Nia: Lost

Chapter 2:what did I get myself into?!

"KAYCEE!" -

My heart was about to burst out of my chest. I froze. I didn't know what to do.

Kaycee drive her knee straight into his groin. Hard.

"Arg!" Bruce's face immediately shifted from rage to agony. He collapsed to his knees, clutching himself.

"You psycho! I'm gonna get you for this!"

Kaycee ignored him and strutted towards the skater kid, yanked him and ran towards me.

She then grabbed my arm."Let's go!"

Then SHE WINKED AT ME!

This girl is insane!

"Hey! You're gonna pay for this!" One of Bruce's dogs barked at us.

Kaycee , Miller and I bolted for our lives. We ran the way we came, leaving Bruce grunting on the ground recovering from Kaycee's righteous outburst.

Wow.

------------

"What a day!" I sighed, exhausted, and flopped on my sofa.

Somehow we all ended up in my living room. Across from me was Miller, bloody-nosed, pressing a pack of frozen peas to his face, attempting to ease the pain Bruce subjected him to. Next to me, Kaycee was slouched over, flipping through a magazine she found on my coffee table like she owns the place.

They both looked too calm. Honestly weirded me out.

How are they this calm?

My eyes drifted to the ceiling. My mind was buzzing now and my entire body felt heavy. The adrenaline was slowly leaving my system and fear was starting to creep in.

Did I just bring in a bunch of serial killers into my home?

God, I hope Miller doesn't bleed on my mom's carpet. She will literally kill me. I still haven't taken the chicken out the freezer yet...

Well, we did save someone's life! She'll have to understand.

"Man- Bruce is such a douchebag," Miller muttered.

I glanced at him. At least the bleeding had stopped. They seriously did a number on him. From the state his in right now, if Kaycee hadn't stepped in, he would've ended up in the hospital.

"Yeah, he is!" Kaycee chimed in, her eyes were blazing with excitement.

This girl. I could feel a headache coming on.

"This is insane... " I grunted.

I was exhausted. The opposite from the fiery cat next to me.

I leaned towards Miller. "What could you have possibly done to piss Bruce off of all people anyways?" I asked.

Miller wouldn't look at me.

He was hiding something.

What connection does Miller have with Bruce Cruz?

Miller was your typical chubby skater nerd. 11th grader. I'd seen him around school and on rare occasions; church. Red hair, freckles, shorter than I was, pretty average looking,you know. Not a bad kid. He didn't hang around the wrong crowds - actually you'd rarely see him with any crowd. I doubt it's a money thing. His family was doing quite well, his mom's a doctor and dad works as a Chef. So that couldn't be the reason of his entanglement with Bruce.

So why did he almost get sent to the ER?

"Spill it Miller! You owes us now!" Kaycee spoke up, sitting up straight.

Miller's eyes bounced between Kaycee and I. Then he let out a resigned sigh.

" Well... he was after this." He responded.

Miller slowly reached inside his jacket and pulled out what looked like a folded piece of paper. A

newspaper clipping? a note?

"A paper? " Kaycee asked in bewilderment voicing out my thoughts. "You almost died because of a piece of trash??"

"Like honestly!" I added.

"No! no, its- it's not just a paper!" Miller sat up straighter, his eyes and posture. He looked deadly serious. "It's bigger than that."

The whole mood in the room changed.

Kaycee and I glanced at each other, then turned to Miller.

"What do you mean?" I asked, curiosity taking over.

The tension in the room was thick, filled with something. Something that felt like mystery. Something cautious. Something secret.

It felt dangerous.

"Let me start from the beginning," He said.

"Bruce's father -"

"Randall Cruz. " I cut in, voice low. "He practically owns half this town."

"Yes," Miller said. "A few weeks ago, I was tutoring Bruce at his house. He's usually alone there. But that day his father happened to come home early. And he wasn't alone."

Kaycee and I didn't dare speak. It felt like we weren't supposed to.

"The were a couple of men with him~" Miller continued.

~FLASHBACK~

"...One guy stood out to me. Middle aged, white lab coat, looked like he hadn't slept for days. He looked pretty out of it."

"I was there for Bruce's weekly Science tutoring."

'Dad! ' Bruce had run out of his room when he heard his father in the hallway with his colleagues. 'You're home early. What's wrong?' he asked, shutting the door behind him.

"I was still in the room, so I could only hear anything muffled voices. When Bruce came back after a while, his mood was hard to ignore. He was constantly snapping at me. It was the worst lesson ever."

'Dude! Are you even listening to what I've been saying this past hour?' I hissed after explaining the same equation for the hundredth time.

'Shut up!' Bruce snapped. ' I'm just thirsty! Go get me some cold water, maybe I'll hear your nasally voice better!'

'Your parents do not pay me to be your servant, Bruce!' I shot back.

After an intense 30 second glaring contest, I gave up. Reluctantly, I went to get him some water. I mean I'm not stupid, he's still a Cruz. He is not above smashing his tutor in the face. I didn't want to take any chances.

I went down to the kitchen to get some water. On my way to his room, I saw Mr. Cruz in the hallway with that weird scientist guy. They seemed to be in a serious conversation.

I his so they couldn't see me. That's how I heard them.

'- You have to stop this project Mr Cruz! It's dangerous and you know it! We have to shut this down!' the scientist exclaimed. He looked hysterical.

'You do not decide that! I do! ' Mr Cruz sneered. He's back straight, looking down at the gittery scientist nose wrinkling in clear disgust.

'My sponsor has paid a fortune for this project to get to this point and I am not about to throw that away because you do not have -'

'Sir!' The scientist cut him off. 'This is not about the money anymore! It is bigger than us' He whispered frantically.

Mr Cruz just sneered at the hysterical man.

~END OF FLASHBACK~

"So I got curious. I started digging. I began looking into this secret project. Hoping to find this supposed sponsor. But I came up with nothing. " Miller spoke up.

"Dude... " Kaycee whispered, "...that's so cool!" Kaycee squeaked in excitement. Then she and Miller did a fist pump! A bloody fist pump!

"Do you realise what you just did?!" I snapped at Miller. They both flinched, shocked by my outburst.

"You're in dangerous territory! The Cruz territory, Miller! Are you insane! And now we're all trouble because you -" I pointed at Kaycee, "-decided to play hero! And you -" I pointed at Miller, "-decided to be Sherlock freaking Holmes!"

I was on my feet now, pacing. Panic was taking over.

What did I get myself into??

Dammit!

What did I get myself into?!