Kingpin (An Italian Mafia Romance) by Ws Greer

he kind of asked me out this morning. I mean, I was beyond nervous because nobody has ever asked me out before. I’ve never had a boyfriend or anything like that. So, anyway, I said I’d go out with him. I told him yes. So, I guess Bobby is kind of, like, my boyfriend now. Or something.”
    Dominic doesn’t respond, and his eyes drop down to the table between us. He’s completely silent and it’s making me feel bad, so I have to keep talking.
    “I wanted you to be the first person to know,” I continue, but he doesn’t look up. “You’re my closest friend, and we tell each other everything, so I wanted you to know this.” He still doesn’t look up at me. “Dominic?”
    He takes a minute and it looks like he’s trying to gather his thoughts. He stays silent, and the only sound is our breathing and the rush of the wind around us. Of course, today would be the day our parents are slow to arrive.
    After two minutes of silence, Dominic finally moves. He reaches down and grabs his back pack off the ground and places it on the table. He starts reaching inside of it like he’s looking for something, until he finally pulls out a little white box and places it on the table in front of me. He slides the box over until it hits me in the chest, and then he stands up.
    “I got this for you a couple of days ago,” he says, looking at the box instead of me. “I meant to give it to you and talk to you about some stuff, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Guess it’s too late.”
    I look down at the box. “What’s this?”
    “It’s an iPod. I got it from Best Buy a couple of days ago.”
    “You got me an iPod? Wow, aren’t these expensive?”
    “Yeah, I guess so. Just take it, it’s yours. I’ll talk to you later.” Dominic hoists his back pack over his shoulder and walks away, never making eye contact with me.
    “Dominic, what are you doing? You have to wait for your ride,” I plead, but as soon as I finish, I see his mother’s car driving towards the parking lot.
    Dominic walks to the road and waves her down. He climbs into the passenger seat, and they drive away without him ever looking back at me.
    As I watch them go, I feel like I just messed something up—like an opportunity has been missed. Something about it feels wrong, but Dominic and I are strong, so no matter how wrong it feels, I know we’re strong enough to survive it.

 

Alannah
    Y ou ever get the feeling something bad is about to happen? It’s like a little warning inside of your heart that tells you to watch out, because everything is about to go wrong and you need to be prepared. Well, that’s how I feel waking up this morning. It’s in my stomach like a cancer waiting to be discovered—it hasn’t been officially diagnosed yet, but you can feel it eating away at you from the inside.
    There are rumors about Dominic now. Over the past couple of years, the kids in school have been drawing their own conclusions about what he and his father do to make all the money they obviously have. Donnie Collazo has had a different car every year, and Dominic is one of the best dressed kids in school now. Not to mention the fact that he seems to have every electronic device known to man. Last year, he gave me a new iPod before that version was even available for purchase. Kids are nosy, so when a guy goes from being normal to being picked up and dropped off at school by Italian guys that look like they’d have no problem slitting someone’s throat, people talk, and since Dominic and I are best friends, they talk to me.
    I spend a lot of my time trying to convince people that Dominic’s father is simply a casino business man. I say that because that’s what Dominic tells me to say. Apparently, a year or so ago, Donnie Collazo became part owner of River City Casino & Hotel and started making big bucks. Around the same time, all these news reports and newspaper articles started popping up about potential organized crime going on in downtown