[color=lightgray][center][sub][@BrutalBx] & [@LovelyComplex][/sub] [b]____________________________________________________________________________________________[/b] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220609/a8d7018c82250e3a8cc4c8b9c37c58d1.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/3DQw0Sr.png[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220609/bd4942308bc62f73ccba817bf4952d0d.png[/img] [b]____________________________________________________________________________________________[/b] [i]Timestamp: a memory and in the present, after homecoming collab[/i][/center] [indent]Sitting in a pew beside her mother, Vivia Belmonte boredly turned the pages of a bible. Her sunlit waves were in a lovely lace [url=https://i2.wp.com/therighthairstyles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/17-teen-hairstyle-with-a-side-waterfall-braid.jpg?w=500&ssl=1]braid[/url] and she wore a black [url=https://cfcdn.zulily.com/images/cache/product/452x1000/315486/zu61226938_main_tm1538741438.jpg]collar dress[/url] that hid her blossoming womanly figure. Fourteen at the time with no attachment to the beautiful departed, the distracted, young Belmonte looked around the sanctuary of the soul, over the heads of her siblings and father sitting in the same pew as her. She brought her eyes filled with passion in ice to the architecture, ambience, and atmosphere. It didn’t take long before Vivia realized how dimly lit this church was. How gloomy it felt. Spacious, yet depressingly impersonal. Lonely. They had lived in Edenridge for ten years now so returning to the Big Apple always felt weird. The world expanded outside of Edenridge. She found herself not liking the city much. She preferred the quaint, small, and charming feeling her home gave and by home she meant Edenridge. She was four when they moved so she didn’t much remember her time here anyways. Truthfully, she barely remembered half of her cousins’ names. Running her pointer finger on one of the verses, Vivia mouthed to herself, [color=c85d84]“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4.”[/color] Closing the book, she shook her head, not understanding how people desperately sought out such basic words. These words were to comfort the soul during these trying times but to rely so heavily on this imaginary being and thinking He would give the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord baffled the teenage girl. Faith in the unknown was so not her style. How did her parents expect her to trust that all her sins would be absolved and that she would be ready to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, with no fear? That’s the thing. They didn’t. All they could say was they had faith. Viv hadn’t paid much attention to the liturgy of the mass. She did get up for communion and now they were waiting for the priest to put the sacrament in the tabernacle. Feeling her phone vibrate beside her, Viv glanced at her kneeling [url=https://resize-media.festival-cannes.com/fit-in/384x485/film_film/0002/42/867efb5f9da0a858c7910310994f349997308d75.jpeg]mother[/url] who was praying with her eyes closed. Quietly, she grabbed her phone and smiled when she got a text from Allison checking up on her. They were going to start highschool soon and Viv knew, she just knew her friend would shine bright like a diamond. [color=edd3b9]“I need you to be right here with me. Right here, right now—”[/color] The hoarse and brittle voice of her mother caused her to jump in surprise. [color=edd3b9]“—Can you do that for me, babygirl?”[/color] Vivia laid eyes on Silvia's pain-stricken face, her heart sinking at how shattered her mother looked. Quietly observing her get up from her kneeling position, the middle child of the Belmonte 7 watched her mother take a seat beside her and bring up the kneeler. On the other side of her, Mira (7) and the twins (10) in between, her father had his hand out waiting for his teenage girl to give him the distraction. Sighing to herself, Vivia dropped her phone in her father’s hand. He had reached over her siblings, capturing his daughter’s gaze with his harsh and stern expression. The person in the coffin was her grandmother on her mother’s side who she barely knew because she could’ve sworn that her mother had stopped talking to most of the family on her side. She had told her that family wasn’t always blood. [color=edd3b9][i]We may not be able to choose our relatives but we certainly can choose our family.