[color=silver][right][sub]TIMESTAMP — Tuesday July 21st, 2021 || After [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5430778]On My Head[/url]
FT — [color=98fb98]Stacy Capek[/color], [color=FACE75]Salvatore Montero,[/color] [color=a52a2a]Dylan Doyle[/color]
LOCATION — Hotel Encanto Construction Site
Tw - Domestic, verbal & emotional abuse, death, violence[/sub][/right]
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/40WGuYt.png[/img]
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/aiZuxs7.png[/img]
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[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/brutalbx][img]https://i.imgur.com/kqITePy.png[/img][/url]   [img]https://i.imgur.com/ODIUgOo.png[/img]   [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/metanoia][img]https://i.imgur.com/FF3Ys7L.png[/img][/url]
[/center]


Despite how she is always smiling and outwardly bubbly the cheerleader is, Stacy Čapek isn’t what everyone believes her to be. Maybe it’s the Zima way to internalize the way you feel. She’s watched Mika do it for so many years, so maybe that’s how she learned how to fake being happy when she was actually miserable. She didn’t always used to be like this, but for close to a year now, Stacy had to become a master at this because of her boyfriend.

Because of Dylan.

To many on the outside looking in, Dylan was the nicest boy they’d ever meet. Charming and compassionate (when he wanted to be). He was thoughtful. And Stacy still, on some level, thought that about him even to this day. Dylan was like the storm that hit Edenridge last night, the one that she spent the entirety of in Swerve Arcana. He could be gentle, but then when the overcast skies came and the downpour hit you, like a switch, Dylan Doyle was a nasty person. Rarely has he ever been physically violent with her…not like that was ever his method of choice. Dylan was a gaslighter. An emotional abuser. He was the kind of person, when he felt like being nasty, made her feel like it was [i]her[/i] fault for doing something he deemed wrong. When she didn’t answer his calls, he made her feel like she should have picked up sooner.

It had been like this for close to half of a year, but last night -- or more accurately, this morning -- was when even Dylan had hit an all-time low.

It would be her luck that immediately following the best night in Stacy’s life would come a harsh reality check for her at the metaphorical hands of her boyfriend.

When she got home a little bit after 8am, she and Katie managed to return without their Uncle Gus and Aunt Ester finding out exactly where they were. As far as they knew and as far as they would ever know, they spent the night at a friend’s house. That friend, who conveniently didn’t have to worry about their parents, was known to cover for them. In truth, if they even knew they were heading into Edenridge, there was no doubt in Stacy’s mind they would be grounded until they became parents. It was smooth sailing once they got home, but Stacy’s brief dance with safety was short lived as she got a text message from Dylan.

Seeing the text and how it just read [color=a52a2a]“Call me”[/color], Stacy was hesitant. She didn’t want ot come off the euphoric high after being to experience how a good person treated another, but she knew it would only be worse. So Stacy called him back after locking her room.

[color=98fb98]“Hey, babe--”[/color]

Before she could finish, Dylan cut her off. [color=a52a2a]“Can you meet me in Edenridge? I want to apologize. For how I may have sounded in the texts I sent you last night. Please, Stassie, I want to make it up to you.”[/color]

She was so confused. This wasn’t like the Dylan she feared would be on the other end of that call, but as she thought about it for a moment, occasional [color=a52a2a]“Stassie? Are you there?”[/color] remarks coming from Dylan’s end, she buried her doubts deep and agreed.

Fast forward nearly an hour after getting ready, eating a light yogurt and mixed berry breakfast, Stacy drove her [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b4/0a/b2/b40ab263dfc5733afba45633d6dc7549.jpg]2017 BMW 3 Cabrio[/url] from Pinehurst, taking the highway and taking the nearest exit into town. Stacy took the scenic route through town, going from the Southside to the Northside had been an adjustment for Stacy. Seeing how run down some parts in the south were, then going over the set of train tracks, it was like night and day. It amazed her just how much separated the status of wealth in this town, yet from what she’s seen, the only divide is physical.

