RUN

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟛𝟞: 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕤

"What? Can't hear mommy and daddy fighting?" he mocked as he closed the door, and I turned my head towards him.

He looks like he just came out of the shower, only wearing sweatpants.

I furrowed my eyebrows in annoyance and sat straight. "You're the one who came asking for earplugs."

Riccardo dismissed me with a wave of his hand, walking farther into my room until he reached my desk.
I rolled my eyes when he started to dig through the papers, making even more mess than there already is.

I checked my phone once again, but no text. Great.

"Why are you drawing a dick?" He snorted, turning around to show me my personal sketchbook, a teasing grin over his face.

"The only dick here is you." I jumped off the bed, snatching it from his hand and putting it on the top shelf. "This is the Eiffel Tower."

"I'm not so sure about that." he mused, pushing past me to look through my books.

I followed him with a frown, putting back every book he takes out. Is he seriously here just to be annoying?

"My Eiffel Tower looks nothing like a dick." I crossed my arms, and he finally stopped messing my things up.

Riccardo turned to look at me with a smirk, the one he always gives you before saying something irritating.

"Whatever you say, man. I bet you know more about dicks than I am, right?"

There it is.

I pursed my lips and breathed out angrily. "Stop talking about dicks."

He laughed and sat down on my spinning chair, putting his bare feet on my bed. "You started it."

"How did I started-" I exclaimed, but cut myself off shortly after.
Riccardo has this special gift of making literally anyone he interacts with lose their minds.

"Why are you even here? I don't have earplugs." I pinched the bridge of my nose.

He hasn't been to my room for ages. It's either locking himself and Duke in his after he gets home, or... never getting home.

"Why so hostile?" he began to spin around with a grin on his face. "Can't I check how my baby brother's doing?"

I raised my eyebrow, not even close to believing his words.

Don't get me wrong, I love Riccardo.
I really do, ever since he beat up Jamie Elrod after he gave me a black eye in the third grade.

He's cool and weird, but checking how I'm doing? That's another level of weird.

It just that all of us, we had to go through some really rough times together. Losing Olive, watching how our parents devoted themselves to destroy Viktor and his own mafia in New York.

Losing them.

I never wanted to get involved after... everything, but not Riccardo.
Not at all.
Sometimes I think shooting people is his coping mechanism.

Grandpa trained him himself, so it's not surprising he turned out to be the amazing shooter he is.

But it also drove him away from everyone else.
Instead of taking his old psychologists' advices and talking about his feelings, he drowned himself in work and pushed them away.

Pushed everyone away.

"Fine." Riccardo stopped spinning in my chair after I didn't say anything.
He gave me a tight smile and pointed at the phone in my hand.