Happy Reading.
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The music swirling from the sound inside the car accompanied them along the night streets past every building in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Mallory and Lorenzo only had a few light conversations without much interaction, until occasionally they also threw light humor jokes at each other to fill the time on the road. The car was still moving when Lorenzo returned his focus to the road ahead, and Mallory looked at the man's face from the side, hiding the twinkle in his eyes that didn't show interest, but rather seemed to have something else behind it.
Mallory didn't hold her gaze on Lorenzo for too long as the car slowed down before approaching the triangle, but moved on to something else that caught her attention more. Lorenzo turned his head to his right to see the state of the girl next to him, he was equally silent but then cast his gaze towards the roadside following the direction of Mallory's gaze.
"That's... Dalton?" Mallory's words hung in the air, her eyes following the movement of a man in a long brown suit, walking with slow, calculated footsteps toward her and Lorenzo's destination, Santa Monica Pier. "Don't tell me they planned this on purpose, and Lorenzo ran with bringing me here?" Mallory said to herself.
Lorenzo's one hand waved slowly right in front of Mallory's face, which instantly distracted the girl from the street. Mallory turned her chin slightly towards Lorenzo. "What did you see on the street, Ry? Why are you daydreaming?" he asked, a look of concern in his eyes.
Mallory didn't answer the question right away, her mouth opened slightly to show she was racking her brain. "No, I was just watching someone like I've seen her before. But it looks like I'm just the wrong person." she replied trying to turn her face away from the man's gaze. While Lorenzo only raised both eyebrows at Mallory's answer, not showing any suspicion before finally just nodding his chin.
Lorenzo's hands steered the car into the Santa Monica area. The car drove at a low speed following the vehicle in front to a parking lot closer to the beach. Mallory immediately unbuckled the seatbelt hugging her body as the car came to a complete stop, even faster before Lorenzo realized what had just happened. Her gaze darted around among the crowds of other visitors looking for the person she saw before entering Santa Monica. Several times she turned her eyes to the right and back, but Mallory still couldn't find the person. Mallory's heart was still a little uneasy, whether the person was aware of her existence, or it was just a miscalculation.
The sound of footsteps approaching from behind, Mallory glanced at the shadows below. "Mallory, if you dare to go first to the pier, wait for me inside. I'll go buy tickets for the two of us to play there." explained Lorenzo looking directly at Mallory's face.
Mallory tilted her head slightly with eyelids that were clearly almost dilated, staring into Lorenzo's eyes trying to dive into the blue sparkle of his eyes looking for lies or something he might be hiding, but not knowing why Mallory was unable to read him and found nothing as his words were purely natural. Finally, Mallory only responded with a momentary shrug of her shoulders before nodding approvingly.
After Lorenzo's back was turned, Mallory followed the direction of the man's feet as he walked further away without taking his eyes off her at all. A breath escaped from her mouth as her chest felt full, and then she bent her body slightly to reveal a bit of her clothes. She took something out from underneath the knee-length black dress she was wearing, looking at Lorenzo once again who left without inviting her to buy a ticket together, and instead told her to go in first.
"I'm sure you're up to something, Lorenzo Jefferson." Mallory swung her legs and stepped out onto the pier combing through the souvenir stalls and food stands.
Crowds of people passed by in the windy night with the moonlight shining overhead in a clear sky with no clouds to obscure it. Mallory's gaze spread to take in everything around her without missing a beat as she waited for her food to be prepared. While feeding her mouth to fill her stomach that was starting to feel a little rumbly plus the sea breeze felt more piercing, she kept a vigilant watch worried if Dalton suddenly passed by in front of her own eyes. Mallory continued to stand waiting for a few minutes near one of the games to finish her food, but Lorenzo's face did not appear. Mallory without a second thought finally decided to send her current location to Randzion's core members to their group chat, hoping that someone would catch up and pick her up soon.
"This must be one of Dalton's plans to trap me amidst the hustle and bustle of the playground tonight. Luckily, I didn't bring Chaopard with me." Mallory chuckled once finishing her meal, going to speed up her footsteps towards deeper into the theme park area, looking for a place where Lorenzo and Dalton might meet.
Her little run took her towards the Roller Coaster that had a fairly long queue, her eyes seeing the faces of the people getting sharper looking around. As Mallory's eyes circulated to the right of where she was standing, and not too far away, she saw two men standing face to face talking amongst the crowd. And those two people, she felt, were most likely the people she had been looking for. Mallory finally decided to step closer slowly watching them talk without being disturbed by the passers-by.
