C A T A L I N A
"Soften your forehead, between your brows." I brushed my finger against Lorenzo's tensed up forehead.
"Drop your shoulders."
"Roll your neck in a circle."
"Take a deep breath into your chest."
"Good, how do you feel now?" Lorenzo had a bad phone call. By bad I mean he threatened the entire mans family, almost punched a hole into the pretty cream colored wall, and decided to keep it all bottled up.
"Fine."
Yay.
"Y'know that woman you kicked out of here earlier?"
He hummed in response.
"I think you should call her to apologize because she seemed really angry and decided that I was a good outlet for her anger... meanie."
Still not speaking, Lorenzo fluttered his enchanting green eyes open and raised a single, thick brow.
What'd she do.
"She called Captain Rogers obese and childish," I mumbled in embarrassment. Sure, having a liking towards stuffed animals at eighteen years old might seem odd, but I think it's perfectly normal.
And Captain Rogers is not obese. He is healthy. Healthy panda. Cute.
"Do you want to go boxing today? It might help release your anger- Oh! Did you eat breakfast this morning? I made a pile a pancakes for you but I don't know if you saw them." I took a seat on top of his desk, right next to his chair, and began to swing my legs back and forth.
"Busy." That means he hasn't eaten all day. Oh lord.
"Have you at least had water? Here, i'll go get you something, you just stay right there." Before I could jump off his desk, he rolled his chair over to me and stopped me.
"No."
"But-"
"No."
Pouty face.
He's going to say fine in,
Three,
Two,
One,
"Fine," he huffed and walked out of the office with me waddling behind him.
Giddily walking behind Lorenzo, my face collided with his back when he randomly stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"Ouchie." I rubbed my nose. That hurt. I could have sworn I heard Lorenzo chuckle, as if he did that on purpose.
"No," I gasped, "all the pancakes are gone." Poor Lorenzo, he didn't get to eat any. I only ate one so that there would be enough for him.
"That's fine, we can make some more. But you're going to help me, okay shortcake? Baking helps release anger." For me at least. And I have a lot of it. That's a secret though, nobody knows.
Grabbing the pink apron that Marco wore the other day, I tried to put on Lorenzo.
"Bend over, brutha." I looked at him in a come-on-you-should-already-know-this face.
Rolling his eyes, Lorenzo obliged and bent down to my height so that I could tie the pink apron around his neck. Bitable looking neck.
Add to the to do list.
Maybe one bite wouldn't hurt.
Whilst he was still bent over to my level, I accidentally nipped at his neck.
Cross that off.
Lorenzo's brows furrowed and he looked at me with- oh my God he's so cute, he has a little blush taking over his face cheeks.
"Sorry, that was an accident." Moving on as if nothing happened, I began to grab the ingredients so that I could make my shortcake some pancakes.
"Can you mix the batter? My arms are too weak and you have strong arms." I squished his bicep to prove my point.
"Squish, squish," I mumbled to myself and squeezed his bicep a couple of more times, earning myself a smirk from Lorenzo.
Hehe.
He raised the sleeves of his navy blue shirt to his elbows, revealing a tan and thick forearm, and began to stir the thick batter that wasn't too lumpy.
"I want to make heart shaped pancakes."
"I don't know how," Lorenzo softly said. He's sad because he hasn't eaten all day. I'm going to fix that.
"I'll do it, just eat a couple of those strawberries while I make them." I pointed to the bowl of strawberries that I washed and watched him pop a few in his mouth.
Atta boy.
As I was scooping the batter into the pan, I felt Lorenzo's stare burning into me.
"I'm proud of you," I say to him.
He looks like a confused puppy at what I just said. "For what?"
"For being you."
He's so awkward.
I break the silence, "Can Flavio drop me off at Leo's work place later today?" I plattered four heart-shaped pancakes that looked more like big butts than hearts on Lorenzo's plate.
"No."
"Please, I just want to make sure he's okay."
"Fine."
Smiling, I took a seat across the table and watched Lorenzo eat the pancakes I made.
"Did you put coke on these?" He stuffed his mouth with the food, making me sigh in relief that he was finally eating.
"Yeah, I made sure to snort a whole bunch too."
"Catalina," he said sternly, letting me know he wasn't playing around.
"It's powdered sugar," I sighed in defeat. He was being no fun.
Sad face.
"Stop frowning." I didn't stop frowning. Instead, I deepened my frown and thought about dying puppies, making tears well up in my eyes. Poor pups.
