love to die for | mattia polibio

o n e

i woke up to the sweet smell of waffles, meaning it was friday. mom always makes waffles on a friday. thank god the weeks almost over. one more day of school and this weekend i get to kick it with my best friend natalia.

i'm beyond excited to see her, it's been three weeks since i moved houses with my mom after my parents divorce. thankfully it wasn't too messy, but it meant i had to move schools and therefore move away from natalia.

~~~~~~~~~~~

the day dragged but i was finally home. my bags were packed and i was ready to head over to nat's. i checked the time as i was leaving, and it was 6.59pm.

i smiled at my mom, 'bye, i'll see you sunday night!'

she returned my smile, 'bye y/n! be careful on your way though. i've been hearing rumours that there might be some crazies around tonight'

i nodded and made sure the door clicked behind me.

i decided i would walk to nat's house, ive never really liked buses and, besides, it was only a 35minute walk.

i jammed my airpods into my ears, my hands into my pockets and began walking.

when i was around 15minutes away from her house, i started hearing noises coming from the street up ahead, the one that i was gonna have to use.

the closer i got, the louder the noise became. it kept growing and growing and i could feel the earth beneath me pulsing.

soon, the mass noise began to branch out into individual voices, each screaming out passionately.

'my emotions are mine to express'

'love should be celebrated'

'the government can't control what isn't theirs'

i froze, remembering what my
mom had warned me about. the protesters genuinely terrified me. they all had a certain look in their eyes, one which i couldn't even describe.

fuck

i decided that the best thing to do was to just keep my head down and move through the crowd, as quickly as possible.

cars had been flipped and wrecked, surrounding store windows shattered and glowing fires dotted around the entire scene.

i was almost in the center of the cluster when the sound of sirens began to flood the street and flashes of blue and red attacked my eyes. the police.

i started increasing my pace and my heart rate followed accordingly.

my desperation to escape was heightened every passing second. there was people everywhere i turned and i was being knocked and bumped from every angle. all of a sudden i felt i had lost control of my breathing.

every part of me was struggling to maintain itself and i suddenly became aware of everything.

my brain felt like it was crashing against my skull with every slight movement. my heart was thumping harder and louder with every pulse and i felt as if the ground beneath me was shaking.

i tried my hardest to ignore everything and continue to the end of the street but everything was blurring together and my legs felt like jelly.

then i heard the first round of gunshots. screams began ricocheting off of every brick wall that surrounded and my heart plunged into my stomach.

just before i lost myself and everything turned black, i felt someone catch me.

the last thing i saw was a pair of big brown eyes and plump pink lips on a beautiful caramel face accompanied by a shock of jet black hair...