Conversations between Shade and Peter became shorter and shorter each day. There was a hello in the morning, a "just off work" at night, sometimes a "goodnight," and few other small texts here and there. Peter would ask Shade if everything was alright and tried to remind him that their grades sort of depended on Shade responding to Peter's texts but it always seemed as though Shade purposefully ignored those. Of course, Peter had no way of actually knowing if it was on purpose or not but it sure just seemed like it.

        Peter did everything he could think to do to try to keep the boy engaged in conversation for as long as possible. And things would begin to look up as Shade responded immediately and seemingly happy to Peters attempts and just as Peters hopes of his grade not getting screwed up, Shade would stop responding. Peter had no clue why Shade had suddenly stopped texting him as much and seeing as his grade depended on him talking to this boy, he was quite frustrated.

        The worst part was that there was nothing Peter could really do about it without going to a teacher and he wasn't too sure he wanted his partner to get in trouble. Sadly, if things went on like this, Peter would have no choice but to tell his teacher that his partner wasn't responding and making the project impossible to do. Peter tried his best to get that through to Shade, as he did with everything else, but like always, things stayed the same.

        This went on for about a week before things changed. Peter had just gotten home from a movie night with Ned and went straight to take a shower before bed. After showering and getting dressed, Peter sat down on his bed and began scrolling through Instagram. He was about to exit off the app to respond to a text from Ned when a call came through on his phone. The name on the phone was "English Partner" and Peter had no clue if this was a butt dial or not. He also wasn't sure if it was against the rules to call your partners but seeing as this was the first time in a while, he was being given the chance to actually talk to his partner was enough to make him answer the phone.

        "Hello?" Peter said after answering the call. Besides the sound of heavy breathing, there was no real response from Shade. "Hello," Peter spoke again, starting to think this might have just been an accidental call. He began to pull the phone away from his ear, about to end the call.

        "Hey," Shade finally spoke causing Peter to pull the phone to his ear. "I, uh, wanted to apologize for being shit at responding recently. I've had some stuff going on," Shade explained, scratching his neck and he made his way up to his bedroom. Peter nodded, only to realize that Shade couldn't see that.

        "Oh, yeah. It's fine. Is everything good now?" Peter was confused as to why he was calling to apologize rather than just texting him.

        "Not really," Shade crossed his legs and leaned back against his headboard, "I'm probably still gonna be just as shit at responding. Just wanted to apologize."

        "Why did you call me?" Peter spoke, "Shit, that sounded rude. I just meant like why didn't you just text me if you wanted to apologize? I don't have a problem with you calling, I'm just curious."

        "I meant to text you. I was scrolling through my contacts for you and instead of clicking the text button, I clicked the call one. I was about to hang up when you picked up. My bad," Shade explained. He waited on Peter's response, biting his nail.

        "Oh, makes sense, I guess," Peter shrugged. Shade nodded his head and hummed in agreement. There was a moment of silence before Peter asked, "Can I ask what's been going on? Or is that too personal?"

        "Too personal," Shade's response was almost too quick but Peter didn't question it. Personal matters weren't his business and if Shade didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to force him too.

        "Alright. But listen, this project is kinda a big part of our grades and I don't really wanna fail, do you think you try to be a little less sucky at responding?" Peter questioned, hoping the boy wouldn't just change the subject. Peter started to get worried he was going to hang up when there was no answer from Shade. "Hello?"

        "Yeah, sorry. My boss texted me. Um, yeah. I'll try but I cant make any promises. Life's kinda a mess right now," Shade's voice had softened as he held the phone to his ear. It went silent again. Shade looked up at the ceiling while Peter tried to think of a way to reply to Shade.

        "Uh, I know you said the situation was too personal," Peter spoke slowly. "But if you ever wanna talk about it, if that's whats making your life a mess, you can call me. I'm like always awake, I have a shit sleeping schedule," Shade laughed at the statement as Peter continued, "Sometimes talking about what's upsetting you can be easier with a stranger that way you get a completely unbiased opinion on the situation."

        "I'll keep that in mind, thanks." Shade bit at the skin on his lip, closing his eyes. He let out a sigh as his phone beeped. He pulled the phone away from his ear to see another text from his boss before swiping the message up (a bad decision, really) and putting the phone back up to his ear. "Midtown dude, can I ask you something?"

