[color=lightgray][center][sub][@BrutalBx] & [@LovelyComplex][/sub] [b]____________________________________________________________________________________________[/b] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220420/bc696e5b3d37064c28edee13b235b6b1.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/gZnszPh.png?1[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220420/58859dcd877ee2ec6a85bc70ec02039c.png[/img] [b]____________________________________________________________________________________________[/b] [i]Timestamp: Following the events of La Famiglia e Tutto Part 2 (Saturday night right after the Friday of Chapter 1)[/i][/center] [indent][indent]Fuck. ReyRey hated being on this side of the border. There was something about being on the northside that just felt wrong. He was the Kingsnake, a title that he had shared only with two other men; his father and his grandfather. They were the Southside Serpents for a reason. Rey’s kind did not belong amongst the white picket fences of this rich fools neighbourhood. Yet there he found himself, parked outside of Taz Belmonte’s McMansion in his classic Pontiac Firebird whose hood decal he had replaced with a Serpent badge: R2 was never one for the nuance of subtlety and his car screamed that aloud from the street blacktop. He was parked outside the damn Mafia HQ in enemy territory for what purpose? To pick up his girl, Vivia Belmonte. R2 could hear the screaming and the shouting coming from within. He was the impetus for the row, that much he knew but from what he could hear, the whole thing was spiralling into an episode of Jerry Springer. Was Viv his only woman? Absolutely fucking not. He had a tasty piece on the Blue Hill reservation who was an absolute demon in the sack and had a great weed connect. There was nothing wrong with these women, they filled a space but none of them were [i]her[/i]. None of them were Allison. ReyRey had long dwelled on the idea that a girl he thought of as nothing more than a distraction six years ago may have been the one to actually take his wild heart. He remembered everything about her. From the taste of her lipstick, the caress of her skin, that stupid twang she had that was so Bostonian is was almost racist and that crooked smile, damn that smile. It killed him to think about it for too long or he would break down and weep. Even now it was like he could smell her perfume. In a hurt rage, Vivia left the house without any of her belongings. She would pick up her things tomorrow. There was no way in hell she was going to stay in that house being blamed when she wasn’t the only one fucking southsiders! Standing on the porch, not registering her boyfriend waiting for her like a creep, Viv covered her face and let her emotions explode into tears. Every blessing, every good thing in life, was a curse in disguise. They say that sunshine returns after a storm, but all she felt ever since Allison died was pain. Constant, unbearable pain. She wanted to run to her house. She wanted to cry in her arms. She wanted her best friend. Steadying her breathing, Viv wiped under her eyelids and her cheeks. Just like the car, she was hard to miss with her elegant [url=https://preview.redd.it/29kn50ubak181.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=2130b31161b2acd4c04754ad5fbac5e22dc6272f]red dress[/url] on, that she wore since the baptism. As she wiped under her eyes praying her waterproof make up was not worn out, she noticed the Firebird. Instead of feeling relieved, her heart sank. Her gut twisted. Her throat felt like it was closing up, Why was he here? Why would he be on this side of town? Why would he park in front of her dad’s house?! No. This was only going to make things worse. If her father knew R2 was outside waiting… Who knows how long Taz would hold a grudge and ignore her? Everything she had screamed and everything her father had said in return started sinking in. No, no, no. This was not happening. This would only end in pain. Viv didn’t want anymore pain. Holding onto her arm, feeling extremely vulnerable, small, and broken, she stared at the man looking at her. The man she knew didn’t love her. He couldn’t. Not like she did toward him and even then, she felt the same way. She loved him more intensely because she desperately needed to feel taken care of and didn’t want to lose that feeling. At the same time, he didn’t have all her heart. Not like the love she had for Allison. He helped fill a void but she knew he wasn’t good for her. She knew the night Allison died and she still knew to this day. Telling her father he loved her was to save face but she knew, she just knew… With a torned expression, Vivia bit her bottom lip. She didn’t want him to see her like this. She didn’t want to see him in front of her dad’s house. She [b]didn’t[/b] want to see him! Shaking her head in conflict, instead of walking down the path straight to him, she turned on her heel and sped walk on the grass, through her next door neighbour’s front lawn and onto the sidewalk. Rushing, she slipped off her heels, dropping them on the lawn and started booking it. While Viv was an artist, a painter at that, she still was extremely athletic and even did some track. Her time in highschool was well spent and she kept herself busy. Still, she was more creative than athletic. That didn’t mean she couldn’t run. With her red dress, she ran with no aim but to get away from her boyfriend. If she stayed with him her father would never forgive her. She couldn’t do that to Taz. She’d stay a side piece unable to think about anything but ReyRey and her grief. There was no