Mason remembered returning home after a long day at the yard. He'd taken a cool shower in the guestroom that had become his before jogging downstairs to microwave his share of meal. One of the very few times he'd absented family dinner and last.While he ate the delicious yet, insipid meal on the kitchen counter in the late hours of the evening, he wondered where Gianna had gone to that afternoon and how she came about with the old cigarette case. Too many questions, too many worries, little rest, and no peace within. He let the fork clatter on his plate as he leaned back with a heavy sigh. He needed help, he needed a shoulder to lean on, someone to talk to and despite how often his mother's image popped up in his mind, Mason bit back. The troubles drastically weighed on him that the solutions in his head webbed.His mama would've been of tremendous help, no doubt, but Mason being Mason determined to be a man."Okay, about time to call it a da—ouuchh," His backbone misplaced midway up
"Where are we going?" Gianna asked for the thirty-third time in the space of ten minutes. True to a once-upon-a-time, they'd planned a girl's day out just the both of them. But with the lashes of events that had been unfolding, Gianna decided to bury it in the back of her mind. "You'll see," the glowing red-haired said. Her mother's glow was a sight for sore eyes. Last she saw the lady that way, was anyone's guess. So much she wanted to ask but the notion of not being close to the woman battered her. The trunk was stocked with two tiny suitcases, hers and her mum's, just enough for a day or two's trip. Not exactly giving her a microscopic field of vision to fish from. "C'mon mum, that's all you've been saying since we left home," Gianna pouted. "It's getting annoying; I hate the suspense. I hate that I can't figure out where we going or what we'll be doing." Of course, they were neither going camping, relaxing at a spa, touring a Museum, viewing a comedy show, going on a shopping
"He confessed," Gianna said, in the midst of her parents readying to the field. Mason was rounding up with folding his wife's jeans slightly above her ankle."He did?" He was flabbergasted.Gianna nodded as she looked at her mother briefly. "We were right about them. Kelly McCarthy sent him.""I knew it! This is great enough evidence to incriminate them.""No, it's not, Dad," Gianna defended. She didn't want to put Jerome into any form of trouble. He was a victim too. "I mean, it's just this one thing that they can easily worm their way out of. And we're not even sure of Jerome spilling out the same beans.""Hmmm," Mason reconsidered. "So what do you suggest?""Well, I suggest we let it off the hook until we have enough solid evidence, and by enough Dad, I mean like two, three, and why not four?""Honey, Gianna's right," Louisa shocked them. "I doubt they'll try anything with all the security measures we've taken otherwise, they
Tears galloped down Gianna's cheeks like vying racehorses. "Do me a favor." "Yeah?" "Go to hell!" Adam bellowed. Kelly scoffed, "I've lived there my entire life. And I'm not being metaphoric. Imagine what it will look like now that your father fired mine." "Let's leave this place," Adam stamped more bills than necessary on the table and addressed Kelly one last time, with a piercing whisper, "Think of me when next you ever seed the idea of hurting Gianna again, be it psychologically, physically, or through someone else. I'll do your head the favor of flying it through a basketball hoop, I promise. I left enough to order some for your fam, or you might as well feast on our leftovers." With that, he dislodged Gianna, who had been transfixed since Kelly's last speech, with a slight force and gently pulled her to his car. "You did not eat your food. I'll take you to Mackhie's." "I lost my appetite. Take me home instead." Honestly, she wanted to be left alone. But knowing Adam, he wo
What had come over her? What exactly?! To think she had gone as far as sneaking into her mother's purse for something she had and would have never dreamt of doing, even in her dead bed. Yes, that was the extent of the urgency. And luck being on her side, successfully procuring the phone number she'd been outlining meticulous strategies to obtain was like hitting a jackpot. It wasn't entirely a miracle that her mother still kept Sean's number. Yet, it was worth jubilating for. It took every atom of strength for Gianna to message him. So much so that, she'd even lost count of the number of times her phone's screen had blacked out as the constant results of her fingers idly hovering over the keyboard for too long. Every time she thought of a friendly way to approach him: to write him, the cruel past events he'd made her go through surfaced, churned her gut, changed her mind, and made her type a series of profanities and an application letter of abuses that will end up being deleted in
Reaching up close to Gianna, Sean snatched the tee from her hand and flung it on his shoulder, shamelessly and slowly eye-raking every constituent of her upper body. He found her even more flawless up close. So many things he failed to notice in his mission to make her life miserable; her latte skin was buttery smooth, her cocoa eyes were small, fierce, and yearning beneath a thick display of brows. Her small nose sat between long and short above the most mesmerizing pair of lips he'd seen and tasted. Tasted. That reminded him. They were the sweetest, most delicate pair he'd ever had. Soon enough, he found himself envying the one who tasted it often. Sean touched her injured arm with such tenderness that she would have thought him to be someone else if she had been deprived of sight. To Sean, no one had ever worn a scar so beautifully in his entire life. Regardless, nothing ever amplified his guilt and thirst for vengeance. Sean traced his fingers up to the scar on her forearm. "D
