I walk up to the podium only to be immediately greeted by a waiter.

"Hello welcome to Carello's" he says with a bright smile


"Hi, I'm here to meet Henry Bailey" I say which causes his eyes to widen in fear before he quickly covers it up

"Aspen Bailey, Right this way" he says as he takes a menu from the podium and leads me through the various tables.

We walk into a more secluded area where there's fewer tables.


The waiter stops at a circular booth before setting the menu down and gesturing for me to sit.

I sit down across from my father and immediately pick up the menu.


"Not going to say anything to the man that made you?" He says in a teasing tone

Not this bullshit again.

"Hello Henry" I say without looking up from the menu

"You know that you can call me dad, Aspen" he says matter of factly

"I'd much rather call you Henry" I say as I close my menu

"Now, Now, Aspen. Don't get smart with me" he says in a threatening tone

If you haven't figured it out my dad has minor mood swings.

I'm used to it but it scares the members on his gang.

"Now, Now, father. Wouldn't want to scare me off before you get a chance to tell me what you want" I say just as threatening as I raise an eyebrow

"Fine" He says before he takes a sip of his water.

"How may I take your orders?" A waitress asks as she walks up to our booth and pulls out a notepad

"Can I have a caesar salad and a glass of lemonade" I ask politely

"Of course, what about you sir?" She asks as she looks at Henry

"A medium rare steak with a side salad and a glass of bud light" he says not making eye contact as he reads off the menu

"I'll be bad soon with your orders" she says as she takes our menus and walks off

"Listen to me closely because I will not repeat myself" he demands which causes me to roll my eyes but I listen anyway

"As you know I'm a fifty-five year old guy and I will not be around for much longer," he says

"Maybe if you weren't putting your life in danger then you'd live longer" I say under my breath

"I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that" he quickly says

"I would appreciate it if you took my place when that time comes" he says

Try to guess what I did.

I laughed.

I laughed as if I heard that funniest news in my life.

I laughed until my stomach ached.

"You're hilarious, Henry" I say as I wipe a tear from my eye

"It's not a joke, Aspen" he spits my name with an eye roll

"Are you insane?" I say as if he's actually lost him mind

He might've.

"I'm only sixteen, I haven't even finished school," I say with an incredulous tone

"Plus why would I want to join something so life threatening and irresponsible" I say but immediately get a weird feeling as soon as it leaves my mouth

"You're right, you wouldn't even survive judging by your broken arm" he says

Ugh.

I can't wait until I can get this off in two weeks.

"Great, glad that we had this discussion" I say sarcastically as I stand up and get ready to leave only to stop in my tracks when my dad says a couple of words.

"I'd watch who I'm friends with if I were you. You'd never know if one of them turned out to be a gang leader."

"That girl that dropped you off was quite the eye catcher" he says which causes me to quickly turn around

"I don't know what game you're playing but I will not be apart of it, Henry" I say before I turn around and speed walk out of the restaurant.

Could one of my friends actually be a gang leader?

No, there's no way.

My dad is just trying to mess with my brain.

As soon as Charlotte pulls into the parking lot I walk towards her car and slide into the passenger seat.

"You don't look happy" she says as I close the car door behind me

"My dad asked me to take his place in his gang if he were to die" I say as I turn my head to look at her

I suddenly feel the air thicken as her teasing smile quickly turns into a look of anger.

"That son of a-" she starts to say before I cut her off

"Hey, it's fine. I said no anyway" I say with a dismissive tone

She ignores me as she reverses out of the parking space and drives towards the open road.