"This is the last warning, both of you. I am one more grey hair away from calling your parents."

Tracy and I cast pointed looks at Mr Brown's head full of grey hair. 

"I honestly can't see a trace of blonde in there anymore, can you?" Tracy muttered to me. I shook my head. 

"Does that mean he's calling them now?" I asked. 

"Out. Both of you!" Mr Brown fumed as we both rushed out of the principal's office snickering. 

"Man, how does irritating him always work?" I chuckled as Tracy and I exchanged an almost civil look before realising who the other person was and getting back to our glaring contest. 

We'd both decided to spend our free period by roasting, (trying to roast on Tracy's part), each other in the hallway. Mr Brown had found us on the verge of a cat fight. Apparently, we had all woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. 

You didn't even wake up on a bed, you woke up on the floor, my subconscious snickered. 

Shut up, I grumbled. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man stand up from his place and head to the principal's office. Narrowing my eyes at his back, I tried to remember why he seemed familiar but came up blank.

"Are you even listening to me?"  Someone snapped their fingers in my face. 

This bitch—

"Why would I do that? I don't want to go deaf just yet, you know," I raised an eyebrow at Tracy, who huffed. 

"Didn't we just go through this?" Tracy sighed in frustration. "We need to complete that project for English," she muttered, sounding like she wanted to do anything other than that. The feeling's mutual. 

"Let's go to the library," I nodded to the left, civil for once. 

"The library's that way," she deadpanned, pointing to the right.

"Whatever," I grumbled. 

The free period passed quickly as we worked on our project, sitting far away from the librarian who would banish us for life if she heard the kind of words we were using to catch each others attention. 

"We'll complete the rest tomorrow," Tracy decided for the both of us as she started packing her things up.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You do that, I'm completing my part today."

This halted her movements, she knew she needed my help. She was smart when it came to other subjects but she always lost quite a few marks in English. "I have a life, unlike you."

"A life where you go and dress up your dolls at home?" I asked, innocently. 

"Will you let that go already? We were in 7th grade," she whined. I pretended to think about it and then shook my head with a smirk. 

"I have an appointment...at the salon," she argued. Then she saw just how much I didn't care and sat down with a groan. "Urgh, fine, let's get this fucking project done with."

"Actually, I changed my mind. Let's do this tomorrow," I nodded as I started packing my things up.

"You, little shit!" 

I snickered under my breath.  After a while, when I was still putting my stuff away, (I was used to emptying all the contents of my bag on a table), the hesitant look being sent in my direction was becoming too obvious for me to keep ignoring it. 

"Just say it already," I huffed at the devil's child, before looking up at her. 

She pursed her lips, which just increased my curiosity. What did she want to say that she was thinking so hard about?

A creative insult probably, my subconscious roasted her. 

"I overheard you and your idiot friends talk at lunch the other day, remember?"

"None of my friends are idiots," I raised a challenging eyebrow at her. Insulting me was one thing, no one should even think about going for my friends. 

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes before they were filled with that same seriousness as before. It was almost unsettling to watch. "I know this isn't my place to say anything but...but you all should just leave the matter of Elektra Queen alone."

"Right," I snorted. 

"I'm serious," Tracy said, her eyes pleading. A sliver of concern for my nemesis sneaked in unbidden. Is she okay? "She wasn't a good person."

"What makes you say that?" I asked, cautiously. 

"She killed my brother," she whispered. With that, Teresa Angelis walked away before I could get a word out.

                                    *

Almost a week passed and I'd come to the conclusion that Tracy was avoiding me. The only time she approached me was to give me her part of the English project that she'd completed without my help. Even then, she rushed away without even trying to insult me.

But I just want to make sure that she's okay!

I knew she was attending cheer practice faithfully because of Rhea so I decided to let her be. 

"Whatever is on your mind, either tell me or let it go," Mae announced as she walked next to me with a few bags containing groceries on a Saturday. We were on our way back to my house since Mae was spending the night.

I handed her a guilty smile as I adjusted the bags in my hand. Then I sighed. "What if I told you that Elektra was a bad person?" 

"Then I'd say that I'm not surprised," Mae shrugged. "Her entire family is shady as fuck."

I nodded, letting my mind wander away with new thoughts. Just when I was about to ask Mae if she planned on baking brownies today, a noise, well, several noises stopped Mae and me from walking away from the huge alley next to us. 