Keeping my head down when I saw his feet below me that were clad in fluffy panda socks, I put my own feet that were covered in panda socks over his. Marco bought them for me to apologize for hurting my brother and I made Lorenzo wear them so that we could match. Twins.
"Look at me."
Finding myself obliging with no thought to it, I watched Lorenzo's eyes visibly soften when he saw my face.
"I've had a bad day, and I know that's no excuse to be cold but fuck, i'm trying." He's opening up. I need to write this down in his notes since we basically share a phone.
"It's all good, I promise. Please don't worry about it. I was just thinking about puppies dying and man it's sad. If you ever need to cry, just think about it. Horrifying." I shuddered at the thought of a puppy-
No.
Sorry.
Shaking his head, Lorenzo put his plate in the sink and began to wash it. He said he didn't trust hiring maids and he preferred to do things alone since he had working hands and legs.
"Have you killed anyone recently? Like anyone bad? Y'know, brutha, you're basically a superhero. That's epic. Can I be your sidekick? Please, I promise i'll just watch you do the killing while I eat chip-"
"Don't fucking call me that," he snapped, pushing his hair back so that it set messily on his head. So messy it's perfect.
I guess I accidentally overstepped my boundaries today. It's my fault, I should have know that my rambling would annoy him, especially when he's had a bad day.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you angry." Anytime someone gets angry, i've learned to know that it's always my fault.
"Whore!" He pushed my head in the bathtub that was filled to the brim with water.
"Your school called me," he yelled, pulling my head out of the water. I used this as an opportunity to take in a deep intake of air.
Pushing my head back under the water, he continued his yelling, "You sleep in all your classes!"
I fought against his dirty hands, trying my best to stop my sobbing under water so that I didn't accidentally inhale water.
This hurts.
He finally pulled my head out of the scalding hot water. The only thing that I could hear was my incoherent begging, I could barely understand myself through the sobbing.
With a final yell, he slammed my head against the end of the bathtub, knocking me out cold.
"Where'd you just go?"
"Disney World, I like to go there in my head sometimes."
Lorenzo nodded, unconvinced. "You ever been?"
Dreamily sighing, I answered, "No, though i really want to."
I sneaked a peek over his arm to see what he was typing in his notes app, and when I saw him write down something in Italian, I scoffed.
"Can you teach me Italian? That one body guard, I still don't know his name, seems to struggle with communicating with me in english and I think it'd be cool if we could talk to each other in Italian."
"One day," he gave me a nod and popped another strawberry in his mouth as he began to walk away from me.
Following grumpy man into his office, I took a seat on the gray couch and started to play Angry Birds on his phone whilst Lorenzo did some work on his desktop.
"Stupid pig!" I yelled into the throw pillow.
A cough brought me out of my fit. Moving my face to the side, I saw Lorenzo quickly flicker his eyes away from me.
"Stop sitting like that." I looked at the way I was sitting and didn't see anything wrong with it, it was only a little weird. I had my face down into the pillow and my hips were raised up, my back arching.
"Yes, master." I rolled my eyes at him and frowned when I saw Lorenzo avoiding eye contact with me.
"Say some shit like that again and i'll throw you over my knee."
Wow.
Say it again, Cat.
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"Don't you dare throw that snowba- goddammit, get your ass back here."
Laughing like a maniac, I ran away from Lorenzo through the fluffy snow.
"No!" I laughed and yelled when he threw me over his shoulder, my legs and arms kicking around as our laughter vibrated through the air.
"What did I tell you, hm?" He set me down and fixed his beanie on my head.
Deepening my voice, I prepared myself to try and pretend to be Lorenzo. "Don't throw that snowba- Enzo!" He threw a handful of snow at my face.
"Get in the car. Now." He was still laughing and I enjoyed seeing him like this. This was another side of Lorenzo that never came it out.
Opening his door, I let him get into the car before I ran over to the passenger side, slipping in the process. Oops. I hope he didn't see that.
Lorenzo's phone was ringing in my pocket so I took it out and handed it to him.
Tuning him out so that I wasn't invading on anything personal, I kept my eyes fixated on the beautiful winter weather outside.
Winter gives me such crystalline happiness. The uniqueness of every snowflake, the cozy aura you're surrounded with, it's perfect.
When I see my breath rise as a pure vapor it brings contentment into my heart. There are some days in winter when I simply want to stay in and enjoy the warmth, snuggling with a fluffy duvet and hot cocoa. But some days, like today, winter takes my hand and shows me the adventures that I could enjoy within the fluffy layers of clouds. Today, I enjoyed that with Lorenzo.
