Chapter Thirteen

Narancia stared at the red numbers on his paper, feeling a pit open up in his stomach.

He thought he'd done better than that on the math test.

But then…well, he hadn't really studied either. Most of his afternoons the last week had been dedicated to his new job and even though he knew Fugo had given him an open invitation to come study, he just hadn't taken it.

Now he wished he had. He hadn't had grades this bad in a long time. Not since last year.

"What's wrong?" Trish asked him as she packed all her stuff in her backpack.

"Uh, nothing," Narancia said, trying to hide the paper in his backpack, before she snatched it.

"Narancia! I thought you were getting better at this!" she said, eyes widening in horror as she saw the grade.

"Yeah, I know," Narancia groaned. "I'm just getting so tired of it, you know? Cut me some slack."

Trish narrowed her eyes and put her fists on her hips. "You were the one who asked us to hold you accountable."

"Come over this afternoon, Fugo will help you study," Giorno suggested, moving to stand behind Trish with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"What, and just let him yell at me?" Narancia retorted. "No thanks. Besides, I have something I need to do this afternoon."

"Look, if you're scared of Fugo, then I can help you," Trish told him. "You want to meet at the library tomorrow after school?"

Narancia bit his lip, but finally nodded. "Sure. And, uh, thanks Trish."

"You'll thank yourself if you get a good grade next test," she told him and they all made their way to the next class.

Narancia tried to concentrate for the next couple hours, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't glad to get out of school, meeting up with Riccardo and driving over to the apartment. He delivered his packages and made his way back home with even more money in his pockets. It kind of made up for the horrible day at school.

He wasn't expecting to work the next day, but Riccardo caught him after lunch and pulled him aside.

"Hey, you want in on more work?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course," Narancia told him.

"Okay, well, we got a big haul that needs to go out asap. It will be easier with all of us working."

"Wait, right now?" Narancia asked.

Riccardo smirked. "What, you worried about skipping school?"

"No," Narancia protested.

"Well, come on then!"

Narancia glanced around to make sure none of the others were watching and hurried after Riccardo as they made their way out to the parking lot.

Bruno and Giorno were chatting with Mista near the bike rack the next morning at school when Trish hurried over to them, an annoyed look on her face.

"Have any of you seen Narancia?" she asked.

"No, actually," Mista said. "In fact, he hasn't asked me for a ride to school since Monday."

"He skipped a couple periods yesterday as well," Giorno added and Trish nodded in confirmation.

"He skipped classes?" Bruno asked, brow furrowing.

"Yeah, and on top of that, he was supposed to meet me at the library so I could help tutor him in math, but he never showed up," Trish continued. "I waited there for two hours."

"He has been a little distant lately," Giorno pointed out.

"Yes," Bruno agreed then glanced at Mista. "It's not…?"

Mista shook his head. "The anniversary of his mom's death is later in the year. There could be something going on with his dad though."

Bruno shook his head. "I think we need to talk to him. If he keeps this up, he's going to come way too close to having to repeat this year. Again."

"He's already falling behind in math, and I don't know about the other classes," Trish said.

"Not to mention he hasn't come over to my house for dinner once this week," Mista said.

That was worrying. Bruno knew how much Narancia hated being at home, and if he wasn't with any of them, then where was he?

Bruno glanced over when he spotted Leone coming to join them, and then finally saw Narancia coming through the gate. But the bell rang so he'd have to put off talking to his friend until later.

They all hurried to their classes where Bruno tried to keep his mind on schoolwork until lunch and then finally they were able to meet up with Narancia at their table.

"Hey, where were you yesterday, anyway?" Trish asked casually as they sat down.

"Yesterday?" Narancia asked.

She raised her eyebrows. "You know. Our study session?"

"Oh, damn," Narancia replied with a nervous laugh. "I, uh kinda forgot…"

"Narancia, I don't want to pry or anything," Bruno started slowly. "But we haven't seen a lot of you lately."

"Yeah, my mom was just asking where you've been," Mista said.

Narancia bit his lip, playing with his food, before he put his fork down. "Well, the truth is…I actually got a job."

"You did?" Bruno asked.

