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moody4world · 1 year ago

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Let It Linger

Summary: When post-canon divorced! Art goes back to high school for a fifteen year reunion, he’s met with strong memories of the his estranged best friend, the girl he loved those fifteen years ago. He gets caught in a rally between his past and present. A whirlwind of past yearning, casual touches, meaningful conversations and pining rushes back to him like the time never passed when he sees her again for the first time in fifteen years. Turns out not so much has changed.

Warnings: mentions of sex, alcohol, marijuana. casual touching, pining, yearning, MEGA SLOWBURN, a longer fic with time skipping between MRTA! art and POST CANON! art. AU.

Art wasn’t sure how to feel about this. He was parked outside, in some dress shirt he’d owned far too long and the black dress pants he wore for when he did pre-game press. His hands on the wheel, lips pressed into a straight line. This would be interesting, he knew it would be. He was sitting in the parking lot outside the smaller gym of Mark Rebellato Tennis Academy and he could hear the music through the walls of the car and through the open gym door, he could see a purple cast of light from inside.

It had only been fifteen years. That wasn’t much time in perspective, but fifteen years felt like a lot when he remembered who he was that many years ago.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚��◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

“My mouth, my mouth!” You called, opening your mouth and slowing your running to walking backward. Patrick tossed a marshmallow and you caught it in your mouth as the three of you ran down the hill, Patrick with a bag of marshmallows, you with the chocolate, and Art with the graham crackers.

Both boys cheered loudly and you jumped, triumphantly raising your hands above your head. Art nearly ran right into you with the momentum from the hill and you all ended up laughing way too hard at it, even with the marshmallow in your mouth. Art tried to catch his breath, his hand sliding over your waist as he passed you, trying not to stumble the rest of the way down the hill. Patrick just laughed. “I had no idea my aim was that good,” he said, teasing.

You swallowed the marshmallow, “You’re kidding? Your aim? That was all me.”

Art grinned, “I think it was a joined effort…” He played mediator. You hit him in the upper arm gently. “No, all you. All her, Patrick. Sorry.”

Patrick threw his arms up in forfeit. There was no winning against you. They both knew that. You giggled and shoved a marshmallow right in Patrick’s mouth before skipping down the rest of the hill, leaving both boys behind you. Art watched, a huge grin on his face. The three of you had found a great way to sneak out of your dorms at night. It was 11:42 and you were heading toward the back of the grounds with the ingredients for s’mores, a lighter, and matches for good measure. And maybe the remainder of a pack of cigarettes.

What good was your last year at the academy if not the one you rebel just a tiny bit? You were down the hill humming Groove Is In The Heart by Deee-Lite in your big Mark Rebellato sweater and yoga pants just happy to be out at night. You were fun, carefree, and bright, even in the dark of the edge of the property, away from all the fuss of the school. “You’re so slow!” You called out to them. Both Art and Patrick jogged to catch up to you, finding your regular spot between a few trees.

You sat on your regular log and pulled the blanket from your bag before getting up to drape it over. Patrick got to collecting the twigs from the stash and put them in the hole you three dug the first time you snuck out. Art took the seat next to you on the log, “Crazy, you have like seven tennis balls in here.” He laughed. You shook your head, nudging him just a little while he grabbed the three marshmallow skewers from your bag. He grabbed one of the balls out and threw it at Patrick.

“Can take the girl out of Mark Rebellato but can’t take the Mark Rebellato out of the girl,” Patrick said, catching the ball and throwing it back at Art. He got the fire started and lit one of the remaining cigarettes off of the growing flame. “You guys ready for that test on Monday?”

“Since when are you an academic?” You chuckled, putting a marshmallow on the end of Art’s stick.

“Since he found out Lydia Jennings is into smart guys,” Art said. You chuckled, biting your lip just gently. Art noticed.

Patrick blew smoke out the side of his mouth, “No- okay, she said she liked smart guys we all know there’s no way in hell I’m becoming a straight-A student like this one over here,” he gestured with the cigarette between his fingers to you. “She’s hot, she’s not drop-everything-and-study hot. I’m talking about the test on Monday because I know that with you two and Stanford, you’re obsessed with your grades… I am… not ready.”

You shook your head, looking up at him, “She is so drop-everything-and-study hot, you’re just picky. And I’ll lend you my notes tomorrow if you want- Art and I worked on them together, they’re pretty extensive.”

“They are good.” Art nodded, dangling his marshmallow over the embers. “You’re actually worried about it? I mean, the year is almost half-done, you’ve got time.”

He nodded, “I know, but I have to graduate to be free of this place for good. No way I’m doing that GED thing.”

“My mom did the GED thing.” You said. “She’s doing just fine. It was only a setback. Plus, if you plan on truly going pro, it won’t be a big thing. Just player trivia.” Art laughed at that, pulling his stick back to pull the marshmallow off. You had already prepped his graham cracker and chocolate and pulled the marshmallow off between them for him. Patrick watched how you two worked so wordlessly- wasn’t his focus. “I will lend you all of my notes tomorrow, it’s just a matter of reading them a few times a day and you’re set.”

Patrick shrugged, grabbing himself the things he needed for a s’more. “Thanks.”

Art nodded, “You’re lucky you’re good with a racket.”

“Rude!” You said, shoving him backward off the log. He landed on his back in the leaves and it was all-around laughter again. The dynamic was this. Shoving, pushing, insults in good fun, but caring all too much. Art knew there was nobody in the world who cared more about anything than you did. He was, as your friend, able to enjoy just how passionate you were about the things and people you liked. He pulled himself back onto the log, shaking his head at you as you dusted him off and removed the leaves from his hair. You smelled good, like fall, vanilla, and chai, almost, but with a sweetness that reminded Art of the caramel apples from the fair. He shut his eyes as your hands picked the last little bits from his hair. You pat his cheek when it was done and the conversation moved onto the new tennis coach’s really bad toupée.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art got out of his car, shut the door, and locked it, car keys sliding into his pocket. He stared out over the grounds, past the outdoor tennis courts, and to the point in the field where it dipped down into the big hill. He wondered if they’d ever found your makeshift fire pit, filling it with dirt, moving the logs… He glanced at himself in the side mirror of the car, remembering when his hair was longer, more golden. Part of him wondered if he would even see you tonight. Maybe he’d see Patrick, which was a more likely occurrence, Patrick wouldn’t miss something like this.

If only they made it less of a surprise who you’d run into at one of these. He guessed it would be his class, a few extras, people who had settled down bringing their fiancees, partners, husbands, and wives. He wondered if he was too dressed up? Dressed down? And he was nervous, for some reason, when he shouldn’t have been.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

“I know I shouldn’t be deciding on a dress this late but I can’t tell if this dress is too much?” You said from inside your dorm room. “I’m afraid Mark Rebellato himself will come to smite me for how much boob this dress shows off.” You spoke through the door.

Art and Patrick grinned at each other. “I’m sure it’s fine!” Art called back. Both boys had spent about twenty minutes tops getting ready for the mid-term formal. One of many formals the school so unfortunately had. “Can we see?”

“It’s not the right dress!”

“How would we know?”

The door to your room unlocked and you opened it, standing looking very unimpressed in a gorgeous purple dress. Both boys stood, a little dumbfounded for a second. “Too much?”

“No.” Both boys said in unison, gazing at you, your hair perfect, your makeup perfect.

Art blinked hard to snap himself back to reality, “You look… beautiful.” His eyes lingered a little too long on the slight shimmer to your eyelids and the gloss on your lips. Your eyes softened and you looked down at yourself again.

Patrick agreed. “Damn.” Both boys had themselves forgetting you were the same girl they called their friend on a day-to-day basis. “Mark Rebellato is rolling in his grave.”

“Is he dead?” You asked, laughing. Art didn’t find anything funny when you were standing there looking like that. He thought you were gorgeous, he could say that as your friend of a good few years, but this was breathtaking. You were.

The dance was more fun than both Art and Patrick anticipated, but you made anything fun. Patrick nudged Art’s arm as they stood off to the side with cups of punch. “She’s different this year.” He said. Both boys were watching you dance with one of your girlfriends. You were so free and you were once again the brightest thing in the whole room, purple and pink light cascading over your face and you were laughing.

Art hardly heard him. “Hm?” His eyes didn’t leave you.

“Exactly.”

Art nudged him back, seeing what Patrick was getting at. “Fuck off.” He grinned. “She’s just pretty. She’s always been pretty.”

Patrick nodded, sipping his punch, watching your dress swish around you as your friend spins you. “Too pretty.”

“Mhm,” Art sighs. The way he watches you is different from Patrick's. There’s something buried in what he feels, but he’s never acknowledged it much. Aside from when you met at twelve in a co-op game and you made fun of his ears. It honestly hurt his little feelings but Patrick found it absolutely hilarious that someone so funny-looking could say something so mean to someone else. Art laughed when Patrick defended him. But you, always so smart, nodded. And you smiled, which both boys didn’t expect. Then you apologized to Art and introduced yourself like nothing even happened. Art forgave you. There was something about you that both he and Patrick knew would make a good addition to the duo they’d formed over the first week. And it had been that way ever since. Didn’t make it easier when you stopped looking so funny and disproportionate when you turned fourteen but, being friends, it was ignorable. For the most part. They were only boys.

When presented with a slow dance, you excused yourself from the floor and came to stand with the boys, taking Patrick’s cup of punch right out of his hands and downing it. Patrick went to grab it but it was too late. You pulled a face, “Seriously?” You scrunched up your nose and Art laughed as he pieced it together.

“Didn’t give me a chance to warn you,” he chuckled. You felt the warmth spread down your throat- he’d spiked his own punch. Of course. Art, mouth agape, placed a hand on the small of your back without thinking. You just giggled and shook your head at him. Patrick took his cup back from you, sipping the very last drops. The couples and wannabes behind you continued to dance closely. “Awful, right?”

“So bad,” you giggled. Art twisted his mouth to the side, trying not to laugh too much. Your hand closed around Art’s wrist and pulled it up over your opposite shoulder and you kept talking about how gross it tasted, making fun of Patrick for spiking it so badly. If anyone sniffed it, they would have immediately known it was mostly alcohol. Art’s arm stayed around you, the perfect place for it, so it made sense to step a little closer. It’s only worth noting as something that happened because Patrick, who was used to your casual displays of closeness like this one- saw the angle Art kept his hand at so that his hand wouldn’t rest too close to your boobs. He laughed just a bit. Art just shook his head at Patrick and flipped him off with that very hand.

By the near-end of the night, you’re danced out and you asked the boys to come back with you, but Patrick had taken to chatting up Lydia Jennings, of course, so Art obliges. Patrick didn’t need a wingman, he would do fine on his own. Art holds the door for you as you leave and you’re immediately laughing as you cross the parking lot. “Fucking insane,” Art laughs, running a hand through his hair. “I always forget it’s not a school dance until Patrick sneaks in two shooters.”

“I had at least one whole shooter in that punch,” you said, knocking against him as you walked. The cool autumn air hit your bare skin and it was harsh. “It was disgusting.” Art felt you shiver just a bit beside him and he was already taking off his jacket to give to you. “He could have gone with vodka or something, spiced rum, and fruit punch is one of the worst things I think I’ve ever tasted- thank you.” You said, taking his jacket with a smile and pulling it over your shoulders.

“It was spiced rum?!”

“Yeah!” You laughed with him, still leaning against him as the two of you walked. “He ends up with Lydia Jennings she’s going to hate, hate, hate his breath. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom,” you said, pulling a pink toothbrush out of your bag. Art couldn’t help but laugh at the thing.

“Smart,” he grinned wider as you showed him the travel-sized tube of toothpaste that went with it. Art just flashed you his pack of mint gum in return and you narrowed your eyes at him. Art shoved it back in his pocket along with both of his hands. “So… you had fun tonight?” He followed up.

You smiled at him with those perfectly glossed lips parting to show teeth. “I did. However-

“There’s a however?”

“However…” You grinned, taking his hand and walking backward. You lowered your voice, pretending to be extra serious. “You need to dance more so you can dance with me.”

“You didn’t like the nodding I did? I feel like that was a lot, too much, even.” He held the door open to the other building and you mouthed another thank you as you passed him again. ”How much more do I need to do to dance with you?”

“You can always dance with me. I promise it’s a lot more fun when you’re not feeling centered out.” You told him, heading up the stairwell. It’s still early in the night so the girl’s dorms were mostly empty. “I knowww, I know how you get with it, but-”

“I’d dance with you.” He nodded, but squeezed your upper arm, “You didn’t ask me. I would have.”

“Okay then. Swear on your life right now that if I asked you, you’d say yes.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, fighting that neverending grin that lived on his face when you were around. “For what?”

“All future purposes.” You replied, stopping outside your room and leaning against the wooden door. “Where dancing is involved.” You held out your pinkie finger and Art took it before he got to question any more. You grinned and jumped a few times. “You just made the craziest promise, I’m going to make you hate me with that one.” Art just grinned.

You talked a bit more just at the door until both you and Art were wary about someone seeing him on the girl’s side of the dorms. You opened the door to your room and stepped just inside, about to say goodbye, but just one more thing before he left, you asked. For him to help you unzip your dress. Art should not have felt the way he did when you handed him back his jacket and turned around while lifting your hair. Your bunkmate had zipped it up before you had left and you had no idea when she’d be back, you explained.

Art wouldn’t say no to you. Who could? He stepped closer, met with the closer, stronger scent of your perfume and you still smelled sweet. You always smelled sweet. With gentle fingers, he took the small zipper and slowly unzipped the back of your dress. The sound of the zipper being the only thing in the empty of your room and he wouldn’t forget how when the zipper hit the bottom of its track, his finger grazed the bare skin of your back. Soft, softer than he could have even imagined. And you turned so that he wouldn’t be faced with the bare of it all, braless underneath, he could tell, and you thanked him for the night, for his jacket, for his help. Said you’d see him tomorrow. Usually, you’d hug him goodnight, but with your dress about to slip off you just smiled, making fun of the promise he’d made to you just thirty minutes ago before a real goodnight.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art looked over at the dorm building across the lot, looking at the exact path between cars you and him would have walked that night. His hands shoved themselves into his pockets, habit. He decided not to stand out in the parking lot anymore, swallowing hard as he allowed himself through the door and into the smaller gym, which was decorated just like the regular school dances. There were streamers and early 2000s radio hits and so many people.

It was almost immediately people recognized Art. He was possibly the most successful of the graduating class, though he hated to think it. He wouldn’t put himself above anyone. He was already getting pats on the back and he started in some small conversations but he was a little distracted.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

“They have parties at Stanford?” You said, looking at some Stanford webpage on Art’s mom’s computer. “Frats, too. Insane. Hey Art, you should join the frat.” You chuckled. Art and Patrick were playing Jenga at the coffee table, two or three of the blocks wet from falling into the eggnog.

Patrick ruffled Art’s hair, “Frat boy Art Donaldson?”

You spun in the chair, “I could join a sorority, they have those too.”

Art grinned, “Yeah? You think they’d take Patrick?”

Patrick pushed Art into the couch and the Jenga tower toppled over once again. You laughed, watching him shake his head and reach for his eggnog, once again pulling a Jenga block out of it. You came and sat next to Art on the couch, sitting on the arm. His hand mindlessly wrapping itself around your ankle as your foot rested on his thigh. Gentle, like letting you know that he’s there despite the readily available knowledge that was your being. Something sweet. Patrick took a seat on the floor in front of you both. “I think they’d take me, but you have to be a Stanford student, so you know, it’s too bad.”

“Their loss,” You smiled. “Do you think I’m pretty enough to rush a sorority when we get to Stanford?” You asked. Both boys looked at each other.

“...Yeah,” Patrick said, nodding just a little. You narrowed your eyes.

“Yes.” Art said firmly. He squeezed your ankle just a little. You smiled at that. Art’s mom called you to dinner, christmas dinner, and in seconds both boys were bolting to the dining room. You exchanged a look with Art’s mom when you got there. She was lovely and she was letting both you and Patrick stay for the holidays. Her food was amazing and the conversation was Stanford, mostly, and your tennis plans for after graduation. The application process, the fuss of getting a dorm room there, and how excited she was for you and Art to be going to the same place. She loved you, his mom. She called you her daughter when the mailman came around during the holiday season and to whoever asked. She’d been in a household of boys for far too long.

The post-dinner conversation laying on your back on Art’s bed next to him while Patrick was laid at the foot of the bed was on exactly that. “Art, I think your mom likes Y/N more than you.”

“I know,” Art replied, hands folded on his chest. He turned his head to look at you, giggling.

“I can’t help it,” you replied through your laughter. “Everyone loves me, it’s not my fault.” Nothing about that statement was false- everyone did love you. And who wouldn’t? You were kind and sweet and loving and so warm to everyone you met so of course they all loved you. There was nobody like you so everyone who crossed paths with you would never be able to forget you. Art’s smile fell, looking at your freshly glossed lips and that unforgettably beautiful smile. He’d zoned out so when you rolled onto your side, nearly onto him, his eyes widened just a bit.

“You’re jealous?” You beamed.

“Not even,” Art scrunched his nose, using a gentle hand to push you away but you returned, giggling. “She’d go insane having a real excuse to go to sales at the mall.”

“Sugar mommy,” Patrick remarked. He had way too much pie, he was half-asleep. Art just kicked him with the foot that rested closest to his chest, eliciting an ‘oof’ noise from Patrick that you giggled at.