Mae turned to me with raised eyebrows. I gestured to the wall and a second later we were both pressed against it, listening to the argument between half a dozen men at least. Some of the voices sounded way too familiar and so I listened with even more intent. 

It seemed that everyone was yelling, so I couldn't really make out anything. Other than the word "twerking" being thrown around a lot, which was as amusing as it was disturbing.

"You're very fucking annoying," one voice spat. 

"Yeah, same to you," another voice, one recognised very well, retorted. 

I looked at Mae with an amused shake of my head as we both headed in the direction of the voices. 

"I'm going to kill you."

"Sure, old man."

When I was sure that the verbal circumstances were nanoseconds away from being physical, I sauntered into the alley.

"Do you really want to fight them?" I smiled in amusement at the people standing with tense postures.

Ethan, Torryn, Matt and Owen immediately turned to stare at me before Torryn finally replied, "Yes."

"Hm, but I wasn't talking to you," I chuckled before nodding at the three men standing opposite to my friends. "I was talking to them."

The one closest to Ethan looked like he would've attacked by now if it weren't for me walking in. His angry scowl had turned into a confused one as he gazed at me, his ginger hair falling into his eyes from how long it'd grown. He looked like he was in his early twenties.

The man standing behind the ginger was older, with black hair and a big built. And finally, the brunet standing next to him, who looked to be at least forty, ran a hand down his face as if exhausted already. All three looked like they belonged in a gang with their tattoo sleeves and tough eyes. And they actually did.

Everyone was silent for a beat before the three men on the other side broke out in large grins.

"Aria?" Neil, the ginger asked.

I grinned back, nodding.

"It really is her," Luis murmured.

"Well, I'll be damned," Alexei, the eldest chuckled before walking over in my dorection.

But someone wasn't having any of it. I glared at Torryn's head as he stood in front of me, his stance protective. "Don't drag her into this, you're angry with us."

"Dude, if it wasn't for her, this alley would've been Fight City already," Neil snorted.

"Are you friends with these idiots?" Luis asked me and I knew he was scowling even though I couldn't see him.

"Yes," I said before leaning towards Torryn and asking, "Are we dating?"

He nodded. I pointed at him as I told the other three, "Oh, and we're dating." I nudged Torryn so he stood next to me. 

"I don't approve," Alexei decided instantly.

"He looks like a bad influence, Aria," Luis added.

I raised an eyebrow at them. "Am I not the worst influence in this town?"

"He's wearing a leather jacket and his fist is bloody," Neil huffed, ignoring my words. 

Immediately, I glanced down at the aforementioned bloody fist. I looked back up at Torryn. What happened?

He shrugged. Later.

I raised a stubborn eyebrow. He sighed, "We got into another fight before we got into this one."

"Busy day, huh?" I joked, but my eyes kept wandering to his hand.

"You're wearing a leather jacket, too," Ethan pointed out, scrunching his nose at Neil as he and the others seemed oblivious to Torryn and my quiet conversation. Ethan, for some reason, never took it well if someone said anything that came close to saying that Torryn and I weren't a good couple. 

Neil fumbled around his words before stomping his foot. "But I'm like her brother!"

We gave him a blank look before I walked over to hug Luis and Alexei. Neil joined in a moment later.

"Enough with the reconciliation. I'm holding your bags too," Mae called out, scowling at everyone as if not one of us were her friends.

"She still not a hugger?" Alexei murmured.

"Nu-uh," I shook my head and walked to Mae and took my bags from her hand.

"Okay, I'm curious. How do y'all know each other?" Matt asked and Torryn nodded rapidly beside him.

"Well, this one time when I was around thirteen, some guys were picking on this one guy and obviously, being the good citizen that I am," for some reason, everyone snorted at this, but I continued on, "I asked those idiots to leave the dude alone because I had called the police."

"Had you?" Ethan asked.

"Well, I was going to as soon as I had turned off the app which played sounds of police sirens. That alone scared them away," I shrugged.

Pussies, my subconscious snickered and I quietly agreed with her.

"Did you know that when someone uses the word 'pussy' for a coward is because it's actually the shortened form of the word pusillanimous, which basically means timid?" I looked around as everyone blinked uncomfortably before remembering what we were talking about. "Anyways, the boy those idiots were picking on turned out to be from their gang," I nodded towards Alexei, Luis and Neil. "They found me and the boy, Deo, a few minutes later. We bumped into each other a few times after that."

"How you always get involved in the craziest of situations is beyond me," Torryn shook his head in an exhausted move. 

