My Name Is Vinny Part 2

   Later that night, Pauly sat me down and talked to me. That enough was enough to scare me. “Vinny… Oh, Vinny…” All I could do was stare at my feet and not say a word, not that I had the nerve to talk to him while he was mad at me. “You did good, kid. I didn’t think you had it in you.” “I did… good? What you mean, Pauly?” “I didn’t think you would go after the Principal until you senior year in high school. Your only a freshman! You gotta have balls to try and pull something like that. You did good, my son.” “Son?” This was a subject that we had been talking about for a while. I heard him saying something about adobting me, but nothing official happened yet. “You serious? You did it?” “I did. You are now officially my son.” He patted me on the head and looked me right in the eye. “Welcome to the family, Vinny.” I was welling up inside. I could feel it. “Thanks, pop!” Before I could talk myself out of it, I jumped up and hugged him. He chuckled and hugged me back. “Alright, enough of this sappy shit. I got work to do. What you want for supper?” “Steaks sound good? Or lasagna? Yea, lasagna.” “You got it, kid. I’ll be back later.” He gave me a caring smirk and walked off down the hall. “Charley! Lets go! We gotta pick up some food for Vinny!” “Gimme a minute, you big jerk.” “Ahh, whateva! I’ll be in the car!” “Alright, I’ll be down in a minute.” 
   He walked outside and I watched from the window. He must have felt me watching, because he looked right at me and winked. I smiled back and thought, “That’s my pop out there. Thank you, God, for a pop like that.” Its moments like this I miss him the most. He opened the car door and sat there, waiting for Charley. I went up to my room a few minutes later and heard a huge explosion. “No…” I whispered. I ran down the stairs and out the door to see Pauly’s car in flames and parts all over the driveway. I just gained a father and lost him in the same five minutes. Pauly’s pop, Papa, came out and held me close. “Look away, kid. Look away! I know your angry, but hold onto that! Killing just anyone won’t do anything. I’ll have my men look into this and when we find out who did this, you’ll pull the trigger. You, Vinny, will kill the man who killed Pauly.”

   To this day, I remember everything Pauly did for me. Lucky for me, he was going to be avenged sooner then I thought.
About 3 years later, in my senior year of high school, there was a new kid in my school. I had no idea, at the time, that he was Pauly’s murderers son. “Hey, you’re the new kid, right?” “Uhh, yea. Whats it to ya?” “Its about ten bucks, that’s what.” “Ten bucks, huh? Try and take it form me, asshole.” He smirked at me the same way Pauly did and that set me off. “Don’t you ever fucking smirk at me, bitch!” I swung at him and he went down with one punch. A few days later, he was back in school and looking for me. I made sure that he couldn’t find me, though. I’m not usually the “Hider”, I’m the “Finder”. The night after I beat up the new kid, I heard Charley say that his son got beat up and was gonna be out for a few days. I made sure he couldn’t find me so that Charley wouldn’t know it was me. When I got back to the house, Charley was giving me some strange looks. I must have been jumpy or something, I can’t remember. 
   A couple of days later, I ran into the new kid… at the house! I kind of half screamed, half coughed, because he took me by surprise. “What are you doing here, new kid? By the way, what’s your name? Calling you new kid is getting kinda annoying.” “I’m Lenny. But what are you doing here?” “I live here, you turd!” I was ready to fight, but he had to make the first move. I didn’t want to be known for beating up a hurt guy, you know? “Turd?! You wanna go again?!” He swung at me, but I couldn’t swing back. I just couldn’t hurt Charley’s kid. “Stop. I’m sorry, ok? I didn’t know you were Charley’s son. I’m sorry, ok?” I held out my hand and it looked like he was going to shack it. He punched me in the face, instead. When I came to, he shook my hand. “Apology accepted.” We’ve been friends ever since.