        "My names—"

        "Not allowed to know it, dude, remember?"

        "Right," Peter remembered, mentally slapping himself. "Anyways, uh, yeah. Ask away, Riverbend dude." Both Shade and Peter laughed.

        Shade's hand tightened around his phone, "When you do something you regret—like it was the stupidest decision you ever made and you absolutely hate yourself for it regret—how do you not feel terrible about it?" Shade brought his thumb up to his lips and began biting at the nail, a nervous habit of his.

        "Uh, that was weirdly specific yet extremely vague at the same time. But I don't know, I guess I just find a way to look at the situation from a way that doesn't make the decision seem so bad? But if you cant do that, make just pretend it didn't happen?" Peter suggested. Honestly, Peter had no clue how to answer that. He had absolutely no clue how to deal with that.

        "Okay, but if you're still doing the thing you regret, then what?" Shade asked, trying to ignore the buzzes on his phone telling him his boss was texting him again.

        "Stop doing it?"

        "What if you cant?"

        "Hey, are you like okay? Are you in some kind of trouble?" Shade had opened his mouth to respond to Peter's question when another call came through on his phone. In all caps, his bosses name flashed on the screen. Shade sighed, ending the call with Peter to answer his boss.

        On the other end, Peter pulled the phone away from his ear when the call ended. He stared at phone confused and tried to call the boy back only to have his call rejected. Peter sent him a text, asking if he was alright and what happened. When he got no response, he locked his phone and assumed it was just his partner going back to not talking to him.

        But back at Shades, he was currently being yelled at by his boss for ignoring his texts. When the call ended, Shade threw his phone at his wall. Annoyed and frustrated with both his boss and himself, he stood from his bed and changed his clothes. Of course, his boss needed him to come again at almost midnight. He threw a hoodie on over his shirt before grabbing the empty duffle bag from under his bed and leaving the room.

༻❁༺

        Shade was tired of working for Kingston. Sadly, this was all Shade had. It made more money than any legal job he could get. Shade wasn't proud of most of the things he did for Kingston but him and his mother struggled with money. Shade had to do this whether he liked it or not.

        He had just finished up another job for Kingston and was making his his way to the warehouse. The previously empty duffle bag now holding a decent sized, locked metal box. Whatever was inside was important to Kingston and it was a complete pain to get.

        Shade wiped his nose with his free hand as he walked into the warehouse. He made his way towards his bosses office and knocked on the door. When he received a muffled "come in," he entered the room. Kingston sat at his desk, a joyful look appearing on his face as Shade entered. The look slightly dropped when seeing the state the boy was in.

        Shade tossed the bag onto the desk, "You've got a rat. Someone told Fitz that you were sending someone, me, to his place to retrieve the box. Place was surrounded with guards and shit when I got there."

        Kingston stood from his desk, "And you still went in? Alone?" He walked around the desk and opened the door. "Go away," He told the guard at the door before shutting the door again. He turned to Shade, "You could've been killed. Fitz could have killed you." He pointed a finger at the boy, who had moved to sit down in a chair.

         Shade shrugged, "Well, he didn't. I lived. And I got the box you asked for." He motioned towards the duffle bag. Kingston let out a sigh—sure, he was technically a bad guy but that didn't mean he enjoyed sending a sixteen year old boy out to do extremely dangerous jobs. Kingston hated to send the boy out to do his dirty work but the boy was loyal and could kick major ass. He tried to keep Shade away from the more dangerous jobs; for example: sending him into a house surrounded with guards for a box and risking getting the boy killed.

        "You should have called and returned. I don't want you dying," Kingston scolded the boy as he sat back at his desk, pulling the duffle bag towards him. "This," He poked the bag with his hand aggressively, "is not worth you dying over. Never do that again, boy."

        Another shrug from Shade, "Who cares? I lived."

        "Your mother cares. If you died on my hands, she would find out about all this. You know, how disappointed your mother would be if she found you were involved in this stuff?"

        Shades eyes dropped the ground for a moment before he looked up to Kingston, "What's in the box anyways?" Shade asked as Kingston unzipped the bag and pulled the box out. He ran his fingers along the box and let out a long sigh.

        "The only thing that truly matters to me."

         A look of confusion covered Shade's face, "Money?"