“You’re so jealous your mom likes me more, it’s crazy, it’s crazy,” You giggled, grabbing his upper arm. Art twisted his mouth to the side, eyes flickering from the gloss on your lips, to your eyes. “Don’t worry, when she comes to visit me at Stanford, she’ll probably have enough time to see you as well. I’ll make sure of it.” You teased.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Art said, pushing you back again and you just laughed madly, a laugh that was so room-filling and contagious and completely perfect. Art turned his head to look at you. You were more than sorority pretty. Who wouldn’t think so when you laughed like that?

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art found that Lydia Jennings had three kids now. Three in fifteen years, which was a little crazy. She, of course, had pictures with her. Spitting images of her bright blonde, big-mouthed self and Art pretended to care, more than he cared to admit. There was no sign of Patrick. Lydia Jennings asked Art about his divorce, asking about his own daughter, but he had to real interest in talking about that sort of thing. Not with her. He excused himself, raising his head above the crowd to scan for anyone else he knew.

He ended up talking to an old friend who was already balding with his pregnant wife at his side. It was good to see just how well people were doing. Settling down, having quit tennis or only pursuing it on the weekends, some of them with kids in tennis classes already. Art was continuing to be congratulated on his career by even the partners of these past classmates.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

You were dancing to some Tal Bachman song and Art was internalizing every lyric. “What song is this again?” He asked, leaning back against the tree. The light from the fire was flickering around your face that was nearly hidden by the winter jacket you had on.

“She’s So High,” you replied, spinning in circles. Patrick locked eyes with Art from across the fire, giving a knowing smile. One, because you were high, so was he, so was Art- Two, because Art was completely zoned in on you, the way you moved, the way you looked. And he couldn’t help it, you were the most fascinating thing around and he’d smoked quite a bit. It was like the song was written for you, he thought, out of his mind and red-eyed. You were dancing alone, like you hadn’t even though twice, the music coming from your little portable music player thing. Art met Patrick’s eyes and Patrick raised his eyebrows, nodding at you. Art shook his head, but Patrick jumped over the fire to sit next to him anyway.

“So are you telling her or am I?” He teased, ruffling Art’s hair and Art bat him away, huge grin on his face. “So when’s the wedding?”

“Shut the fuck up, she’ll hear you,” Art chuckled, shoving Patrick over just a bit. Patrick came back laughing. “It’s not like that.”

“You really think I’m fucking stupid, huh?” Patrick chuckled, pulling Art into a bit of a headlock in return. “I’ve known you both how long?”

“Too long,” Art laughed, trying to wriggle out of Patrick’s grasp, finally escaping just to shove Patrick all the way over. He was glad you were minding your business, occupied with the song. “It’s not like that.” He repeated, still keeping his voice low.

Patrick pulled himself back up, “Tell that to your dick,” he said, taking a shot at Art’s groin that he gladly blocked just to sock Patrick in his. Patrick doubled over just for a second and Art laughed a bit too hard, the fry of the weed that burned his throat making him cough. Patrick couldn’t stop laughing at the coughing and being high, everything was a lot funnier. It took a minute for them to stop laughing over the stupidity. Patrick sighed heavily, looking over at you still dancing mindlessly to a song by Avril Lavigne, then back at Art, who was trying to regulate his breathing, also staring at you again. “Maybe not always your dick but definitely your eyes. I’ve never seen anyone with bigger heart-eyes, it’s sickening.” He said.

Art looked at Patrick and twisted his mouth to the side. “I don’t think so. She’s just…pretty.” His eyes gazing back to you, spinning in your fluffy winter coat, swaying, firelight flickering over your face, defining your features in shadow.

“Uh-huh… You really think I don’t know?”

“There’s nothing to know,” Art replied, pulling his eyes off of you again.

Patrick shook his head, adding more to the fire, hand still over his groin as the pain continued to die down. He kept his voice low, “Fuck off with that. It’s bullshit. I know it, you know it. You spend more time with her than me, she’s your partner for every co-op game, your mom loves her, you look at her like I’ve never seen you look at anyone.” He chuckled, “And you so want to fuck her.”

“Not as much as I want you to fuck off,” Art chuckled. “Okay, well, I mean- I might. She’s gorgeous, yeah, but I don’t think I could ever tell her anything. She’s perfect, too perfect and we’re friends. We’re her best friends, it would fuck everything up.”

“So you don’t even try? I’ve seen you ask for girl’s numbers within forty minutes of knowing them, it’s unlike you to not even try.”

“She’s different,” Art replied, looking down at his hands. “I couldn’t. I make a move and she doesn’t want it, we’re fucked forever.”

“And you don’t make a move and you’ll never know,” Patrick replied. The weed made him oddly thoughtful. “I’ve seen you two with my own eyes there’s something there, I swear to god there is. You can’t just let things play out, you’re going to miss your chance. Think about Stanford next year, all the college guys hitting on her and you know they will, she’s Y/N… Fifteen years down the road she’s married to some frat guy she met at a rager and you’ll be wishing you told her while you could.”

The silence between them was filled by your music and humming. Art looked at you, eyes closed, lips glossy, boots in the dirt. And for the first time he let himself think that he could never want anyone more than he wanted you. He would never see past you, he wouldn’t ever feel this way about anyone else and in the moment, through the weed, it felt real. You, perfect, gorgeous, here.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art glanced around the room, feeling some familiar fire burning in the pit of his stomach. It felt oddly highschool, it felt oddly familiar. He wondered if you had kept up with tennis, he wondered if you had a husband and kids, he wondered if you’d gained weight, lost weight, changed your hair, were going just a little grey, even. He was nervous- that’s what he was and he could place that. It was then that he saw Patrick, coming in through the door across the room.

Art, over Tashi, had put her in the past, including what Patrick had done. Him and Patrick didn’t keep up much other than a few texts and meeting at the bar a few times, but the hard feelings were pretty much gone. Art started making his way over to his old friend just to be grabbed by another ex-classmate who wanted to catch up. He was faced with more pictures of kids and meeting someone’s wife and Art wasn’t so bothered to talk about his own daughter, he’d always take that opportunity. She was the best thing he currently had.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

You and Art sat on the bleachers in the gym, just having finished a co-op game, having won, of course. You both showered and got dressed again and met back up. The air was warming up, mid-spring and Art had still not told you yet. He decided he would at the end of the year and see if you’d make the first move, just to be safe. It didn’t weigh on him- he’d been friends with you for ages, liked you for ages, so it was a secondary thing.

“Hoping my tennis career is enough to buy an old victorian home,” You said, packing your things into your gym bag.

“I remember you saying that,” Art said, hauling your bag onto his shoulder along with his own. It wasn’t abnormal to have him carry your bag. It was sweet. “You want a blue one. Well, blue-grey.” He said. You looked at him, a little surprised he remembered the blue-grey thing. “With the white trim. I remember things.”

You nudged him just a little bit as you passed him. “I’m surprised, after so many tennis balls have hit you in the head.”

“And whose bad aim is at fault?” He teased back. You held the door for him and went out into the early afternoon sun.

You rolled your eyes at him with that gorgeous smile. “Bad aim, uh huh. Who’s to say it’s not on purpose?”

“Y/N!” Your girl friend called, bounding over. “My hair tie broke and I can’t go all the way back to the dorms in time for scrimmage, do you have an extra?” Art watched your full attention go to this girl, linking hands with her and everything. He watched you take the hair tie off of your wrist, the purple glittery one that you swore was your favourite. “Hi, Art.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, noticing him standing there. Art just raised his hand in a subtle wave.

“Of course,” you said, pulling the purple sparkly hair tie off and giving it to her, no questions asked. “Do you need anything else? I have a redbull in my bag if you wanted that before your scrimmage?”

“Really?” She asked. Art lowered your bag for you and you unzipped it, pulling the redbull out and handing it to her as she finished tying her hair up. All Art could wonder was how could anyone not love you when this was who you were? Art knew that purple hair tie was your favourite and you gave it up, just like that, and didn’t even ask for it back later. And your redbull that Art watched you go through your coins for six miinutes counting literal dimes and pennies to get it from the vending machine was in this girl’s hand just because you thought to offer it. You were kind and beautiful and Art moved the date up a little in his head- the date that he’d tell you how he felt. For now, he dug his free hand into his pocket and pretended like you weren’t absolutely perfect.

Saying goodbye to the girl, you and Art resumed your walk back to the main building. “You know Abbey, right?”

“Her?”

“Yes, her,” you giggled. “Don’t tell her I told you this, but she keeps asking me about you. Your favourite colour, song, movie, all of it.” You explained, gesturing with your hands and leaning against him as you two walked. “She likes you.”

Art was only half-surprised. But was more surprised at you bringing it up. “Likes me how?”

“Exactly in the way you think,” you replied. “I’m always down to play wingwoman, but I did tell her all the wrong information.” Your smile turned into a bit of a cringe. Art liked that even in your full care and support, you were just a little evil. Plus, what harm was it really? Art was only seeing you. He couldn’t spend a second on anyone else. Seemed impossible. “She thinks you’re a huge fan of Green Day.” Art couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah?” Art set down your things at a table in the cafeteria and the two of you got in line for food. “Playing interference?”

“Uh-huh,” you said, bowing so your head nudged his arm. The smile that pulled at your lips was one you appeared to want to suppress. A strand of your hair, wet, fell in your face and Art wasted no time moving it behind your ear. Your eyes met his as your smile broke into full action and your eyes fell back to the ground. Sometimes… just sometimes, he felt maybe you were worth ruining the friendship.

Your lower lip between your teeth, you grabbed a tray for him before you grabbed your own.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art finally made it over to Patrick, who looked decent. He shaved a bit, cleaned up just enough. Art thought about how strange it was to be back here with him after all this time. It almost felt right, was just missing you. “Hey, man.” Patrick said, reaching forward and locking hands with Art in a quick greeting.

“Hey,” Art replied. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” Patrick replied. “See anyone worth talking to?”

“Not really. Lydia Jennings has three kids now, in case you were looking forward to that,” he chuckled. “She doesn’t look bad though. I didn’t check for a ring either, so.”

Patrick chuckled, hands in the pockets of his dress pants, wearing virtually what was the grey version of Art’s outfit. “Not for me.” He said. “I actually- I ran into Y/N in the parking lot. I thought maybe you’d be looking for her tonight.” Patrick added. Art hated the way his stomach did a little flip as if he wasn’t a full-grown man with a failed marriage and a daughter.

“She came?”

“Yeah, she headed in here before me. She’s good, she hasn’t aged much, it’s weird. You know what they say about the way good people age…” He added. “She’s in purple, said we’d talk more later but she was excited to be here.”

Art swallowed hard, “I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks, man.”

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

When Patrick left early to hang out with Lydia Jennings, swearing he was going to ‘get some’, it left you and Art in the boy’s room. How they’d been bunkmates for six years running you had no idea, having been room with at least four different girls. Their room was decorated with sports posters, tennis awards and medals, and Star Wars memorabilia. You weren’t supposed to be there, but oh well. “You think purple is my colour?” You asked Art, going through the nail polish you had in your bag, buried under the bag of cheetos you brought over.

“Hm?” Art slid off his bed and onto the floor where you sat, your back to the edge of his mattress. “Yeah. The medium one, though. Not the dark one.” He said, pointing to the bottle he liked better. You shot a small smile his way before grabbing that one.

“I haven’t painted them in ages,” you said, doing a bit of a jazz hand really close to his face and then pressing your hand to his cheek. Annoying, or trying to be, but casual. Art scrunched his nose and batted your hand away, though he really didn’t want to. “So about Abbey.”

“Your friend?” Art adjusted the way he sat. His knee overlapped yours.

“Mhm,” you replied,beginning to paint your nails. “Did she end up talking to you after class yesterday?”

Art thought back to after class when he was on his way to his next class to meet up with you and Patrick. She had come up to him, but he almost immediately shut her down. “Was she supposed to?”

You smiled, “Yes. I told her to ask you about your favourite Star Trek episode.”

Art grinned, you were still playing interference. He wondered why. “I brushed her off… I didn’t think anything of it I was on my way out.” He grimaced a little and you looked up from your nails, trying not to laugh. “I don’t think I was too rude…”

“Where were you off to in such a hurry?”

“You- And Patrick.” He saved himself. “I had someplace to be! Plus, she’s not really my type.”

“And what is that type? Girls with purple fingernails, maybe?” You laughed- Art wondered what you meant by that because at this very moment there was nothing you said that had ever been more true. “Your future girlfriend is going to hate me.” You followed up. Art’s heart sunk just a little at that. You then mumbled something under your breath that Art didn’t catch.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

Art caught up a bit with Patrick, who was interested to hear that his daughter was just getting into tennis, but really liked ballet. Patrick himself had still not settled down, but he’d landed a good job adn was now making decent money, enough to find himself a good apartment. He talked about this girl he’d met at the mechanic and Art didn’t mind the tale of it all, but he did glance around every few minutes to see if maybe you’d be nearby or even come to speak to them. They way you’d left things he wondered if you’d say anything to him at all.

It’s not like you left things horribly… But he knew the way things went just weren’t ideal and that was the problem. It was the lack of grace in the process of losing touch.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

“Patrick held both envelopes up. “Saw these on the mail piles, grabbed them before mail day.” He said. You, who had been mindlessly playing with Art’s curls on the couch in the corner of the library, and Art, who was pink from just how intimate the feeling had been, both perked up. Patrick shot a look additional to the excited expression he wore and Art just flipped him off. “They’re yours.”

You and Art looked at each other, Art tilting his head back to do so. Both of you scrambled from where you sat to grab the envelopes Patrick held, huge grin on his face. “Stanford Tennis,” you breathed. Art pressed his lips together. “Acceptance letter?” You questioned. Patrick shrugged, but continued to grin.

Art shook his head, “Should we open them? I mean- same time? Or?”

“I feel sick,” you said, words overlapping his. “Oh my god.” You pressed your hand to your stomach. “I knew they’d be here soon but this is so… late. I was getting scared I wouldn’t get anything, we got something… We got something.”

“Yeah,” Art nodded, big crooked grin on his face. “Together?”

You swallowed, sitting back down, then standing right back up again. “No, you first.”

Patrick sat on the couch, ready to watch both of his friends excitement, arm up on the arm of the couch. “Hurry up!” He kicked Art in the back of the knee and Art didn’t even feel it, opening the big envelope. He narrowly avoided a paper cut. You paced a short distance, back and forth, back and forth anxiously. He unwrapped the papers, eyes scanning over the letter.

“Fuck yeah!” He exclaimed, all too loud for the library. He didn’t care though. “I’m in!”

You gasped and your grin was the first thing Art looked for. Your arms up and around his neck, so excited for him. “That’s amazing, I’m so so proud of you!” You exclaimed, also so loud. Art’s arms around your waist, squeezing you tight as you kissed his cheek enthusiastically. Patrick was there to clap him on the back, hugging Art when you let go. Art was glad for it- it helped hide how pink he went from just the kiss on the cheek. You were jumping up and down and you were beautiful and you were happy. It would be one of the last times Art saw you so happy.

“What about you?” He gestured to your envelope and you looked down at it like you’d forgotten you were holding it.

“I- I can’t, one of you has to do it,” you said. It was for sure. You’d met with the faculty there, the coaches, you were scouted two years ago when you weren’t even old enough to apply and the second you knew you loved tennis you knew Stanford was the best place for you. Patrick took your envelope for you, opening it as you nervously bit your lip, swaying into Art, letting your fingers intertwine with his just to have something to brace yourself. He squeezed your hand, smiling at his own acceptance, knowing that if anyone had it in the bag was you. But Patrick read it over and there wasn’t a grin- in fact the smile he did have fell just in the slightest. Art felt your hand squeeze his harder.

“What is it?” You asked. Art looked at Patrick, who then looked up at you with sorry eyes. “Patrick?”

“You’re- um-” he paused another moment and handed you the papers. “Waitlisted. I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

Art watched your colour drain. The obvious bright light you brought by just entering a room dimmed as you read it yourself. Art could feel the slight tremor in your fingers, so he squeezed your hand as hard as he could, just so in the new wave of overwhelming sadness, you’d know he was still there. He felt guilty for celebrating so soon.

“I’m waitlisted.” You repeated, monotone. “And not even until next semester. Next year. And even then there’s no guarantee.”

Art didn’t wait another second, he used the hand he held to pull you in. You didn’t resist, you couldn’t, you felt limp as Art wrapped his arms around you. Patrick’s hand on your back for just a moment, but Art’s hand on the back of your head and the other running up and down your back. His crush on you was unaffected by this hug because he knew that you needed it more than anything. You were the one with the plans, you were the one who knew exactly how things would play out and Stanford was the first step on every path you’d imagined. Knowing you so long, both boys knew you were right to cry.

Art held you, standing, for as long as you needed- his arms around you stayed tight and didn’t waiver once in the thirty minutes you stayed there. He was quiet, Patrick was just cursing Stanford for being fucking stupid and though Art agreed with him on that, because who in their right minds would look at your grades and your tennis stats and say they didn’t want you? Who wouldn’t want you?

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

When Art saw you from across the room it felt like he was eighteen again. He’d anticipated feeling nostalgic for a time, but you were there and you were in purple, like Patrick said and he knew it was you from the smile you wore, reuniting with what looked to be a very-pregnant Abbey Campbell. Good for her, Art though, seeing past the bump and looking at you. Patrick was right- you’d aged like fine wine or whatever that saying was, but you were still youthful and you were still… bright.

