© Jojo B 2016
All rights including those in copyright in the content of this story are owned by Jojo B. It's Illegal to steal and/or copy.
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*N.E.V* The Seven Deadly Simpson Brothers
24
(Picture is Gomez)
Ario was waiting for me outside the back door at the end of my shift after school on Wednesday. It was half eight and very dark, but I wasn't too scared. I was nervous more than anything.
Nervous of Ario catching me out.
"Hola," Ario nodded at me when he saw me step out the back of the pub.
"Hey," I smiled at him.
"Let's go to the park," Ario suggested, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It will be empty around this time, and if not...I'll make it empty."
"Sure," I looked down, following him.
The walk to the park was less than five minutes and Ario and I made a bit of small talk on the way.
"Looks like it's just us," Ario smirked as he opened the small gate into the dimly lit playground area.
He went and sat on one of the swings and I joined him on the other.
"So about my secrets," Ario said lowly, looking at his shoes.
I waited for him to speak, not sure what to expect and thinking about what exactly I was going to say to him.
"Sometimes...when I'm...you know, I like to use mango scented lube...it's actually really erotíc," Ario said, still gazing downwards.
I was glad he wasn't looking at me or he would have seen my eyes bulge out of my head in shock. That was not the kind of dirty I had meant!
"Your turn," Ario lifted his head and glanced at me and then frowned in confusion, "...what?"
"I didn't mean that kind of dirty," I managed to squeak out. "I meant dirty as in...illegal, not dirty as in..."
I trailed off into an uncomfortable silence. I was mortified and I bet the same thing could be said for Ario. My face was burning so bad and I was extremely grateful for the semi-darkness we were sitting in.
As soon as I dared to look up, we caught eye contact again and just burst out laughing. I was half crying from embarrassment but Ario didn't notice and if he did, then he must have thought they were tears of laughter.
"Well that's a relief," Ario breathed out, stretching his back.
"Of course," I exclaimed.
"I was surprised at how forwards I thought you were being," Ario said, shaking his head at himself. "I should have realised what you meant."
"Yeah, that was my fault, I wasn't clear enough," I mumbled, remembering how I'd implied that I was interested in two-timing.
"I want to know about your gang," I said plain out, hoping this tactic would be more successful. "All I hear are rumours about you and your family and I'm curious to know how much is true...what you're all really like."
"Well in that case," Ario said, swinging himself lightly backwards and forwards. "You can just come over."
"Huh?" I started blankly at him, I must have misheard.
"You can come over," Ario repeated, a smile starting to spread on his face again.
I didn't know what to say to that. I was shocked. I mean, wait till the boys heard about that!
"You scared, Coral?" Ario smirked, pushing my seat so that I started to swing gently.
"Yes," I grinned, answering honestly.
"You'll be safe with me," he pushed my seat again, making me laugh and cling onto the chains on either side.
"Ario stop. Please," I cried which only made him laugh and hop off his seat to get behind me.
"Only if you say it in Spanish," he teased me, putting his hands on my back and pushing me harder.
"Come on," I pleaded, laughing as I was swung sky high. "I don't know any Spanish."
"Not good enough," Ario chuckled and pushed me even harder.
"Ario!" I shouted, genuinely afraid I was going to be flung off.
"Just look up," I heard him say. "It's pretty mesmerising."
I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, but I looked up and saw the stars whirling by. It wasn't just mesmerising, it made me feel like I was flying.
"This is great," I cried.
"I know," Ario replied.
He continued to push me back and forth and I kept my head tilted back so that I could watch the brightly lit night sky.
"I'm getting a bit dizzy," I said, looking away from the spinning pricks of light. "Can you stop now?"
"No hablo ingles," came Ario's deep response.
"Yes you do speak English," I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "Stop....por favour."
"Good," Ario exclaimed. "And you were saying you didn't know any Spanish."
He grabbed the bottom of my seat, pulling me to a stop and I smiled to myself.
"I don't really remember where that came from," I said honestly. "Most likely primary school, which was at least seven years ago."
"Credit to Dora The Explorer," Ario mocked me playfully, ruffling my hair.
I went to nudge him with my shoulder but as he was standing behind me, and I was still sitting on the swing, I miss calculated the force of my nudge and ended up falling backwards off the seat and knocking Ario to the ground.
"My stomach," he groaned beneath me.
"Oh yeah," I widened my eyes in alarm and rolled off him as I remembered Ario was still healing. "Are you okay?"
"I am," he winced. "Don't worry."
"Well you have to be, considering how much you've been laughing," I said, getting up to my feet and holding a hand out to him.
"You think you can lift me up?" he smirked. "One handed too?"
"Don't underestimate me," I only arched an eyebrow back at him, not knowing what crap I was speaking.
Ario didn't even take my hand. He moved swiftly and grabbed my legs which almost had me landing on my butt again.
"What are you doing?" I looked down at his brown haired head.
Ario lifted his face to look at me with his blue eyes, "Thanks for the knife. Again."
"You don't have to say it twice," I smiled, looking away before I got embarrassed. "You can let go of me now."
Ario let go of my legs and got up to his feet and brushed himself off.
"You're so small," he said.
"You're so big," I folded my arms in response.
We looked at each other and then grinned, neither of us wanting to be the first one to laugh again. Ario lost and cracked up.
"I think I'm drunk to be honest," he said to me with his eyes alight.
"Probably," I shrugged a shoulder, smirking at him.
"What do you mean probably?" Ario pushed my shoulder jokingly, making me laugh again. "You didn't even serve me tonight."
I didn't know how Ario was feeling at that very moment, but I felt like I'd found the sibling I'd always been looking for.
And it felt good.
"So when can I come round?" I asked him, picking up my bag.
Ario thought about it, "I don't know yet. But I can text you or something."
