Chapter 7 (Bad Company - Can't Get Enough)

"Thanks for the lift," I thanked Bobby when he got to a stop at the curb in front of my high school's entrance and somewhat reluctantly got out of the passenger seat.

"No problem, do you need a ride after school?" Bobby, the good soul that he was, offered in turn as I was about to close the door.

Tempting, but…

"It's alright," I reluctantly shot down the offer as I leaned back down to be on a level with Bobby, "I'm going to take the bus, you know, to better get back into the swing of things," I explained my reasoning and watched Bobby nod in understanding.

"Alright then, see you later."

With that, I closed the door, turned, and leisurely made my way to the main entrance. Everyday routine slowly but surely began to settle into my being until…

"Billy?" a very familiar and feminine voice exclaimed nearby. Adriana standing with her gaggle of friends, who had been hidden from view behind the school's bike shed, stared at me with wide eyes, the surprise and joy plain on her features.

I felt a genuine smile mirror her surprised expression and instantly made my way over, the butt of a cigarette that she passed along to one of her friends was easily ignored in favor of the heartfelt hug and the soft body.

Mindful of our audience we kept it at a reasonably chaste kiss, and I gave a quick, but friendly hello to her clique. I had never made an effort to truly get to know them, but I had always been mindful of being polite and cordial.

"Where have you been? It's been, what, a month?" Having received various forms of nods and waves in return from her friends I focused back on Adriana in front of me, one hand coming to rest on her side, while the other one found its way into my pocket.

Something, that I tended to do when I tried to act casual.

Yesterday, after Tomasso, Claudio, and Peppe had decided to put Dr. Dekker's records into a lockbox at a 'friendly' bank for the immediate future, reasoning rather reasonably that being slightly inebriated wasn't the ideal frame of mind to handle such a matter, Uncle Peppe had given me his notes on his cover story for me.

A 'health issue' had been the initial start, which had been enough for the first few days of my absence, but in an effort to cover my prolonged disappearance and general unavailability Peppe had fabricated a very detailed and elaborated story.

So detailed and elaborated in fact, that I had felt the need to write a little cheat sheet last night.

"I have been in New York with a specialist." I began, feeling like I was about to hold a presentation in front of the class. "I had this sudden and excruciating pain in my back, which had turned out to be an," I paused for a second, concentrating to get the word out properly, "osteoblastoma."

Seeing that I had not only Adriana's undivided attention but also that of her friends I got the feeling that I was on the right track and kept going more comfortably.

"It's like a tumor, that tends to grow at the spine," I explained, still impressed and definitely curious how Peppe had managed to come up with that. Seeing and hearing Adriana's shocked gasp I quickly carried on.

"Don't worry," I gently held her shoulders, "it's benign, the problem was that it simply had been at a complicated and painful spot, hence the specialist for the operation and the therapy afterward."

"Must have been some therapy." one of Adriana's friends suddenly muttered from the sidelines and I caught her eyes lingering on my upper arm and shoulder, which were nicely filling out my simple black sweater and the tell-tale signs that I was comfortably back at the brink of my super middleweight. Being a withered and dried husk during Dr. Dekker's treatment just a few weeks back seemingly reduced to a distant memory.

Caught on the spot, no idea if the comment was meant as suspicious or admiring, I simply shrugged for lack of better words.

"Did you get a reply from Stockton?" I suddenly asked Adriana in front of me, intent to change the subject to safer waters. Seeing her eyes visibly brighten, I couldn't help but pat myself on the back.

"I'm in," she gushed gleefully and gave me a quick but earnest hug, sharing her excitement. "Mom was ecstatic, too."

"What about you?" she asked after a short pause. "Were you able to send any college applications during your leave?"

"I didn't, but my uncle got me a desk job at a waste management business down at the Dixon Docks," I told her proudly, happy that my immediate future was handled at least on paper and that I got a legitimate income for my taxes.

I knew it was supposed to be a no-show job, assistant of the landfill operations manager, Jason Barone, Dick Barone's son, but I liked the thought of being a competent, reasonably well-dressed office guy at least by day.