Mallory continued to watch the two who seemed to be very serious in their conversation, as if not noticing her walking slowly came closer trying to listen to what the two were talking about. "My hunches rarely miss, I'm sure this is one of your plans."
"Mallory."
While she was busy observing the other person from a distance, from behind Mallory felt someone grab her shoulder. Her body reacted with a slight jolt of surprise, and Mallory's natural instinct was to immediately clasp her hands into fists in preparation for a punch. She turned around and released her fist with all her might. But instead of hitting or striking something, her hand felt forced to stop. She opened her eyelids looked up and saw who was holding her punch.
"William?" Mallory's mouth opened slightly to stare at the man with glasses.
William with his folded forehead lowered Mallory's fist slowly before letting go. "Don't just hit, Ry, for God's sake. That's why next time you get a call, answer it, leader." He carved a faint smile.
Mallory nodded softly at that and then apologized, William didn't give much of a response other than raising his hand to stroke the top of the head of the girl in front of him who was only as tall as his own chest. Mallory raised her head until her feet were slightly on tiptoe peeking behind William's body looking for the presence of others.
"You're the only one here?" she asked.
"Dareen and Azrien are in the front, they actually wanted to come here but were afraid of being tempted to buy food." William replied with a sigh. Mallory didn't say anything but with her mouth slightly open and one eyebrow raised William let out a laugh once. "They don't bring money. Always. I wonder if they're in the arms sales department too but I don't know how the money always seems to be missing."
"I'm wondering if you guys are actually selling equally or not, so poor." Mallory teased, swinging her head towards the two people she had tried to listen in on earlier but they weren't there. "We better get out of here now, there's Dalton."
William didn't have time to open his mouth to say anything after hearing the name Mallory mentioned, when the girl had already pulled his wrist first, he was pulled as hard as he could. His body just obeyed where the girl with a different age a few years below him took him out away from the crowd of visitors around the pier. Their footsteps treaded together on the wooden floor of the pier as they descended the stairs to the parking lot.
Mallory released William's hand from her grip stepping with wide open footsteps allowing her hair to fly in the wind. William deliberately narrowed the range of his footsteps to keep up with Mallory until he was behind the girl, but he didn't have time to see what was happening to his right when a hand suddenly came forward to grab Mallory's hand, bringing his feet to an abrupt halt.
"Where are you going?"
Mallory's face twisted quickly at the sound of the hand holding her. "Go home. I have some urgent business. Sorry, I can't stay too long." she replied with a sharp, challenging look, then jerked Lorenzo's hand away. "We can still have another time to go together," she then pulled William's hand away.
Lorenzo didn't let go of the girl so easily, pulling back her wrist. "Come home with me." he firmly grasped Mallory's hand giving her a flat look.
"What's wrong with you?" Mallory's forehead clearly captured how unpleasant Lorenzo's expression was to William.
Lorenzo returned Mallory's gaze. "That's what's wrong with you, going home with someone else when you left with me. What will I tell your brother if he looks for you and sees me coming to your house and you're home alone?"
"You don't need to bother about that," William interjected, taking the action of releasing Lorenzo's tight grip on Mallory's hand. "I'll take her home later." William's eyes glanced at Lorenzo out of the corner of his eye before turning his body to take Mallory with him.
Lorenzo locked his mouth tightly but his eyes followed every step watching Mallory's back getting further and further away from his line of sight as she left with William, but in the back of his mind he didn't feel any hurt despite seeing before his own eyes the girl he went to the amusement park with now leaving with another man. His hair moving wildly even though his eyes continued to look towards the street where Mallory had left among the crowds of visitors, he put one hand into hisbpants pocket while putting a faint smile on his face before turning his body around.
While Mallory, who was still gripped by William's wrist, walked side by side with Mallory walking slower to match William's giant-like legs. Going down the stairs too hastily that they almost bumped into other visitors. But finally their eyes caught the sight of two men who were leaning their waists against the body of the car snacking on snacks, and when they saw Mallory's arrival both of them lowered the food to justify their standing position.
"Just coming in to pick you up took so long." Azrien interrupted standing up with his mouth still full of food, then offered his food container to Mallory.
"Mallory was detained by her boyfriend earlier," William replied offhandedly, which made him not have time to think about the consequences of his words and get a punch in the stomach from Mallory.