As she drove through Main Street, turning a left on Woodland Avenue and then a right on Pleasantview, Stacy  took to the old high school, which was now the upcoming Encanto Hotel and Casino. In front of it, she saw Dylan’s truck, as well as her boyfriend standing at the early stages of the construction of the hotel. She parked on the street and exited her car, feeling an eerie ominous feeling in the air. Dylan didn’t look at her. He just stared at the empty lot with some walls put up.

As Stacy approached, Dylan turned his head and smiled at her. [color=a52a2a]“You are late.”[/color]

Her gentle smile immediately turned upside down on itself, much like the feeling in her stomach did whenever her boyfriend became unexpectedly nasty towards her. [color=98fb98]“Sorry. There was some traffic on the highway.” [/color]Stacy’s tone fell flat, almost robotic as she took her side next to Dylan. His hand was out like he was expecting her to read his mind. It took her a moment and she put it in his and he squeezed, but missed the hand altogether and was grabbing her wrist almost like it was a vice grip on her slender  wrist. She kept any noise of discomfort inside and just gritted through it. [color=98fb98] “So, this is where the hotel is being built?”[/color]

Dylan nodded and then shrugged. [color=a52a2a]“A waste if you ask me. Why build something that will cost more to build than it will bring into this poor excuse for a town? It has nothing over the hotels in Pinehurst.”[/color]

Stacy felt just how angry he was. Was it because of what she did last night? How she didn’t call him? How she ignored his texts? Stacy had learned in the past six months that, whenever Dylan got into a mood like this, she had to approach him as if he was thin ice on a New York Winter. The slightest misstep would trigger that storm-like anger her boyfriend had inside him. She was confident that she could do so right now, but something else was in the air. That ominous feeling she felt as soon as she saw him, she could tell it wasn’t just about her.

[color=98fb98]“What makes you say that, Dylan?”[/color] She hesitantly asked.

As he looked at her, his hazel eyes which were always so captivating and rarely showing a forest fire, she saw specs of the wildness a forest fire had. [color=a52a2a]“It’s these…[i]people[/i].”[/color] He returned to the sight of the crew working. He focused on one and Stacy followed his line of sight and she saw Salvadore. Her heart was practically beating so fast she couldn’t control her breathing. 

[color=98fb98]“What people?”[/color]

[color=a52a2a]“Are you stupid or blind, Stassie?”[/color] He pointed to the crew. [color=a52a2a]“Those working there. Some idiot reported me.”[/color]

[color=98fb98]“Reported you?”[/color] Stacy felt that familiar discomfort in her chest. Whenever Dylan was about to do something that still haunted her nightmares six months after the fact, she felt a tightness in her chest.

[color=a52a2a]“You’re slow today, aren’t you? I was part of this crew, Stassie. I had a job here. I was going to still have one throughout the summer, but that fucking idiot in charge thought I was being too lazy.”[/color] His voice got louder, the tone in his voice becoming more bitter and bitter the longer he talked. Resentful. Stacy knew this tone of voice. She knew what was coming. [color=a52a2a]“[i]Me?[/i] I have never been lazy in my life. I carried the Monarchs last year. Without me, the baseball team would be [i]nothing[/i]!”[/color] As his ire became more intense, Dylan squeezed harder on Stacy’s wrist.

[color=98fb98]“Dylan..”[/color] She whimpered, trying to free herself from his hold. [color=98fb98]“You’re hurting me. Please, calm down…”[/color] She begged him and immediately, as his sharp gaze fell on her watery eyes, she knew something he had never done was coming. Or maybe she feared he would hit her. In the time she had seen the real him, she always feared it would happen. She played dumb so she didn’t wouldn’t trigger it, but something in him was about to snap.

And instinctively, she tried to fight his grip off of her hand but he was too strong. He was deceivingly strong. 

