SET APART

9

"Your family is so pretty." I said as he pulled out the first aid kit. We were currently in the kitchen, this guy was really moving as if he didn't just nearly get shot. "Sit down let me clean you up."

He swiftly pulled his jacket and top off and sat on the counter, only his silver chain remained on his upper half. He definitely didn't go to the gym just to take snaps, from his biceps to his pectorals down to his abdomen, pure muscle. No wonder his body felt so hard whenever we hugged, "We could sit like this all day, babe. I really don't mind but I'm actually dying here, you know?" Hearing his voice I come out of my trance. I suddenly feel the danger of being alone with a boy in an empty home.

I look at his waist to the three inch cut across his abdomen. It was beginning to look sickeningly gruesome, blood had stopped flowing and was now turning a deeper shade of red as it began to clot. I soaked a cotton pad in alcohol and slapped it on the wound without remorse. He hissed sharply. That was what he got for not listening to me and when I told him to go to a hospital. The cut was indeed not very deep, although not life endangering it wouldn't be too much to seek medical attention.

"I still think you should go to a hospital, it could leave a scar. I don't think that would be good when you go pro." I said as I cleaned the wound up.

"Nah this gonna be sick, when I go for interviews I'll give them an exaggerated story of how I nearly got shot at a block party." He joked, I shook my head an smiled. So care free, even now I don't know how I'm so calm. Soon, his phone started ringing. "Pick that up for me?" He gestured to his phone that was left on the dining table. I recognised the caller ID as his mum.

"Hi mummy!" I answered and Vanni gave me a stank look. He hated that I called his mum, 'mummy'. I actually loved his mum. She and my mum were both 51 and Nigerian but could someone explain to me why they were so different. Vanni's mum was chill and easy to speak to, my mum was calm but demanded a level of respect that made it difficult to be honest with her.

"Huh? Wura?! I've missed you! I heard about what happened at Woolwich, are you and Giovanni okay?" I smiled hearing both her concern and happiness to hear from me. You see as long as your friends parents loved you it was calm, even if you beefed your friend their parents would back you.

I put the phone on speaker, "Yeah, we're good." Vanni spoke and signaled for me to not say anything about his wound. "Where's your sister? Did she come back with you?" I spread some medicine over the wound with a cotton bud, I could hear his mum going off on him because he left his sister with her friends.

He sighed, "Ma, what did you want me to do? She was with her friends and ran off somewhere. There were a lot of people there, I couldn't just knock everyone down just to find her. Or do you want your son to become a murderer?" He hopped down from the counter after I placed a big plaster over his wound. He grabbed his Adidas tracksuit jacket and t-shirt and dashed them in a bin, both of them had been ripped and stained with his blood. I wonder how he was going to explain that to his parents.

"Okay well, The neighbours will be dropping Luca off earlier because you're home. Alright, well I have to go. Bye, Wura! Hopefully, I'll be able to see you next time." I said bye back to her, then started to clean the surfaces in the kitchen and packed away the first aid box.

When I turned back around Vanni was looking straight at me with an unreadable look on his face that took me off guard. "You know, I'm really trying to get that scholarship. In fact, I really might be getting one by December. I had a game in Germany just before mocks and my coach was saying how scouts had good things to say about me..." His eyes held an intense look that put me slightly on edge, I didn't say anything, it didn't seem as if he'd finished speaking, "I could actually leave road permanently. I wasn't gonna speak to you until I actually got it but I saw you today looking all sweet and I couldn't stop myself." He licked his lips, my eyes followed his tongues movements as if in a trance.

I finally realised what he was doing up until now. He was trying to seduce me.

He laughed after seeing my dumbfounded facial expression and sat down on the stool next to the counter. What is going on? He's just sitting there looking all nice, shirtless, bare smiling and showing off the silver caps on his canines. In case you haven't realised, I've never been in this type of situation. I just looked at my white coloured toes and fiddled with my nails awkwardly. What was I supposed to say or do? I felt like I was sinning just by being in the same room as him.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is..." He stared at me in the eyes, "...can we be cool again?" He moved the stool closer to me and I felt trapped, this was bullying! How could I say no?

Somehow, words that actually made sense tumbled out of my mouth, "But is that really all you want from me?" I mustered up the courage to look at him in the eye. His actions up until where definitely not down with the intention of being just 'cool'. Even I could tell that much. We just stared at each other for a few beats until we heard the door bell go off. He smirked and shook his head then jogged out of the kitchen to quickly answer the door. What does that mean?!

Boys. The stress of my life...

"Vanniiiiii!" I heard a cute voice scream, a voice I could easy recognise as Luca's. However, my head was still on overdrive after what had just happened. Did that mean he liked me... or?

"Huh? Wura?" I hear Luca call out me. All thoughts of Giovanni flew from my head after hearing him call my name, "Lucaaa!" I hugged him enthusiastically, Vanni just looked at me with a disgusted look and mouthed 'paedophile'.

I screw my face up, "You're just mad because I'm happier to see him than you." I gave him one dirty screw. As if, he couldn't even hold a candle when it came to Luca. "You remember me?" I smile at Luca once I turn my attention back to him. He nodded cutely. Oh my gosh, I want oneeeee. Thanks to the different races in the Maiava blood, every single one of them looked different from the next but we're all beautiful at the same time. For example, Luca. He had long loose curls that reached the middle of his back, clear brown skin with a reddish undertone and big dark brown eyes. He looked like a doll.

"Wanna go halves." I jokingly ask Giovanni. He looked at me with a confused look but then quickly caught on.

"If it's you, why not?"He did that thing again where he licked his lips and looked me up and down. I momentarily froze, I should have known better, whatever his intentions were to start speaking to me again, they definitely were platonic and I don't know if I don't mind that.

I awkwardly looked away, "Nevermind." Afterwards I just spent a little more time with Luca and Giovanni. I quickly realised that Giovanni was turning Luca into a mini him, I recognised that Luca looked up to him and copied everything his brother did, he even went as far as removing his shirt so he could be shirtless like his brother. So cute.

I didn't stay too long and Giovanni drove me home - even though my house was literally a five minute walk from his house. Anyways, I was tired and went straight to bed, today had definitely strained my brain power, especially with all the shootings and Giovanni moving weird. As I was about to go to bed I got a snapchat notification, it was from the CoupleMan🤟🏾 group chat, this was the group chat I was talking about that had both me and the girls and Vanni and the boys in it. This was weird considering the fact that I thought everyone had forgotten about it.

Manny‼️™️: [Tomorrow, my house. Lisa got shot.]

~•.•.•~

You never expected it.
That's chapter nine and pt. two x

I'll be honest. I've really been holding out on you lot, as in I wrote this like two or three weeks ago, I wasn't going to upload it until next week then I saw notifications and was like dammmmn. So here🙈

-poppaldn