"Give me your phone," I said, holding my hand out. "I'll put my number in."
***
"I've been invited over."
The Simpson brothers blinked at me. Even Phoenix looked completely taken aback.
"You're going to their house?" Severn had to clarify. "Their actual home?"
"Yes," I said, sharing a grin. "It's a great step in the right direction."
"How?" Landon asked, sitting on the arm of Phoenix's seat.
"Well I said I wanted to know if the rumours about his gang were real or not, and he just said come over and basically see for myself," I said simply.
Walter scowled and started calling Ario all sorts of foul names.
He looked at me, fury still blazing in his eyes, "Coral if any of them put their hands on you, I swear..."
"I'll be okay," I said confidently, deciding not to mention Ario's word to keep me safe. It would only make Walter angrier.
"When are you going?" Phoenix questioned me.
"I er...I don't know yet," I said, avoiding his hard look. "But I'll know soon."
"I wish I could go with you," Walter grumbled, balling his hands into fists. "It could be a trap or something like that."
"They don't even know me," I tried to assure him. "I'm no threat to them."
"I still don't trust them," Walter said lowly.
I didn't blame him, they had been rivals for a long time.
"We can't risk following her there," Landon made a valid point. "If they spot us, not only will the whole operation be ruined, but she'll be in danger too."
"I'll call you if anything," I said, looking at Walter.
He didn't look like he wanted to settle for that, but he sighed, not having much of a choice, "Okay."
"You're really good at this Coral," Gomez grinned at me, getting to his feet. "I've never been anywhere close to their lair before."
"I'll send you a postcard," I joked.
"Bring back some Spanish food if you can, yeah?" Giovanni gave me the thumbs up.
When his brothers shot him looks of disgust, Gio only shrugged and scratched his hair, "I know it would be cooked by those stupid splinters....but I like Spanish food."
"I'll see what I can do," I said quietly, sending Gio a sly smile.
He too stood up and grinned back.
"Is it time to go already?" Severn asked his brothers, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah," Gomez was checking his phone. "It's ten."
"Where are you going?" I asked as the older boys started to rise too.
I wasn't told about anything.
"We have a fight," Walter said, coming over to me.
"Right now?" I gawked at him.
Walter nodded, "Every so often we arrange a fight. Tonight's one of those nights."
So all that time I was spending with Ario, laughing and hanging out, he was going to go out later that same evening to fight with the Simpsons?
"Don't look so worried Coral," Landon put his hand on my shoulder. "No guns allowed."
"That's a rule you two gangs agreed on?"
"Unfortunately yes," Eli said darkly as he passed me on his way upstairs.
"Eli," I turned to watch him go with a wide eyed stare.
"Knives, bats, chains, knuckle dusters," Gomez listed for me. "Anything but guns, you have to be up close and personal whilst fighting, and the guns make it unfair."
"Okay," I said, trying not to wince. "You can still do a lot of damage with things like that though."
"Oh trust me," Gomez started laughing. "We know."
"We all know," Landon smirked. "Every one of us has been in the hospital at least once, and those were just the really bad times. Phoenix has been shot over – "
"Just go and get your shit," Phoenix cut him off as he pushed past Landon.
Landon sent me an apologetic look which only had me wanting to know how many times Phoenix had been shot. I remembered seeing a lot of bullet wounds when he'd taken his top off after the snowball fight.
"Blue eyes is all mine tonight," Walter said to his brothers as he headed for the stairs.
"When are you two not all up in each other's grillz?" Severn said sarcastically. "You two were made for each other."
"Don't say it like that," Walter shot him a dirty look. "I couldn't hate the guy more."
"We know," Landon and the triplets said in unison.
"So you're all going?" I followed Walter as he went up the stairs.
He looked really guilty for a second and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah..we won't be too long. Sorry."
"It's fine," I said quickly. "It's what you do."
I looked down so Walter that wouldn't be able to see the sadness in my eyes. What they did was so dangerous and I wouldn't be able to handle any of them getting seriously hurt.
"I'll be here," I said, sitting on the edge of his bed smiling. "Waiting."
"I'll be back before you know it," Walter said after making a pained face.
"Be safe," I said, wringing my hands together.
"I will," Walter rubbed my hair and kissed my forehead.
I lifted my head so that he could kiss me on the lips too and Walter didn't hesitate. We kissed for a short time as the boys were already set to go. Walter grabbed an aluminium bat he had leaning on the wall near his window, and I knew he had a couple of knives stashed in his pockets.
I got up to see them off.
"Don't open the door to anyone," Landon was telling me, waggling his finger in the air like I was a six year old child. "We have keys so we won't be knocking."
"Got it," I said dryly.
"There's some pizza in the fridge if you get hungry," Gio slapped my shoulder. "Pepperoni."
"Nice," I smiled, though I didn't really think I'd be able to eat whilst worrying about them.
"Why would you eat when you could just sleep?" Severn yawned, looking adorably innocent, nothing like a boy who was about to go and have a pretty rough gang fight.
"Sleep is good too," I commented, again knowing I wouldn't get any.
"See you later then," Eli said to me, being the first to leave through the door.
"Bye," I called after them until it was Walter left.
"Don't worry Coral," he smiled at me, stroking my cheek. "You try to rest, I'll try not to wake you when I get back."
I nodded, "Okay."
"Sleep well," Walter leaned down and kissed my cheek.
"Thank you," I replied and then with a final smile I watched him leave and close the door behind him.
I couldn't decide how I felt about Walter and Ario viciously fighting each other. I needed them both to be okay, but the fact that they hated each other so much didn't make things easier. In fact, thinking about how Ario would react when he found out I was dating Walter made me feel a little nauseous.
I just hoped that tonight, when it came to the two of them, there would be no clear winner.
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