“You should talk to her,” Patrick said, noticing where Art’s eyes had landed. As if he hadn’t been watching Art scan every five minutes during their conversation. “You haven’t seen her since…”

“September 2006,” Art replied, looking at Patrick.

“Have you kept in touch at all, or?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well fuck.”

“Yeah,” Art nodded, eyes not leaving you. You were different, older, for sure but not in ways noticeable. Many of the men in the room had grown into bigger bodies and were either unfortunately balding or had already gone bald for some. Mid-thirties you wouldn’t think it, but it was there. And you were there, looking youthful and bright and you were still one of the prettiest girls in the room. Women… in the room. He gestured to you, eyes not leaving you, scared to lose track of where you were. “I’m going to-”

“Good luck.” Patrick pat Art on the back to send him off and Art, drink in hand from his stop by the food table, walked over to you, ignoring everyone who wanted his attention this time.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- past

“You’re not telling her at graduation? You’re fucking joking.” Patrick said, shoving Art back onto his bed as the boys got dressed for one of their last classes at MRTA. “How fucking stupid are you, you can’t just not tell her.”

“I tell her and I ruin our friendship while I get to go to Stanford in the fall. I can’t do that to her.”

“You sound like a fucking idiot,” Patrick said.

“Okay, yeah, maybe, but even if I tell her and it goes well, we would only have the summer before I move all the way to fucking California. You’ll be on tour and this whole… thing would just be broken. And fucked up. I don’t want her for a summer, Patrick. I want her all the time, every day, like it was supposed to fucking be. I don’t want her for just a summer.” Art huffed, looking at his hands. The whole waitlisting bullshit threw a wrench in everything. Everything.

“You’d rather not have her at all?”

“I-” he flailed his hands around, “I don’t know! I don’t know how to tell her something like that and then move away.”

Patrick shrugged, “Could just kiss her.”

Art opened his mouth to speak and a knock on the door cut him off. Art pulled his shirt over his head as Patrick lunged to open it. It was you. Who else?

“You guys want to cut class?” You asked, arms folded over your chest, mouth pulled a little to the side, standing in your shorts and tank top, not dressed for class at all. Your hair was behind your ears, your lips just slightly glossy and you had that slight sparkle to your eyelids, but it was never too much. He would never get over just how beautiful you were, never ever. “I don’t feel like going today and I just want to do something fun or maybe even nothing?”

“That sounds great, but I actually was looking forward to doubles today…” Patrick groaned, putting a hand aside his head. Art knew him well enough to know Patrick was not looking forward to doubles. “But Art already has all his credits, I think he can stay. I’ll come back before dinner though?”

You nodded slightly and looked to Art, who still had his mouth a little open at the sudden position he was in. “Would you? I really don’t feel like going but I can just skip and meet you guys for dinner?”

Art nodded back at you, slowly. Patrick was playing wingman with expectations this time. ‘Could just kiss her,’ echoed around his head. He made eye contact with Patrick who, out of your line of sight, shot Art a telling look. He was giving Art a window. But skipping with you, being alone with you wouldn’t change the fact that when September came you’d be states away, alone, probably. The long distance would be hard and he knew he could maintain the friendship, but if he confessed and it went well, the long distance of a new relationship would probably kill him. And you. “Yeah, I’ll stay.” Art said.

When Patrick left for class, you came into their room and sat down on Art’s bed, next to him. You weren’t exactly yourself, the way you sat with your arms crossed and lacked that gorgeous smile Art looked forward to every day. You sat so close he could smell the sweetness of your perfume. “You okay?” he asked, looking at you with his head a little tilted, smiling gently.

“I can’t get the Stanford thing out of my head,” You admit. Art nodded. You’d been good about it. It upset you, he knew that it absolutely killed you, but you didn’t talk about it much- for Art’s sake, not wanting to depress him and Patrick with your delayed dream. “I know it’s stupid, I’m only waitlisted a year, but it was supposed to be different. They said I was a shoo-in, how could they say that and not mean it?” You vented. Art heard every word.

“They’re missing out for sure.” He said, hand sliding over your knee to rest just above it. “And Patrick is right- they’re fucked in the head and you deserved that place in the program more than anyone else.”

“Even if I deserved it, even if they’re fucked in the head, I’m still not going and that’s whats killing me.” You said, looking at him with sad eyes. He missed when they were full of light and happiness. “You know, it was supposed to be us. And now it’s not and I don’t know what I’m going to do without you- And Patrick.” Was Art mishearing or was there a pause? And us? Us. “I just feel so stupid and I’m suddenly so lost? I knew exactly what was coming and then it just stopped coming. And I’m terrified that I’m going to lose you both when we all go separate ways.”

“Couldn’t lose me.” Art said, eyes locked on yours. “I might be in California, but I have a phone. And it has a ringer and we have email and facebook and I don’t think I’d even know how to go a day without talking to you, so you know if you didn’t call, I would.” He said, admitting a little too much. “Patrick too, I bet.”

“I love that,” you smiled just a bit. “I just… I was so ready for things to change, but now I’m not. Even if I call you a hundred times in a day, would it feel the same?”

Art looked at the hand he had on your leg, at his thumb as it moved back and forth over your skin. “Probably not… But it would be the best thing until you come and visit. Or when I come home on holiday. It would just be to fill the spaces between, you know that the distance would mean nothing once we’re all together again.”

You looked down. “I know. I just don’t want it.” You sighed, leaning your head against Art’s shoulder. Art could smell your shampoo, it was soft and just as sweet as your perfume. “I’d just... I hate the idea of having to miss you. Distance fucking sucks.” You added. He agreed. Distance would suck. But right now you were here, next to him. He wouldn’t kiss you, he knew that. Not now.

But he turned his body just slightly and wrapped his arms around you, your head moving to just under his chin, resting against his chest. And he held you tight, he always would. And he didn’t resist his other urge, slowly tilting himself back so that he was laying down. You didn’t protest, you just held onto him tighter, laying next to him. Like most things between you two, they went unspoken. You in his arms, in his bed, god it was so telling but you didn’t say a thing. And neither did Art, aside from, “I don’t want it either.”

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

You didn’t seem to notice when he approached. You were heavily invested in your conversation with your friend, laughing and gesturing and you were even more beautiful up close. He could admit it to himself, he was amazed by how well-preserved you’d been. He maybe was expecting a bit of a grey streak, he remembered your mom being fully grey when you were only a teenager, but your hair was perfect. He was just a little bit to the side, in Abbey’s line of sight and she saw Art first, she looked happy to see him, he noted. Too happy for someone with a baby on the way. She put her hands up in the air like she meant anything to him and you looked over at him, seeing what Abbey was so delighted to see and for the first time in fifteen years, you locked eyes with Art.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- interlude

Art remembered the last time you looked at him. Confused eyes, sad ones, the ones he hated seeing, the ones he knew he caused. It wasn’t supposed to be the way it was. Your best friend felt like he just… wasn’t that anymore. Missed texts to missed calls after promises of hundreds in a day felt like lack of care. And it wasn’t on your end. When Art missed your calls, you stopped looking at your phone so much and you missed his. You visited him twice at Stanford, within the first few months and it was the same but he was so busy. So distracted, it seemed. You met Patrick’s girlfriend, Tashi Duncan and the only thought in your mind was that she looked at Art strangely. So when things unravelled, you asked him things and he answered honestly, leaving out the part that he knew went against his character. He was looking at you, thinking about how he should have kissed you at the airport before going to California but he was looking at a girl who wouldn’t kiss him. Not anymore.

And he missed you like he missed no one- when you stopped responding to his emails and Facebook posts. Your last post was October 4th, 2006, and it was a picture of you at a coffee shop you were beautiful, but Art was so lost on the guy next to you. He should have kissed you at that airport but he was tangled in this mess of Tashi who he had admittedly used to try and not miss you so much when you posted with one of your new guy friends, who you did not like romantically. But Art didn’t know that. He didn’t know how badly it hurt when you traveled to California to find him completely happy and distracted in a new life with new friends and forget that you were coming to visit. That hurt. He should have kissed you at the airport when he could before all of these things crashed and collided and brought you down. He was at fault, but you forgave him, you just didn’t speak again.

Patrick said it was fine, you’d come around. Art’s mom told him that you called to check in on her, but that growing apart does happen. He would ask himself how in the world did he end up growing apart from you. You of all people, but admittedly it was his own fault. These things just happen, distance ruins things.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ- present

But there wasn’t much distance now. You were standing in front of him. Your expression didn’t change- it was a gentle smile upon laying eyes on him. Abbey asked him how he was and just like years ago, he brushed her off with a ‘would you excuse me?’ and passed her, sheepishly walking over to you.

“Hi, Art,” you said, head slightly tilted, lips pulled into that smile he hadn’t seen in years. Art felt shy around it, he hated that, but he was happy to see it. And you.

“Hi,” he replied.

You gestured to Abbey, “Reminds me of something.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” he replied with a small chuckle. “I-um… How are you?”

“I’m doing okay,” you nodded. Art found himself glancing for a ring on your finger or maybe a baby bump he missed, but nothing. You were doing okay. “Oh, no ring.” You said, holding up your hand. “Wasn’t so lucky. How are you?”

He shook his head, still a little dazed that you were here in front of him, talking to him like you hadn’t gone fifteen years without doing so. “Not so bad.”

“That implies that there’s some bad,” you nodded, leaning against the wall. Your dress reminded him of another you’d worn. “Not so bad?”

“I’m okay…” He said. “Just… I didn’t think I’d see you tonight.” As if he hadn’t spent every moment since RSVP-ing thinking about seeing you again. Finally seeing you again.

“Oh,” you nodded, understanding. “No, I get that. I didn’t think you’d come. Thought maybe you were busy winning some grand slam, too far ahead than the rest of us. It was a good win, your last big game in Chicago.”

“You kept up,”

“I couldn’t not. I’m not me if not nosey and that aside, your name all over everything tennis-related- billboards, even. You and Tashi.”

“You must have heard about the separation, then?”

“On the tennis new channel, surprisingly. Fuck them for making that public, and I am sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He replied, eyes not leaving yours. “It just wasn’t working out. She cheated.” He admitted, which he hated. Something about your eyes was a well-working trap for him to fall back into the exact boy he used to be in your presence. He wanted to tell you everything, he forgot what it felt like to be around you. But you weren’t different at all. You were still that same warm, caring girl you used to be.

“Art, I’m so sorry, that’s terrible. Nobody deserves that.” You said, eyes soft. Beautiful.

“It’s in the past.” He nodded again, looking at the ground. They hadn’t changed the gym floors since you’d left, he noted. They were the same. “Thank you, though. I actually, um, I have a daughter, though.”

“Lily,” you smiled. “I’m nosey, I told you. Is she much like you?”

“I think so.” He smiled back. You knew his daughter’s name and you knew about the divorce yet he had no idea what you’d been up to. “So, are you… working, are you…”

“I am.” You nodded. “I teach children with special needs how to play tennis, it’s a great job. Lots of fundraisers and events. It’s really lovely.” Art remembered when you were younger. You’d mentioned something of the sort- doing that. He couldn’t help but wonder if you had joined a company or made one. But he wouldn’t ask, the small talk was already killing him. “About your daughter though, I’d love to know more.”

He wanted to know more about you but he liked to talk about Lily and her hobbies and habits. It felt good to talk to you again as you engaged with him as if fifteen years was three months. It was strange, but the feeling of being around you and your light again, it was easy to brush it all off. Like he was eighteen and you were an addictive happiness. You were smiling as he spoke about his daughter. You were smiling so much that he had to stop at one point, unable to hide his own smile. “What?”

Your eyes went a little wide, but you kept smiling, shaking your head. “Oh, nothing. I just… I always knew you’d be a girl dad. And you seem like a good one.”

“Always knew?”

“Oh yeah, I think I first thought about it in grade ten… A girl knows these things.” You said. Your body language changed slightly, you tilted your head to the door. “Hm- Do you still smoke?”

“Do you?”

“When I need to.” You said. “It’s not a habit, it’s an occasional thing. Come with me?”

Art was surprised by the offer. But how could anyone say no to you? He nodded and followed you out. You stopped outside your car, a decent distance away from the building and hopped on the trunk, sitting like you would so many years ago. Your car was nice, so you must make good money, he noted.

“How are you really?” You asked Art, eyes genuine as you lit the cigarette. Art, focused on you, didn’t know how to answer that. He was wondering how you weren’t someone’s wife or mother because even after all these years, he couldn’t find flaw in you. Not one. You were still sweet and kind and lovely and you looked amazing, so how did nobody find you and keep you? You asked him how he really was as if you still saw through him. “You’re really doing okay?”

Art took the cigarette as you passed it to him. “I’m okay. It wasn’t easy- any of it, but it happened and it’s in the past.”

“That’s good.” You said, watching him take a drag. The soft wind blew your hair around your face. “I am sorry about what happened, it sounds awful. I had to check in, really check in. But that aside, you’ve really made a name for yourself out there. Big games, high stakes and a good reputation.”

Art nodded, eyes on the ground as he inhaled again and passed the cigarette back. Something about being here with you was surreal. You’d kept up and he had no way to do the same. “Thank you. I planned on retiring three years ago, but second wind came around. I plan on retiring next year, thinking about starting to coach.”

“You’d be a good coach,” you nodded, smoke blowing out from between your perfect lips.

“Maybe…” He started. Silence.

You nodded, “You’re thinking about the elephant in the… parking lot.” You said, looking around.

“I might be,” he replied, straightening himself out. “It’s been fifteen years and you’ve not said a word to me since… And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. I’ve had a lot of time to.” Art rolled up his sleeves. You watched. “Fifteen years.”

“I know,” you replied, quiet. “But you have had an amazing career and you married the girl I was so worried about, had a daughter. Your life has been exactly what you wanted, that’s amazing. Could it have been the same with me in it?” Art wished it was you in it. “So I let time be time and do it’s thing, I know it’s been fifteen years.”

Art shook his head, “It couldn’t have been a space thing. Maybe I needed the space, but it was bound to exist anyway. We were best friends, you, me, Patrick- and Stanford changed things but you didn’t have to walk away. My life has been my life but it’s not that way because you walked away.”

You chuckled, “I know that. And I am beyond proud of you either way, but me, eighteen years old and in love with you? Showing up after a month of planning and you forgot I was even coming? Just about broke me. And of course, there was Tashi and-” You had more to say but Art felt all of his thoughts come to a halt. His fingers felt cold. He interrupted you-

“In love with me? You were in love with me?”

You laughed, so genuine, the sound was something he had missed sorely. “That’s even a question? Oh, I was so young, but I was very much in love with you. Patrick would never let me forget it. I had such a crush on you. You… you didn’t know?” You covered your mouth as you laughed, but Art felt a little bit frozen, but it was easy to laugh with you.

“I didn’t know, no.”

“So the fifteen years is because after you broke my little eighteen-year-old heart, I took the time to recover and I just… never did.” You admit, handing him back the cigarette, which he took without looking at. He was only seeing you. Part of him was kicking himself hard, angry that he hadn’t confessed when he had planned, knowing now, so many fucking years later than if he had said what he wanted to, he might have had you. There were the complications, but if he had you, there wouldn’t have been a Tashi situation. And in his mind he watched the possibilities unravel his life as he knew it- knowing that it could have been you. It could have been you. “As sorry as I am about it, I don’t regret it. You have an amazing-sounding daughter and the life that you and I used to talk about, going pro… And I have a job that I only got through staying on this side of things. If I was in California, I wouldn’t have met the sweet lady who started the company I own now.”

He hated that you were right. But he hated it more that he could have had everything he really wanted- the things you and him talked about- and it could have been with you. A house, a marriage, a child? The things he really wanted. He couldn’t bring himself to feel regret, but it was something close to the feeling. “I understand. I just- you liked me? Patrick knew?” His whole adult demeanour was destroyed by your youthful smile.

“He would play wingman,” you said. “It was awful, but it was still fun. And I think I should tell you, though it feels wrong, that I missed you. And I am sorry I didn’t reach out. It was too much.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” he nodded back. “I missed you too. A lot. It took a while to get over what happened, but it’s been good…”

“I’m glad,” you replied. The cigarette was almost at it’s end. And for a while you just stared at each other. The words unsaid filled the air until it was almost suffocating. He could have had you. If he had said something. If he’d kissed you at the airport. Tashi might have been Patrick’s. Art hated to think about a world without his daughter but it was you. It was always going to be you no matter how many years passed. “I hate to ask this for the sake of my phrasing, but… no hard feelings?”

Art smiled down at his feet, hands back in his pockets, “No, no hard feelings.” He replied. “And for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you too.”

You smiled that beautiful smile, the wind blowing your hair a little more. There was something so painting-like about this moment. It could be frozen in time, he wished it could be, and he made a mental note to engrave this image of you in his mind. You were just as gorgeous as the day you left and sure, it hurt to think about a little bit, especially all of the ‘what if’s, but you were here now. And there were no hard feelings. How could he ever have any toward you? It was you.

“You want to head back in?” You asked, digging a foldable toothbrush out of your purse along with a tiny tube of toothpaste.You truly not changed much in your ways. Art wondered if you remembered the last time you’d brought a little toothbrush and toothpaste out. He dug in his own pocket and pulled out his pack of mint gum. He noticed the way your eyes widened at the parallel. But then you just grinned, starting to laugh as you half-brushed your teeth, half giggled. Art chuckled too, popping a piece in his mouth. And the laughter lasted a while. It was like you were the same giddy teenagers who wouldn’t tell each other their biggest secret. But eventually it died down and you headed back inside.