[/i][/color] Families were people that wanted you and you wanted them too. Those that would do anything to see you smile and who would love you no matter what. The woman who was going to be six feet under by the end of the hour was her mother’s aunt, [url=https://besthqwallpapers.com/Uploads/8-5-2019/90681/thumb2-francesca-neri-portrait-italian-actress-2019-beauty.jpg]Rosa Caparelli[/url]. A woman who her mom had said was more of a mother than her own. Vivia knew very little about this woman that rested in the coffin. Regardless of how she felt, part of her unfazed, she didn’t assume the stranger’s story. She didn’t get in contact with people she shouldn’t be talking to, solely for the purpose of digging up her family’s history. It was none of her business and it was clear as day her mom was hurting. Seeing her softhearted mother almost cry, or hold back the tears, royally sucked. Funerals, wakes, and good people dying royally sucked. This whole mass was dreadfully long and royally sucked. The young minded teen leaned back in the pew and sighed in exhaustion and thought. She could at least try to be present for her mother, not thinking of the past or the future. Just be here, right now. That’s all her mother wants. Leaning her head against her mother, Vivia softly and tightly questioned, [color=c85d84]“Why does this happen, mom? Why do people die?”[/color] [color=edd3b9]“That’s a very good question, baby,”[/color] Silvia placed her hand on top of her daughter’s as she watched mass come to an end. All things do. Soon they would watch the coffin leave the building and have to follow the hearse to the burial site. [color=edd3b9]“Sometimes it’s okay to just look at the world and not understand. Sometimes it’s okay to find your own answers, but I know you and I know that answer isn’t good enough.”[/color] The matriarch of the Belmonte family stood up, along with the rest, bringing Viv in a standing position too. As the procession began. there was a somber Christian song playing in the background. Silvia continued, trying her best to answer in a way where her daughter would be satisfied yet still curious. [color=edd3b9]“I believe when we die, we turn into stories. It is more than just life after death. We are saved because Jesus died for our sins and our last breath becomes the birthday of our eternity. To me eternity is the stories our loved ones share that keep our memory alive. Really why we died doesn’t matter, Vivia.”[/color] Silvia squeezed her daughter’s hand in comfort, [color=edd3b9]“What matters is I love you completely and you love me. And if you feel like you don’t have love, that you’re all alone and you just want to disappear, just remember you are His princess. He is your protector, your truth, the one that holds your hand when I can’t. You aren’t ever alone and He, our God, will always love you. Death needs no reason, life does.”[/color] The image of her mother faded and [url=https://www.gotceleb.com/wp-content/uploads/photos/chiara-ferragni/out-in-west-hollywood/Chiara-Ferragni-in-Jeans-Shorts--04.jpg]Vivia Belmonte[/url], no longer a teenager, held onto a paintbrush. Her eyes fixed on her [url=https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/3/sunflower-field-kelsey-brown.jpg]art piece[/url] that sat on an easel. Her painting was the back of Allison staring at the sky in a field of sunflowers. Gone but not forgotten. Time was no longer something Viv was able to keep track of. Ever since she moved in with ReyRey she found herself going through the motions. Doing errands for him when he asked, refraining from making contact with her family, trying to keep her distance for her own mental health, and just enjoying the solitude and peace she found herself in (more often than not). Something she rarely had when she lived under her father’s roof. Placing her paintbrush down on the table beside her, she grabbed the rag resting beside her palette, her paints, her brushes, and a photo album of her and her friends throughout the years. There was a goldmine of pictures of Allison in there. Habitually, she and R2 would look through them together and reminisce. They loved her so deeply. [color=c85d84][i]What matters is I loved you completely and you loved me all the same, Baby.[/i][/color] Vivia thought to herself as she cleaned the paint off her hands with the dirty rag. Her gaze locked on her hands and the brown paint shifted to red, like blood on her hands. She was seeing things again. Fervently and frantically, she roughly rubbed the rag against her left hand, trying to clean Allison’s blood off. It wasn’t her fault her best friend died. No, no. Death didn’t need a reason. It just happened. Death ripped her best friend away and Vivia had to accept it. Despite that, she kept thinking of Allison everyday, replaying her mother’s words, and trying to convince herself that she could heal from this. God was going to make her strong. That’s what her church preaches. God makes you strong. He was her protector. Her purpose. Her truth. God was supposed to help her. Then why? Why did this hurt so much? Why was she so fucking weak? Why did it feel like His presence was nowhere to be found? [b]Why?