"Mmmm. Mmm. Mmm," Gianna struggled to speak."Rude! Bitch, I'm still talking.""Mmm. Mmmm," she persistently continued, her eyes turning glassy. "Mhmm. Mmm mmm."Exasperated, Sean ripped the tape off her mouth so harshly that it seemed like lip waxing. "Yes?"Gianna squeezed her eyes to absorb the pain before yelling, "Do with me whatever you want, but do not go anywhere close to my family!""I can't guarantee that. For all I know, I might want to kill you all," he chuckled. "When that time comes, do well to succumb.""I won't! You snoozed, you lost. Fuckin' deal with it." Gianna's mouth was sealed once again the next second. Nonetheless, her defiant eyes battled his. Sean remained silent for a while until he glanced at his crotch. If she proceeded in that light he feared his growth wouldn't go unnoticed. Thankful for her extreme lack of vigilance, he said, "Despise is a strong word, someone once told me. But what if this very word turns out to be the only tool this someone needs to s
"Where are you going at this time of the night?" Kelly asked. "Not worth your bother," Sean fastened his shoelace ready to dash into the night. "Go back to bed.""Okay, but when do we resume the way forward scheme? The book has been on hold for way too long don't you think? Plus, your departure is in a little less than four days.""You're smart enough to formulate an entire scheme on your own, Kelly. All I do is abide where possible.""Why 'where possible'? You're to abide by them all by all possible means. Unless—""Go to bed. I won't be long.""Oh my God, Sean, I hope you're not having second thoughts about this. I hope you're not getting emotionally distracted. You can't let—" He quietly shut the door behind him, threw his hood over his head, and walked in silence through silence with a cold little heart still heavy with guilt. Heavy with worry. Heavy with love. So much love.It sure was impossible for Sean to walk all the way to Sand Park reason why Ephraim and Draken patiently w
It was a tough fight.The basement was unusually overcrowded. No one wanted to miss out on Ring Kong's final fight, especially not with the 'pretty face stranger' involved—as the homeless natives referred to him. The news of Sean confronting Kong had spread like wildfire so much to the entry fee collector's surprise. That night, he'd made more money than he'd ever made in the history of its existence, he was quite a devoted employee: he's been since thirty-five. Now forty-two, single, and searching? Not sure, Strav's excitement was unmatched as he flipped through a stack of bills, outlining the expenditures of his share. He'll finally put his landlord on a door number 38 break, afford a ticket to watch his favorite football team play, get himself a brand-new toaster, and restock his fridge with enough booze to take him through a week or two. Now that sounded like a perfect plan.That very night, Strav had seen faces; ones he'd seen once and never again, ones he'd never seen before, on
"What are you doing here?"Adam seemed amused by the question. "Talking with you, of course." But there was no linger of humor around Gianna.Adam cleared his throat. "Fine, I'll tell you what, but not here. Unfortunately, I'm yet to get familiar with this place. Plus, it's not appropriate for catch up...care to come over?"What has familiarity got to do with anything? She almost asked. "No.""Come on, Gigi. It's been months since we saw each other, don't you think it'll be the perfect time to catch up? There's a whole lot I need to tell you if it's not your case. So?""Adam I can't. I can't do whatever I want when I want. I owe my uncle and his wife some respect."He held both of her shoulders. "Visiting a long-time-no-see friend for some catching up isn't wrong. Maybe you should let me talk to them, I'll make them understand that I'm absolutely harmless.""Oh my God, no, are you crazy?"Adam shrugged, and with a straight face, he replied, "Guess I am, ever since I met you." "Oh, pl
"Follow me." Viktor stamped a bill on the bar counter and walked through a cascade of thick wooden-beaded curtains that led to a dimly lit corridor with his friend on his tail. It had doors on either side. He knocked and opened a door that had a man sitting behind a counter. That, with 3 chairs and a TV made up the tiny stale-smelly room. Viktor spoke with him and deposited some bills on the dirty counter. The man hollered something in Russian but Viktor waved it away as he pulled open the floor.It shocked Sean, but what almost knocked the breath out of his chest was what was below. He would never have thought in a thousand years.They were hit first by contesting blows of luminosity and noise from a crowd of not more than a hundred men surrounding a caged boxing-sized ring. Some faces, he'd seen before; they were permanent residents of his different 'homes'. A heated fight was the source of the hollers and tumult. They were so loud that he wondered why he didn't hear them from abov
