Naressa Navaro
FC: Blanca Padilla
Age: 25, Jan 9th, I fucking forgot her birthday.
Heritage: Colombian Cartel
Business Info: Ártemis, auction house (art dealing), which is a cover for Rojas del Sul, cartel (arms dealing).
Interests: Antonio (RI). Gavin (RI/FI, sorry). Cyrus (RI, might drop because it takes me a millennium to write everything I want).
Intrigue Interest:
At the party, Nare will spy on...
She will also... ask Gavin to use face-tech masks to spy on the Chairman.
Room to go through: Library on the 3rd floor.
bitterr refuge
Middle of a night on a regular day in the week, she sits in front of blurry photos, laptop sitting on the ankles of her crossed legs. Nare stretches, moving her feet enough to realise she might have been sitting too still, stretching out a little.
She tries to make a sense of the photos at the moment, while at the same time she realises it’s almost 3, she should be getting to bed because there’s an early morning jog she already signed up for, and still, she is sitting there, zooming in and out.
There’s Matias, white linen shirt, white grin, very happy expression, very selected company.
Silvia is with them, too, wine in one hand, pushing through the evening with a very tight-lipped, anxious smile Nare could identify easily.
Rodrigo Garcia, the new chief of security - been there for around 18 months, but there are photos of him and Matias enjoying a drink somewhere in the Mediterranean. So, clearly a familiar figure to the Rojas’.
Amalia Barbosa, sitting right by Matias, hand on hand, hand on knee, hands all over, it’s easy to conclude who she’s there for, but the fact she is not an unknown name, but a very well-connected daughter of a very corrupt Brazilian politician makes her wide grin a bit more concerning.
Soto brothers, Guillermo and Manuel, who made their money in import-export, or trafficking, depending on who you ask.
She recognised a couple of more faces in the crowd, but the small party sitting in the gazebo seems like the one to follow.
Okay, so, everyone’s been named. So, what now?
Nothing. Is this what it feels like to be left out of the loop, sitting at the sidelines and looking in? Maybe she’s been fortunate enough to bask in the warm sunshine of the spotlight so far, but the way it felt cold out her made her resentment slowly build up somewhere in the pit of her stomach.
She slams the laptop shut, getting out of the bed and towards the bathroom.
A warm shower, then some sleep.
the drawbridge is closing
Samar brings no news in the next few days.
The gathering at the family house seemed to have went well for her uncle, and she considers it might be the time to go to the source of the information, but holds herself back, deciding to talk to her mother instead. Matias left the house, that much she knew.
“Hola mama,” she smiled at the camera, settling down in the chair next to the window, hair pulled back a little bit. Silvia - surprised - sat at the deck of her bedroom, which surprised Nare a little, given she didn’t spend that much time in her room while she was there. -“Don’t tell me you’re feeling nostalgic?”
“What do you expect me to say?” she smiles. -“How are you?”
“Good,” she lied. -“You?”
“Asides from missing you, all is well,” she says. -“But everyone shares the feeling, so we can share the sentiment,”
“I’m sure you can,” Nare replied.
“We had a little party the other day,” Silvia started, and Nare lifts her brows up, faking some kind of surprise easily, nodding. -“You won’t believe who Samar spent most of the night with!”
Now she actually is surprised - brows go further up, she sips on the prepared coffee, a strange sensation in the bottom of her stomach starts to wake up and she shakes her head, impatiently.
“Samar? Our Samar?”
“Your Samar, yes!” she dragged the word out into a chuckle. -“Remember Lorena Soto?”
Even though she had no issues hiding her emotions at other times, she felt as if she did nothing of a kind at this point. She did remember her, who could forget the woman?
More importantly, who could forget her family.
“Oh my god,” she laughs awkwardly. -“I will kill him, he did not say a word,”
“It was a very small celebration, private—“
“Celebrating what?”
Silvia looks like a dear caught in the headlight all of a sudden, staring into her daughter.
“It might be better if he told you himself,” she started.
“Mama,” Nare slips into her heaviest accent, brows furrowed. -“Tell me,”
“We celebrated Matias’ engagement,” she is happy, Nare can tell, lips spread into a very cautious smile as she looked at Nare’s reaction. Split-second later, Nare mimics her smile.
“That is a cause to celebrate,” she mused. -“Sorry, I’m just sad I couldn’t be with you, that’s all,” she slips into sadness rather than this moment of anger, or rather disbelief.
“You’ll be home for the wedding, I believe,” Silvia replied.
“And who is the lucky bride?” she thinks of asking, although the answer has been very much obvious to her since late last night.
As he mother goes on about Amalia, about how she makes Matias happy, Nare is replaying the photos in her mind, wondering why she did not see the ring on her finger, if maybe Samar chose not to send her the photos, wondering if Lorena Soto was the reason he missed this crucial bit of the evening, or if perhaps—
“Where are you, Naressa Sofia?”
