ESSENCE

07

"Hi, Jemma can you have a VIP booth ready for Giano and five guests, please, they should be here within the next fifteen minutes also could you tell him I couldn't make it to the game?"

According to Tiktok "Today drained me", after finalizing my books and heading out to meet Gi at the game I was stopped by a growing crowd half down the street from Nevernight.

A drunk driver sped down the street and hit a little girl off the sidewalk because his car swerved the worst part was, the asshole didn't even stop to check on the girl, he just left her there and continued driving.

And before one of these idiots decide to call an ambulance or carry the child and her mother to the hospital they just stood and recorded the shit like it was nothing. I called Dom and Raph to clear the crowd and I took the girl and her mom to the hospital in my car.

I stayed with the mom until a doctor told her, her kid was fine and just suffered a few scratches on her side that would heal without any scars and that she could finally go in to see her daughter. She hugged me in thanks before heading in.

I paid off their hospital bill and had Dominic call his brother to find the guy involved. Later on Dom, Raph and I paid him a visit and they roughed him up a bit before he called the police and turned himself in with minor injuries like a broken leg, two broken arms, one broken wrist, and two matching black eyes.

When I looked at the time it was already way too late so I hadn't bothered to go to the game again because by the time I'd reach, it'd be over. I went back to Nevernight and I've been in my office sipping wine ever since.

***

Alessio

Today was amazing, well besides the part where my parents practically disowned me in front of my schoolmates but other than that, today was awesome.

I knew Giano was coming but I didn't know we'd be going anywhere but home to celebrate after. When I came off the stage and saw our friends standing beside him waiting on me I was so happy, I couldn't hide the huge grin that made its way onto my face even if I wanted to.

We all left school and went to the mall for a change of clothes because Giano said we were going to the game tonight and what we had on wasn't passable. The guys and I just looked at him in hopes of knowing what game he was talking about and then he pulled out six Laker tickets.

I knew he'd gotten through with a job but I didn't know they paid that well. Maybe he could hook me up since I'm done with college, I decided to ask him about it later since we were too happy to give a care to the world.

The guys rushed around the mall to get their clothes whilst Giano pulled me into a store that sold footwear and male clothing.

He left me to go talk to a sales rep and she handed him a pair of black cargo and a matching jacket and left. Giano turned around and brought the clothes for me and we then went to the shoe section and he simply told me "Pick."

There was this one brand I saw Essence wearing once and I immediately went to that side and chose the exact one she had. It was a black and white shoe with red lines as details and it looked amazing, Giano called the same girl as before and we got them in my size while he chose a pair of white Air Force ones.

When we went to cash there were two pairs of the shoes Giano picked and one of them was in my size. We proceeded to cash and I saw that my outfit was from a company called Black Tailor and my shoes were Air Jordan Retro Ones. The total was around fifteen hundred dollars and Giano just pulled out his card and swiped it like it was child's play.

Reminding me to ask him about the job "Hey, you think your boss would hire me?" I asked and he bit his lip.

"Al, Essence is my boss." He replied and looked at me with sympathy. "I guess considering you're my friend I can tell you but you can't tell anyone else. She doesn't just work at Nevernight as a manager, she owns the place." Wow, it was all I could think of, just, Wow.