[/b] She hadn’t felt the same since her best friend died. She loves to honor her memory through stories but all those memories haunt her head. Now that she didn’t have her family to distract her, Vivia could only think about the one fucking person that saw potential in her, not damage. She took Allison for granted and she couldn’t get her back. She was dead. Allison was dead. And all she could think about was the blood on her hands. ReyRey sat in his parked Firebird outside of his home. He had bought the house with his first big money deal; a weed connect that had paid dividends. He had decided on the small conclave between the Southside and Westwood as it still meant he was close enough to his turf to make the waves that he needed but it also meant that the quality of living increased significantly. His home was modest, not flashy and for the longest time it was empty but now he had a guest, Viv. He wanted his place to be a safety net for her, to keep her close. R2 had claimed the Belmonte girl years ago as his own. He had claimed her best friend, Allison, as well but now she was gone and it stuck in his heart like a jagged knife. Earlier that day, he had taken Allison’s young sister and made her his as well. Everything about Alexandria struck Rey hard and reminded him so much of Ally. Her chocolate eyes, her voice calling out his name when they were embracing each other’s bodies, the feel of her skin. But that’s all it was, reminders of that which was no longer here. Lex wasn’t Ally and she never would be. He reached over to the cup holder and picked up a bottle of water. He needed to wash her taste out of his mouth. ReyRey swilled the liquid around in his mouth before spitting it out of the open window. He climbed out of the car and made his way up the stairs to enter the house. Making his way into the living area, the King Snake dropped his keys on the coffee table before walking over to the house sitting at the easel. He dropped a light kiss onto her head. [color=gold]“Mi Corazon.”[/color] Snapping out of her trance from cleaning her hands, realizing it was only paint not blood, Vivia clutched onto the rag and looked up to her man, forcing a half hearted smile on her face. She was relieved he was here. She didn’t do isolation well. From staring into his brown eyes to going back to her painting, Viv absentmindedly placed the rag back on the table. Her tired blue eyes rested on the brown hair in her painting. She missed Allison so much, it hurt. Her memory was constantly on her mind and days like these, it became hard to breathe. [color=c85d84]“Did you get what you needed done?”[/color] The blonde Belmonte softly asked. [color=gold]“Some of it, it’s gonna be a long day.”[/color] He wouldn’t say where he had been. Vivia was not a fool, she knew that ReyRey had other girls but to tell her that he had spent the morning with the departed’s little sister, that would be a lot for the fragile Viv to take right now. R2 rested his hands on the blonde’s soft cheek as he looked at what she had been painting. Allison, a field of sunflowers, her favourite. Everywhere he went he couldn’t escape her. The Queen of Clovers had penetrated every aspect of his life, every aspect of his being and had done the same to Vivia. They both loved her and they were both utterly haunted by her. [color=gold]“It’s beautiful, mami.”[/color] [color=c85d84]“We were so excited to start highschool,”[/color] Vivia gave a half smile. [color=c85d84]“Before you and me, before Allison and Francis, before she fell apart, we were innocent and happy. I had returned from New York the day before our lives were going to change forever.”[/color] She brought her hand up to grab his — never looking away from her painting, [color=c85d84]“Before the boys, before the thought of our futures, before the distance of her leading the Clovers and me focusing on making my dad proud… I’d like to think that summer was the happiest for us because we were still kids. I remember her begging me to become a cheerleader but I was so determined to not end up in the shadow of my older sister. Cat was the cheerleader and while dad was extremely hard on her, I just know without her, dad would be lost. I wanted to be good enough. I wanted my dad to see me. But because of that, I didn’t see how sad she was,”[/color] Vivia frowned. Her grief was hard to bury when she had all this time to think. [color=c85d84]“I didn’t see her hurting.”