Everything Fragile✔

Chapter Twelve - The King & His Instruments

   Theo is a twenty-something year old with a horribly drawn self portrait tattoo on his shoulder that he flaunts at any given opportunity. It was a dare, apparently, on a drunken night with some rich blonde that lives a couple of towns away. Though phones exist, they've never spoken since. It's some pride thing I guess; a joke between two strangers that no one but them would understand. But if I had to guess, she probably never thinks of him as much as he does her. Though, I guess he has no choice in the matter. He was the one left with a bad tattoo after all.

   We finally arrive at the gym after twenty minutes of torture listening to Theo talk his head off about his unimpressive life choices. Half of the things he's said isn't something to be proud of. Like passing out at the end of the tattoo session until miss blonde paid for his bill. Mateo laughed almost painfully at the story as if to ease the awkwardness from the conversation, but he just made it worse. Anyways, I'm free and out of the car. I'm immediately engulfed in the cold evening air. It feels like winter even though December is months away. I quickly follow Mateo and Theo into the building. It's nice and warm inside and for a moment I feel content until Caleb walks out of the wine cellar with a vaguely familiar young man at his heels. Mateo shoots me a look over his shoulder-a look that I can't decipher, but makes me sigh in relief. It's the first time he's acknowledged me since we left his house. I'll admit, when we got into Theo's car, I felt some animosity that I assumed to be direct towards me. I mean, I can understand why. I'm not as innocent as Mateo might've thought I was in the beginning. I'm the reason my mom is gone, so of course he had to have felt some sort of betrayal. Now, the tension that I felt throughout my body during the duration of the car ride starts to recede and I find that I can breathe a bit easier.

   "Caleb!" Theo shouts, his voice echoing against the walls of the gym. "Big man-"

   Caleb holds his hand up to silence the energetic young fellow and immediately diverts his gaze to me. "Quince Delco. I'm surprised to see you here, but glad that you could join us this evening nonetheless."

   "Glad that I could be here."

   "I suppose that your being here couldn't have been more perfectly planned. You remember Derek, don't you?"

   "I sure hope she does." The young man says, stepping forward. He's tall and well dressed with slicked black hair and smooth, glowing skin. For a moment it looks like he's missing his left arm until I realize that he's wearing a brace and a sling. "You did save my life."

   I'm confused at first until a memory from the shooting at Marina's flashes through my mind: a toppled table, a pair of shoes sticking out from behind them, faint breathing, and blood everywhere. I blink, erasing the vision from my mind as quickly as it came. Suddenly, Derek is hugging me with his one good arm and tears are building up in my eyes no matter how hard I try to blink them away. This feeling-I don't know how to describe it: the way it makes my heart feel whole again, the way it paints me in all the brightest colors of the rainbow, the way it chases away the darkest and most ugliest parts of my past. Under Derek's gaze I'm not a killer or anything vile. I'm good; perfect even.

   "I can't believe that you're here right now." I say, practically lost for words.

   "I can't believe that you're here."

   "I'm so serious. I'm just...I'm happy that you're okay." I've never meant something more in my life. After hearing about Mateo's friend-Andrew-passing away I've felt deeply traumatized by death. So much so that the thought of someone else dying (whether I know them or not) horrifies me.

   "Me too." He smiles all big and wide, showing off a set of straight pearly white teeth. "I don't even know how I can make it up to you."

   "Please," I say, waving him off. "You don't have to."

   "I have to."

   "You really don't."

   "We'll, I'm going to anyway. Whatever you need. It's the least I can do."

   I haven't been shown an act of kindness in a long time. I mean sure, Mateo has helped me a lot these past few weeks, but his actions are led by his own secret desires. He needs something from me that I'm pretty sure I can't give him, but we trust each other in some weird non-trusting way. Derek, however, has no other intention behind the kindness of his heart. He's an innocent. Still, I can't stop myself from being weary of him. Afterall, he's with Caleb and there's not much I know about the rich bastard (who isn't really much of a bastard at all) to trust him or really any of the people who associate themselves with him. I guess I'm being unfair though because here I am in this gym with Caleb and his little goons. Anyways, I'm grateful.

   Finally succumbing to his kindness, I smile and say, "Thank you."

   Mateo walks over to give Derek a hug next. "It's so good to see you, man."

   "It's good to see you too."

   "Well then," Caleb says, taking a step forward, capturing everyone's attention, "now that everyone has been reunited, we can get to business downstairs. Quince, you're welcome to join us, but sadly there will be nothing exciting today to witness despite talk of collaborations and whatnot."

   "Actually, tío, we have something we wanted to talk to you about first." Mateo says, glancing at me briefly before giving Caleb his full attention.

   "This isn't about the Lexington boy, is it?"

   "Lexington boy?" Derek asks, curious as ever.

   "Uh, no actually. This is about the Mayor's son: Carter Locke-"

   "-and his friends." I interject a bit too excitedly causing all eyes to turn to me. My cheeks warm at the unwanted attention. "B-but mostly Carter."

   "Well, what seems to be the problem?"

   "He's making trouble for Quince at school. Like bullying her."

   Caleb turns his gaze to me and for a moment I feel embarrassed. I mean I saved his daughter and Derek from that shooter at Marina's. Why can't I handle one simple bully like Carter? Well, that's a bit more complicated to answer than I'd like to admit. Simply, I guess some part deep, deep, deep inside of me has an ounce of feelings left for the prick whether I want to admit it to myself or not. I loved him and I guess I still kind of do in some weird, sick way. When I look at him I feel anger and betrayal and a pinch of pity and understanding. And at times I'd see a glint of pain in his eyes like he regrets it all or maybe it's some feeble attempt on my part to try to make sense of his infidelity and all the other bullshit that I had to endure through these past few months.

   "I see." Caleb says, letting out a long sigh. "Well, I'm good friends with the Mayor so, I'll talk to him and see what we can do about his son's behavior."

   "Thank you."

   "Of course. Anything for you, Quince. Is there anything else that I should know about?"

   I shake my head. "None that I can think of right now."

   "Great. Now that that's handled, let's all head downstairs and get right to business before it gets any later."