The moment you were inside, he noticed the song playing. So did you. You stood there for a moment, not looking at anyone but him. The Cranberries playing loud over dusty speakers. The only Cranberries song you ever liked, Art remembered. You couldn’t stand the voice cracks in the one about zombies… He was a little confused when you held your hand out, but when you smiled, he remembered. In the spirit of parallels, you were asking him to dance. He remembered the promise he made you, he wouldn’t forget it. He had pinkie promised and you swore to make him regret it, but he never got the chance to. You never gave him a real reason to.

“You pinkie promised.” You said, tilting your head just in the slightest. “You swore.” You said it a little sing song. Fifteen years forgotten- they didn’t exist. You were here and you were asking him to dance with you.

“I did,” he said, smiling, hands still in his pockets. And he did take your hand and with a youthful giggle, you pulled him to the dance floor. It was one of those songs where you could scream the lyrics, you could spin and you could maybe even jump, but you just stayed close. Art wasn’t sure what exactly to do, but it was okay. You led at first, swaying just a little to get him into it. He grinned, unable to stop it. Fifteen years felt like seconds, like you never even left. Like you were those same young best friends dancing around your feelings, your truth. And you were so beautiful, spinning and swaying and your dress following you as you did. You laughed and it was melodious, you were so unaware of the eyes on you, of Patrick’s eyes. They met Art’s from across the room and a knowing smile spread up his old friend’s face. He raised his drink in their direction and Art nodded back.

Time might have made Art a little bit harder, colder, but you made him right back into who he used to be before life existed. Your light was brighter than the strobes spinning the walls of the room. You got him into it with a nearly-sixteen-year-old promise. The music loud, but just dull enough to hear you. Art was drawn back into you like you were a magnet. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have you. That he didn’t get that life with you. But you were here and you were still so perfect.

The dancing had somehow melted itself into something slower, though the pace of the song didn’t change. It was almost a hug, the way his hand slipped around your waist. It felt familiar and you… smelled the same way you used to. So sweet. Your arms around his neck, close to him. It wasn’t even a thought in either one of your brains that you ended up this way, but it felt right and you just did it, so that’s how you were. Swaying, like a slow dance, and the end of the song rolled around, the music dulling to only an instrumental.

You pulled away just a little, your faces just a little bit close. “I think it’s best we went our separate ways. It would have killed to me to stay your friend and watch you and Tashi’s life in person rather than in pictures.” You said quietly. “And if I’m honest I think I might still be a little bit in love with you.”

Art met your eyes at your confession. You looked like you regret what you said, but the concern in your eyes changed, eased. You could still read his expression. “I did love you too, you know.”

“I know.” You smiled. He grinned a little sheepishly, his grin still the same. His eyes were soft and he looked at you like he always did. Such a familiar gaze. “And I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“For still feeling the way I do. After what I did.”

“You’re not alone in it.” He admit with a small chuckle. And you giggled. And it felt like nothing else existed in the entire universe. Just you. Just him. He wasn’t blunt, but it was definitely still said. It really could ever only be you, no matter what. Even with Tashi, it was always you. A first love that could never truly be erased, despite the countless mistakes and sins of youth. It hadn’t worked, but looking at you now, he had that hope again. That it might.

You just continued to sway to the music. The promise to dance whenever you asked fulfilled. There was peace in saying what was left unsaid for so many years. There was peace in feeling it still. Feeling how he did about you was the most consistent thing in his entire life. He wasn’t who he had to be with Tashi, he was who he truly was with you. His big career in hindsight, his past with Tashi, his life that didn’t include you was behind him.

Patrick did wander over when the song ended. He came and stood beside you both, the lip of his bottle resting against his mouth. You and Art shared a look before you left the position you were in, hands slipping back to your sides. He was grinning a sly grin. A familiar one from back in the day. Knowing.

You just tsked, “You need to shave.” You said. Patrick just grinned, laughed.

“You too.”

“Really?” You laughed. “Okay, I see how it is.”

Art chuckled. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss this. As much as he wanted just you and him, the three of you together were something entirely different. Who wouldn’t miss the better days? The three of you got a little more caught up, Patrick was free to reveal his position as a double agent in your teenaged slowburn that never really fizzled out… You and Art didn’t mention anything said during that dance, but he knew without being told. Everyone who knew you both knew that you belonged together. The night was still young, but Patrick lowered his voice. “I have an ounce in the car.” He said, shrugging. The three of you shared a look and in minutes the three of you were hiking across the schoolyard. Adults. Stupid adults with stupid nostalgia, laughter echoing across the empty courts as you all walked down the hill.

Art moved the dead leaves and under it was still that circle of rocks. The dirt had somewhat filled it, but it was still a bit of a divot. And the logs had thinned out but they were still there. You sat next to Art like you always would. You turned your body to face him and you just looked at him, studying the way his face had changed, his hair… but it was still very much so the boy you’d loved years ago. He looked over at you and he smiled and it was a reflection of so many years ago. The exact same spots, the exact same people, the same reason to sneak away.

You had hoped you hadn’t overstepped. You didn’t come to the reunion to say what you said, but it was right. And you knew Art felt the same. He said so. The three of you stayed and talked for hours like nothing ever changed. Time could never truly change the three of you. No matter who fucked who, who married who, who went where, who did what. It was always you. It would always be you. And that aside- you and Artwould figure that out- it would always be the three of you. Proven by your very own lives.

taglist: @swetearss @lalalandofive @xoxog0ssipg1rl @bayleequits @reallycreativeusername @kaaaiiaaa

#this was beautiful

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moody4world · 1 year ago

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be mindful of why you're on tumblr to read fanfics readers, u see how i don't post hateful comments on other writers' works, cause that's very inconsiderate and not cutesy. instead, if i don't like the fic i simply stop reading it and move on to read another fic that i'll like, very demure, very respectful, very approachable. let's be mindful 🙄

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moody4world · 1 year ago

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Paul and Ericka Scalvo:

Summary: This story gives Paul Scalvo III some background. We get to meet the older sister that raised him like her own and get a little more backstory on who Scalvo is… or was….

GIF by @harlowgifs

Scalvo limped down the dark street, the only thing illuminating the road was the street lights on every corner. He could feel the blood trailing down his back, trying to ignore it as best as he could as he walked to Ericka’s place.

His phone was on 3% battery and he knew it would be dead by the time he got there, so he decided it was best to call his older sister now. He knew it might take a few tries and wanted to give her ample time to sneak out of her bedroom to meet him on her covered porch.

“Are you okay?” Her voice was shaky, she knew if he was calling her at 2 AM that something had gone wrong. She paced her kitchen, looking out the window for her younger brother and immediately seeing his messy curls flopping down the street.

“Can you-” he sighed wincing in pain as he continued to limp toward her house. “Meet me on the porch? Bring the first aid kit.”

“Fuck. I’ll be right out” she whispered before she put her phone down on the kitchen counter. She turned the cupboard light on to find her first aid kit and soon Scalvo was on her porch dripping blood on her freshly polished floors.

“Ahhh” Scalvo winced as he pulled his blood-stained shirt over his head to reveal the knife wounds on his back.

Ericka wasted zero time spraying rubbing alcohol on his open wound and patting it with paper towels, making him loudly cuss.

“Shut up- you’re going to wake the kids” She was noticeably angry although fighting the tears in her eyes.

“You could’ve fucking warned me!” Scalvo knew he didn’t have any leverage here as his sister looked over his wounds. “Do I need stitches?”

“Not this time” she sighed, blowing air out of her nose as she started to put antibiotic ointment on him.

“Are your hands clean? I don’t want to get a disease or something” he wanted to make her laugh and knew how to push her buttons even when he shouldn’t. It was true to his “younger sibling” nature to be the sole reason she had a throbbing headache.

“Shut the fuck up” Ericka's voice was shaking as she put gauze and bandaids on him, making him face her when she was finally done.

Scalvo avoided her eyes, knowing she was going to give him the lecture he had heard so many times before that was in one ear and out the other.

“Look. At. Me.” She held him by the chin, forcing him to meet her expression even when she was significantly shorter than him.

“When are you going to grow up Paul?”

Scalvo winced at his government name, “That’s dad’s name, not mine.”

Ever since Scalvo lost his father as a child he never went by his first name and Ericka was the only one allowed to call him that without receiving a fiery reaction.

Before more conversation could go on, Ericka’s husband was standing in the doorway, a look of clear frustration on his face as he laid eyes on his brother-in-law.

“What is he doing here Ericka?” His tone was low but disappointed as he shot Scalvo a look that could kill a much lesser man.

“He’s my brother Tony. He’s the only family I have” Ericka was holding bloodied napkins in her hand and Tony immediately noticed.

“Am I not your family? The kids?” His thick New Jersey accent always annoyed Scalvo as he waited for the routine temper tantrum to be over.

“Chill out Anthony. I was just leaving” Scalvo turned to walk away but Ericka stood in front of him to stop him.

“You’re not going anywhere. You can sleep on the couch tonight.” Ericka’s eyes pleaded for him to stay. She didn’t care what her husband thought and would deal with the argument later.

“You have to be gone before the kids get up” Tony warned as Scalvo pushed right past him and into the house giving him a sarcastic thumbs up.

“Do you have anything I can eat?” Scalvo rubbed his stomach, realizing he hadn’t ate a real meal in a few days now.

“We have some leftover ribs in there” Ericka pointed to the fridge as she went over to the living room and turned the light on. Tony stood in the way of the fridge door.

“Excuse me. I’m very hungry and my sister said I could eat the ribs in the fridge sooooo….” he smirked knowing he was already pushing it by being in the house.

Tony rolled his eyes frustrated knowing he wouldn’t have any lunch for tomorrow and moved out of the way. He knew although Scalvo was a royal fuck up, he also knew that he was Ericka’s favorite person whether he’d admit it out loud or not. He quietly made his way to the bedroom finding an old pair of plaid pajama pants he didn’t wear anymore and gave them to Scalvo without uttering a word.

“Thanks” Scalvo mumbled wearing bbq sauce all over his lips and fingers.

Ericka set blankets down on the couch to protect it from any blood that Scalvo might leave behind, and put another blanket off to the side for him as Tony went back to the bedroom alone.

“I can leave. I’ll just finish eating and I can walk back to my place.” Scalvo whispered as he watched Tony walk away. He knew he caused issues between them and that’s why he rarely came around in the first place.

“He’ll get over it” She scrunched her nose ruffling his hair like he was a little kid, to her he always would be. She practically raised him and she looked at him as her first baby, although she had never said it to him he knew that very well. “You can eat anything in the fridge or pantry. Just be quiet. The kids have their school pictures tomorrow.”

Scalvo nodded his eyes softening at the gesture, “thank you.”

“Goodnight” Ericka smiled before turning to walk down the hallway.

••••

The next morning was chaotic, Scalvo was still sleeping shirtless on the couch when his niece and nephew started to get ready for the day.

Ericka never knew if he would be there when she woke up and was happy to see he stayed.

Tony, on the other hand, scoffed as Scalvo loudly snored, he grabbed his scrubs from the laundry room and rushed out the door before he started another fight with Ericka about it.

Scalvo heard the commotion of the house and knew he had to get up, he sat up frantically looking for his shirt when his niece realized his presence.

“Uncle? Is that you?” She ran into the living room, filling it with giggles as he covered himself with a blanket.

“Is that my Bella?” He bent down to pick her up, hugging her with the blanket between them. “Hi baby, how are you doing?” He smiled as she eyed him up and down, sitting on his lap.

“Got ouchies?” She pointed to the scratches he had on his arms, and he was counting his blessings that she couldn’t see his back right now.

“What happened?”

Ericka handed Scalvo a clean shirt to put on as he placed Bella back down and stood up to put the shirt on.

His niece's eyes were still on him, waiting for an answer.

“I was at work and I had to clean out the bird cages! The birds were hungry and wouldn’t leave me alone!” He lied but the story made her giggle nonetheless.

“The birds scratched you?” Her eyes were wide with disbelief. Bella was told her uncle was a zookeeper, a lie her dad told often knowing Scalvo had to jump through hoops to make it believable.

“I didn’t feed them fast enough!” Scalvo threw his hands up dramatically. “Birds are very unpredictable!”

Bella’s giggles followed Scalvo as he walked into the kitchen, sitting beside him at the counter, twisting and turning in the bar stool.

“Isabella?” Scalvo smirked knowing she hated her name, just as he hated his own.

“Yes?” She made herself small in her chair.

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for school?”

“Yes, she is! Come here now!” Ericka yelled from the bathroom as Bella hopped off the chair and ran to her mom.

Scalvo chuckled as his nephew quickly took her spot beside him.

“Hey Unc!” Elijah was doused in cologne and wearing an obvious fake chain around his neck. He was only nine years old but wished he was much older.

“Hey, kid!” Scalvo coughed, his eyes burning from the cheap cologne. He quickly stood up to make coffee, distracting himself from the fact that he struggled to breathe.

“You’re going to kill your uncle” Ericka shooed Elijah away to get his backpack as she and Bella came into the kitchen.

“Looky Uncle” Bella twirled in the kitchen showing off her floral dress and white dress shoes.

“You look beautiful” Scalvo wheezed and Ericka immediately pulled open the drawer to her “junk drawer” handing him his inhaler he left there months ago.

“I wondered where this went” he laughed nervously before shaking and using his inhaler.

“Want to go with me to take the kids? I’ll roll the windows down so Elijah doesn’t send you into cardiac arrest” Ericka laughed as both of the kids looked to Scalvo with hope in their eyes.

Scalvo agreed and the four of them were off, Elijah’s cologne had subsided a little and the two kids talked Scalvos ear off until they both got to their respective schools.

When they had dropped them off, Scalvo assumed Ericka was going to drop him off at home but when she missed the turn he looked over at her inquisitively.

“Ericka? Where are we going?”

“You don’t want to spend the day with your sister?” She pouted, knowing if she made him feel bad enough he’d oblige.

“I haven’t even brushed my teeth today.” He threw his head back into the seat.

“Yeah, I can smell that” Ericka made a face before over dramatically gagging. “I’m just going to pick up some breakfast burritos and then we can go back to the house and watch TV or something.”

“What about Tony the grouch?” Scalvo eyed her as they turned into their local doughnut shop for breakfast burritos.

“He’ll be at work all day and plus you’re my brother. I don’t need permission to have you in my house.” Ericka shrugged before pulling up to the window to order.

Scalvo knew Ericka was likely going to lecture him about his lifestyle and he didn’t want it to be in the back of his mind all day so when they got back to the house he broke the ice.

“Can I talk to you about something?” Scalvo was serious, something he rarely was with her so Ericka stopped in her tracks.

“I promise I’m going to get my shit together okay? I know you worry so I’m just telling you now.” He avoided her eye contact pretending to inspect his burrito before taking another bite of it.

“What do you mean? What do you mean by that?” Ericka was frantic, never knowing what he was alluding to. She wasn’t dumb, she knew Scalvo was mixed up in all kinds of bad business. That’s a big reason why he was never around much, he didn’t want her or the kids or even Tony to get involved in his dealings.

“I have one last job tonight” he swallowed hard, he knew she’d be disappointed in him as the words fell right out of his mouth. He put salsa on his burrito and took another bite, hoping to give him more time before having to say anything else.

“Paul!” Her voice trembled, not believing him for even a second even though she wanted to.

His ears got hot, his neck was noticeably red with frustration. “I promise this time, it’s one job. Then I’ll be done. I’ll make enough money off of this to be fine, probably forever.”

Ericka knew better than to ask questions, she wanted no part in having to testify. She nodded, although she felt uneasy about it. “You mean it? You’ll stop?” Ericka couldn’t eat anymore, her anxiety was too high as she pushed the rest of her burrito toward her brother.

Scalvo was annoyed at the question, trying to keep his attitude at bay for the sake of their day together.

“I said I would. I’ll be done.”

“I just love you. You’re my baby brother and I hate having to live in fear that something might-“Her voice cracked and admittedly Scalvo hated to see her cry walking over to comfort her instinctively.

“Fuck” he wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into his chest and cried. “I know Ericka, I know. That’s why I’m done. I want to be able to watch the kids grow up and I want Tony to stop hating my guts. I want to be able to come over here more and I want my life to just be better.”

“Tony doesn’t hate you” she sniffled as she looked up at her brother. “He thinks you’re annoying but he doesn’t hate you.”

Scalvo snorted at that, and the two of them spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching the Simpsons together before the kids and Tony came home and Scalvo had to leave.

“Are you sure about this?” Ericka was always nervous when she knew Scalvo was leaving for “work” but tonight felt oddly different for some reason.

“One more job” Scalvo mouthed back as he stood on her porch, in the same place he was standing the night before.

Bella and Elijah stood behind their mom as they waved to their uncle. Tony was too busy making dinner to notice he was leaving.

“I love you Scalvo.” Ericka always made sure he heard that before leaving even though he rarely said it back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow” he smiled and his eyes twinkled against the street light that had just come on.

“I love you too sis.”

••••

Later that night Tony and Ericka were watching the nightly news in the living room as usual when her phone rang, an unfamiliar number displayed on her screen.

“Hello?”

“Hello? This is Boston P.D. May I speak with Ericka Scalvo-Pesce?”

“Is my brother okay? Is my brother alive?” Ericka felt all of the blood rush to her head as she looked up at the Boston local news station and realized what was going on downtown could very well involve Scalvo.

