?"
"Oh um, not exactly," Narancia said as he came inside.
"There you are."
Narancia looked up to see Fugo standing up from the kitchen table to come over and greet him. "I never thought I'd see the day when you would skip out on gelato."
"Hey, I'm sorry, something just came up," Narancia said. "But congratulations!" He remembered to approach Fugo slowly, and finally wrapped his arms around him. Fugo huffed, but hugged Narancia back.
"Seriously, man, I'm really happy for you," Narancia told him as he reached into his backpack. "I got you something to celebrate."
Fugo took the gift and unwrapped in, his eyes widening. "Wait…how did you even find this? I've been looking everywhere!"
Narancia grinned, pleased that Fugo liked his gift. "Aw, you know. You just have to know the right people and have the ability to charm them."
"Thank you…I…this is amazing, Narancia," Fugo said. "But…I hope you didn't pay too much, I know you're saving up."
"Hey, it's a gift," Narancia cut in. "Besides, consider it a serious thank you for all the help you've given me," he added genuinely. "I mean it, man, I wouldn't have gotten through even this much of the year without you."
Fugo's face softened and he held the book against his chest. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm really proud of you too."
Narancia felt warmth bubble in his chest at the praise from his friend, followed quickly by the sourness of guilt, knowing that he wasn't doing so great anymore. "You don't have to be so sappy," he muttered.
Fugo rolled his eyes. "You need me to help you with any homework while you're here?"
Narancia glanced at the table, feeling the weight of his school books in his backpack. He should stay. He did need help working on stuff. But part of him didn't want to ruin Fugo's good mood by showing just how far he'd slid backward on his math studies. Not today. He would rather struggle through it at home. Maybe call Trish up to see if she could help him.
"You can stay for dinner too," Giorno offered. "I think Bruno said Leone would be coming over soon."
"Thanks, but, I think I should be getting home," Narancia said. "I gotta do laundry or I won't have anything to wear tomorrow."
"Well, thanks for bringing me this," Fugo told him, holding up the book.
"Sure thing, man, congrats," Narancia said with a wave as he left.
He felt a little slimy for lying again. Sure, it hadn't been anything big, but he hated lying to his friends. Oh well, after this week, if the job was still going well, he would tell them all about it. He just wanted to keep it to himself for a little bit longer.
He took a deep breath. Everything would be great, he told himself. He was his own man now. And soon he would be able to surprise Mista with enough for his half of the down payment on their future apartment.
He would call that a win.