Plus, the way I understood it, additionally to the whole tax business, I was supposed to keep an eye out for any infringements on our routes and territories by rivals. Stuff which at some point, in the future I was expected to handle myself. I was basically going to be the muscle and the on-side link to Uncle Peppe so that he could focus more on the dealings up in the East End.

Long story short, I intended to make it a point to actually understand my job and its requirements, whatever those were.

A big smile still intact at the thought of my official place in the family business I was only dimly aware of Adriana's expression slowly changing to pensive.

"My mom told me my Uncle Richie had been in waste management before he…" she muttered before trailing off, her gaze now sharp and squarely on me, which made my smile slowly slip away.

A quick glance towards her friends, who were pretending not to listen to our somewhat private exchange, was followed by a frown.

Eyes back on me, she went on her toes and gave me a quick kiss on the corner of my mouth.

"We talk more later," she mouthed quietly into my ear, before turning to her friends. "let's go to class."


Spotting a familiar head among his sophomore year mates near the windows of the cafeteria I took my tray and made my way over, which apparently didn't go unnoticed by one of his friends as Somchai received a less than subtle elbow and nod towards my approaching figure.

Slightly bemused and unsure if it was my senior 'coolness'-factor or a murky reputation that garnered such a response I pushed my thoughts into the back of my mind and gave a friendly nod to my not-quite friend.

Finally coming to a spot at the head of their table I let an unreadable gaze wander over the five assembled teenagers.

Apparently, I did have a reputation, given their slightly nervous slightly excited stares.

"How are you, William?" ignoring his classmates entirely, Somchai broke the silence with an honest friendliness, that I had always appreciated.

"Doing better again, thanks, how about you?" I asked in return, by now his buddies were easily ignored.

"Fine, training has been a bit boring without a sparring partner," was his obviously leading answer, which made me smirk a bit.

"Give me a week to get back into shape," I answered, definitely agreeing, but allowing myself a bit of leeway. I actually felt 'in shape' and as much as I wanted to do proper sparring again, I felt the need to test this modified body on my own first, in private.

Somchai was about to reply when he and I noticed one of his buddies elbow his neighbor and point at something behind me, which turned out to be a black-haired teen, that somehow seemed to draw stares and whispers from all over the cafeteria.

"What's with the freshman?" apparently, I had missed something during my absence.

"That's Richard Grayson," the kid with the busy elbows answered and I heard the faintest hints of what I thought was envy. Seeing my lack of dawning the kid readily carried on.

"Bruce Wayne adopted him after his parents bit the dust," he explained and made it sound like the other boy just won the lottery, which…to be honest…he basically did.

"Huh," I shrugged, not even trying to imagine what the teen was going through, and focused back on Somchai.

"As I said, give me a week and we can work out a schedule with the janitor again," that said I gave a parting nod and made my way further down the row of tables, intent to find a quiet corner and wait for Adriana to have 'our talk', which I was so looking forward to.


Turning onto the homestretch, Peppe's Pizzeria now within view down the street, I couldn't help but frown at my dilemma.

Turned out, that Adriana's uncle had been in the mob and was currently in the can serving a 20-year sentence, which understandably had left Adriana's mother devastated, heartbroken, and more importantly quite a bit resentful towards a certain kind of people.

Said resentment had been picked up by Adriana, who, by some stroke of luck and me not exactly peddling the stuff I had been up to, had been left blissfully unaware.

In hindsight, that was somewhat hard to believe. Maybe she had brushed off the occasional comment from some student about me as some stereotypical insult, I reckoned.

Things…were not really tense, but the talk definitely felt like a bump in our romance.

Couple that with the fact, that our relationship already was on the brink of becoming a lot more complicated with her moving to Stockton University and me remaining here in Gotham City, and quite suddenly I didn't even want to entertain the thought of her finding out, that my association went way further than just simple family ties.

Sighing in defeat at the headache lurking in the future I stepped in front of the restaurant door and mentally prepared myself for my shift behind the bar today.

Only to stop short in surprise and eye the sign right in front of me.

'Closed, private gathering'

I wasn't aware something was going on today. Did I miss something?