way in hell she would go with him! Why was he here anyways?! Those fucking brats had really messed with his head. He was ReyRey fucking Gonzalez, king of the Southside yet he had been reduced to a blubbering wreck at the memory of a cheerleader. He wore a tattoo of a sunflower on his ankle in her honor, surely that was enough?! How much more debt would he have to lay to rid himself of that feeling, whatever it was, that stung at his heart like the sharp edge of a blade? R2 could feel himself getting angrier by the second as he gripped tightly onto the steering wheel. Where was this bitch? He needed something to get out of his own head and if Vivia wasn’t around then he’d have to go elsewhere. It didn’t fucking matter he just needed it to stop. The Kingsnake had been bombarded with letters just like everyone else but his were more personalised, whoever was sending them knew exactly what had happened on the night she died. They had photo fucking evidence. Big Rey was no help; he had gone soft. He was alone. On top of all that, that lunatic was back on the streets. That monster that defiled ReyRey’s little sister and made her hurt so bad. If it were his call, he would be hung, drawn and quartered to be left on Main Street for all to see. It was the least that animal deserved. R2 was dealing with too much. After taking a swig from his beer bottle, he glanced at his passenger seat and he could still see her sitting there; still in her green and white cheerleading outfit, her lips painted a strong red. With her delicate brown hair framing her dimpled face and her tawny eyes smiling at him in the only way they could. Allison. [color=FF1395]“Hey Papi, take me for a ride?”[/color] That was how it all started. Ally just wanted a bump. Something to take the edge off. ReyRey was already with Vivia at the time so maybe el idilo thought nothing of climbing into his car that night. He didn’t think it would end with them tearing each other’s clothes off in the back room of the Edge, him throwing her onto the pool table and starting a very dangerous addiction that neither could quite kick. [color=FF1395]“Chase me, Papi…”[/color] Rey blinked and Allison was gone, he turned to the main road and saw a figure dressed in red sprinting down towards the end of Scott Street. Red, that was her color. She wanted him to chase her. She loved to play games. The leader of the Southside turned the key in its ignition and the classic muscle car roared into life. He put his heavy booted foot on the gas and as she asked, ReyRey began to chase Allison down the street. It wouldn’t take long for his suped up automobile to reach the mouth of the rich community’s road. He span the steering wheel and the car drifted to block the exit, his passenger door swinging open as he did. He was not greeted by Allison as he had hoped but Vivia. [color=gold]“Get in the fucking car.”[/color] [color=c85d84]“No!”[/color] Vivia screamed back. Slowly backing up, the blonde Belmonte shook her head, [color=c85d84]“I’m not doing this anymore, ReyRey.”[/color] She couldn’t do this anymore. No matter how loud he spoke to her, he would not be able to sedate Vivia in this state. She was scared. She was angry. She was in pain. [color=c85d84]“I don’t need you to save me. What I need is my [b]best friend[/b].”[/color] Turning around, this time simply walking, Viv stared at her hands shaking. There was no solution at the end of this road. She would be disowned and seen as a girl that couldn’t survive, depending on the Kingsnake to provide everything she needed at the price of her staying his, like some sort of property. Times like these needed a softer touch, which R2 rarely was capable of. [color=FF1395]“Lighten up, Dolly,”[/color] Beside her, Viv could see Allison walking, keeping her company, and giving her a mischievous grin. [color=FF1395]“What’s the worst that can happen?”[/color] Words Viv continued to replay in her mind when she confided in her best friend about having a crush on ReyRey. Those were some famous last words, seeing how he was the bane of her existence now. Imagining she was here with her was a bittersweet feeling. Allison was always more bold than her. She stood out in a crowd of thousands and Viv watched her glow. Frowning at the image, knowing it was only her grief speaking to her, Viv faintly whispered, [color=c85d84]“Baby, I really messed up this time.”[/color] Did she really have no one else she trusted enough to share her pain? She had her siblings, sure, but to be frank, she didn’t think they’d understand her. None of them had their best friend die in their arms. None of them. She was alone and the only person that seemed to see her, for better or for worse, was the guy trailing beside her with his car. [color=c85d84]“Go away,”[/color] she breathed. Just go away. [color=gold]“I’m not going anywhere.”[/color] He stopped the car, not wanting to waste the gas and jumped out to match Vivia’s walking speed. Rey didn’t even know why he was desperate for the Belmonte girl. Maybe it was because she was really his last remnant; the last connection he had to Allison. ReyRey placed his hands into his jeans pocket as he finally got caught up with the Italian. [color=gold]“I don’t know what’s fucking going on right now but…”[/color] He looked forward for a second and noted what house they were outside; the Davies residence. ReyRey had crept there a handful of times when Ally was alone. Her parents were rarely there but that little sister of hers was always lurking. As he looked up at the house, he could see Ally in the window, smiling and blowing him a kiss. [color=gold]“You look like you need someone babe.”