Nare chuckled, smiling for real this time around.
“Sofia join the conversation, okay,”
“Don’t be rude, hija,” Silvia pulled the mother card out of nowhere, and instead of reacting as she’d normally react, this time the nostalgia took over.
“Sorry, mama,” she replies. -“Please, continue, I’m here, listening to your every word, with so much attention,”
“Nare!”
“I’m serious,” she cracks a laugh, forcefully. -“Okay, so, Amalia and Matias, when did that happen?”
“Years ago,” she replied, nonchalantly. -“Apparently, Amalia’s father even shared this with Emmanuel,” she continued, as Nare sat there, in silence, a smile plastered onto her face. -“Something happened when they met in Portofino last year,” she says.
“Probably her resources and the fact her father holds every state judge in North and Northeast region by the balls,” she piped under her breath.
“What?”
“Just happy, mama,” Nare nodded. -“All of these amazing police officers he can use to get things in and out of the Amazonas,” she shakes her head, annoyed beyond reason, as Silvia continued chatting about this new power couple in the making without an ending in sight.
Suddenly, there’s a loud call coming from her side of the camera, Silvia perking up as it happened.
“Honey,” she says. -“I need to go, work waits for no one,” she said.
“Something new?”
“Same old, baby,” she said. -“Talk to you tomorrow evening?”
“Yeah,” Nare smiled again. -“I’ll be, well, here, as for usual.”
Gavin stepped into the room without knocking only a second later, Nare looking over her shoulder to see who it is.
“Rizzo, glad to see you, heard of knocking?”
“This hurts, Nare,” he says, walking past the vanity, casually touching a couple of things, picking up. -“I thought we were tighter than this,” he replies, opening a bottle of perfume, smelling it, before putting it back.
“Alexa, play Cry Me A River by Ella Fitzgerald,” she spat, closing the laptop, turning to face him, before stepping up and pulling the bottle of perfume from him, setting it back down on the vanity. He pushes her hair over her shoulder, Nare turning towards him, looking less than happy.
The song played in the background.
“Shit, who got to you already?”
“I’m not gonna talk about it,” she shakes his hand off, stepping aside. -“We’re done for the week, want to go light up and drink some of your lovely wine?”
“Sure, traditions should be kept,” he replied, but then turns around, throwing himself on the bed, prompting a hand on under his head, tapping on the bedding. -“Firstly…”
“This was very creepy, honestly,” she shakes her head, still annoyed, but he is relentless. -“What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out what the hell’s happening with you,” another tap on the bed. She gives in - or pretends to she actually didn’t like the turn of events - and lies down next to him, crossing her hands on her chest, flat on her back.
“You know everything there is to know,” she mused, biting her lip, glancing at Gavin. -“Speaking of things to know, we did this fun thing a while back and I’m still—“
Gavin chuckled, exhaling.
“You always do this thing, are you aware?”
“What? What am I doing?”
“Stop avoiding answering things,” he says. -“So, starting over, what happened?”
“What happened is that I left my home to be here, without wanting to be here, in the middle of what seems to be a fucking slow-burning coup,”
“Firstly, slow-burning coup—“
“Semantics, Gavin.”
He stopped, still examining her face. She looks at him.
“I’m sure you know a lot about the important people in my family,” she continued. “My father died a year ago, in a helicopter crash, and now, instead of me gradually taking over, something I prepared taking over my entire fucking life,”
“Emmanuel Navaro’s death was a surprise for everyone,” he pipes. -“Helicopter crash in the middle of a transition, it seemed like a freaky accident,”
“So, the word got out?”
“Of course,” he noted, Nare nodding. It made sense: when there’s a potential vacuum of power about to be brought into existence, word gets out easily. -“Although, he kept it from me,”
“It’s a slippery slope,” he says. -“Dangerously stupid decision to make, after years of making a name—“ she darted a very unhappy look his way, and he stopped.
Nare exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment.
“In any case, Matias, my uncle returned permanently now and apparently he’s making a fucking come back to space he never actually occupied,” she continued. -“My grandpa never liked Matias, he thought he lacked integrity, he lacked proper intelligence for running a business, they never saw eye to eye,”
“And did it ever occurred to you he might have decided he has had enough of this?”
Nare opened her eyes, brows furrowed, turned to him.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, cara, is that you might be underestimating this uncle of yours,” Gavin says. -“Just because you spend a while listening to someone not being good enough it doesn’t mean that’s the actual case,” he continues. It stroke some kind of nerve in her, but she keeps a calm face, closing her eyes once again.
“Enough,” she piped after a while, opening her eyes to see him lying beside her. -“Let’s chat about what the equipment picked up on,” she mentioned the bugs they set up earlier, prompting herself up to her elbow and takes a second tracing the light curls on his forehead, before slipping into a smile. Gavin seems a bit uncomfortable by the gesture, so she pulls back again, setting her hand lightly onto his chest.