"That's awesome, man!" Mista added. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Narancia shrugged. "I just wanted to make sure it didn't fall through, you know? I haven't had a great track record with jobs, but this one actually seems to be going well."

"What is it?" Leone asked.

"A delivery job," Narancia said, sounding more like his old self. "I'm actually making pretty good money too. Like, way more than I expected." He turned to Mista. "Enough that I'll totally be able to help you put the down payment on our apartment after graduation."

"That's great!" Mista said.

Bruno shared a look with Leone and saw the goth return it cautiously. It did sound good. But maybe too good? Or maybe Narancia was just excited. Bruno didn't want to say anything because he knew how long Narancia had been looking for a job, and this one seemed to be going well for him.

"Is that why you left halfway through the day yesterday?" Giorno asked.

Narancia shrugged. "Yeah, they called me in to help out. I might have to do that sometimes so don't worry about it if I randomly disappear or something, okay?"

"Okay…" Mista said. "But, dude, you know you can't just give up on school, right?"

"Yeah, I know!" Narancia snapped. "But…I've gotta get out of here someday, man. And this job is gonna help me do that. Besides, if this job goes well, than is school really all that important?"

Everyone was silent but Bruno could definitely see where Narancia was coming from.

"We get it," Trish told him kindly. "But just let us know if you need help, okay?"

"Yeah, I know," Narancia said with a small smile.

They finished lunch amiably and then went off to finish their day.

Bruno was feeling a little better about Narancia as he and Leone walked out of school for the day, chatting with Prosciutto about the current history essay.

That was until he glanced over to see Narancia in the parking lot, laughing and joking with a couple guys, one of them tall and blond.

Bruno stopped and elbowed Leone, pointing over there. "Who is that? Isn't it—"

"That's Riccardo DiMoze," Prosciutto supplied with a sniff.

Leone's lip curled. "I haven't seen him around a lot lately. Not that he and his friends show up. What the hell is Narancia doing with him?"

"That's what I'm worried about," Bruno said darkly as he watched Narancia climb into the car with Riccardo and drive off.

"Whatever he's doing, you should probably warn him," Prosciutto said, folding his arms over his chest. "DiMoze's bad news."

"I remember Formaggio getting into something with him last year," Leone said.

"Yeah, and he almost got arrested for it, but there was no real evidence," Prosciutto said. "Not to mention the fact that he locked Pesci into a broom closet once. He's never handled the dark well."

"Hey, what's going on?" Mista asked as he hurried up to meet them.

"Did you know Narancia is hanging out with that Riccardo bastard?" Leone asked him.

"What? No! Why the hell would he be doing that?"

"I don't know, but we need to find out," Leone said with a sigh.

"I'll try to call him over the weekend," Bruno said. "I was going to see if he wanted to come over to study anyway."

Mista nodded, jaw set. "Yeah, okay. I'll try to get in contact with him too." He glanced over at Bruno. "You don't think he's in some sort of trouble, do you?"

Bruno pressed his lips together. "I think if he is, he doesn't know it yet."

"I'll let you know if I hear anything about what Riccardo's up to these days," Prosciutto said glancing over to see Risotto waving to him impatiently and rolled his eyes. "I'm the taxi service today. See you Monday."

Bruno waited for Giorno to meet him at the bike rack and they unlocked the bikes for their ride home. He glanced up at Mista and Leone. "Let me know if you hear anything from him?"

Mista nodded, still wearing the worried expression on his face. "Yeah. You too."

Bruno nodded and dropped his backpack into the bike basket before swinging his leg over and meeting Leone's eyes. "If we don't hear from him this weekend, we'll have to make an intervention Monday."

Leone hummed in agreement and they said their goodbyes before heading home.

None of them were able to get a hold of Narancia over the weekend. Bruno tried calling several times but he was either not at home, or wasn't picking up. After talking to the others, he heard the same story.

Even spending most of the weekend out on the sea with his father couldn't quell his worry. It was one thing if Narancia was skipping school because he just didn't want to do it anymore. It was another if he was getting into possibly dangerous and illegal stuff—especially without knowing it. Bruno grew more and more worried about his friend the longer he didn't hear from him.