[/color] Reynaldo Gonzalez Junior was not a good man. He was not a nice man. He was not the man that you brought home to your mother but he had a few redeeming qualities, if you could call them that. He was the son of a gangster but he was also the son of a good woman, a proud, honourable woman. He took off his signature jacket and placed it over Vivia’s shoulders before stepping in front of her and taking her by the arms. [color=gold]“Here’s what’s going to happen, you are going to get into that car and I am going to take you home with me. We can sit in silence or we can watch the Notebook I don’t give a fuck. Then tomorrow morning, I am gonna get some of my more respectable looking guys to come round here, get your stuff and bring it to my place. I’m gonna take care of you; not like those pieces of shit you call family. You need me.”[/color] [color=c85d84]“That’s the problem,”[/color] Viv didn’t push away from him nor did she melt in his arms. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. [color=c85d84]“Dad knows about you. My whole family knows that we’re together. I… I can’t lose my family.”[/color] Looking up at ReyRey, Viv frowned, [color=c85d84]“You don’t love me. You never did…”[/color] What did he take her for? After processing her trauma for a week after Allison’s death, things started to become clear and she knew why her best friend was in R2’s room. She could never be the girl of his dreams because the girl of his dreams, and her’s, was dead, [color=c85d84]“I’m not dumb, ReyRey.”[/color] Deep down, Viv was more aware of her situation than anyone else. Deep down, she knew no matter what Allison’s ghost would be in between them. [color=gold]“What do you want me to say, Viv? I can’t help how your family see me? And honestly I don’t really care. What we have, it was never really about love was it?”[/color] He looked up at that damn haunted house again, why was she doing this? Why was she forcing him? Ally, what are you gaining from torturing them? [color=gold]“You want the fucking truth? No, I don’t love you. I can’t. But I fucking need you.”[/color] Rey’s hands moved up to the young woman’s face and he gripped fairly tightly. [color=gold]“OK?”[/color] He pressed his head against hers, fighting back the whirlwind of emotions that he had been struggling with since that night on Carlisle. [color=gold]“These feelings, they’re haunting me. You are my balance, you’re keeping me sane whilst everything else is driving me crazy. You need me to protect you and I need you to protect me. You’re mine, Vivia, mine.”[/color] She hated him. She really did. Clasping her hands around his neck, Vivia closed her eyes and whispered, [color=c85d84]“If you two would’ve just told me, I would have supported you. I’ve always cared about her happiness more than my own and if you were part of that? Part of her world? I would’ve been okay.”[/color] Part of her wished Allison had found out about Francis sooner and came clean about her relationship with R2. Part of her wished that she had noticed the signs of her best friend falling apart. Part of her wished things turned out differently. Her whole heart wished Allison hadn’t died. Any other outcome would’ve been better than this. A world without her was unbearable. Opening her eyes to look at the man who so desperately clung to her, she unclasped her hands and glided the back of her right hand fingers on his cheek. She could see the hurt. She could see the conflict. She could feel the pain. In that aspect, they were one of the same. [color=c85d84]“I can never be her, you understand?”[/color] She was right. She would never be her. Allison was pure and light and made R2 feel better about himself. Her presence just brought up everyone around her. Though in hindsight, the serpent realised that this skill brought her down further, sank her down into the depths of despair. This was why she did what did, this was why she was the way she was when she left them. This was why, if he was rightly honest, she was even with him in the first place. Rey inhaled deeply as he pulled away from the blonde girl. He rubbed a hand across his face to crush away even the thought of tears as a sudden chill hit his bare arms. He made his way back to the Firebird and opened the door. [color=gold]“Let’s go.”[/color] Nodding, unable to think of the consequences to come and realising nothing could top her loss that connected her to the Kingsnake, Viv found her way inside his car. Maybe in time they could learn to love each other like they loved Allison. Love was a complicated thing. If only Vivia told her. How much she truly meant to her. When R2 entered the driver’s side, the blonde Belmonte gazed at him as if she was staring at Allison, with all the adoration in the world. They didn’t need each other. They needed her. Still, if this helped heal his deep wounds, maybe she could stay for a little longer. Reaching out, she grabbed his hand and vowed, [color=c85d84]“It’s you, it’s me, it’s [i]us[/i].”[/color] Allison was her first friend when she moved here. Viv was four at the time she moved to Edenridge. She was five when she saw the prettiest girl with the most luminous smile bravely on top of the monkey bars with the sun casting behind her. Allison was her sunshine and for as long as she could remember they would pinky promise each other, swear to each other: [color=FF1395]“It’s you, it’s me, it’s us,”[/color] Allison had responded back, sitting in a place where R2 was at. It was them versus the world. Together they could conquer any obstacle. That’s how it was supposed to be. [/indent][/indent][/color]