He looked at the fighting, petite girlfriend of his with a small laugh and a [i]shocked[/i] expression on his face. [color=a52a2a]“I would never hurt you, Stassie. I love you!”[/color] At this point, his voice was loud enough for the workers in the hotel site to hear. [color=a52a2a]“You know this is just our thing. I grab your wrist and we play this game. Why are you acting like I did something wrong?”[/color] He jerked her close to him, never letting go of her wrist. [color=a52a2a]“I mean, you want to make it up to me for ignoring me last night, don’t you?”[/color] As he said that, he lifted her wrist up. Stacy was a few inches shorter than Dylan, so that motion itself was hurting her arm even more than his vice grip on her wrist was.  

Salvador had never planned on being a bricklayer. When he first got into college, his goal was to be a videogame designer. Much of his youth was spent traveling the world as his mother and father built hotels and casinos. His sister Cassandra soaked up all their skills like a sponge. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Cass was going to take over the family business. On those lonely nights, Sal found himself immersed in epic fantasy worlds as a Witcher, waiting for coins to be tossed his way or as a space commander about to go on a suicide mission with his ride or die Turian cop bro. The purpose of the young Montero’s life was to build worlds that made him feel like those games did when he had nothing else.

Then it happened.

Sal had returned to Miami for a break, to see his family and rest up after a hard semester. He wanted to surprise them. When he arrived at the hotel, it was late and quiet, more quiet than it should've been all things considered. When he walked into the  office floor, Salvador was expecting his mother to jump up from her desk, run and hug him and then take him to the Twice Butter food truck for some tacos. Instead he was greeted by her mangled body, crumpled at the foot of the stairs. Her neck was twisted at an ungodly angle and blood was still leaking out of her nose and ears. They said it was an accident, that she slipped and fell. Yet knowing the business his family was in, Sal believed differently.

They said he was depressed. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep, the world didn’t make sense. Even his games brought him no joy. He was struggling with his studies and all of his personal relationships had become extinct. The move to Edenridge was meant to be a change. Sal would defer college for a little while and spend some time with his extended family, the Gonzalez to find himself again. Getting a gig working on the new hotel wasn’t for a paycheck, he didn’t need the money, it was just to keep him busy.

He had spent the day dreaming about the girl from Swerve, Stacy. Sal just couldn’t get her out of his mind. He was knee deep in mud, laying bricks when he saw her pull up outside the construction site. At first he thought maybe she had come to see him but then he saw her with another guy, Dylan, the other worker called him. Apparently he had been fired the day before. He wasn’t crossing any boundaries so he wasn’t breaking any laws. At least that was until Sal saw him grab Stacy and the raised voices began. Now that was something he couldn’t abide. He knew, based on their interactions at Swerve, Stacy was scared of this guy and the last thing he wanted was Stacy. She was meant to be happy.

Jumping out of the foundation pit, Salvador charged towards the chain link fence, still with a brick in his hand and stormed around the corner until he was face to face with Dylan and Stacy. [color=FACE75]“Hey man, you need to let go of her and get the hell out of here.”[/color] 

Dylan still held Stacy’s hand as tight as he had when he heard a voice and glanced over. He saw a little punk acting all tough. [color=a52a2a]“Beat it, kid. This doesn’t concern you.”[/color] Dylan brushed him off almost immediately and he saw the way Stacy was trying not to look at him, but Dylan could see it. [color=a52a2a]“Oh, you’re kidding me, right? You actually know this nerd?”[/color] His grip tightened. [color=a52a2a]“Is this the chump you ignored me for? He has to be or why else are you acting this way?”[/color] His grip remained and he put his attention on the interfering idiot.[color=a52a2a] “So is it true? You’re fucking my girlfriend, aren’t you?”[/color] He asked Sal while simultaneously tightening the grip on Stacy’s hand, which caused her to let out a painful moan as she tried to pull away (but to no avail).