Narancia yawned as he made his way to school Monday, the cool morning breeze at least doing a little to invigorate him. He hadn't intended to stay at Riccardo's apartment most of the weekend, but when they'd finished work Saturday, they'd invited him to stay for pizza and then when it had gotten late, they'd let him sleep over and play video games.

Narancia had slept in and then tried to do as much of his homework as he could Sunday night, but it hadn't gone very well. He knew he was slipping, but, frankly, he couldn't really bring himself to care.

"Narancia."

He glanced up to see Mista, Bruno and Leone standing just inside the school gates. He gave them a cautious wave. "Hey guys. What's up?"

"We want to talk to you for a second," Mista told him.

"Okay…" Narancia replied, worried. But he followed them around to the side of the school away from the other students and then folded his arms over his chest as they turned to him. "Um, so what's this about?"

"We were wondering about your new job," Leone said. "What exactly is it that you're doing?"

"Delivering packages to people, I told you that," Narancia said, getting annoyed. Why were they interrogating him like this?

"What kind of packages?" Leone asked.

"I don't know! That's none of my business!" Narancia snapped. "Why the hell should you care, Leone?"

"We were just wondering if it had something to do with why you were hanging out with Riccardo Friday," Bruno said.

"Yeah, I didn't even know you knew him," Mista said. "You know he's not a great guy, right?"

"He's not that bad," Narancia protested. "And yeah, we work together, that's why he was giving me a ride after school. Besides, what business is it of yours what I'm doing for work?"

"Because we're worried it might be illegal, idiot!" Leone snapped.

Narancia snorted. "You're all just jealous I'm making more money than you!"

"No, Narancia, that's not—" Mista started, but Narancia cut him off.

"Can't you just be happy for me that I finally got a job I can do?!"

"We are happy for you," Bruno assured him. "But we just wanted to make sure you looked into the job."

"I'm not stupid!" Narancia snapped.

"Nara, that's not—" Bruno tried but Narancia cut him off too and shoved past them.

"Look, think what you want, but I'm not going to stop just because you think that only criminals would hire me."

He hurried all the way into the school toward home room and slumped at his desk, still fuming. What was their problem anyway? Probably just jealous he wasn't hanging out with them so much anymore, but he had to work, what was he supposed to do?

He pretty much gave up trying to figure out what he was doing in class, and just stewed for most of the day until the bell rang. Then he left by himself, not allowing any of the others the chance to catch him. He didn't care if they wanted to apologize or not, he didn't want to hear it.

He took the long way home, trying to waste as much time as possible. Honestly, he missed going to Mista's for dinner. The good food, the warm atmosphere…he knew he could easily call Mista and ask to come over, but he would have to reconcile first, and would undoubtedly have to have another conversation with his friend about his job, and he just didn't feel like getting interrogated again.

He pulled his keys out when he got to his house and stepped inside, glancing around.

"Hey, Dad?" he called experimentally. "Any plans for dinner?"

There was no reply. "Are you even home?" he shouted, louder.

Still nothing. He glanced out the window and saw his father's car was gone.

He sighed, and threw his backpack down by the door. He should be trying to work, but his mind just didn't want to focus on anything right now. He just felt…really lonely. Narancia didn't think he had felt this alone since after his mother had died.

He rummaged through the kitchen for a snack and had his mouth full when the phone rang. He almost let it go, but reluctantly went to the hall to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Ghirga, I tried to catch you outside of school, but you got out of there too quickly," Riccardo's voice came over the line. "You up for working tonight?"

"Yeah, sure," Narancia said, perking up. Anything was better than kicking around the house by himself.

"I'll pick you up, where do you live?"

Narancia waited for the blond to drive by and then joined him as they drove into town. He parked and they split ways to deliver packages on foot.

When Narancia got back to the car, he saw Riccardo on his phone.

"Hey," he said and hung up when Narancia approached. "All done?"

"Yup," Narancia said.

"The other guys are gonna meet us in town for dinner later if you want to join," Riccardo said.

"Definitely!" Narancia grinned.

Riccardo checked his expensive watch. "We've got some time to kill though, so what do you say we get you some new duds?"

Narancia looked down at his jeans and t-shirt and the worn black denim jacket with several patches on it that he'd sewn on himself. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing!" Riccardo laughed. "But I want some new stuff, so I thought I would show you some of my favorite places." He punched Narancia lightly in the shoulder. "It couldn't hurt to change it up a little. You have enough money now."