"I called my meeting off."
"Does this mean we can have a Enzo and Cat day?"
Lorenzo looked at me expressionless. "Okay."
Yay.
"Take me to one of those piercer shops. Please." Lorenzo looked at me weird before driving off into the street. Does this make him my b-word? Since he does everything I ask?
I made Lorenzo listen to Lana Del Ray in the car. We fought back and forth between the radio, him turning it off and me turning it back on, but he eventually gave up because he's a loser.
When we arrived at the piercer shop, I hopped out of the car with speed, slipping on the snow, and opened Lorenzo's door. Hopefully he didn't see that either.
"I'm broke, so hopefully you brought money." I looked up at him with a cheeky smile.
The piercer shop has a sign that said,
𝓦𝓮 𝓓𝓸 𝓦𝓪𝓵𝓴 𝓘𝓷𝓼
We do walk ins. You'd think their font would look better since they're also a tattoo shop but I guess not.
Sorry, that was mean.
"What can I get ya?" A really pretty man with dark skin that was covered almost entirely in ink spoke out to me.
"Hi! I'm Catalina and this is my friend, Lorenzo. He looks really- Sorry." I cut off my ramble because ever since this morning, I realized that it was annoying.
"He wants to get his ears pierced." I pointed to Lorenzo who looked down at me with a grumpy face. Oops.
"No." Lorenzo was about to pull me out of the shop until I bit on his forearm.
"If I died right now, i'd die without my one wish being fulfilled. Do you want that?"
Please work.
"No." I grinned but it quickly faltered when I understood that he was saying no to the piercing.
"I'll stop sneaking into your room at night and making you cuddle with Captain Rogers."
"Fine."
"Please-" What?
After Lorenzo got seated in the chair, I privately spoke to the piercer man about which earrings I wanted him to give Lorenzo.
"I like your dreadlocks."
"Thank you, sweetheart." He put the needle in Lorenzo's ear lobe.
He didn't even flinch, wow.
"All set." Piercer man with nice hair gave Lorenzo a mirror so that he could look at his cool earrings.
"I marked you." Lorenzo looked at me expressionless so I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I stared into his eyes and saw that he was looking at the earrings with amusement.
Yay. He's not mad.
"Letter 'C' earrings?"
"Yeah, it's for Catalina. My name." In case he didn't catch on, I explained it for him. No judgement though, it's okay if he's a little slow.
"Do you like it?"
"No."
"Too bad, you can't take them out for six months unless you want an infection."
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"Leo! My actual brutha." Leo pulled me into a bear hug, making me cringe because he was all shirtless and sweaty.
"How is work going?"
"Good. My boss is on my damn ass though, he won't give me a break."
"Want me to have a talk with the man? I'll set him straight." I put on my best angry face so that I could look like a cool and protective sister.
It didn't work because Leo started to laugh.
"Sit over there and if anyone bothers you, let me know."
Nodding, I took a seat on a black bean bag and watched Leo chug his water.
When a random guy walked into the room, Leo went stiff. I watched all the color drain from his face, making him look like he just saw a ghost.
"Catalina, run. Get the fuck out of here."
Confused with what was going on, I tried to look for a way out but there was only one way, and the man that scared Leo was guarding it.
"We had a deal, boy. You bring the girl to me and I spare your life."
"I didn't know she was my fucking sister! You piece of shit!" My mind was racing as I tried to comprehend what was happening, it was all going too fast.
"Take me instead of her, just let her go. Shes my damn sister." Leo choked on his words that cracked at the end.
The bald man pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it at me.
Without warning, Leo jumped in front of the gun, and a loud ringing in the air made my legs buckle beneath me.
Leo took a bullet for me.
I couldn't find my words, everything was happening too fast.
What's going on?
Did I brush my teeth this morning?
Maybe if I focus on something else, this will all go away.
It's just a dream.
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My legs have never moved faster.
My heart was thumping so fast I felt like it was going to fall out.
I'm so scared.
I had managed to get away from the man that showed up at the gym but I didn't know how long I was running.
I didn't stop and I didn't look behind me. I didn't know what to do.
How could I have left Leo?
I'm a terrible sister.
Eventually, my legs gave out and buckled beneath me, no longer able to support me.
I held in my tears as I tried to think about where I was until all I saw was black.