“Is Paul Scalvo III your brother miss?”

“Yes!”

The operator on the other line confirmed her worst nightmare: “I’m sorry ma’am, your brother is deceased.”

The sounds of Ericka screaming and hitting the wooden floor underneath her could’ve woken up the whole block.

The shriek of pain coming from Ericka was a sound and memory Tony, Bella, and Elijah would never forget.

#damn #that shit hurted

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moody4world · 1 year ago

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U-Turn

Gif by @harlowgifs 💕

Synopsis: It's been six months since Scalvo broke up with you, and you’re doing your best to function without him. But when your safety is compromised, he is forced to step back into your life, and hopefully, this time, it will be for good

Pairing: ex-boyfriend!Scalvo x ex-girlfriend!reader

Read Part 1 first

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

It was close to four in the morning and you hadn't been to sleep yet. The thoughts in your mind were racing a mile and minute and it didn't seem as if they were stopping any time soon. You scrolled through the gallery on your phone that contained pictures of you and Scalvo. You knew at this point that you should have deleted them, but you just couldn't bring yourself to do it.

You fucking missed him.

It had been a few months since he had broken up with you and you were still obviously hurting. You tried to call him the next day after you confronted him about what he had done all to find out that the number wasn't in service anymore. You found yourself not going into the bakery anymore, but just casually visiting different shops along the same street hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but it was as if he had disappeared off the face of the earth. Besides, it was clear that Mr. Besegai wasn't a fan of you.

The crying didn't occur as much anymore and you found yourself trying to do anything that could serve as a distraction from the reality of it all. But the bottom line was that you missed him and wanted him back despite what he may have done.

This was supposed to be your week of vacation from your job, but all you had been doing was laying in bed most of the time.

After everything went down and you had found out about what Scalvo and Cobby did, you weren't sure how to feel. Yes, you were upset at him obviously. But, you could understand why he did it. You weren't making excuses for him in any way, shape, or form but you couldn't imagine a life without your parents.

Your father had the safe replaced and moved it to a safer location, a bank in the middle of the city. Scalvo must have said something to Cobby because a few days after you confronted him, the bracelet mysteriously ended up back at your parents house with your mother finding it in the mailbox. Your father had never said this outloud, but deep down you had a feeling that he knew it was Scalvo. But because he wanted to spare your feelings, he probably didn't want to say anything to you about it. He knew that you had taken the break up hard and still was.

Not wanting to lay there any longer, you decided to get up and get ready to go to the gym in the hopes that it wouldn't be as crowded. After you had washed your face and brushed your teeth, you went into your closet to find a sports bra and a pair of workout shorts to match. You decided on a coral pink matching set from fabletics before you grabbed your black hoodie and slipped on your shoes.

As you made your way downstairs to the parking garage with your phone, car keys, and air pods, you felt uneasy. You couldn't exactly pinpoint why you felt that way, but you turned around to see that there was no one behind you so you shrugged it off.

Unlocking your car, you went to grab the driver's door handle when someone had come up behind you and put a hand over your mouth. Your first reaction was to begin screaming, but that instantly came to a stop when you heard a voice.

“Shh! Don't scream. I'm not going to hurt you.” You turned around to come face to face with Cobby and you instantly rolled your eyes.

“What could you possibly want?” You asked him as you crossed your arms over your chest.

“Okay, I deserve that. I get it. But sorry about that entire thing with your dad. Scalvo was like you're never going to forgive him, but I was like "but at least you didn't kill her dad so that has to count for something, right? I think I took your break up the hardest out of anyone.”

“Cobby, you talk way too much because you should have gotten to the point already. Why are you here?” You asked him as you slipped your air pod case in your front pocket.

“Oh, right! Totally forgot. You know Scalvo tells me the same thing that I talk too much, but…”

“COBBY!”

“Sorry. Scalvo sent me.”

“Why? We aren't together anymore and we haven't talked in literal months.”

“I know and I feel terrible about that. He was actually nicer when he was dating you believe it or not. He only threatened to shoot me a few times and it would usually be a lot more.”

“Cobby, PLEASE GET TO THE POINT.” You tried not to yell at him, but it came out anyway.

“Hey, no yelling. I'm sensitive. Oh, I remember now. Someone is after you so Scalvo sent me to come and get you.”

“After me for what? And why should I believe you?” You questioned him, because at this point you didn't know what to believe.

“Scalvo has pissed a lot of people off lately and they know about you. They wouldn't hesitate to hurt you in order to get to him. And why should you believe me? You are the only person in this universe that Scalvo actually gives a damn about. So if you’ll just come with me, we'll be on our way.” He told you as he was trying to lead you to his motorcycle.

“I am not getting on that death trap and why didn't he come and get me himself if he cares about me so much?”

“Too dangerous.”

“The motorcycle or him coming to get me? And is that a breathalyzer!?”

“Oh yeah to all of that but um, do you mind blowing in it so we can leave?”

“COBBY! ARE YOU SERIOUS?”

“What!? We won't be able to move!”

“How did you even get here in the first place!?”

“I woke up my kid and made him do it.”

“I need to go back to my apartment for a minute.”

“No the fuck you don't. Excuse my French, but they have been watching you for weeks. Blow into this so we can leave.”

“If you're drunk, you are not driving me anywhere.”

“Y/N! Now is not the time! I have to get you to a safe place! Do you want to argue with me or get kidnapped? I see why you two were together, it's like I'm arguing with Scalvo junior.”

“You need to wipe that thing off before I put it anywhere near my mouth.”

“Ha! That's what she said.”

All you did was look at him and roll your eyes before you walked back to your car in order to get some disinfectant wipes to clean it off. Once you did and blew into it, his motorcycle unlocked.

“Perfect! Here, hop on and put this on.” He told you as he handed you his helmet.

“Do you honestly think my hair will fit in here?” You asked and he just stared at you.

“Look, if I bring you to Scalvo with even a SCRATCH on you, he will have my fucking ass. Just put it on.”

“Fine.” You muttered as you slipped it on over your thick and fluffy curly hair.

The two of you set off into the streets of Boston in the early hours as the world around you was still sleeping.

You didn't know how to feel about seeing Scalvo again. Obviously you missed him, but did he miss you? Well, the answer had to be yes seeing that he felt as if your life was in danger and he was going to do anything in his power to protect you. That's how he was when the two of you were together so you figured that nothing had changed.

Out of nowhere, Cobby had slowed down and pulled into a Dunkin Donuts parking lot and you looked at him confused once he got off the bike.

“Uh? Is the secret hideout a Dunkin Donuts? Why are we here?”

“We're here because I'm hungry. You want anything?

“No. Should we really be making stops? This seems a little too out in the open.”

“It's fine. I'll be two minutes.”

You nodded your head to Cobby as he disappeared inside of the store. In that time, you had taken off the helmet and it was resting in front of you as you played on your phone to keep yourself occupied while waiting for him.

Suddenly you felt the barrel of the gun at the back of your head and knew that whoever was after you to begin with had found you.

“If you scream, I will blow your fucking brains out across this entire parking lot. Get off the motorcycle and follow me. If you try to run, I'll shoot.”

You didn't recognize the voice, but you did as you were told as you held your hands up. Your air pods were still in your pocket as you left your phone on the seat of the motorcycle hoping that Cobby would know that he could track you. If not, Scalvo would know to pick up on it. Now would be the perfect time for Cobby to make an appearance, but he wasn't even looking in your direction.

Fuck.

Once you came face to face with the man, you knew you had seen him before but wasn't quite sure where. He led you to his car and as he was putting you in the back of it, Cobby was leaving the store and immediately ran to the car hoping to get to you in time.

“Fuck! Y/N!”

But it was too late as the car then took off. Cobby memorized the license plate number in the hopes that it would help him to track you down.

But first things first.

He had to tell Scalvo that they had you.

And knew that he wasn't about to hear the end of it.

As Cobby let himself into the warehouse where he and Scalvo were hiding out, he climbed the steps to see Scalvo playing some video game. He heard him approaching and quickly pressed pause, but he already knew that something was wrong because he only heard one set of footsteps. He turned around to see Cobby alone which left him genuinely confused.

Even though you hadn’t seen Scalvo in these six months that had passed, he had seen you. He always made sure to check on you from a distance to make sure that you were okay and that no harm would come to you. He knew that because of what he did to Don, that more than likely it would put you in danger after he had seen him outside of your job. Scalvo made sure that he didn’t notice him, but his eyes never left sight of you. That was when Scalvo knew that you had become a target and was going to make sure that nothing happened to you because of the decisions that he decided to make.

“Sooo…..”

“Where's Y/N? You told me that you had her.” He asked as he looked behind Cobby to see that no one had followed in behind him.

“Um yeah, so about that….” Cobby started to say while scratching the back of his neck.

All Scalvo did was take a deep breath before saying anything.

“Cobby, you have three fucking seconds. Where is my girl?”

“Okay, I picked her up, scared the shit out of her by the way, went to Dunkin Donuts because I was hungry and I left her outside while I ran in and…”

Cobby didn't even get to finish his sentence before Scalvo’s hand was around his neck and had him pinned against the wall. His head hitting it with a thud.

“You fucking left her by herself when I told you to come straight back here?”

“Are you still in therapy? Because this right here doesn't really give me therapy vibes.”

“FUCK! COBBY I GAVE YOU ONE FUCKING JOB! I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE DID IT MYSELF!”

“We can fix this! I have the license plate number and her phone. She had her air pods too and I’m guessing that she still does.”

“Just give it here so I can see if I can track her. You better pray that she's alive when we find her. Otherwise, I will literally shoot you.”

“I had a feeling that you were going to say that.”

“I just want for her to be okay, she needs to be okay. I can’t have her getting hurt because of me and what my job is.”

“Oh, the feelings are coming out again. Hey, you never answered my question, are you still in therapy or not? That has to be one of the best things to happen since you were in a relationship with Y/N. She looks great by the way, dyed her hair again to fire engine red.”

“I know because I saw it last week, but Cobby, please not now. It is taking everything in me not to throw you out of the window and yes, I’m still in therapy because I have to deal with your stupid ass.”

“I knew you had to be! Otherwise, I knew I probably would have been kissing concrete right now. Hey, I got an extra donut for you along with a breakfast sandwich. I was going to get you coffee until I realized that my motorcycle doesn't have a cup holder.”

Scalvo glanced at him as he set everything in front of him as he had his laptop open and was trying to track where you might be. He also unlocked your iphone since he knew the passcode had been his birthday. Thank goodness you hadn’t changed it and seeing that it was still the same also tugged on his heartstrings.

He was making a promise to himself at this very moment.

When he got you back, because it wasn’t a matter of how, but since he knew that it was going to happen, if you were to give him another chance at being in a relationship with you, he didn’t plan on wasting it.

But then again, you really probably wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him at this point because of the situation that you were in.

Only thing he could think about is if you were hurt. If he found out that you were, he wouldn’t hesitate killing the person or people who had brought you harm.

“Not hungry. Only thing I’m focused on is getting my girl back.”

“I love this for you, should we consider this your redemption arc in a way as it relates to her? I see the two of you getting back together, you need her in the worst way. Maybe you wouldn’t be so mad all the time if you got some pussy once in a while.”

“Cobby….”

“Shutting up now, I’ll be over here. Let me know when you find something. But she misses you and misses you bad. You should have seen her face when I told her that you had sent me to get her. So, that could be more motivation for you to find her.”

–

When you had gotten placed in the back of the car by a man you learned whose name was Rob, you were quickly blindfolded so there was no way that you would be able to tell where you were going and was praying that Scalvo came to save you.

All you did was focus on your breathing and trying to stay calm.

Once you felt the car come to a complete stop, the backseat door opened and you were roughly grabbed from the car and began walking inside of what you obviously knew to be a building.

Were you even still in Boston anymore?

The car had been driving for a long time, maybe an hour or two so at this point the answer was probably no.

Once you were placed in a chair and a rope was tied around your waist as well as your wrist and ankles, the blindfold finally came off.

At this point, you knew that screaming probably wouldn’t do you any good in this situation and the best thing for you to do was to remain calm and answer their questions as you saw fit. But that would be easy since you knew absolutely nothing. You hadn’t seen him or had contact with him in over six months and it felt that he honestly disappeared from your life and never existed to begin with.

There were three different men standing in front of you as your eyes had adjusted to the light and the short fat man in the center was the first to speak.

“Hmm, Scalvo sure did get him a pretty one.” He told you as his hand lightly grazed your cheek making you flinch away from him.

Only Scalvo was allowed to do that.

When he didn’t receive an answer from you, he spoke up again.

“Cat got your tongue, or is it too early in the morning?” He asked you as all you did was stare straight ahead at him.

You were scared shitless, but you were for damn sure not about to let them see it. The moment that you did, you knew that they would be able to use it to their advantage.

“I see you don’t want to talk, but maybe if we introduce ourselves and get to know one another a little better it might make you more comfortable? I’m Don, that’s Rob over there who picked you up and brought you to me, and over there is Booch. And there’s no reason for you to tell us your name since we already know who you are, Y/N Lawson. Daughter of James and Scarlet Lawson. Only child. Graduate of University of Maryland College Park with a degree in forensics specializing in forensic nursing from a previous degree that you had gotten at Morgan State University’s nursing program. Who lives in an luxury apartment off of 33rd street with her cat named Mojito, goes to the gym at least five days a week, works at the hospital near the baseball stadium, drives a BMW that was a gift from her parents upon graduation and last but certainly not least, the girlfriend of our beloved Scalvo. The little fucker that had been a constant thorn in my side and my reason for these constant headaches as he and his friends stole my fucking money and also killed one of my guys who works for me. Now, we can do this the easy way, because I’m all about getting and having options or the hard way, the choice is up to you, sweetheart. Now I’ll let you go free and we can pretend like this never happened, as soon as you tell me where your boyfriend is and his dumbass sidekick Cobby. I’m surprised that fucker is still alive. Now be a good girl and tell us where he is.” Don told you as he got into your face, but all you continued to do was stare at him.

No one called you good girl except Scalvo.

“Y/N, I’m being nice right now and it would be best if you would cooperate with me. I gave you options and I’m being patient. However, you must understand that my patience is thin, especially when it comes to things like this.”

All you did once again was stare at him and he nodded silently to himself before you felt his hand give you a hard slap to your face making your head turn abruptly in the other direction. You had the sudden urge to spit and when you did, you saw blood.

It was now stinging and tears pricked your eyes, but you made sure to not let them fall. There was no way in hell that you would ever tell them where Scalvo was and besides you didn’t even know. At this point, kidnapping you was absolutely pointless.

However, you did know that all three of them were in for a rude awakening once Scalvo had found out what they had done and especially Don that had put his hands on you. You delighted in the fact that it was only a matter of time that Scalvo would blow his brains out for messing with his girl.

“Y/N, I tried to be nice and ask you before I had to do that, so I’m going to ask you one more time. Where’s Scalvo?”

“We’ve been broken up for six months and I haven’t talked to him since. I don’t know where he is, but I can assure you once he does find me and finds out that you put your hands on me, you will definitely be burning in hell.” You whispered to him as he was eye level with you before promptly spitting in his face.

“Fucking bitch.” He immediately said as he pulled back wiping at his face where your bloody spit had landed and Rob and Booch looked to Don to ask permission of what to do next.

“Waterboard her. I don’t believe her for a second. She’s obviously protecting him.”

You sighed to yourself as you remembered when you had first met Scalvo when his hair was damp and it almost looked as if he had taken a shower when he came from the storage room in Mr. Besegai’s bakery.

That’s what Richie and Mr. Besegai were doing to him.

Waterboarding.

When all this was said and done, you planned on having a serious talk with Scalvo about all of this and how much he lied to you. However, he was doing his best to shield you from this life so you couldn’t totally blame him for it.

You just prayed that he was able to find you in time.

Now was not the time for you to die.

You didn’t want to die.

Who knew that meeting that cute boy in the bakery would lead to all of this?

By this time, Scalvo had quickly grown frustrated with the fact that tracking the license plate went absolutely nowhere. They were able to trace it back to being a rental and not having a true owner. The other part that frustrated him was that your air pods must have been dead or broken because he wasn't able to trace them either.

Cobby had called Rory who had worked on a few jobs with them to offer some type of help, but Scalvo was simply annoyed by the two old guys who couldn't seem to follow directions. Every time those three went out to do a job, some wild ass shit would happen and Scalvo was surprised that they all were alive when all was said and done.

“What if we ask Mr. Besegai for help?” Rory asked and Scalvo turned and stared at him in disbelief.

“For what? This doesn't make him any money so he definitely doesn't care. Besides, he was the one who had me rob my girlfriend's parents. Don't we remember when all that happened? He threatened to fucking kill her if I didn't do it.”

“Oh, right Cobby told me about that.” He said as he suddenly remembered.

“I'm out of fucking ideas.” Scalvo whispered to himself before his phone rang from an unknown number. He stared at it for a second and then quickly picked it up and put it on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Scalvo! Surprised I haven't heard from you yet. How's everything going?” Scalvo immediately recognized the voice that belonged to Rob.

“Don't fucking play with me. Where's Y/N?”

“Oh, the pretty little thing we picked up yesterday? She's great. For now.” He told him as he was keeping an eye on you. Your head was slouched down and he was for certain that you were asleep, but you in fact were listening to everything that was happening.

“What did you do to her?!”

“Calm down, pretty boy. She's alive. She actually fell asleep not too long ago after she got tired of us waterboarding her.”