He did, that was true, Narancia suddenly realized. He shoved his hands in his pockets with a grin. "Yeah, okay, maybe my wardrobe could use an update."

He and Riccardo headed to the mall and shopped around. Narancia picked out a couple new outfits, trying not to cringe at the price tags.

He changed into one on the way out, grinning at his reflection. He did look pretty cool.

"Nice," Riccardo said as Narancia joined him again. They walked through the mall and Riccardo glanced up when they passed a hair salon. "Hey, you know what would make you even cooler?"

"What?" Narancia asked.

"A haircut and a bleach job."

Narancia shoved him. "No way!"

"What? You'd look really cool! A real chick magnet."

"Ya think?" Narancia asked hesitantly, glancing toward the salon.

Riccardo grinned. "Of course, man! You think I look cool, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

"So what's the hold up?" He slung his arm around Narancia's shoulders. "Come on, man, new job, new you. Between the new clothes and a new hairdo, you could really climb up in the world."

Narancia chewed his lip, and then finally gave in, grinning. "Yeah, let's do it."

Riccardo grinned and slapped him on his back. "Hell yeah! I know you won't regret it!"

The next morning Narancia looked at his hair in the mirror. It looked really weird, almost too bright in comparison of his natural hair and would take a little bit to get used to, but it did look pretty cool. Still, he should probably find a hat for today…

He grabbed a beanie he thought he might have stolen from Mista at one point, and headed out the door. It kind of clashed with his new outfit, but oh well.

He was just walking up the school steps when Mista hailed him.

"Hey, Nara! Whoa, are those new clothes?"

"Yeah," Narancia said hesitantly.

"Hey man, look, we didn't mean to make you upset yesterday or anything," Mista told him. "We were just kind of concerned and maybe jumped to a few conclusions. I am really glad you've finally found a job you like. And it would be great for us both to have enough pooled resources to get an apartment after graduation."

Narancia gave him a small smile. "Yeah, I know."

"Okay, but, you want my opinion? And trust me, this means a lot coming from me, but that hat doesn't go with the outfit man."

Mista reached out and grabbed the hat from his head before Narancia could stop him.

"Hey!"

Mista's eyes widened before he burst out laughing. Narancia glowered and grabbed the hat back.

"What…the hell?" Mista demanded between chuckles. "I mean, power to you for the look, man, but, seriously?"

"I'm just trying something different," Narancia grumbled and yanked the hat back on.

"Look, Riccardo might look cool on the outside, but he has no real sense of fashion," Mista confided. "But I guess whatever you want."

Narancia grumbled, and pulled away from Mista. Luckily the bell rang, giving him an excuse to leave.

He did plan on sitting with the others at lunch even if it was uncomfortable, but Riccardo caught him and pulled him over to the table where he and the others were sitting.

"Hey man, new duds look good," Riccardo told him.

"Thanks!" Narancia replied.

"By the way, you left your jacket in my car last night."

"Aw, that's okay, I'll grab it next time I go over to your place," Narancia said. It was his favorite jacket, but he could do without it for a couple days.

"How's the hair?" he grinned reaching out for Narancia's hat, before he pulled away.

"It's fine."

"Shy?"

"Yeah, come on, we want to see it," Angelo smirked.

Narancia bristled, but laughed it off. "Later, okay? I don't want to blind everyone in the cafeteria."

Riccardo laughed. "So, anyway, I was wondering if you could take a job for me tonight. It's just a single package. I've just got some other stuff to see to. He's an important client though, so I don't want to make him wait."

Narancia's eyes widened slightly. "Yeah, of course I can."

"You're a good guy, Ghirga," Riccardo said. "I know I can trust you to get this done."

"Totally!" Narancia promised, wondering if he'd be paid extra for such an important job.

"Meet me after school and I'll hand it off to you."

And he did just that, finding Riccardo in the parking lot and taking the small package from him along with the address and delivery instructions.

"The guy is only going to be there from seven to eight tonight, so make sure to get there sometime within that window," Riccardo told him.

"No problem, I got this."

"Thanks again, man," Riccardo said and grinned.