        Kingston scoffed, looking up the boy, "I'm not that shallow, brat." Kingston smacked his lips and waved a hand at the boy, "And stop slouching, you're going to give yourself back pain." Shade laughed quietly as he sat up.

        "So really, what's in the box?" Shade asked as he stood up and moved his chair to be next to Kingston while he opened the box. Kingston didn't reply to the boy, only reached into one of the desk drawers and pulled a set of keys out. He moved the keys around until he stopped on a key smaller than the rest. He stuck the key in, turned it, and then proceeded to open the box. Whatever was inside was covered in a cloth wrap.

        Kingston didn't pick it up or move the cloth, he just turned to Shade and pointed a finger at the object, "My wife, she gave this for me before she died. Fitz stole this from me a week after she passed. I have been trying to get it back forever. He moves it constantly so that my men can never get it. He had it in his home this week because he was intending to sell it."

        Shade nodded his head and watched as Kingston moved the wrap. Shade prepared himself to see some expensive artifact but when the cloth was removed, all that laid in the box was a small heart shaped locket. Kingston picked the necklace up and held it close to Shade.

        "I'm sorry—what? Are you punking me right now, Kingston?" Kingston frowned, placing the necklace down. "I'm really confused right now. It's a locket. No offense, but how much was he going to sell this for—five dollars?"

        Kingston looked at the necklace, "My wife received this necklace from her mother. Her mother told her to never let this leave the family. That there were secrets hidden within it. My wife and I thought she was crazy. Because like you said, it's a locket. How could this hide secrets in it? It barely holds two photos. But they were right." He paused to pick the necklace up. He turned the necklace onto its back and pointed to a small hole at the bottom of the locket, "You see this?" Shade nodded and he went on, "My wife and I used to think it was just a hole. That something went wrong when it was being made or something and that it was just a hole in the necklace. We never really questioned it. But I don't remember exactly how but for some reason one day, my wife placed an earring to poke the hole and when she did," Kingston grabbed a push pin from a pile on his desk and stuck it inside the hole— a set of numbers began to appear on the locket as he pushed the pin down, "this happened."

        Shade sat up, leaning over Kingston's shoulder, "Shit—"

        "Mhm, language, boy."

        "Sorry," Shade muttered, "What are the numbers for?" Kingston leaned back to be closer to Shade and nodded his head slowly. Shade waited in wonder for the answer.

        "Honestly? I haven't got a fuckin' clue," Kingston whispered. Shade let out the breath he was holding and groaned. He threw himself back in his chair as Kingston threw his arms out, "What?"

        "One, how are you gonna tell me to watch my language and then curse? Two, you totally built that up for a total badass, top secret, action movie moment just to tell me you have no clue what those numbers mean?"

        "One, I'm an adult—I can do whatever I want. And two, I cant help that I wasn't told anything that could tell me what the numbers mean! But what I do know is my wife's family did not want anyone outside of the family to have this and that these numbers hold some kind of secret and for that, I will not let this locket get into the hands of anyone else." Kingston rubbed his chin, "I'll be converting all my time into finding out what this means, though. All my workers will on it. I'll probably not need you to do any jobs for awhile but I still intend on paying you. I know you need the money."

        Shade nodded, "Thanks, bossman. If you want me to help you try and figure this locket out, I can. It's not like I do anything besides this and school. So if I'm not doing jobs for you, I'll have a lot of free time."

        "Spend that time with your friends. They always complain about you never having time to hang out with them and now you have time," Kingston waved the boys offer off.

        Shade's eyebrows furrowed, "How do you know my friends always complain about that?"

        "I read your text message."

        Shade nodded, "Ah—I'm sorry, wait. What? You do what now?"

        Kingston turned his head to look at Shade, "I read your text messages. I read all my workers messages. It's how I ensure they're always loyal. Which is why I do not understand how I have a rat."

        "Burner phone?"

        "Possible," Kingston agreed. The room fell silent and Shade allowed himself to sit back in the chair and watched as Kingston messed with the locket. He wanted to help his boss with the locket, the whole situation intriguing him. But he knew that his boss meant what he said about hanging out with his friends and wouldn't let Shade help. "You may go home if you'd like Shade. It's late. You have school tomorrow. You need the sleep."

        Shade pushed himself out of the chair, "If you change your mind about me helping. I'm down. Just shoot me a text." Shade waved to Kingston before leaving the room. He waved to the workers he passed as he left the warehouse.

