Axel swims around the community pool as I sit with Brooke. Someone nearby asks Axel how he got a scar across his arms. Before he could make up a story and boast about it, I interrupt.
"You ditched your bodyguard again, didn't you?"
"Of course I did," Axel grins. "You know me so well, Roubear."
"Don't call me that!"
"Okay, Roubear."
"How did you you kick another poor soul from their job, Rivers?" I ask, pulling my hair in a pony.
"You se this scar?" Axel asks, narrowing his eyes and grinning even wider. "The poor soul did this."
"What?" I ask in Italian, and then then remember that Axel doesn't speak Italian. "I mean, what?"
"It was Axel's plan actually," Brooke says, filling her nails. "This fucker impersonated a thief and broke into his own room through the window. The bodyguard thought him to be a threat, attacked him."
"And then?"
"And then he blackmailed him into resigning."
"Which is very fucking generous of me," Axel intervenes. "If I had reported him, he would have lost his job."
"But he did lose his job."
"Yeah, but only as bodyguard. He can be somebody else's bodyguard now. Good riddance."
Brooke and I shake our heads as we Axel keeps giggling like a drunkard. I look at my phone to check the time.
"Shit," I mutter under my breathe. "I had told Shiv I'll be back soon. I've been here with you guys for hours."
"Why are you so invested in Shiv?" Brooke asks. "Is is because he's Gray's brother?"
I scoff. "I just. Love him. He's my baby."
"And why is your baby a sixteen year old?"
"What else do you want me to do? Go and adopt an infant?"
Brooke shakes her head in disappointment, probably because she will loose her chance to be a godmother.
"I gotta go. Don't misse too much."
And with that, I walk away. On reaching his room, I unlock the door and call his name. He doesn't reply.
"Shiv?"
No response.
I call him a little bit louder and–
"Come to the pool!"
I cross the main room and go into the pool area. There, Shiv stands inside the cerulean water. He takes a sip from a bottle of water, grimaces and then looks at me.
"This water doesn't taste good. Can you bring me another bottle?"
"Water doesn't has a taste."
"It does," he argues. "And it tastes..not good."
I sigh and take the bottle from his hands. I pull one out from the freezer and give it to him.
"You need to stop drinking water water swims," I tell him. He shrugs and continues drinking.
"So," I start again. "Where's Gray?"
"In the meeting. With people."
"No. I mean, when she's gonna come back?"
"Why are you even missing her, Rou?" He asks me sceptically. "Are you done ignoring her?"
"I wasn't ignoring her. I was just hiding from her."
"And why's that?"
"Because I was pissed and said things to her that I didn't mean," I huff. "You knew it, didn't you? What an ass."
He laughs, and I think about the first time that I met him. I remember greeting him cheerfully and him mumbling something in Hindi and walking away. Go die, was what he had said that day.
"I didn't know it. Not fully." He fills the bottle with water and keeps it back in the freezer. "You know how Gray like to keep things bottled up inside her and then boom. It was actually Ash who told me."
"Yashika?"
"Yeah," he chuckles. "She was there when you were yelling at Gray."
"I know," I say while plopping down on the bed. "I heard Gray tell something to Yashika after I told her all that shit. Do you know what she told her?"
"Probably to arrange someone whom she can kill and feed to the pet piranhas."
"Shiv!"
"Kidding," he laughs. "Or maybe, I'm not. If you yelled at my sister and you're alive, someone else is not."
"I think you're exaggerating things."
"A little bit, yes."
"But, like, it wasn't all my fault," I complain. "I keep chasing after her like a little bitch and at least she can give me some attention."
"She does."
"How do you know?"
"We share blood, remember? And I just know. I always know."
"I wish she would just return my feelings," I sigh and pull the comforter over me. "Or maybe, just, ugh! It's so fucking confusing?"
Shiv takes a seat next to me. "What's confusing?"
"It's like she likes me. And she wants me to know that, too. I've seen the way she acts when Sav flirts with me sometimes. But she never expresses it."
"Of course she doesn't. She's Gray."
"And why not just fuck me already? I feel a lot of things and sexual frustration is the most of it."
"You know, there are a lot of things Gray isn't," Shiv says. "Patient. Sane. Pedo."
"I never said she's a pedo–"
"But you're a minor."
I groan and pull the comforter over my face. "This is so shitty," my voice comes out muffled. "When is she gonna tell me how she feels, then? When I the mother of six and lactating non-stop?"
Shiv laughs so hard that he falls off the bed.
•••
"Tell me a story."
"A story? About what?"
"Anything."
•••
Once upon a time, Cupid thought of playing a game. He saw a princess and shot his arrow.
The princess very stupidly fell in love with a damsel in distress. But then, the princess realised that the damsel in distress was actually a warrior: fighting and surviving.
No matter how hard the princess tried, the warrior never returned her feelings.
Cupid was confused. When he checked, he realised that he had forgot to shoot the warrior. No matter how hard he tried to shoot his arrow at the warrior's heart, he failed miserably.
And so, the princess lives that way, an arrow piercing her heart.
The heart stays inside her – scarred and longing.
The arrow stays there, too – hurting. If it is removed, the heart will bleed. If the bleeding somehow stops, the arrow leaves a hole.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A/N
Today's my birthday!
And also, happy pride!!
I wasted another year of my life and my relationship with my father is getting more rocky everyday so it's time to celebrate!!!
I love you. Stay safe *heart emoji*