Narancia put the package carefully into his backpack before he turned around and was instantly accosted by Trish who had seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

"Whoa, a little warning?" Narancia jumped. "Do you need something?"

She folded her arms over her chest. "What I need is for you to stop being such an idiot."

"Excuse me?"

Trish rolled her eyes. "You haven't been turning in homework, you probably haven't even been doing it."

"I have…been trying," Narancia admitted with honest defeat.

"Then let me help you!" she nearly pleaded. "I know you don't want to quit now. How do you think Fugo would feel if you just dropped out?"

"I'm not dropping out, why is everyone freaking out over me having a job?" Narancia shouted.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're accepting shady packages from delinquents in the school parking lot!"

"He just passed off a delivery I'm doing for him later," Narancia protested. "You guys are seriously paranoid."

"Okay, well, that aside, your hair looks horrible, and you look really stupid in those clothes."

Narancia bristled. "Well you don't have any fucking right to tell me what to do! You're not my mom!" And then he continued without even knowing why. "My mom's dead, okay? And my dad's a deadbeat piece of shit so I'm just trying to get out of that place as quickly as possible because I can't take it anymore!"

Trish blinked at him, and her expression changed. "Nara, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Just, leave me alone!" Narancia snapped. "If I fail, so what? It's on me, not on any of you, got it?!"

He stormed off and didn't even look back when he heard Mista calling to him. He blinked back sudden wetness in his eyes, but refused to let it fall. He really wished everyone would just chill and let him live. Hell, he'd had more fun with Riccardo and the guys lately than he had his other friends for a long time.

A worm of guilt started to burrow deep inside of him, but he pushed it away. They were the ones attacking him after all. All he was trying to do was exist.

He hung around home, not even trying to do his school work, and just watched television until it was time for him to start out on his way to deliver the package.

The address was pretty far out, and when he approached it, he realized it was in a pretty bad part of town.

When he found the place, it seemed to be some kind of bar or lounge. Deciding it was probably better to go around back, he circled the building, stepping into the dirty alley to knock on the back door.

It was opened with a metallic shriek and a burly man with a scar next to one eye stepped out, eyeing him.

"The hell are you?"

Narancia dug into his backpack. "I got a delivery for you."

"Where's Riccardo?"

"Busy. I'm taking over for him tonight."

The man grunted and Narancia produced the package, handing it over. "Here you go."

The man took it, looking at him expectantly. "Where's the rest?"

"The rest? That's all he gave me," Narancia told him.

The man stepped forward, suddenly looming over Narancia. "You trying to play me, you little shit?"

"N-No! I'm serious, that's—"

He didn't get the chance to finish before a huge fist slammed into the side of his head. Narancia staggered, falling, barely catching himself on his knees and elbows as his head rang. He could taste blood in the back of his nose.

A foot slammed into his side, sending him the rest of the way down, and he felt the man tearing off his backpack. He tried to struggle and protest, body caught between defending itself and just running.

The man upended his backpack's contents but didn't seem to find what he was looking for because he swore and threw it down beside Narancia.

"You tell that shithead Riccardo that if he wants his money he needs to bring me the amount we agreed on," the man spat down at Narancia.

Narancia was pushing himself cautiously back up onto his elbows. "Wait, I—"

But the man simply turned and slammed the door shut, taking the package with him.

Narancia forced himself into a sitting position, wincing at his throbbing side and face. He scrambled to put everything back into his bag before he staggered to his feet and took off in a halting jog.

He probably should have gone and explained what had happened to Riccardo, but at the moment, he just wanted to be off the streets, so he practically ran all the way home, cleaned himself up, and curled up in bed, trying to figure out what he was going to do.

He had no idea what the man had been talking about. Amount of what? A well of unease began to settle into his gut. Was Riccardo really running drugs? How legit was this whole business? The amount of money they raked in was pretty insane, considering what they were doing. Maybe…maybe the others had been right after all.

But Narancia liked to think of himself as a fair guy. He would give Riccardo a chance to explain himself. Maybe this had all just been a big misunderstanding and it wasn't what it looked like. Maybe that guy was just crazy.

Narancia tried to just go to sleep and stop worrying about everything but it turned out that was much easier said than done.