Mae laughed at him. "That's not even the craziest story."

"I don't know if I even want to know." Owen said, looking wary.

"Well, I do!" Ethan grinned. "Spill."

"Next time," Alexei decided. He sighed before a soft smile came over his face. "When was the last time we saw you?"

"I think 3 years back," Neil answered. "I was still a newbie then."

"Remember little Aria? She just wanted to start a cult then," Alexei chuckled.

"Oh, I started several online," I admitted. "Then I moved onto bigger and better ideas."

"Like?" Luis asked.

I smiled, "World domination."

Everyone except for Mae, Torryn and of course, me, broke out in nervous chuckles, trying to believe I was joking. Mae and Torryn weren't dumb enough to think that.

"How is Deo?" I asked, referring to the boy I'd helped out. Well, he'd had to be at least five years older to me then, but he had this pure look in his eyes that made it quite hard to believe he was in a gang and older to my then thirteen-year-old self. "That was the last I ever saw of him. I would love to meet him again."

Alexei, Luis and Neil exchanged a look that was equal parts sad and equal parts rage.

"What happened?" I asked with a curious look. 

The were quiet for a while before Alexei finally answered, his eyes losing that warm look they always had. "He-he passed away, Aria."

"What happened to him?" I asked feeling my stomach drop.

I hadn't really known Deo for longer than a few hours but he would always be someone with the kindest of smiles in my opinion. Even when I'd found him on the ground, bleeding rivers of red, he had given me a smile before introducing himself and thanking me. He had also complimented the charm bracelet on my wrist and I had decided that he was a friend.

"The gang life wasn't for him, I guess," Alexei sighed, his eyes still singing a sad, sad song about death. "It happened a year ago; if only I'd separated our gang before."

"Stop blaming yourself," Luis shook his head. 

"Yeah, the only one to blame here is that crazy—"

Alexei inhaled a sharp breath. "That's enough, Neil."

Neil looked like he wanted to argue but kept quiet. 

I walked forward before enveloping Alexei in a hug, trying to convey through the hug, what I couldn't through my words. I knew Deo and him were close.

 "I'm so sorry," I mumbled into his chest finally. 

He gave me a sad smile. "I know."

Luis sighed, "We should get going."

"Yes, yes," Alexei muttered before releasing me. "Now, you be careful, Aria. I hope to see you soon."

"You, too," I smiled before hugging Neil and Luis, who whispered something about taking care of my idiotic friends. I laughed and told him I would. 

"Hey, Neil?" I called out to the last of the three who wasn't in their car yet. He turned around. "Deo's surname, it was Angelis, wasn't it?" 

"Yeah, why?" He frowned, not even realising I hadn't known Deo's surname before.

"Oh, nothing. I always thought his eyes seemed familiar."

"Okay, Aria," Neil gave me an amused shake of his head before walking over to the others. 

"C'mon, I'll drop you two home," Torryn gestured at Mae and then at his car. I nodded. 

                                     *

"How are you feeling?" Torryn asked once Mae exit the car in front of my house. His forest-green eyes soft. 

"Better than you," I snorted. "Look at your hand, Cole."

Torryn narrowed his eyes. 

I sighed in defeat. "I don't know. Kinda sad, I guess. I'll be fine soon though."

Torryn nodded before taking my hand and placing something in it. Chocolate. I smiled at him, feeling better already. 

"To Deo, the kind guy who liked my charm bracelet," I mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate he'd given me. 

"To Deo," he smiled back at me. 

"Come in, we'll do something about your hand," I took his bloody hand. 

Wait, that sounded funny. 

"No, it's fine. I should probably get home and complete that stupid history essay due tomorrow," Torryn scowled.

I leaned over the console and pecked him on the lips. "You'll be fine now." 

"Maybe I should whine more often," he smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't test your luck, Pigeon."

"Okay, sweetheart," he grinned before leaning over and placing a soft kiss on my forehead. 

I really like this boy, my subconscious sighed dreamily. 

So do I, I blushed, so do I.  

Then I noticed Mae and Dad wiggling their eyebrows at me from the front window. I laughed, shaking my head.

Hiyaa!
How are y'all?

I think I liked this chapter! Also, Aria is so cute lmao. She's so worried about Torryn's hand but she isn't even saying it directly (or thinking it directly, for that matter!)

Anyways, lemme know what you think!!

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Ethan: Vote if you love Coller like I do!