"You talk so carelessly, there's no relationship status." Mallory looked sarcastically at William who only grinned while holding his stomach.
The other man who was still listening to the conversation finally opened his mouth. "Are you seriously dating Lorenzo? With your own enemy," said Dareen.
"How did you know I was out with Lorenzo?" asked Mallory, studying Dareen's casual face.
"Claire told me," he replied simply before lighting up the cigarette he had taken out of the pocket of his light jacket.
"I'm getting lazy with you guys. If you're just here to annoy me, I'd rather Odessa or Aesira come and get me." Mallory snapped through her eyes that alternated between the three men in front of her.
Mallory twisted her body to ignore Azrien's offer of food, turning to walk away with feet that seemed to be deliberately stomping leaving the three lelalki who were her close friends in the Randzion gang alone. William raised his hand to pull Azrien and Dareen's front hair in turn to stop their joking laughter. Seeing the girl walking further and further towards the shoreline where many small children were playing, the three of them compactly ran after leaving their snacks trying to persuade Mallory by offering to spend their money to buy snacks around.
***
Returning to the two-story building on the side of the road that was rarely passed by many people that they called the main headquarters, two sports bikes drove hand in hand ahead of each other with the roar of their engines echoing breaking the streets of the late night featuring the late moon high above. Street lights reflecting off the shiny bodies of the bikes added a sharp edge to the previously quiet streets now filled with exhaust trails and the smell of perfectly burnt gasoline.
Slowly their speed reduced as the final turn approached the headquarters gate. The rear tire slipped slightly as they lowered the throttle before stabilizing in one practiced motion. Both of their bikes were almost together, just a second after the brakes closed the speed perfectly.
The girl with shoulder-length black hair jumped off with ease even as the tires still hadn't come to a complete stop, she ran inside the building to find her other friends.
"Odessa, Aesira, where are you two?" Mallory's voice raised slightly, several pairs of eyes sitting in the gathering room turned at the sound of her voice, but she kept walking regardless of whoever was watching her pass by.
"Look at that girl, yelling at us on the street, and now she's walking into the base like she doesn't have a care in the world." Dareen removed his helmet, holding it in his lap as he waited for Azrien to dismount behind him.
"If you talk like that in front of her face, I'm sure there will be a funeral tomorrow." Azrien quipped to break the silence, William glanced over for a moment and raised his eyebrows in agreement with what Azrien said.
The headquarters building tonight was quite crowded with Randzion members, which usually indicated that a small party had just been held by the junior members according to William's estimation. And Mallory, who had gotten further into the headquarters, finally set foot into the kitchen area. Stepping there Mallory finally found the two girls she was looking for cooking. Odessa was the first to notice her arrival and gently nudged Aesira's arm with her elbow.
"Where from, Ry?" asked Aesira approaching.
"I'm from Santa Monica Pier with someone," she replied after her gaze moved to the back, the side of the headquarters gathering room where there were about a dozen people. "By the way, what's this gathering for?"
"There's a new junior member who won a race on Arcadia Street." Odessa answered before Aesira opened her mouth. "And the profit was quite large, about $2K. So the money they got was given to the joint treasury, they took a little bit of the rest. And the rest they said they spent on food," Odessa explained. Mallory hearing the amount of money Odessa mentioned made her eyes widen in disbelief.
"I swear that's a lot, how many races did they win to get that much money?" Mallory's eyes alternately looked at Odessa and Aesira.
Aesira closed her eyes briefly and immediately pursed her lips, "They bet... with Black Aoudra,"
Mallory's attention went straight to Aesira. "With Black Aoudra? But what does Black Aoudra want if they win?"
"The usual, Chaopard. What else? It's just lucky they won, so the money goes to the junior members." Odessa replied casually and continued cooking, even though Mallory had already hardened her jaw.
"Oh, yeah. Claire and Victoria didn't come?" asked Mallory after a few seconds of silence.
"They're coming actually, they just went out to get some snacks. I don't know what it's about, or why they're taking so long—"
Aesira didn't get a chance to continue when the door behind them, the wooden door that led the headquarters to the backyard, was just slammed hard against the wall. The sound of the door slamming echoed through the air and reached the gathering room inside. Two more girls stepped inside, each of them carrying a large number of bulging grocery bags.
"Hello, everybody!" A shrill greeting came out of Claire's mouth, Victoria's face appearing behind her with a slow shake of her head following the girl's steps in.
"Long live she doesn't make explosions, though it still makes Victoria mentally exhausted to deal with her." Aesira chuckled to Odessa's quiet laughter.
