19|The Heavy Price Of Power
"You look like a punished kid, Vitty. You can come in." Toby smiled brightly.
I was leaning against the doorframe of his room, playing with the hem of my dress with my guilty gaze riveted to the wooden floor. I ambled towards him, settling down on the chair beside his bed.
"How are you feeling now?" I still couldn't look at him in the eye.
"Have you been crying all night, Vittoria?" He questioned.
"How are you feeling now Toby?"
"I'm good. Oliver is just dramatizing the situation." He chuckled.
"I'm sorry Toby, for yesterday. I overreacted. I know my reaction hurt you. Try to understand Toby, this is not something I witness everyday. I was just shocked I guess."
"Come on now Vitty, no need to apologize. That's the standard protocol with friends." He placed a reassuring hand over mine.
"Friends?" I found myself asking with a hint of a smile.
"Yes, friends." He said as a matter of fact. "Oh wait! I'm more than a friend to you. You have a....holy fuck! You have a crush on me don't you?" He feigned the classic miss universe expression flying his hands to his gaping mouth. "Please tell me you have a crush on me."
I laughed at my melodramatic...friend.
"Friend." I repeated absentmindedly. I had long forgotten the meaning of that word. It almost feels foreign as I say it now.
I never had any friends since a long time. I just had one friend or so I thought. I lost faith in the word after what she did to me. I don't even know who all qualify as friends.
Is it someone we spend most of our time with? Or someone who's always there for you? Or someone who always makes to smile and help forget all your worries when you're with them?
In that case, Toby and Liam are my friends. For the first time, I felt good knowing I had friends.
"You took a leave today?" He asked.
"Yep. I wanted revenge against Liam for making me do all the work on my first day. Can you imagine? It was so much and with that I mean soooo much work. Phew! And then what? I got fired."
"I know right!" He laughed. "You know what? Let's team up and scare Liam tonight. He's shit scared of ghosts."
"I'm so in." We high fived. "Although I find it a little hard to believe that a guy who fights with guns is afraid of ghosts."
"You won't believe but he still sleeps with me after watching a horror movie."
"Oh my god stop I can't." I was laughing my ass off imagining it.
"There it is! The Vittoria smile. You look like a soggy bread when you're sad." He made a funny face.
"Eww that's one hell of a comparison. At least I'm better than a bandaged banana." He was wearing a yellow t shirt.
"Bandaged banana sounds fancy."
I rolled my eyes. "What exactly happened yesterday? Did you...did you kill someone?"
"I might have killed Alvaro." He stated like it's no big deal while my eyes popped out of their sockets.
"What does might have killed mean Toby?" I exclaimed.
"Luca's men took him away immediately but I don't know if he made it. I stabbed him in his gut. He was going to shoot Liam."
"What! Is Liam okay? Why is he working instead of resting at home? Ugh! That idiot."
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The Esztar Code | A Mafia Romance Thriller |18+|
Mystery / Thriller• BOOK 1 OF THE ESZTAR SERIES • Reaching upstairs, he hurled me inside his room and closed the door harshly. I stood there shaking with fear. He looked scary. Extremely scary. He tilted his head, forming an evil grin on his face. I couldn't move. I...