It was at that moment that all Scalvo could see was red.

“If she's alive, put her on the phone.”

“As you wish.”

Rob walked over to you and forcefully grabbed you by a handful of your curly hair in order for you to look up and you instantly let out a scream. Hearing it in real time made Scalvo’s heart drop.

“You have a call sweetheart, it's your beloved boyfriend.”

As you heard these words, you wasted no time in yelling his name.

“Scalvo!”

“I'm coming for you princess. I…”

“Okay, that's enough.” Dob said as he snatched the phone back making you sigh in defeat.

“She's a tough one. But anyway, if you want her back you need to rightfully give me back what's mine.”

“I'm not giving you a got damn thing.”

“Hmm, so if I were to put a bullet in her head right now, you wouldn't care? Is that what you’re telling me?” He asked as he cocked his gun next to the phone so that he would be able to hear it.

“If you cause her any more harm, me and you are going to have a conversation and it will include me blowing your brains out. Where the fuck is she?”

“Scalvo, let's be real. I’m not telling you anything. Give me what I want and you can get your girlfriend back. When you're ready to take me up on my offer, you let me know. But you don't have a lot of time. I am giving you forty-eight hours to give me back my money otherwise your girlfriend will get delivered to you in pieces. Have a good day.”

After Rob had hung up the phone, it was silent as Rory and Cobby were looking at one another before they both looked over at Scalvo.

“Okay, what now?” Cobby quietly asked and Scalvo quickly got an idea.

“Cobby, did she have her pink coach wallet with her when you went to get her?”

“Yeah, she was holding it.”

“Shit, why didn't I think of this before?” He said as he quickly typed the password into his phone to unlock it.

“Think of what?” Rory asked and Scalvo quickly shushed him.

“Before we broke up, I put an air tag in her wallet because that's her favorite one and she always has it. It let me know where she was and if she was okay.”

“Stalker much?” Cobby said as he looked at Scalvo who immediately rolled his eyes.

“That's when Mr. Besegai threatened her and I wasn't taking any chances. It's hidden in a part she doesn't use so there was no way she could have known it was there. I couldn't exactly tell her "oh, by the way babe people are threatening you so I'm just going to put this air tag in your wallet to keep you safe. I don't know why I'm explaining myself to either of you, but yeah.”

“Hmm, good point.”

Sure enough, within a matter of seconds, Scalvo was able to see your location and noticed that you were in Portland, Maine.Their dumbasses must have not had removed your wallet from where they currently were.

“Cobby, put in this address.” He told him, and Cobby quickly started to pull up Google on his phone.

“She's at an old warehouse. If we leave now, we probably won't hit a lot of traffic.” He said out loud which made Scalvo and Rory look at him in disbelief.

“Without a plan?” Rory said and surprisingly, Scalvo quickly agreed with him.

“Exactly. Like come on now. When do we ever just go in blindly?” Scalvo asked him and Cobby quickly turned up his nose.

“Oh, so you don't remember….”

“That was different!”

“Sure, sure. Almost got ourselves killed nonetheless.”

“I just need until tonight to plan all of this out. And we can go and get her when they least expect it.” He told both of them.

“Do you need help planning?” Rory asked and Scalvo rolled his eyes.

“Definitely not from you two. Keep your phones on and I'll call you when everything is a go.”

In the back of his mind, all Scalvo could worry about was getting to you in time and not getting himself killed in the process.

It was now midnight and Scalvo called both Cobby and Rory to meet him so that they could go over the plan so everyone was clear on what they had to do. Scalvo had explained the plan at least three times, with both of them interrupting him multiple times, making this seem like an impossible task.

“Okay, just one more time.” Rory told Scalvo as he threw his head back in disbelief.

“What are you not getting!? And wait a minute, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Taking notes.”

Scalvo immediately scoffed.

“Taking notes? On a kidnapping situation? Really?”

“It helps me stay on task.”

“What are you, four?” He asked him as they were sitting in Scalvo's car a block away from the warehouse.

“There's nothing wrong with being prepared!”

“Both of you get out of my car. NOW.” Scalvo told them as he grabbed his gun out of the glove compartment. Earlier in the day, he had made sure that there were enough bullets in there even though all of them would be going in Don's chest or skull. He wanted to make sure he got the job done and was going to make sure that it was done correctly.

By this time, you had fallen asleep, but was startled when you felt someone come up behind you.

You knew that particular smell of cologne anywhere.

“Shh, princess I'm here. But don't make a sound. We have to be quiet because I need to make sure we get out of here in one piece.” He told you as he leaned down and whispered in your ear.

All you did was nod as you felt him cutting the rope that was around your waist, ankles and wrists. Once they were cut, you immediately massaged your wrists and could see that your skin was red from where the rope had been rubbing against it.

He immediately embraced you and kissed the top of your head and you held onto him for dear life as if he was going to disappear at any moment.

“Go to the left and down the backstairs. Cobby is waiting for you there and his dumbass knows not to leave you this time and keep eyes on you.”

“But…” You started to say and Scalvo immediately cut you off.

“I'll meet you outside. I promise.”

All you did was shake your head at him and tears started forming in your eyes because you were not liking this plan at all. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself if he actually got hurt.

“Y/N, you have to trust me. We don't have any time to waste.”

The main reason why he didn't want you in there was because he definitely did not want you seeing him shoot someone, much less killing them.

Reluctantly, you nodded your head and he watched you as you opened the door and went down the steps before going and searching for Don, Rob, and Booch.

As promised, Cobby was at the bottom of the stairwell and quickly ushered you toward Scalvo’s car that was a block away making sure that no one was following the both of you.

“At this point, I'm 0 for 2 and you have every reason in the world to be pissed at me right now.” Cobby told you and you simply shrugged.

Scalvo was definitely right about one thing.

Cobby never knew what to say out of his mouth.

Once the two of you reached Scalvo’s car, you slid in the passenger seat and laid your head against the window as Cobby hopped in the driver's seat and drove closer to the warehouse.

The plan was for Scalvo to kill Don along with his minions and set the place on fire. Cobby was going to cut the gas line as soon as Scalvo and Rory walked out of the building.

The two of you sat there on edge waiting for the doors to swing open. Once they finally did, you let out a sigh of relief as Cobby had gotten out of the car and Scalvo quickly taking his place as Rory slipped in the backseat. Cobby came out within a matter of minutes, as the building started to go up in flames.

Once everyone was settled into the car, Scalvo immediately took off and started driving back towards Boston until he suddenly changed his mind. His plan consisted of all of you laying low for a few days before heading back to Boston.

Just in case.

The biggest satisfaction that the night had brought for Scalvo was that you were alive and in one piece. The second part was that Don was begging on his knees for his life when he had finally caught up to him. All Scalvo did in return as put a bullet in his head for all the harm he brought to you.

As far as he was concerned, people could mess with him however much they wanted to, but you were off limits. Him doing this hopefully sent a message to everyone else including Mr. Besegai that he was not the one to mess with. He glanced over at you as he merged onto the highway to see that your head was leaning up against the window and that your eyes were closed. He watched as your chest slowly rose and fell indicating that you were asleep. This was something that he knew would change your perspective of things for the rest of your life.

By the time that all of you had reached the hotel you were mentally and physically exhausted. Not wanting to draw any attention to yourselves, Scalvo drove another hour and a half to put as much distance as he could between all of you and the crime scene. The hotel wasn't super fancy and not anything that you were used to, but you were just excited to be alive. However, it wasn’t on the cheap side either. Only the best for Scalvo’s girl.

Before coming to get you, being the thoughtful person that he was, Scalvo had gone to your apartment and had gotten a few sets of fresh clothes for you knowing that he wasn't letting you out of his sight any time soon.

Once in the hotel room, you took in your surroundings before sitting down in the chair that was near the desk. You had been quiet ever since Scalvo found you and the one thing he wanted to hear was your voice. You sat there as you stared off into space before Scalvo came to kneel down in front of you and gently take your hands in his.

“Princess….” He quietly said and your eyes finally landed on him.

“I have some clothes for you and I want you to get cleaned up and get some sleep. I'll help you.”

When you didn't bother answering him, he tried again.

“Baby, I know that a lot has happened over the past two days, but I need you to do this for me.”

“So, this is why you were always keeping secrets from me? For this exact reason.” You barely said above a whisper and all Scalvo did was nod.

“We can talk about that later, but yes.”

“No.”

“No?”

“We're going to talk about it now. You know how much I love you and how I told you that I was always worried about you because I knew that something was off. At the very least you could have warned me. You know that I would do absolutely anything for you, no questions asked.”

“I know that now and I should have said something to you, but I didn't want to lose you. You have to understand that. You are literally the best thing that has ever happened to me. I tried to shield you from this life by breaking up with you, but I only made it worse.” Scalvo confessed as he moved a curl out of your face that had fallen. Your face was bloodied and bruised and it hurt his heart to see you like that.

“I cried myself to sleep every night for two months after you left me and disappeared without a fucking trace. You don't do that to people you love.” You yelled at him as tears were threatening to fall down your cheeks.

When you first saw him, you let out a sigh of relief. Now you were mad and were letting him have it.

“Yes you do in order to protect them. I know you're pissed at me and for good reason. But us arguing is not going to get us anywhere. At least not tonight. I want you to sleep.”

“So you can leave when I fall asleep? And disappear again?”

“No. I'm not letting you out of my sight. It's more dangerous for us not to be together than to be in a relationship. But that's obviously only if you want to. I understand if you tell me no.”

All you did was sit there as Scalvo had gone into the bathroom and ran a washcloth under hot water and brought it back to you to start removing the dried blood off your face. At the first touch, you instantly winced from the sting and pulled back away from him.

“That hurts.”

“I know, babe but I have to do this so nothing will get infected.”

Reluctantly you moved back towards him and he continued to dab at your face with you wincing every few minutes. Scalvo was taking in the cuts on your face and how one side was noticeably more swollen than the other. The two of you were silent as he finished cleaning off your face and when he was done, you finally spoke.

“If we're going to do this, you have to promise me something.”

“Anything, baby. Name it.”

“From now on there cannot be any secrets between us. You have to be 100% honest with me about everything. I don't care how small it is. You know how I feel about lying by now.”

Scalvo nodded his head as he leaned down to take off your shoes and socks.

“And one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Do not ever make me worry like that to the point that I thought you were dead again because I will find you and kill you myself.”

Scalvo let out a laugh before he helped you stand up to get into the shower.

“Yes ma'am.”

After you had taken a shower, washed your hair, and styled it, Scalvo had actually remembered to grab your bonnet and he quickly slipped it over your hair. Once you were settled in the king sized bed, Scalvo took a shower himself and you dozed off until you felt the bed dip indicating that he had sat down. He sat there for a few minutes and your concern was growing. You gently put a hand on his shoulder and that was when he decided to put it all out in the open how he was feeling.

“You okay?” You quietly asked and he immediately shook his head no.

“Did something else happen that I don't know about?”

“I literally almost lost you. I almost lost you for good. That was entirely too close. It should have never been that close.”

“But you didn't. You found me and I'm okay.”

“Baby, no you're not. Not a single person that goes through that is okay when it's all said and done. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't get to you in time. All of this happened because of me. You got hurt because of me.”

“Hey, stop. None of that. But you did and I had no doubt that you would.”

“I did. And I thought to myself that my second chance was so close to me that I could reach out and touch it, but it got snatched away from me and I didn't think that this would lead to a happy ending for either of us.” He told you as he turned around to face you.

“But it did. We get a second chance to do it right this time.” You told him as he had laid down next to you and you quickly embraced him as you began to play in his hair.

“I missed this, I missed us.”

“I missed us too and we're going to be okay.” You told him and he leaned forward to capture you in a kiss.

From the moment his lips touched yours, it honestly felt like a wave of electricity flowing through your body. You quickly kissed him back and attempted to straddle him, but he stopped you.

“Not now. I need you to get proper rest first. But, you can have as many free cuddles as you want.” He told you and you simply laid on top of him.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” You whispered against his chest as he held onto you tightly.

“Hmm, I don't recall, but I'm all ears if you want to tell me again.” He told you before he leaned down to kiss your forehead as he smiled at you.

A few months had passed and things were getting back to being normal, well as normal as they could be considering what had happened. For Scalvo’s comfort and peace of mind, you moved out of your apartment and into another one that was a good distance away from where the first one had been and you quickly asked him to move in with you. You had been without him longer than you had liked, so it was a quick decision that was made on your part. Of course he did so without a second thought.

It was a Saturday morning and Scalvo had plans to meet up with Cobby and Rory on a new job that Mr. Besegai had told them about. It was around seven in the morning when you felt Scalvo leave kisses on your face and you quickly popped your left eye open to look at him seeing that he was dressed and wearing too many clothes for your liking.

“Aht! Aht! Baby, where could you possibly be going? It is seven in the morning on a Saturday. Get back over here and lay with me.”

“I got to meet Cobby and Rory. We got another job to do from Mr. Besegai. I have to meet them at the docks. I won’t be long, princess I promise.” He muttered back to you knowing that you didn't approve. You had told him ever since that incident went down a few months ago that you wanted him out of this life. And of course he told you that it wasn't that easy.

“Scalvo….”

“I know, I know. Just a little while longer. I promise. I just need to stack enough for us to be secure and be able to leave Boston for good.”

“And if you get killed before that, what then?” You asked him as you sat up and crossed your arms.

“It's not going to happen. As long as I know that you're alive on this earth and that I have someone to come home to, I will do everything I can to make sure I get to hold you every night. I love you more than anything in this world. You know that.” He told you as he leaned forward to kiss you. Hearing that made tears prick your eyes, but you quickly wiped it away.

“I love you too. Just go before I change my mind and hold you hostage in this bed.”

“Hmm, you can tie me up later and have your way with me if that's what you're getting at.” He told you as he wiggled his eyebrows and you immediately rolled your eyes at him.

“One hour, princess.” He told you as he grabbed his wallet, keys, and gun from the nightstand.

Having the gun in the bedroom with you was a whole nother discussion and you definitely didn't approve of it. But you knew he did it to keep the both of you safe. This was a step up because when you had first moved in, he slept with it under his pillow.

“I'm holding you to that.”

“Go back to sleep and I'll bring breakfast back for you.”

You nodded as he placed the comforter back over you to tuck you in before kissing your forehead once more.

As he locked the apartment and went down the elevator and out to the parking garage, someone was leaning on his car that was parked next to yours. He made sure that he had a good hold on his gun before approaching them.

When he did, he was startled to find out it was your father.

“Mr. Lawson?”

He turned to him as he took a long sip of his coffee.

“We need to talk.”

“I wish I could I just….”

“This won't take long. Less than two minutes and you'll be on your way.”

“Okay, sure.”

“From the moment we met, I knew I had seen you before. So I did my research with a few buddies that I know and found out about you and what exactly you do for Mr. Besegai. Now let me make this perfectly clear because I am only going to say this once. Stay away from my daughter. I don't want her anywhere near someone like you. Besides, what could you possibly offer her? I know what happened a few months ago and that would have never been the case had she not met you. I know that it was you and your little friend Cobby that broke into my house. If you don't, I will easily have the FBI investigate you and put you away for the rest of your life. I don't want to have this conversation again. Have a good day now.”

As soon as he was done talking, he walked to his range rover and slid into the driver's seat and pulled off leaving Scalvo at a loss as to what had just happened.

He couldn't worry about that now, he had a job to do.

However, what scared him the most was knowing that he had to tell you what had just happened.

213 notes · View notes

moody4world · 1 year ago

Text

One Way Street (NSFW)

AN: Go watch The Instigators!!

Synopsis: Meeting Scalvo has put you head over heels when you move back to Boston after graduating. Little did you know, the person that you fell for isn't exactly who you thought he was and that the relationship between the two of you would never be the same again

Pairing: Scalvo x Reader (The Instigators)

Do not engage if underage

Please Do Not Repost My Content Anywhere

Walking along the Boston streets, you were taking in the fresh air on a beautiful autumn day when a bakery came into your view and you couldn’t help but to smile. However, it wasn’t just any bakery, you had come here plenty of times growing up and now that you had finally graduated college and moved back to spend some time with your parents, you had to make this be your first stop after your plane had landed last night.

Walking in, the smell of fresh donuts hit your nose as you looked at the rows of display cases trying to decide what you wanted to get to take home for yourself as well as your parents. Mr. Besegai owned this bakery for as long as you could remember and when you looked up from the display case, you saw him coming out of the storage room with someone hot on his trail. He was tall, had curly hair, and for some reason his hair seemed to be damp, almost if he had just taken a shower which had you slightly confused. He looked to be in some type of rush and bumped into you as he had taken out his phone to glance at it as he was trying to get to the exit.

“Oh, sorry about that.” He simply said while not bothering to look at you. But once he finally made eye contact with you he held your gaze for a second before you snapped out of it and finally responded back to him.

“It’s okay, no worries.”

“Never seen you around here before, you just moved here?” The curly haired man asked you and quickly shaking your head you told him no. Nobody ever intrigued Scalvo, but now that he had set his eyes on you, he was curious about the brown skin girl with the dyed auburn curly hair.

“No, I just moved back. I just graduated from University of Maryland. I grew up here.”

Mr. Besegai was watching the exchange between the two of you as the wheels in his head started turning on how he could get his plan to work as he pretended that he was simply wiping down the counters. What you didn’t know was that because of your father being a big time lawyer, he had spent the last four years in jail and had recently gotten out due to having good behavior because in actuality, he had gotten fifteen. It was all due to a misunderstanding, but your father wasn’t trying to hear it. Your father and him would do business all the time and would constantly be meeting at his bakery. When your father had to bring you along, Mr. Besegai always made a point to give you a free donut. It changed every time since you didn't quite have a favorite flavor.