Claire walked over to the kitchen table in the corner of the kitchen area to raise the shopping bags she was carrying, taking the time to glance at Victoria and help her raise her items. "Hello beloved leader of the seniors!" The grocery bag she had put down was left unattended and now she moved on to other things to pull Mallory into a hug.
Since Mallory was a person who did not like or perhaps could rarely get physical touch, the girl kept Claire's head away from touching her shoulder any longer. "Claire, please, hey already! I have a headache dealing with you every day, even though I see you all the time at school, and now it's like I haven't seen you in a year."
Claire only smiled in response to Mallory's joke, but had no intention of letting go of her hug. "You don't get this kind of affectionate physical contact very often, Mallory."
"You out with Lorenzo, Ry?" Victoria popped the question, with a face that looked like it had just caught Mallory in the act of committing a crime.
"How do you know?" she asked back.
"Marzio asked me about where you were, he said Lorenzo came to the house with food and came alone. Then Lorenzo also told Marzio that you went home with someone else," she explained. And Victoria's explanation earned a crisp but sarcastic laugh from Mallory.
"Yes, I did go with Lorenzo, but I had to go home first because I saw Dalton." she replied. Aesira and Odessa, who had been taking care of the cooking, immediately turned off the stove and straightened their backs. "It's a good thing that I quickly understood the surroundings, that's why I immediately contacted you guys whoever could come to pick me up."
Aesira narrowed her gaze to look at Mallory. "Wait, isn't Dalton in Mexico?" The question was met with a flick of the finger from Odessa.
"Well, yes! Didn't Dalton also give up the position of leader and no longer want to be involved with Black Aoudra?" Odessa continued as she transferred her finished dish into the container prepared by Victoria.
"That's the rumor, but we don't know the truth." Claire untied her hands from Mallory's body, walking over to sit on the back table. "If it turns out that the rumor was a trap from them, what then?"
"Well this, I agree with Claire's argument. The position of leader of Black Aoudra is currently in Zane Raferty, right?" Victoria replied.
"Yup, the leader who is currently in control of Black Aoudra is Zane. Dalton's trusted and reliable man," Mallory nodded in response to Victoria's question.
"But Zane, even though he's the leader of Black Aoudra, some say he's a junior if I'm not mistaken. There are rumors that he wants to get close to Mallory." Aesira quipped with a casual face, but it got an incredulous nod from Victoria when she heard it.
Mallory chuckled in disbelief. "That's not possible. He's the leader, baby. Want to get close to me? Want to get beat to death by that Dalton kid." laughed Mallory and all four of them laughed in satisfaction when they heard Mallory's words.
Footsteps were heard pounding on the floor from the other side of the room, an elongated shadow appeared on the floor before the figure of the shadow's owner finally revealed his face. The laughter that was previously filled with the joy of the girls gathered in the kitchen, stopped when the faces of their two male friends appeared. The two men came with carved smiles looking at the girls one by one as if judging something and even deliberately nodding their heads slowly.
Realizing the two men in front of her were assessing, Odessa snorted softly then thrust the container of food she had cooked earlier in front of Azrien. "Can you please bring it inside? It's already been cooked by these two princesses." Odessa's hand extended a high five to Aesira, and Aesira returned it with a mocking smile towards the two.
"Thank you, good mothers. For cooking food for us children who are gathering at this base," at the beginning of his words William deliberately lowered the volume of his voice, his hand pulling slowly on the food container turned to run a little out of the kitchen then followed by William.
"Those two, if they weren't senior members, I would have hit their heads, I swear. They thought I didn't hear them, didn't they?" Odessa grumbled to herself and just as she wanted to move to follow her inside, Claire held her back. "It's a good thing you're friends."
Victoria and Aesira already couldn't hold back their unstoppable laughter and laughed even louder at their friends as Odessa snorted, then acted as if she was the girl who had the baby blues first in the face of her son's astonishing behavior.
Mallory just wiped her nose to hide her smile, then she came forward with a clenched hand to offer a high five. "I'm going home first. I just remembered I have some business with Marzio."
The four girls of almost equal height immediately stopped their laughter at Victoria's ridiculous behavior. Mallory knew it wouldn't be easy because her friends, especially this girl, wouldn't let her go home early especially since they had just finished cooking the food. Aesira was the first to hide her hands behind her back, followed by Victoria, Claire, and finally Odessa.
See you in the next part!
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