She hoped wrong. Very wrong."Rianna, I got you a seat right next to me, come," Elsa invited."It's Gianna," Gianna gently corrected."It's going to take at least two weeks for her to get your name right. Took her a month to get Tay from Fay right." Tay took the seat behind Gianna's destined chair while Teesha occupied that behind Elsa."Roughly three weeks from Treeshay to Teesha. Can you believe she called me 'Cheat' in French?"Elsa rolled her eyes, "Oh come on now girls, y'all make it seem like I'm a ditz or something."Gianna stifled a giggle."Heard Mr. Stevenson is taking AP Biology this year," Teesha announced."Oh gawd, why me?" Elsa flattened her jaw to the desk with a grimace. "Not Mr. Hot with the bad teaching skills. He gonn' make me hate reproduction, I can feel it deep in my bones. Someone call the academic cops on him.""Is he that bad?" Gianna set her notebook on the desk."Nah, she's simply more attentive to his features than his teachings. And the 'hate' part of the
It's been a little over sixteen weeks since Sean made the chilly streets and dark alleys of Moscow his home, his bed. His duffle bag, which diligently served as a pillow with what he wore excluded, had nothing more than four pairs of jeans, two tees and a hoodie against the night's blistering cold, his passport, a wallet with a few notes to sustain the little his stomach demanded for another four weeks or so, a cap to shield his face from lingering eyes and UV light, and a pocket knife for precautions. Safe to say the latter never saw the darkness of his duffle bag from the day he purchased it from a local store not too far from the alley he slept in that night. Another one of such assets was a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. The nicotine has helped him a ton lately more than ever before especially with his appetite.Before leaving for the airport in the company of his brothers, he'd left some money he'd worked from Spring's dinner and gathered from debtors to his supportive father
To new beginnings!To a new whiff of fresh air, a new environment, a new and undoubtedly successful academic year, new school, new projects, new friends? If at all, that brings into the picture new characters to study not forgetting new lecturers to adapt to. The best for the last, new self.Physically not. More of psychological maturity, mistrustfulness, cautiousness, and ardentness in all her endeavors.Gianna got her driving license not too long before the end of summer break and ever since then she has been the 'errand girl' of the family: Sometimes she transported fabrics from suppliers' venue—when they seemed too carried away to supply on time—to her aunt's fashion boutique. Once she'd opted to drive her uncle to a business gathering five minutes away from home when his driver was on sick leave and his assistant was rendering his services to his beloved wife coming in from a fashion week in Paris. He'd denied it at first. Uncle Marley was skeptic on legs when it concerned her uni
She wasn't a relationship ruiner. Definitely not. To her greatest surprise, she'd stifled back most of her tears and turned to word filter paper. The forty or so minutes spent with Luna were, suffocating, murderous, for the most part because even though she resented the Seth talk—that surprisingly didn't sting as much as when it was all fresh from the oven—she found in Luna a great friendship. Rather unfortunate. Luna insisted they exchanged digits which Gianna did out of pure kindness, not fathoming staying in contact.They had a lot in common; shared almost similar hobbies except yoga and shopping. The latter done when necessary. Movie genres—she never appeared to be a horror, thriller, mystery (HTM) fangirl. Gianna would've bet a pound of flesh on romance and fiction, strictly. Similar food, and even shared DIYs with the most interesting being home remedies for getting rid of menstrual acne in two days. Luna developed an engrossment in the book donation club and planned on doing so
It's been days since Gianna battled with calling Sean. Such a crazy sensation, but she was determined to take that bold step there and then, in South Beach, Miami.Yes, her parents had made them believe they'd be spending the entire summer with Uncle Marley and his family until they headed to JFK International Airport and boarded a direct flight to Miami. Not to be misunderstood, she was delighted because why not? It was Miami for the sake of Christ, yet disappointed and peeved as she had drafted a hundred and ten ways to boomerang Ace's demonic pranks and found out the initial purpose of the journey respectively. That explained why she was alone with a massive straw beach hat on despite her umbrella's generous spread of shade, laying on her stomach browsing, envying, and babysitting the sister who promised to stay by her 'darling sister's' side because she knew no one else and was too lazy to make friends. Words from the mouth of a Magpie who was currently marathon swimming with a sw
"Everything checked?""Yup, everything checked," Gianna confirmed after she'd swung the last luggage into the trunk and dusted off her hands. "Great, then we're good to go. Almost." Both Louisa and Gianna settled in, waiting for Mason, Petra, and Noah. Not too long into the wait, the family of five were ready for the city. Ready for the cool vacation air.Songs and games commemorated the journey as it was of the family's habits every time Mason was involved. But at some point, one of them got distracted with a text message.'I miss you already. I don't know how to survive knowing that I won't be seeing you in such a long time.'Gianna rolled her eyes at the level of drama.'I was able to dig into Sean's past as requested and was successful.' Now that skyrocketed Gianna's interest. 'According to medical records, Sean was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease at age 11 and underwent a kidney transplant a year later. That's about how much I got.''Oh well, thanks.''Three times nothin