[color=FACE75]“You need to let her go, back the fuck up and get in your truck.”[/color] Sal tried to remain calm despite every instinct to the contrary but the Latino heat he shared with all fellow men of the Montero/Gonzalez clan would not allow him to do so.. [color=FACE75]“I’m not fucking your girlfriend but if I was I would be treating her like the absolute Angel that she is. I wouldn’t be hurting her because my ego has taken a blow.”[/color] With that, Sal slapped down Dylan’s arm that was clutching into Stacy. [color=FACE75]“Leave now. There’s no place for you here and there’s no place for you beside Stacy. She deserves so much better.”[/color]

Dylan Doyle had a moment of shock when the nerd easily separated his hold from Stacy, who immediately backed away, grasping her clearly bruised wrist with her other. Dylan angrily snarled at his girlfriend only to redirect it on the interfering piece of shit that was about to regret every life choice. [color=a52a2a]“Stassie, let this be a lesson to you and the company you keep.”[/color] His arrogance was showing and Dylan wasn’t even letting up. His head turned to Stacy, who was visibly terrified of her boyfriend. It was clear on the way she slowly moved herself closer to the construction site where Sal was and further away from him. [color=a52a2a]“Last chance to apologize, Stass. Because what I’m about to do to your little side boyfriend won’t be pretty--”[/color]

[b][i]WHACK[/i][/b]

The brick bounced off of Dylan’s skull and knocked the snarling boy to the ground. Salvador immediately dropped the block and took a step back, his hand shaking. He didn’t want to do that but did he have a choice? Dylan was hurting Stacy and would’ve definitely attacked him. At that moment, Sal asked himself what his cousin ReyRey would do? Rey was the leader of the Serpents and to Salvador he was the coolest guy in any room. He was so confident, so in control. Nobody dared mess with Reynaldo and his people. Sal wanted that. He was sick and tired of people, nay the world, messing with him and the people he cared about; people like Stacy. 

He turned to face the young girl and reached out his still quivering hand. He wasn’t scared of what he had done, he was more scared that she would be frightened of him now. Though he stood by it, Sal had to do it, to protect her. [color=face75]“Are you ok?”[/color]

Stacy was frozen where she stood. She had disassociated from reality the moment she was free from Dylan’s vice grip. Nothing after that registered until she heard Sal’s soothing voice. The tenderness in his eyes, when she met them she could only nod as she saw Dylan on the ground. He wasn’t unconscious, but he wasn’t moving much. She wanted to ask what happened, but close to his feet, she saw a brick with blood on it. She again went to her…to Dylan and saw a sizable gash on his forehead with traces of that reddish-brown brick inside it. Slowly, but absolutely sure of it: Sal had hit Dylan with that brick. She didn’t know what to think of it, but part of her was happy he did. Dylan had gotten progressively worse as of late and this was the most violent he ever became with her.

She just didn’t know.

[color=a52a2a]“You motherfucker! You’ll pay for this!”[/color] Dylan cursed, getting up as he held his forehead with one of his hands. He saw how chummy Stacy and that cheapshot fucker were and he laughed. Boldly and almost psychotically, he was laughing. “You know, I really tried with you, [i]Anastasia[/i], but I guess even someone as pretty as you can only do so much.” At his feet, Dylan glared at Sal. [color=a52a2a]“Fine, I’m out of here. When she starts seeing other dudes behind your back, you might want to know who to call. Dylan Doyle. Remember that name when you need advice.”[/color] Despite his condition, Dylan left. Sure the larger men at the site staring at him were reason enough, but Dylan had lost all interest in Stassie and he was worth [i]way[/i] more than what she was capable of giving.

As she watched Dylan climb into his F150 and it revved down the street, Stacy’s lips quivered. [color=98fb98]“Maybe he’s right…”[/color] She heard herself say. Out loud it sounded so stupid and ridiculous, but that’s what Dylan had called her. Maybe she was stupid. Maybe she truly wasn’t worth anything.