He wanted to get back at him for what he had done and knew that using Scalvo to get to you was going to be his best bet. If he could get you to trust him, that would make this job ten times easier.

As far as he knew, Scalvo didn’t know who you were and he was going to do his best to keep it that way so that his plan would be able to work. He had found Scalvo wandering the streets of Boston when he was eleven and took him in after his grandmother had passed. As soon as he was old enough, he introduced him to his world of how he was able to make so much money and from that point on it was history. The two of you had never crossed paths before since you would be in boarding school the majority of the time.

Just last week, he had approached Scalvo and told him about his newest plan in order to rob the big time prosecutor for what he had done to him and then Scalvo had told him what he had done to his father which he had never mentioned. Your father apparently had convicted him of a crime that he didn’t commit and was sent to prison to serve out his time. While he was there, he had another run in with another inmate and ended up losing his life. From that point, Scalvo began running away from home with his grandmother and felt that nothing made sense in the world anymore. That’s why he was the way he was now. It was all simply business with him. He didn’t show emotion, let people in, and simply kept everyone at a distance. The only thing on his mind was making money and getting back at Mr. Lawson who stole his father away from him.

They simply had to wait until a big event happened in the city for the plan to be executed. Mr. Besegai had zoned out for a minute, but as he tuned back in to pay attention, he actually saw Scalvo smile which had never been a thing before.

Yeah, this would be the perfect thing to add to the plan.

“I guess I'll be seeing you around then.” Scalvo told you and you couldn't help but smile.

“I guess you will.” You simply answered, but was quickly interrupted by Mr. Besegai.

“Y/N, what donut do you want today for old times sake?”

“Oh, I can…”

“Nonsense. Pick out a donut and a cake to take home. Always good to see your face around. Maybe you can be a good influence on Scalvo here. He needs friends.”

Scalvo’s eyes went wide as he looked at him annoyed while you were focusing on the display of treats in front of you.

“Hmm, I could always use another friend and I'm feeling the maple bacon donut and red velvet cake.”

“Coming right up.”

After he boxed up your cake along with your donut, you were on your way and you made it a necessary task to say goodbye to Scalvo who once again smiled at you. Once you were gone, he quickly interrogated Mr. Besegai.

“Who is she?”

“Oh, Y/N? Beautiful girl who comes from a beautiful family. Known her since she was born practically. She would be a good influence on you because God knows you need it.”

From that first meeting, Scalvo didn’t quite know what it was, but you intrigued him. He felt a weird sensation in his stomach. Were those the butterflies that people always talk about? After getting your number, the two of you had gone on several dates to which Scalvo’s surprise he actually enjoyed so there was no doubt in his mind to ask you to be in a relationship with him. He was actually surprised that you said yes. He would simply be going over the plan to get back at Mr. Lawson during the day and spend time with you at night. It had been about four months since he and Mr. Besegai had been planning and knew that it was only a matter of time now, but the biggest thing he had to do was have patience.

So, they both had to make sure that they did it at the right time in the hopes that nothing would go wrong. Scalvo felt that he had waited long enough and it was finally time to get him back for what he did because at this point, the only thing that he did for Scalvo was ruin his life.

The two of you were currently taking a walk after you had had dinner at a restaurant that you had chosen in the city, and was simply taking in the fresh air before Scalvo dropped you back off at your apartment although it was a little cold outside. Scalvo had laughed when he saw you come outside from your apartment, but as soon as you said that you were still cold, he took his scarf to wrap it around you.

You had noticed that he had been extra quiet over the past few days and made a point to ask him about it. As you two were walking, you simply nudged him with your elbow. Breaking him out of his trance, he turned to look at you.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you so quiet? Is something on your mind? You’ve been really quiet since dinner, well actually these last few days. You know that you can tell me anything.” You asked him as you stopped walking and he quickly followed suit.

“Yeah, but it’s nothing for you to worry your pretty little self about.” He told you as he lightly grabbed your hand and put it up to his lips to kiss the back of it.

“Are you sure? You know that you can always talk to me. I’m a good listener.”

“I know you are, but it’s just not something that I want to focus on right now. I’m here with you enjoying your company and that’s what my focus should be. I’m sorry that I got so distracted.”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

He was far from it, but if he pulled this off it might make it a little better.

What Mr. Besegai didn’t know about the plan was that he did plan on robbing him, but he also wanted to end his life.

An eye for an eye.

He wasn’t about to tell him that and simply kept it to himself. His biggest thing was to not get caught because he knew if he did that he would serve serious time and more than likely would never get out.

Killing a big time lawyer? He would never hear the end of it.

And you would probably want nothing to do with him after that.

Only two things kept him going at this point, getting money and you.

He couldn't lose you, not now.

After he pulled this off, he wanted to be done with this life but didn't know how that would go when he told Mr. Besegai.

He would probably try to kill him because of how much he knew, but he needed to try.

He needed to try for you.

He wanted to be better for you.

He wanted you in his life for the long haul even though he imagined that it probably wouldn’t be very long.

“I’m okay, promise.”

“Then are you actually going to tell me what you do for a living? You take me on these lavish dates, but have yet to tell me.”

Scalvo laughed to himself before he answered your question.

“I make investments in companies and when they take off, I get to see the money that comes from it. I just don't like talking about work when I'm with you. You're my peace from all of that.”

“You must be pretty good at it then.” You told him as you two sat down on a bench in a park that you two had come across on your walk.

The only thing he thought was that he was simply good at it enough so that he didn't get caught.

“I guess I’m alright.” He replied as he shrugged, but you simply smiled at him until he asked you what was up.

“What?”

“You are too modest and never give yourself enough credit. But what are you doing this weekend?” You asked as an idea popped into your head.

“Nothing important. But if it has to do with you, I just might make an exception.” He told you as he pinched your cheek making you laugh.

“My parents have a cabin in Montreal and since I'm not doing anything either, maybe we could go.”

Scalvo smiled at the thought of you wanting to spend the weekend with him but there was a problem. Montreal was in Canada and he needed to get across the border.

With a passport.

Something that he didn't have.

Well he had a few days and could probably come up with an idea to make it happen. Maybe Mr. Besegai knew a guy because he literally always did.

“Okay and after this, I'm planning our next date since you planned the last two.”

“There's a jacuzzi too just so you know.” You said as you smirked.

“We're definitely going to be putting that to good use.”

–

The relaxing weekend was coming to an end as you two decided to go in the jacuzzi one last time before driving back down to Boston. The two of you had planned to leave in a few hours hoping to get back in the early hours of the afternoon. You were currently sitting on his lap while he had his arms around you.

“Thank you for this. I needed it.” He whispered in your ear as a small smile graced your face.

“I could tell. You had been so distracted so my idea was to get you away for a little while. Besides, your focus wasn't on me and I didn't like that very much.” You told him as you turned to look at him.

“Hmm. Well I promise to not let it happen again.” He told you as he leaned down to kiss you and you kissed him back with a sense of urgency and desperation.

Turning around to straddle him, your arms went around his neck as you felt him untie the top of your bathing suit letting it fall to the side and it was quickly forgotten. His hands traveled lower to rest on your hips before one of his hands started to run across your folds through the thin material that happened to be the only thing left covering your body.

Kisses were placed in a trail starting from your neck and kept going as he lifted you a bit higher to place kisses along your breasts before placing one of them in his mouth and sucking lightly leading a moan to escape from your mouth.

“Mmm.” Was all that came out of your mouth as you threw your head back and you soon felt the other half of your bikini fall away from your body as he untied it.

Scalvo simply stood up as he held onto you and stepped out of the jacuzzi and made his way back inside the house to the master bedroom. He gently laid you down and he hovered over top of you as your arms went back around his neck and guided him closer to you so that he could meet his lips with yours.

“I need to hear you say what you want me to do to you.” He whispered against your lips and before you could answer, he lifted two of his fingers to your mouth and you immediately opened it to suck on them. Once he was satisfied with how wet they were, he slowly inserted them into you, making you gasp.

“Baby, you need to use your words. Tell me what you want.”

“I want to feel every inch of you.” You breathed out and you could see that cocky smirk that you loved so much spread across his face.

“We'll get to that, but I need to taste you first. Is my pretty girl okay with that?”

You nodded your head as he moved down on the bed and took a hold on your hips before tightening it so that you wouldn't be able to move. The bruises that would be seen tomorrow would be worth it.

As he came face to face with your core when he got himself comfortable, he kissed up and down both of your inner thighs before you felt his tongue where you wanted him the most.

“Babe…” You breathed out as he continued to pleasure you.

“You like that? You like when I put my tongue in your pussy?”

“Yes, oh fuck. Don't stop.” You told him as you grabbed your nipples in order to play with them and roll them between your fingers. You placed two fingers in your mouth and got them wet enough to rub it across both of them.

Luckily you two were in the mountains with no nearby neighbors and you could yell as loud as you wanted.

Your hands then quickly found their way to his hair that you loved to play in so much as he began to fuck you with his tongue faster.

“Shit, stay right there, stay right there.” You told him with desperation in your voice. But he had a better idea. His fingers had replaced his tongue and his mouth then moved to suck on your swollen clit and you knew it was only a matter of time before you lost it.

And your original thought was right as you squirted back to back all over his face, but he still wasn't letting up as he continued to suck on your clit.

When he finally released his hold on you, you sat up and quickly kissed him and felt him slip his tongue in your mouth so that you could taste yourself which he quickly made a point to comment on.

“You see how good you taste? I want more, but we can save that for later since I do remember you telling me that you wanted to feel every inch of me, correct?”

All you did was nod as you peered down to see him bricked up but he still had his swim trunks on. He followed your gaze and quickly kissed you once more.

“Take it out then.”

Doing what he asked, you slid them down and his dick sprung to life. You quickly spit in your hand before you began to palm him and jerk him off.

“How do you want me, baby?” You asked in a whisper against his lips and he placed his hands around your neck as you continued to jerk him off.

“Why are you asking me silly questions? You know how I want you. So get there.”

Smirking, you leaned forward to kiss him before turning around and positioning yourself on your knees and arching your back with your ass on display for him.

You felt his dick moving up and down the length of your folds before finally sliding in earning moans from the both of you.

Scalvo started out at a slow even pace to make sure you were comfortable before all that could be heard in the room was skin slapping against skin.

“Good girl, you're being such a good girl for me baby. You like when I fuck you like this?” He asked you, but the only thing that could be heard were your moans and whimpers from beneath him.

When you didn't answer him, you felt a soft smack to your ass, making him repeat his question.

“Baby, I asked you if you like when I fuck you like this? Answer me like the good girl I know you are. Otherwise I'm going to stop.”

“Yes!” You were finally able to breathe out and without warning, Scalvo slid out of you and flipped you over before sliding back into you.

Now that the two of you were face to face, your foreheads were touching as he placed your legs on his shoulders. He captured you in a kiss as he continued to pound into you and you could feel the familiar feeling in your stomach building. Obviously Scalvo could tell by the look on your face.

“I'm…” You started to say, but he immediately cut you off.

“I know, baby. Me too.”

Moments later both of you hit your peak at the same time and Scalvo slid out of you and you quickly sat up and took him in your mouth as you felt the sticky liquid hit the back of your throat.

As you milked him dry, he moved his hand down to slowly rub small circles along your clit before removing his hand and licking his fingers.

“Mmm, my baby tastes so fucking good.” He told you before he lifted your face towards him so that he could kiss you.

“I need you to lay down for me.” You told him and he gave you another kiss before he did as he was told.

You simply straddled him as you faced away from him and he immediately knew what it was.

“Wouldn't be right if I didn't reverse cowgirl on you.”

“Get to it, then.”

Both of you went for two more rounds until finally taking showers, changing the sheets and getting comfortable in bed. The two of you were simply talking as your head rested on his chest and he came to a realization.

“You are so easy to talk to. I don't think I've ever told someone this much about myself.” He confessed and you turned to look up at him.

“But one thing you've never talked about is your family.”

“There's nothing to tell.” He told you and you could feel him tense up.

“Baby, you should know by now that you can trust me. Obviously it bothers you, but if you don't want to talk to me about it, maybe a therapist might help? I can tell it's a sensitive topic for you and you’re hurting.” As soon as the words left your mouth, he immediately turned up his nose.

“I don't need a therapist. My mom left when I was two and my father was killed. That's it and that's all.”

“I just want to help.” You told him as you grabbed his hand, but he moved it away from you.

“Y/N, I get it. But I'm done talking about this.”

“But baby…”

“I said I was done.” He told you and the tone of his voice somewhat scared you, making you jump as you sat up to look at him.

He immediately had a guilty look on his face.

“I’m sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. You don't deserve that.” He said as he moved a curl out of your face.

“I just want for you to be okay. You're always so distracted now. I’m just worried.”

“I’ll be fine, I promise.” He told you as he leaned forward to kiss your forehead. At that point he was just happy that you didn't move away from him.

It was quiet for a minute before either of you spoke again.

“I want you to have dinner with my parents next week on Friday. They went on a short trip and they’ll be getting back on Thursday night. I want you to meet them.”

Scalvo’s eyes suddenly went wide and he wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. This was a situation that he had never been in before.

“I… you want me to meet them?” He asked for clarification and you simply nodded.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with you and you’re important to me and one of my favorite people to be around. I think that’s worth sharing with other people.”

“If it’ll make you happy, then I’ll do it.” He told you as he smiled at you and you leaned up to kiss him, he eagerly kissed you back and when the two of you broke apart, you were sitting in a comfortable silence as you laid your head back down on his chest.

Scalvo’s heart was beating a mile a minute as he sat there and thought about the situation that he was currently in.

You were too good for him and way out of his league and he knew it.

Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to stay away from you seeing as it was getting harder and harder by the day.

–

It was the day before Scalvo was due to have dinner with you and your parents and he was on edge and very annoyed.

He was currently with Mr. Besegai and Cobby going over the plans that would take place two days from now on that Saturday night. He thought at first that he was going to do this job by himself seeing as he’s done many by himself before, but to his surprise, Cobby was brought on at the last minute. He was a drunk who talked too much and he was the last person that he wanted to be around. After arguing with Mr. Besegai about his decision for ten minutes, he had finally given up.

His thoughts quickly went to you and he wondered if you were having a good day seeing as he hadn’t really had any time to call and check up on you. Not that you would mind though since you had it in your mind that he was this big time investor that was busy a lot of the time. He knew that you wouldn’t question if he had been M.I.A. for the majority of the day. As he thought of you, his phone quickly vibrated and he looked down to see a text message from you and he instantly got a smile on his face.

You- Hi, handsome! Just checking on you. I hope you’re having a good day. Call me when you can.

Cobby noticed Scalvo smiling at his phone and raised an eyebrow before addressing it.

“Scalvo! Pay attention! What the fuck has you smiling at your phone like that?”

“Your mom’s nudes, now mind your own fucking business and leave me the hell alone.”

“Outta pocket and unnecessary.”

“You being here is unnecessary because I don’t fucking need you in order to pull this off.”

“Will you two knock it off for Christ’s sake?! Scalvo, Cobby is here because he offered to help and quite frankly, you could probably use it in this situation.” Mr. Besegai said and Scalvo immediately rolled his eyes.

“Now what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!”

“Don’t start with me. Now we need to go over this one more time to make sure we have it right.”

The entire reason that he decided to bring Cobby on was not because he didn’t have any confidence in Scalvo being able to pull it off, it was because when Scalvo found out the connection between you and Mr. Lawson there was a possibility that he could be hesitant going through with the plan entirely and he couldn’t risk that. He knew that the two of you had grown close seeing as you spent a few days out of the week with each other. He figured that he should probably tell him about the connection, but the last thing he wanted to do was cloud his judgment. He needed him to be focused in order to be able to pull this off.

He knew for a fact that Scalvo would never do anything to hurt you or put you in harm’s way.

As they were going over the plan once more, Scalvo was only half listening since he had this damn plan memorized since day one and simply sent you a text back.

Scalvo- Been busy all day and definitely missing you. Can’t wait for dinner tomorrow night and I’ll call you once I’m finished.

“All I know is Scalvo better not fuck this up since he’s over there not listening.” Cobby said and all Scalvo did was look in his direction before responding.

“You have one more motherfucking time to say some shit to me before I put a bullet in your head.” He told him as he pulled out his gun and aimed it at him.

“Let’s fucking go, then!”

“HEY! NO! NONE OF THAT! Not before this job is done then I could care less what the two of you do. I can’t believe at one point in time you two used to be friends.”

“Yeah me either. His ass needs a fucking therapist.” Cobby said and Scalvo had just put his gun back, but still had his hand on it.

“Are we done here? I got shit to do. And for your information I have a therapist because my girlfriend made me get one. Not that it's any of your business, asshole.”

When the two of you had finally gotten back to Boston, Scalvo actually looked into getting a therapist and found one that he actually liked. You were so excited when he told you about it.

“Well it's obviously not working. And since when do you have a girlfriend?!”

“It’s only my first week, so I’ll still bust a cap in your drunk ass. And once again, my business and not yours.”

Mr. Besegai simply waved Scalvo off and he made his way to the door to go down the steps before turning back to Cobby.

“I brought you on not because I didn’t think that he could do it, but because his judgment is going to be clouded once he figures everything out and we can’t have that.”