Suddenly a bit more alert I prepared myself for a possible evening with the administration or something along those lines and pushed the door open, posture straight, distracted slouch gone.

One foot barely inside, the little bell above announced my entrance, and I was instantly assaulted by loud cheers from the bar to my right.

Startled, wide-eyed, I stared at my whole extended family saluting me with a shot glass.

Mateo behind the bar, Claudio on one side with Vito, Uncle Peppe and Tomasso on the other side, and Bobby and Paulie at the dartboard.

"Happy Belated Birthday!" they all shouted incredibly out of sync and with varying degrees of true enthusiasm, even Tomasso's smile was clearly easy and honest.

Caught flatfooted I remained where I stood and stared. Only until Uncle Peppe lazily slid a glass filled to the brim with a dark liquid in front of an empty stool next to him did I feel a big smile explode on my features and I ducked my head in faint embarrassment at the assembled attention.

Jacket, school bag, and girl troubles were left at the coat rag as I happily made my way to the bar under the chorus of well-wishes and fond pats on the back.


"Richie Aprile, I remember him," Uncle Peppe muttered with a faraway look out onto the darkened streets outside and a slice of pizza in his hand. All around us people were talking and laughing while freshly made pizza went hand in hand with wine, and easy-going music hung in the background.

It was this incredibly comfortable atmosphere and the wine, that made me confess my situation regarding Adriana to Uncle Peppe.

"He was a bit of loose cannon of Inzerillo, wasn't he?" Peppe questioned Claudio, who stood next to us as he reached across the counter to refill his glass.

"That he was, but a stand-up guy," Claudio replied with a hint of respect for the man.

"About your girl," Peppe focused back on the subject, "let her get used to it and keep doing what you have been doing. Seemed to have worked so far."

I drank deeply from my glass to hide my reaction.

That…was supremely unhelpful, but sadly also the best that I had come up with so far.

Sighing in defeat I watched as Mateo sauntered over to us behind the bar.

"What's with the long faces?" he asked as he refilled mine and Peppe's glasses with practiced ease.

"Trouble with the missus," Claudio answered for me with a smirk clearly audible in his voice.

"Bah," Mateo exclaimed as refilled his own glass, "she will get over whatever you did."

"Here have my present before I forget it," he said, a very light buzz now clearly evident, and reached for something hidden behind the countertop.

"Don't mind the lack of wrapping," he went on with a shrug, "it's the thought that counts, remember."

With that, he placed a folded napkin in front of me.

"Go on, open it."

"Brass knuckles!" Uncle Peppe exclaimed in a weird mixture of amusement and anger right next to me as I stared at the two heavy steel items, while Claudio chuckled quietly.

"I guess it's time for the big surprise," Claudio said to Peppe and I turned to them after quickly thanking Mateo for the fitting but inappropriate gift.

"Right, come on," Peppe stood up and clapped me on the shoulder, guiding me towards the back door, which was our delivery entrance and lead to a little alley.

Keeping quiet I was a bit surprised as Tomasso fell into step behind us.

"It isn't quite the BMW of your mom," Peppe began to say as he ever so slowly opened the door.

Instantly, my interest went through the roof. They didn't? "But when I saw it in Bobby's body shop, I knew it was the right one."

Finally, the door was fully open, and I gasped like a little girl.

"Oh, yesss!"

A black Jetta mk2, another gasp.

"A GLI!"

"Yup," Peppe confirmed, clearly pleased by my reaction. "low mileage, and Claudio managed to get the original BBS rims."

"You should have seen your uncle do the test ride." I heard Claudio quip good-naturedly, which managed to make Tomasso chuckle, while my face was glued to the driver's side window.

"Fun little car and MotorWeek had a good review," Peppe defended himself, not at all embarrassed.

"My present is in the trunk," Tomasso said with a tone, that I couldn't quite place, and when I looked over the car, I noted how Peppe and Claudio both instantly lost a bit of their levity.

Doing as I was told; I walked towards the back of the car and felt my smile become a tad unsure at the change in the atmosphere surrounding us.

Pushing the button, I lifted the lid and instantly my eyebrows threatened to disappear into my hairline.

"It's supposed to help you on your first job," Tomasso revealed.