Althea

"Thea?, whose jumper is that?" Marcls voice woke me up, I squinted my eyes as I tried to see Marcl, I saw a hurtful look in his eyes, but that quickly went away.

"Oh, I thought it was yours?", I lied, I couldn't bare with myself if I kept on lying to Marcl, he's such a nice guy. Marcl was taken aback, "Mine? Thea! You know I hate the colour black! I never wear black hoodies!" He yelled, and I flinched.

"I don't have time for this in the morning, Marc, please forget this ever happened", I stood up and walked out, "It's Nate's isn't it..." Marcl softly said, I turned around shocked, "Marcl..." I tried to explain, but he painfully smiled, "No, it's fine, just a misunderstanding", he said, "come on! We've got training", he said like it was nothing.

A pain ached in my heart, I hated doing this to Marcl, I really did. I'm putting him in this toxic relationship where I've lost interest, and I'm not committed anymore, I hate myself, I'm crawling back to Nate.

"Morning!" Melanie greeted, as she fed Manny, during these months, he's grown a lot, he's starting to talk more.

I got myself a plate, and I saw that Nate was sitting, so I quickly sat next to him, and Marcl sat next to me as well, Nate smiled at me, and I smiled back, turning to Marcl who was eating my smile dropped as I saw him giving me a side eye, I frowned.

"Well boys, we have yet to show Malcom who he's dealing with, so let's show him who the real men are" Lenny said, and got his gun, shoving it in his waist band, he ran out of the house, but coming back to kiss Manny and Mel goodbye. Marcl got up as well, not looking at me, "Well, I gotta go too" he said and left, my eyes followed him until I couldn't see him anymore.

The guys were going out to threaten Malcom, I don't know how they're going to do it, but they all better come back in one piece. Nate left as well, leaving us girls, plus a baby, to clean up.

~~~

Melanie and I spent hours cleaning, and putting everything in place, for the boys to destroy again, the minute I sat down on the couch, Melanie got a phone call, it sounded urgent. "He what?!" Melanie screamed, I sat up, eyes wide, and face filled with concern, Melanie bit her lip as she looked at me.

I gave her the 'What is it?' Look, and she frowned, ending the call, she got Manny, "We need go meet up with the guys, they're in trouble" she hurriedly said, "W-What about Manny?" I asked, Melanie was too motherly to answer, as she knew this was an emergency, and no one was available to look after him. So we got Manny in the car.

"What happened?" I asked as Melanie started driving, I was in the back seat, with my arm over Manny's seat, incase something happened, Melanie was avoiding my question, she looked at me through the rear mirror, and smiled.

So sighed, as watched Manny smiled and play with my fingers. We drove for a long time, Melanie would occasionally look at me in the mirror and bit her lips, so I chose to ignore her. This got to the point where we entered a very isolated and quiet area, Manny started to cry, and we saw black vans parked in front of this small building.

It was silent, too silent.

Melanie stopped the car a few kilometres away from the building, so we had a safe distance from what was happening. Then all of a sudden, shots were fired, Melanie screamed and ducked down, and I did the same, but making sure I protected Manny as well. I heard banging on the car windows, I didn't want to look up, afraid it was Malcom.

"Thea open the door!" I heard Nate's voice scream, I instantly looked up, and he was bloody, it seemed like he was alone, I climbed over Manny's seat, and unlocked the door for him, he quickly got in, and was exhausted. He was panting like crazy, "Go!, we need to get out of here", Nate screamed at Melanie, Mel drove off going into the direction of home.

I looked at Nate, "Where's everyone else?, and what happened?" I asked, Nate gulped and looked at me, "They're all in the other cars, but Marc.." he trailed off, and gave me those sad, dark eyes.

"Marc what?", I pushed, Nate looked down at Manny, then up at me.

"Marcl's been shot"

Those three words, didn't impact me as much, but it did break my heart, it felt like I had stopped breathing, "W-What?" I stuttered, Nate sighed, "Thea, Marcl got shot while protecting me, I was loading my gun, and didn't see Malcom, so Marcl quickly stepped in", Nate looked down.

"He's still alive, we just need to make it on time, he's loosing a lot of blood", he said, and smiled a little, it was a painful smile. I stared at Nate, blood dripping from his forehead, and cuts on his cheeks, it was like he had been in a war zone. "Our threat became a battle, I shot Malcom once, but it was just a graze", Nate said.

I nodded and stared at the road ahead of us, Melanie doing a great job of staying calm.

It was a lot to take in, these men were risking their lives just to protect me. Now I want to be the one to kill Malcom, whether anyone likes it or not, I'll train every blood sweat and tear, just to get him back for what he's done, I'm not his daughter anymore, I wasn't is daughter he second he stepped out of our lives.

Now I have to be the one to protect my friends and loved ones, Lenny, Nate, Melanie, Marcl, and Manny.

So home we went.

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