        The entire way home all Shade could think about is the locket. When Shade was a block away from his home, he realized something. Fitz had stolen the necklace, did everything in his power to hide it from Kingston, and intended on selling it which meant there was a chance he knew something more about it than just the numbers.

        Shade reached in his pocket to grab his phone to call Kingston only to realize he didn't have his phone. It was still at his house, laying on the ground from where he had thrown it. He began running towards his house, wanting to tell Kingston what he had realized immediately.

        Shade was so focused on getting home, he didn't see the person running out of the alley in front of him causing him to run directly into the person. They both went crashing down.

        Seconds later, Shade shoved him off, "Dude, fucking watch where you're going." He was well aware he wasn't paying attention but didn't care. He stood up and began jogging towards his home, slowly picking up his pace. Behind him, the man who had fell on him was about to run again when he was tackled back down to the ground by a person in a mostly red and blue outfit. The two began fighting. Shade could hear the fighting behind him but continued to run towards his house. He fight didn't concern him so he wasn't going to worry with it.

        Shade finally reached his house, running in through the door and, accidentally, letting the door slam. He hoped that it wouldn't wake his mother only to walk further into the house and see her sitting on the couch. The woman was prepared to scold her son but upon seeing him, worry filled her.

        "What happened to your face?" She moved over to him quickly, her hands cupping his face. Shade's eyes widening. He had been so caught up in the locket situation he had forgotten that he had gotten his ass pretty beat while trying to get the box. "Where have you been? I went in your room four hours ago to tell you the hospital needed me to come in and you're just gone. And then you come back here hurt. What were you doing?"

         "My boss had some matters he needed to talk to me about. On the way back, I—I got jumped. But it's fin—"

        "Fine? You get jumped and its fine? And why the hell would your boss need you at midnight?"

        "He forgot he was going on a business trip and needed to tell me I wasn't going to need to come in for awhile because he wants to keep the business closed while he's gone—"

        "That is a terrible business plan!"

         "Besides the point, mother! He's still going to pay me despite not working—he's gonna be paying all the workers. But he needed us all to come in and discuss pay and time off and what not. And look, the whole jumping thing, it's fine. I didn't have anything worth stealing on me so they threw a couple punches and kicks and left. It really is fine. Did you not go to the hospital?"

        "No! I called my boss back and said I couldn't come! I was absolutely worried about you, Shade."

        Shade grabbed his mothers hands from his cheeks, "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would take that long and I definitely didn't think I would get jumped. I'm really sorry, momma."

        His mother nodded slowly, "That Erik Kingston is a terrible business man. How he keeps that restaurant alive, I'll never understand." Brenda pulled a hand away to poke her sons chest, "Clean yourself up and go to bed. And make sure the next time that idiot calls you at midnight for some late ass midnight meeting, you tell him to shove the meeting up his ass!"

        "Momma, I'll get fired for that. And it's a really good job," Shade explained, looking down at his angry mother.

        She huffed in annoyance, "Fine, but you come and tell me before you go. If you don't, I'm going to kill you. Got it?"

        "I got it, momma."

        The woman nodded and smiled, "Good. Go shower, get clean and sleep. You have school tomorrow. I'll make pancakes in the morning." She pat Shade's uninjured cheek and then motioned for him to go upstairs.

        Shade made his way to the steps but stopped when he remembered something, "Hey, momma. I forgot to ask you this awhile ago but when did you and Mr. Kingston go on a date?"

        The woman's eyes widened slightly before she quickly pointed to the steps, "Shower and go to bed! Now!"

        "Bu—"

        "Shower and go to bed!"

        "Momm—"

        "Shower and go to bed!"

        "Lis—"

        "Shower and go to bed!"

        "Fine," Shade groaned, dragging the "i" out as he turned and stomped dramatically up the steps. Shade made his way into the bathroom to shower. Downstairs, Brenda pulled her phone out and dialed Erik's numbed, ready to scold the man for her songs injuries.

༻❁༺

anyways i've finally updated
and its getting saucy ig ur
welcome 😔✨

im gonna make a new set
of banners for this story and
until then, the authors notes
from here on out are gonna
be kinda ugly bc there arent
gonna be any banners

I HAD TO UNPUBLISH FOR A
SECOND BC I FORGOT TO
CHANGE THE TITLE SORRY

WORD COUNT. 3701