C H A N E L

The gang erupted in laughs.

"D-Did you just stick your tongue out at him?" Tobias asked through laughs.

Giovanni stared at me, his face was serious and his eyes were cold. He looked angry.

"Do you want to go back to the basement?" Giovanni threatened. His voice was thick and severe.

I immediately tensed, my eyes held fear. "You wouldn't," I declared.

"Don't test me, princess," he snarled. He stepped towards me and I moved back away from him. Why was he coming towards me? He wouldn't put me in the basement, would he?

He continued taking aggressive steps towards me and I took it as a threat. I turned around and sprinted away from him. I always end up running away from people in this house.

I run as fast as I can without looking back to see if he's behind me. The house was big and had a lot of room so I could run away. There were many hiding places in the house, as well. I noticed a cupboard, hiding behind a wall and quickly fit inside the small space. I crouched my body and held my knees. My heart was beating rapidly and I couldn't seem to steady it down.

I didn't want to back to the basement. I didn't want to go into any basement.

My whole body trembled and my eyes watered. I wanted to go home. I placed my head in my knees to soothe down my loud breathes.

I suddenly felt an arm grab my arm and I let out a yelp. I was thrown over Giovanni's shoulder and my fists punched his sculpted back. "No!" I shouted. "Put me down!"

Giovanni ignored me and walked towards the stairs that lead downstairs. "Don't you dare! I swear, if you bring me downstairs I will call the police!" I threatened. He didn't care.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me," I said.

"I say a lot of things, doesn't mean I follow through with them."

"I'm not playing with you, I'm being serious," I told him. I was going to start crying if he brought me back into the basement.

"I'm serious, too," Giovanni said. He started going down the stairs.

"No," I sobbed. "Don't, please." I didn't think I could handle going into a basement again. It was officially one of my fears.

"I-" I choked over my words, tears fell from my eyes and I caught them with his shirt. That's what he gets.

"Gio, dude, put her down," I heard Luke say.

Giovanni stepped up the stairs and I felt my feet on the ground, I let out a breath of relief. I wasn't going into the basement.

I ran upstairs, away from Giovanni. I didn't want to see him.

"That was too far, even for you," Tobias made disapproval sound, shaking his head slightly.

I reached Derrick's room and slammed the door shut. I was being dramatic, but I'm always too dramatic with everything that happens to me. The basement just reminded me of the horrible things that had happened in my life.

G I O V A N N I

He didn't know what he felt, but he felt something in his cold heart. He scared the girl. He was sued to people scared of him, but something about this girl made him feel different. He wanted to change his ways for her. He was weak for her. He didn't like it. He didn't want that to happen.

"I understand you don't want anyone to disrespect you, but something happened to her in a basement where she wouldn't even go near the basement door at our house. She even made a new route to go to her bedroom, so she wouldn't see the basement," Derrick told him.

Giovanni gulped, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He shouldn't have pushed her.

"Go apologize," Luke offered, once he saw the struggled expression Giovanni held.

Apologizing was something he wasn't familiar with. He couldn't remember the last time he even apologies to someone properly. He was usually the one who was wronged. He never felt guilty for anyone else, so why did he for her?

He grunted in response, heading into his office. He wasn't going to apologize, right now. It wasn't something that came easy to him.

He was supposed to be a coldhearted gang leader, he wasn't supposed to show weakness. When he was around her that was all he wanted to do. He hated her for that. He hated what she made him feel. He was trying so hard to hide those emotions from the eye, then she came along and now those emotions were all he felt for her.

Ever since his mother was killed, he put on a cold exterior and it was how he got by. It was how he got by with his life and it worked until her.

Chanel. The name felt like poison on his lips.

Chanel Blanchett.

The daughter of his enemy.

The daughter of the man who killed his mother.

He would never be able to forget that. If that meant taking it out on Chanel then that's what was going to happen. He was not going to apologize for what he did. It was how he was and no girl was going to change him. It was who he was.

He wasn't going to change, especially not by a snobby teenager.

Or so he thought.

A knock on his office door brought him out of his thought.

"Come in," he growled.

The door swung open and revealed a worried Fluffy Head. Tobias.

"Boss, she's gone."