Rich? - Jerome Valeska

38

It was pouring now. I was staring at the windshield wiper of Ed's car swiping buckets of water to the side with every stroke. The moment it swept past, raindrops would dot the glass and roll down continuously. I was in a trance just watching it.

The simple concept made me think. Rain is always used as a romantic factor in love songs and movies and literature, but all it does is water plants and provide us with a way of survival. When it rains, we're not obligated to have a bad day. We just assume that a bad day comes with bad weather.

I glanced at Jerome, who was staring out the window, slouching over slightly. He was now known throughout Gotham as a criminal. He was a "bad guy". Did that really mean he was a bad person, though?

Ed pulled up next to the curb that he had picked me up by. Jerome followed me out of the car and we both kept our heads down as Ed drove away discretely.

The feeling was strange, being torn apart from my quiet homeless life to living in luxury, but I was still always on the edge. It added excitement to my life, but made feel anxious constantly. I glanced at Jerome, whose head was awkwardly tilted towards the ground, but his eyes looked to the side, looking right back at me. When he noticed, he smiled at me. "You're the prettiest lil' thing I've ever seen," he said promptly, his cheeks reddening slightly, freckles standing out like a stars dotting his skin.

He had called me hot before, and blatantly had a dirty mind, making me come to believe that he never liked me as more than a body. Now he stood beside me, blushing as he had just gave me a true compliment. I was stunned.

"Jerome," I started after a long pause of thought, "do you like me?"

I smiled at him childishly as his the color of his cheeks changed from pink to crimson. He cleared his throat and looked back up at me, grinning back madly like nothing was wrong. "Sure I do, gorgeous. I just called you pretty, didn't I?" He shrugged. "A pretty face always wins."

My smile disappeared and I slowed my pace a bit. "What are you saying?" I muttered.

"I thought it was obvious," he said, sounding confused. "You feel a need for attention and I give it to you. You're pretty damn hot, so it's not hard - "

"So you just think I'm hot?" I said angrily, but with more disappointment in my tone, speaking quietly. "You don't actually like me? There's a difference, you know."

His grin still intact, he raised an eyebrow at me. "You know, I've never really been much of a people person," he admitted, shrugging again, "till you came along." We reached the end of the sidewalk to cross the road, and there were no cars in the way, so we started walking. He took my hand gently as if I was a child, and I gave him a strange look, so he took his hand away as if the gesture had bothered me and slipped his hands in his pockets, looking down again. "I'm trying to ignore it, but you're just making everything more difficult. Killing and torturing people together is good enough for me, princess."

I nearly laughed at the last bit. The more I got to know Jerome, the more I understood and was reminded that he doesn't know anything about living a normal life. "Wait," I began, something occurring to me. "You mean you'll let me be your right hand man?"

He snorted. "Sure, you can call yourself that."

Rolling my eyes, I retorted, "So you'll let me do the dirty work just as much as you?"

Jerome hesitated and I could tell that he was refraining from denying me my new right, but he passed it off with a light sigh and nodded. "O'course. Why wouldn't I? You're perfectly capable."

I shrugged. In my opinion, I was more capable than him. Even though he had killed someone already and I hadn't, I had been trained with a street kid's eye: I'd learned how to act, how to read people, and who to trust. I created the acronym ART for this, so in other words, I knew the art of deception. I had also trained with Tabitha before he came to Galavan, so I had a clear advantage over him, besides that he didn't understand the concept of sympathy, and on top of all I was capable of, I needed to work on my emotions, or rather lack of. "I just wanna have as much fun as I can, just like you do," I said quietly.

"Obviously," Jerome laughed, his grin reappearing. It was almost as if he had placed the last piece of a puzzle onto his face; Jerome without a smile just wasn't quite Jerome. He must've noticed me staring for a moment too long, as he smiled even wider before looking forward again.

We walked in silence for a few minutes until we reached the alley leading to Galavan's. It was very tight; I struggled with walking forwards and keeping my shoulders from hitting the walls on either side of me. Jerome walked sideways behind me, and when I nearly reached the door, he grabbed my wrist and tugged me back, unintentionally pinning me against the wall as he leaned towards me ear. My heart raced as I waited for him to make his next move.

"Don't freak out," he whispered sharply, sounding expectant of an immediate reaction from me as his tone had a hint of a frantic feeling in it. "I think I might know where your parents' money is. I know Ed said he didn't know, and I said I didn't know in front of Ed, but he's with the cops. I couldn't say this in front of him."

"Say what in front of him?" I asked hurriedly, nearly interrupting him.

Jerome leaned back a bit and snickered at my response. "You'll find out soon. Just get inside, Galavan's gonna be red hot about you leaving like that."

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH

I'M SO SORRY

AHHH

The amount of reads on this book is INCREDIBLE! I can't thank you enough! I'm so super duper sorry that I haven't been able to update in forEVER. I've been ad marching band camp, which I believe I've mentioned, for the entirety of August. I would totally be down to write this all of tomorrow, but I have to do summer reading for school, which starts on Monday.

Also, can someone please cut off the entire bottom half of my body? That'd be really helpful in easing the immense pain residing in my thighs and ass.

I will, am, and have been trying my hardest to update this fanfic when I can but everything is a bit hectic right now.

Finally, please excuse any typos. I can't really proofread this very well and am relying purely on autocorrect because I think I need glasses; I have to put stuff right in front of my face to be able to read it.

Sorry for the super long author's note. Just had to let y'all know what's up, no, I'm not dead, yes, I'm happy and okay (except I'm sORE)

But seriously I love y'all omg thank you soooooo much or OVER 4K reads. I'm speechless. I hope you liked this chapter, it was a bit half assed towards the end because I'm tired as HECK but I wanted to give you guys something because you deserve it thank youuuuu