“How so?”

“The man we’re about to rob? Scalvo’s dating his daughter and he has no idea. Once he finds out he might not go through with it. If that happens, I need you to be able to finish the job for me.”

“Fuck and I’m not supposed to tell him anything?! This could turn into a fucking disaster.”

“He’ll find out soon enough. Until then, just let him be. This is just as Important to him as it is to me.”

As promised, as soon as Scalvo made his way to his car he called you and you picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“My princess hasn't heard from me all day and I missed her.” He confessed as he weaved through Boston traffic.

“She misses you two and also wants you to do something for her.”

“Name it and it'll be done.”

“Pick me up from work since my car was acting stupid earlier? My dad sent a tow truck over and he offered me a ride, but I said I would wait for my handsome boyfriend to come and get me.”

“Say less. I'll be right there.”

Scalvo quickly made an illegal u-turn as he started heading in the direction towards your job. Once he pulled up and saw you, he was all smiles and opened the door for you to get in.

First thing he did as you got into the car was kiss you and you made sure that you gave him several kisses back.

“Mm, I missed tasting those lips so much.” He told you and all you did was laugh.

“Surprised that you didn't say that you missed my other pair of lips.”

“Oh, I missed those too and I can't wait for us to be able to catch up later.”

As both of you moved through rush hour traffic, you told Scalvo that you were hungry and he mentioned that he had stuffed a menu from a new place that had just opened up in the glove compartment that had good reviews. Once you opened it, you were surprised to see a 9mm handgun staring back at you and gulped.

“Scalvo…”

“What's wrong, babe?”

You never called him Scalvo unless you were being serious, so he knew that something was probably wrong.

“Why do you have a gun in your glove compartment?” You asked and his eyes went wide as he looked over and saw it. He simply grabbed the menu for you and hastily shut It.

Fuck, he forgot he put it in there. The last thing he wanted to happen was you seeing it.

“You closing it so that I can't see it is not making it go away. Why do you have that?” You asked and he refused to make eye contact with you.

“For protection.”

“Not a good enough answer.”

“Well it's the truth.”

“Protection from who?”

“Baby, don't worry about it. Just look at the menu and tell me what you want to eat.”

“Not until I get an explanation.”

“Being a person who does the job that I do can lead to having a lot of enemies. I need to protect myself at all times.”

“But…. you told me that you invest in small businesses.”

“I do and I dress like this to not draw any attention to myself. If I don't look the part, people might leave me alone. But you can never be too sure.”

“Well I don't like it.”

“Y/N, it doesn't matter if you don't like it. I'm not getting rid of it. I need to be able to protect myself and you if it comes down to it.”

“But why? Why would that even happen?”

“Nothing wrong with being prepared. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you that I could have prevented.”

There was something that he wasn't being honest about and you could tell. Despite him telling you that you were an easy person to talk to, you felt that he still held onto a lot of secrets.

“You know what you want to eat yet?”

“Drop me off at home until you’re ready to be honest with me.” You told him as the forgotten menu was held in your hand, but you weren't looking at it.

“Baby, come on. I want to spend time with you and I told you why I have it. Last thing I want to do is fight with you.”

“If someone was after you, you would tell me, correct? So I could help you?”

“Princess…”

“Answer my question.”

“Yes, now can we move on?”

“For now, but I still don't like it.”

“You'll forget all about it once I eat you out later at your apartment.”

–

There was literally only one day to go until Scalvo and Cobby would be breaking into James Lawson's house and robbing him of everything that he was worth and Scalvo was hoping that it would end with him being able to put him six feet under.

They had done a dry run earlier in the day, even though the ride mostly consisted of them arguing and Scalvo actually leaving Cobby and making him run behind the car for shits and giggles before he eventually stopped to let him back in.

Now he was on his way to dinner with your parents. After telling Scalvo to pick up some dessert from the bakery for dinner, he picked you up from your apartment and then the two of you were on your way to your parents house. As he turned on the street, you pointed at which house it was and he instantly got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

No, this couldn’t be right.

This was the lawyer’s house, James Lawson where he lives with his wife and two dogs

The house he planned on robbing tomorrow night with Cobby.

Since when did he have a daughter? Or any kids for that matter? He didn’t remember reading that anywhere and he always did his research before a job.

“Wait, this one?” He asked once more as he pointed at it before turning to pull into the long driveway.

“Yes, this is it. My dad is a lawyer. You might have heard of him, James Lawson? Apparently he's a really big deal in Boston.” You said while laughing. Everyone knew your dad and it wasn't always for the best reasons.

Scalvo gulped as he nodded his head and began to park next to who he assumed was your father’s range rover.

Fuck, this can’t be happening, this CANNOT be happening

“Oh, I didn’t know that he was your dad.”

“Yeah, but to keep me protected he didn’t really talk about me and my mom very much so not a lot of people know. I even use my mom’s last name in order to not draw any attention to myself. A lot of people don't like my dad.”

As you undid your seatbelt, you looked over to see him looking nervous.

“Babe? Everything okay? You look pale. Well, more pale than usual. You feel alright?” You asked him as you felt his forehead.

“Um, I’m fine.”

“Hey, don’t be nervous. They’re going to love you. I already told them so much about you.” You told him as you grabbed a hold of his face and turned it towards you.

Oh shit

“I just… I’ve never done this before with anyone. You’re the first girl that I’ve ever taken this much interest in and I just want to do this right.” He told you being completely honest.

“You’re freaking yourself out over nothing, I promise it’ll be fine.” You told him as you leaned in to kiss him.

“Then later it’ll be just us once we go back to my apartment. But maybe I can give you a preview once we leave here.” Whispering in his ear and giving his bicep a small squeeze, you smiled at him and he returned it, but you could tell that it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

After you had gotten out of the car, Scalvo quickly followed you while grabbing the cake from the backseat and walked side by side as you both made your way to the front door. You simply put your key into the door and unlocked it.

As the two of you stepped inside, you called out to see where your parents were as you led him into the kitchen in order to put the cake on the table.

“In here!” You heard your mom say from the living room and you grabbed Scalvo's hand that had gotten noticeably sweatier in the last three minutes.

When your parents came into view, you immediately hugged them before stepping back to introduce them to Scalvo and you could tell that they were intrigued by him.

This was the first person you had bought home since your prom date so you knew that they were probably excited.

“Mom, dad. This is my boyfriend Scalvo who I can't stop talking about.” You told them and felt him in some way relax as he was holding your hand.

“It's nice to meet you Mr. And Mrs. Lawson.” He told them and they smiled at him and quickly embraced him.

“It's so good to finally meet you!” Your mom told him, but your dad was looking at him curiously.

“Hmm, are you sure that we haven't met before?” He asked Scalvo who immediately shook his head no even though that was a lie.

They had met plenty of times and the first one was at his dad's trial believe it or not.

“You just look so familiar, but anyway I'm happy to meet you. All she does is talk about you.”

“Okay! Enough of throwing me under the bus!” You exclaimed, earning a laugh from everyone in the room.

“Hey, you started it.” Your dad said as he held up his arms in defense.

“Come on, dinner should be ready. We can go sit in the dining room.” Your mom announced and that was when Scalvo mentioned the cake.

“Oh, and I brought a cake for dessert.”

“Perfect! We didn't have time to make one so that worked out.”

Once all of you got settled around the dining room table, plates were piled high with food and conversation between Scalvo and your parents came easy. You could tell that he had finally relaxed or he was putting on a really good front at the moment. Your thoughts were then interrupted by your dad asking him what he did for a living.

“Oh, I’m a businessman you could say. I invest in small business and then I make a profit from it.”

“Really? What company is your latest investment in?”

“Mr. Besegai’s bakery not too far from here.”

Well that wasn’t entirely a lie.

“Ah, Mr. Besegai, great man. Known him for a long time. Used to always go to his bakery every weekend that Y/N was home from boarding school to get treats.”

So, that’s why Scalvo had never seen you before.

“Yeah, he is.”

“I hear that’s where the two of you met.” Your mom added and both of you smiled at each other.

“He almost knocked me over, but yes.” You had told your mother as you sipped on your wine.

“I was looking down and didn’t notice you! You aren’t exactly tall.”

“HEY!”

Scalvo held his hands up in defense as you gave him the evil eye, but that eventually went away as you began laughing.

Before the cake was cut for dessert, Scalvo excused himself to the bathroom in order to text Mr. Besegai.

Scalvo- Are you FUCKING serious?

Old man who gets on my nerves- What now?

Scalvo- Why didn’t you tell me who her parents were? You knew. You fucking knew this entire time.

Old man who gets on my nerves- I planned it perfectly. I wanted you to get closer to her to make our job easier.

Scalvo- How do you expect me to still be able to do it!?

Old man who gets on my nerves- I don’t care how it gets done, but you better fucking do it. Otherwise I will have your head on a silver platter and you know I’m good for my word. Get it done so I don’t have to hurt you or your little girlfriend.

Scalvo- If you touch one hair on her head, I will empty my clip into your fucking chest

Old man who gets on my nerves- Don’t fucking forget who saved you from being homeless on the street. I took you in when I could have let you starve. Do as you're told and she doesn’t get hurt.

The next day, Scalvo had told you that he would more than likely be busy and to keep you distracted from what would be going down at your parents house later, he sent you to an expensive spa for the weekend and would pick you up on Monday morning. He was currently in his car with Cobby sitting outside of your parents house, except they were down the street so that they wouldn’t be seen.

Cobby felt like he was distracted and didn’t want to say anything about it, however he needed for him to focus so that the two of them would be able to pull this off.

“Uh, you alright over there?” He asked him and Scalvo turned to him and rolled his eyes.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?”

“That we’re robbing my girlfriend’s parents.”

“I.. uh.. Look, he told me not to tell you because he didn’t want your judgment to be clouded.”

“Well now what the fuck am I supposed to do? He threatened to hurt her, but me doing this is probably going to hurt her more.”

“Hmm, I see therapy is really working. You’re really opening up to me.”

“Cobby, I will still kill you, let's get that straight. You still don’t know what to say out of your fucking mouth after all these years.”

“Tell me who your therapist is, I need to go and see them.”

“COBBY WILL YOU FUCKING FOCUS?”

“Okay, fine, fine. Let’s just get this done, because if you don’t go through with this, he’ll either kill you or kill her.”

“I added on another part of the plan that I didn’t tell you about.”

“Are you going to share with the class?” He asked after Scalvo was quiet for a few minutes.

“I was going to kill him for what he did to my father, but now I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“Not Scalvo having feelings.”

“I will… look, I think they’re finally sleeping so let’s go over the plan one more time and then it’s go time.”

“Okay, lover boy, let's do this.”

“Don’t call me that.”

The plan was to break into his office and get into his safe while Cobby despite how fucking stupid Scalvo thought he was figured out a way to empty his bank accounts. He still didn’t understand how he figured it out, but he wasn’t asking questions. He just wanted for this to be over with. After the two of you had eaten dessert the day before, Scalvo asked for a tour of the house and he knew that he could use this to his advantage. Even though he had the blueprints and floor plans of the house, seeing it in real time in front of him was a different story.

Your parents knew what he looked like so wearing a mask was a must. He reached for his gun and got it out of the glove compartment, just in case.

Just in case.

After cutting off the electricity to the house and disarming it, Scalvo and Cobby slipped their way inside and moved to the bottom floor where his office was.

Cobby got out tools in order to open the safe as Scalvo stood there ready to load the money into it when he suddenly heard footsteps behind them. They looked at each other in a panic before the office door swung open and they were now face to face with your father who was holding a gun in his hand.

“If the two of you leave quietly, we can forget that this ever happened.”

“Ehh, no can do sir. Our orders come from higher up, so we’ll just take this money and be on our way.” Cobby said and it was as if Scalvo was too out of it to speak.

“I’ll give you one more chance, next time I’m shooting.”

Scalvo didn’t say anything, but instead knocked your father’s gun out of his hand kicking it away from him and held his gun up to his temple as Cobby looked on with wide eyes. Scalvo nodded towards Cobby to finish what he was doing before they were interrupted, but he still stayed quiet. Your parents knew what his voice sounded like and if he opened his mouth that would be the end of it.

Your dad held up his hands in defense as Cobby began stuffing the duffle bag.

“I’m done, let’s go.” He told Scalvo who was still holding the gun up to your father’s head and he didn’t move.

“It’s not worth it, let’s go. We have bigger things to think about.” He said as he tugged on his arm.

Scalvo finally lowered the gun as he sighed, but only told Cobby one word.

“Rope.”

The two of them left your father sitting in the dark tied to his office chair with duct tape on his mouth, but at least he was alive.

The ride back to downtown Boston was silent as Cobby was working on his laptop emptying his bank account.

“If she finds out, she’s never going to forgive me.”

“Ehh, she might. At least you left him alive. That has to count for something, right?”

—

The next few days were a blur after you had called Scalvo frantic and told him about what had happened to your parents. You told him that you were going to stay with them for a few days since your mother was still pretty shaken up about the entire thing. You also couldn’t put your finger on it, but Scalvo was acting weird. You could tell that he was once again hiding something from you and the plan was to get it out of him one way or another.

It was Friday and your lunch break when you decided to go to the sandwich shop that was next to the bakery before heading back to work when you spotted Scalvo talking to someone outside of it when you pulled up in your car. You smiled to yourself before getting out of the car and greeting him.

“Hi babe!” You said as you came up beside him and it was clear that you startled him.

“Oh hey. Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” He asked as he hugged you and kissed the top of your head.

“Lunch break, but I’ll be heading back soon. Who’s your friend?” You asked as you turned to Cobby.

“Cobby, Scalvo’s best friend. Nice to meet you. He doesn’t shut up about you.”

“He uses that term too loosely.” Scalvo muttered and you laughed.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. Scalvo needs to get out more, but he doesn’t think so. But maybe you could help with that.” You answered when Cobby’s wrist caught your eye. It was a gold bracelet and it looked very familiar.

Too familiar.

As in it was your father’s bracelet that he kept in his safe.

The safe that was broken into last week and they still had no leads.

Now it was adding up.

Expensive cars.

Expensive trips.

Expensive jewelry.

He got you anything you wanted without giving it a second thought.

But, him having the gun and always being secretive was everything that you needed to know.

Scalvo wasn’t a businessman at all.

He was a fucking criminal.

Your boyfriend was a criminal and he had just stolen from your parents.

“I’ll see what I can do.” He told you as he smiled. You smiled back before turning to Scalvo.

“Meet me at my apartment later?”

“I’ll be there.”

It was around nine at night when Scalvo finally knocked on your apartment door. You let him in and simply went to pour yourself a glass of wine. You poured him one too and slid it in front of him, but you were still quiet.

“Baby?”

“I’m going to ask you this and please do not lie to me.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Why was your friend Cobby wearing my father’s gold bracelet that he keeps in his safe?”

Oh, fuck.

“Uh…”

“Scalvo, if you lie to me I will literally fucking riot. How did he get it?”

He remained quiet as he was taking this moment in.

There was no way in the world that the two of you would be able to move past this.

“SCALVO, ANSWER ME NOW DAMN IT!”

“We broke into your parents house and took it. But….”

“How could you do that? Why would you do that?”

“Just let me explain. Please.” Scalvo pleaded with you as he grabbed your hand, but you quickly shook your head and got loose from his grasp.

“Explain, what? How you used me? Stole my dad's money? Do I mean absolutely nothing to you? I love you and I feel so stupid for it!”

“I love you too! You mean the world to me, please understand that and no! I didn't even know who you were when we met! It had nothing to do with you! It was Mr. Besegai because he was mad that your father put him in jail. When I finally figured it out, he said if I didn’t go through with it that he was going to hurt you and I couldn’t have that happen.”

“I feel so stupid because you straight up played me like a fool. Hmm, businessman huh? All you do is fucking steal for a living.”

“I never meant to hurt you. Please understand that. But my father died because your father wrongfully convicted him and he died in jail before I could get a chance to prove that he was innocent and has done the same thing to how many other people?”

“I’m sorry about your father and what happened to him wasn’t fair in any way, shape or form, but this is not the way to fix things and you know it.”

“There's a right way? Then tell me so I can bring my dad back. The only one who actually gave a damn about me.”

“The person who is standing in front of you right now also gives a damn about you!”

“You'll never understand. Look where you come from and then look where I come from. We were doomed from the start.” He said as he started to walk away and you quickly stood in front of the exit blocking him in.

“We can fix this.”

“We'll never work and you know it. What I've done is always going to be at the back of your mind. I care about you Y/N, but…. Just take care of yourself.”

“No, you do not get to walk away that easily. You… just wait a minute.”

“I can and I will. This is done. It’s what’s best for the both of us no matter how hard it might be.”

“So, that’s it? You’re just going to leave me?” You asked as you felt the tears build up in the corners of your eyes. Scalvo noticed and it took everything in him not to embrace you right then and there. He took a step forward, but moved right back because he knew that if he did, he wouldn't want to let you go.

“I’m not any good for you. I have absolutely nothing to offer you and let’s be serious. A daughter or a lawyer dating someone who makes money by stealing from important people in power?”

“But I still want you.”

He knew at that point as much as he didn’t want to do it, he had to say something that would hurt you in order for you to stay away from him.

For your own good and for his.

“And you’re living in a fantasy land if you think that this would ever work. Y/N, do me a favor and don’t call me anymore, don’t look for me. This is it. We’re over, and we’re done. This relationship is a one-way street, and it was only going to lead to a dead end.”

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