[color=face75]“Absolutely not.”[/color] Sal wouldn’t allow her to finish whatever sad thought was lingering in her brain. [color=face75]“Don’t let him get in your head.”[/color] [i]Dylan Doyle.[/i] He would remember the name but not for the reasons that Longstreet wanted him to. Salvador would remember him in case he tried to come back, in case he tried to do anything like this again. He had known a lot of men like Dylan Doyle. Men who were so small on the inside that they had to abuse others to make them feel important. In those next few seconds he knew that if he ever saw Dylan again, he would kill him. 

The young man from Miami didn’t want to encroach on Stacy’s personal space, especially considering what he had just gone through but he felt that she needed the comfort. Sal took a step forward, reaching out and cupping her face with his hand. [color=face75]“I’m here, you’re ok. Why don’t we get you outta here? Can I take you home? Or somewhere you’d feel safe?”[/color]

She was trying not to let what Dylan said take root in her mind, but even a poisonous tree had to lay its fruit somewhere and it was spreading wildly inside. It was feeding off of the long standing effects Dylan’s gaslighting and the many kinds of emotional abuse had left on Stacy’s self-worth. He had reduced her to a doubting shell of the once vibrant girl she was before him, but as she felt the aura of Sal’s compassion near her, she smiled just thinking about him. Then again smiled more when she felt his hand on her face. His touch was gentle and warm. It radiated something she hadn’t felt from someone who held a genuine concern in their heart for her. 

She brought her hand up over his and closed her eyes. She wanted to savor this moment. Prolong this feeling she couldn’t shake. [color=98fb98]“I…don’t want to go home yet.”[/color] Stacy really didn’t. She wanted to be with Sal. She didn’t know what might happen, but she wasn’t ready to face her family right now. [color=98fb98]“Can we just..go for a drive? Through town maybe?”[/color] She had opened her eyes finally, feeling the tears go down her hot face. [color=98fb98]“Or even just a walk..”[/color] The truth was Stacy didn’t care where they went. She just wanted to spend time with Sal for as long as she could. Live in a bliss where she didn’t have to think or talk about Dylan Doyle anymore. 

[color=face75]“Sure, of course we can.”[/color] Sal knew the look of someone who didn’t want to go home. Hell, he had seen it in the mirror a lot himself whenever he thought about his Mom. He felt her fingertips tracing the veins on the back of his hand, traversing every bump and freckle. [color=face75]“Though I haven’t got a car here yet so we’ll have to walk wherever you wanna go.”[/color] He glanced over at the other workers as they turned their heads and continued to ply their trade. He knew that if he dipped out early with Stacy, they wouldn’t breathe a word. Sal was the son of Esteban Montero, the cousin of ReyRey, nephew to Big Rey. He was untouchable. Lacing his fingers with hers, Sal dropped them down to their waists and began to lead Stacy away from the construction site. [color=face75]“How about we walk down to Swerve? Or maybe that nice coffee shop on the corner, Beau’s? Maybe both.”[/color]

There was a part of the Capek girl who wanted to mention her car was down the street, but when Sal took her hand and started to walk her down the street, in addition to her heart beating like it did last night, Stacy didn’t want to ruin what was the first time she was at peace. Dylan was gone and Sal was here. She knew nothing bad would happen to her as long as she was by his side. Was it blind faith to trust someone she had only known for less than a day? Maybe. She could hear Mika’s voice in the back of her head, but at the same time, she knew her big brother would want her to be with someone who made her feel safe. Who could protect her when she couldn’t do that herself. 

Someone like Sal.

[color=98fb98]“I’d like that. Very much.”[/color] She muttered tenderly, moving closer to Sal as she looked at him. She felt a flutter of butterflies in her stomach and smiled. This was giving way to a new beginning for Anastasia Capek.[/indent][/indent][/color]