[/color] [color=gold]“We never know what’s happening behind closed doors,”[/color] Rey looked down at the painting again and the deathly feeling it gave him in the pit of his stomach. [color=gold]“Nobody saw her hurting. She hid it well.”[/color] Moving away from his lover and her canvas of pain, ReyRey made his way to the nearby couch and dropped himself down. He understood Viv’s hurt, the difference being that he was probably the cause of the pain in Allison being exasperated by supplying her with the chemicals and the drugs that would eventually take her life. It was his fault. [color=gold]“I’m going to be heading out of town tonight, I probably won’t be home until tomorrow.”[/color] [color=c85d84]“Busy boy,”[/color] Vivia acknowledged, before following suit. Getting up from the stool, she let the painting sit there and take in the somber air. In feathery steps, she walked towards him and sat on his right side. Leaning her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes, desperately wanting sleep but unable to give in to the weight in her chest, fog in her brain, and tug in her eyes, [color=c85d84]“You’ll be safe, won’t you? I don’t know what I’d do if you became a story.”[/color] She hated him. She loved him. She couldn’t live without him. Vivia knew that what kept them together was a wish. A wish to bring Allison back. She knew she wasn’t his soulmate. She knew he wasn’t her’s. She also knew with absolute certainty that in their relationship she needed him as much as he needed her. At the end of one’s tether, she prayed for this feeling to stay a little longer. They were each other’s rock and they both were stuck in this endless storm. Without him she knew she’d be slipping, more so than she already was. She was lost and all she needed was to be found. She needed him. [color=gold]“It’s just routine stuff, mami,”[/color] R2 leaned his head down atop Viv’s for a brief second, his way of acknowledging her feeling; a rarity usually but since that night on Carlisle, he had felt his heart softening somewhat to the girl's plight. [color=gold]“Just heading to Blue Hill, pick up the gear and then I’ll be back. No drama. Falls on a good day too since the Monteros are in town and I’d rather avoid them.”[/color] He reached out for his phone and dropped a message to Jalyn so she would know what time to expect him. It was coded for eyes only of course, so Viv would have no idea he was going not just for weed. [color=gold]“It’ll be ok.”[/color] He placed an arm around the Italian woman and gently caressed the point just below her ear. It was something he did with Allison as well, all his lovers, a tender spot he knew made them feel safe. [color=gold]“I miss her too.”[/color] [color=c85d84]“Can we just sit here until you leave?”[/color] Vivia didn’t want to talk anymore. Talking took a lot out of her. The more she talked the more she realized how empty she felt. [color=c85d84]“I need you to be right here with me,”[/color] No talk about business. No talk about their pain. No talk about anything. Just him and her, holding onto each other. [color=c85d84]“Right here, right now. Can you do that for me, ReyRey?”[/color] She needed a break from the past and she had no idea where her future would lead her to. Maybe dead, right next to Allison. That would be a dream. For now, she wanted to be present with the one comfort keeping her together. The one person that reminded her it was okay to feel what she felt and that there’s nothing worse that could happen to them because they’ve already gone through their nightmare. They already lost the person they loved so, so dearly. So, so deeply. They were already broken beyond repair and she’d rather sit in this pain than talk about it. She needed him. ReyRey didn’t say anything back, he just squeezed her closer to him. Wherever he was, he was surrounded by pain, guilt and hurt. He felt like Caesar, succumbing to a thousand stab wounds albeit slowly. His strength, his fire, it was leaking out of him slowly like blood from a bullet to the head. His father was an old broken man. His sister, the first to ever name him ReyRey, was tormented by the devil himself. Vivia, the one that should have his heart but whom he is unable to give it to because it was buried six feet underground in the hands of Allison Davies; she was barely human anymore. She was a husk. Nothing like she once was. They say only God forgives, in Rey’s mind, God only forsakes.[/indent][/color]