“Nothing worth telling,” he said, voice cracking for a moment, and he clears his throat, slipping into a tiny smile too. Nare rolled her eyes, about to lift her hand from him, but he pulls it back. -“Nare, you already took a leap of faith here, why can’t you be patient for a moment longer?”
She scoffed, frustrated.
“I’ve been kept in the dark about so many things since I got here, I’ve been trusting, Gavin,” she says. -“My nerves have been spread thin, I am getting no news from home, I am getting nothing from you, and everyone keeps telling me I’m the one that should be more trusting and I am so to be here,” she finished.
“A moment longer, it’s all I’m asking,” he said, and she pulls her hand from his grasp, standing up from the bed.
“I like you, Gavin,” she concluded. -“I would not have waited if I didn’t like you, but I have my limits, and we’re slowly approaching them.”
“Noted,” Gavin replied, shortly. -“So, are we still on for later?”
“Of course,” she turns around, a smile on her lips. Just because you annoy me doesn’t mean I don’t wanna get high with you,” Nare smirked, walking over to her vanity, dragging a rolled joint. from a jewellery box. She throws the bag to Gavin who stood next to the bed.
“Let’s go get the booze,” he gives it a playful shrug, pushing the joint into his pocket.
Once inside, Nare realises she’s never been to his room. They spent time together, usually at the beach, on the docks or in her room, but she’s never been to the preppy haven of Gavin Rizzo.
He’s reaching behind the false background in his wardrobe, happily taking out a bottle of wine, turning towards her with a smile. Nare walked around the room, looking for some things inside the room. Gavin seems amused.
“This looks like something straight out of a romance novel,” he says, making her scoff.
“Read enough of those to know what you’re talking about, I reckon,” Nare teased, reaching the desk. There’s not a lot of memorabilia on it, but she figures the figure on the photo is his mother. Same eyes. She lingers a second there, deciding against her normal instinct to say a thing, choosing to continue onto the next bits and pieces of Gavin spread out around the room.
His handwriting was not the worst she’d seen. The taste might have been a little bit too preppy for her taste. He was really into luxurious stuff, that much they had in common. Outside here, she could have easily written him off as an asshole.
“Are we done with the tour?”
“You never actually gave me a tour,” she complains jokingly. -“My first visit to the temple of Rizzo,”
“Tours normally happen with a very strict schedule, and very predictable ending,” he chuckles, walking up to her. -“You know, a very happy one,” Nare laughs, shaking her head.
“Ay, amor, I imagine all of this works on th—“
“All of what?” he grins. She chuckled, looking up.
“The soft curls, the jock physique, this whole rich daddy’s boy persona,” she smirks, but his face shifted a little bit after that, he shifts from one leg to another, setting the bottle onto the desk. -“Oh, what is this?”
“You — not knowing the first shit of what you’re talking about,” he smirks, but she can see there’s more to what he’s trying to play off as a joke. She pulls him by the shirt, lips pushed into a smile.
“Don’t make me ask about your daddy issues, amor,” she mussed.
It could have been the fact there was something else behind his words, it could have been the fact she was feeling quite lonely during the long nights, and she could use a little bit of distraction.
“If I didn’t know better, I would read a little bit into this.”
“Read into what, Gavin?” she closed the distance a little bit, coy smile, brows furrowed, feign wonder on her face.
He pushes her hair back from her shoulder, sliding his hand onto her neck. Gavin got closer, but there’s a moment before they actually closed the distance when she flashed a smile as his grip got a bit tighter stepping into the kiss.
He had more violence in him than she assumed a gringo would have, there was a fun game of power struggle in each kiss. She enjoyed it.
A while later, they laid in bed, smoking the joint, sipping on the prosecco straight from the bottle.
the mind is poison
The Chairman’s arrival sits weirdly with everyone - there’s a strange change of energy that happens, and she finds herself curious about the power balance happening in the school right now. Everyone seems to be on the edge, despite the very warm welcome Yussef Malik Faizon got from Lady M herself.
Initial pleasantries resulted in an elaborate Michelin-star-worthy dinner, followed by a cocktail party. It felt like the adrenaline was off the charts, some kind of combination of excitement, fear and pure uncertainty that gets into everyone really quickly.
She realised early after their Saturday outing things have shifted out of balance, or supposed balance. The security has gone up. There was a whole bunch of guards checking the premises on regular basis. Cameras were set up additionally. And, in her own universe, she would find herself missing out on those random opportunities to run into Antonio.
Normally, she could have cared very little, only there was no agenda behind her interest in him, which was not a usual case. Flirting might have been a bad choice, or she overestimated her own charm, but the bitter taste in her mouth felt…out of character.
But, it was another day - evening, actually - and she felt like talking to him again. He was about the Chairman the entire time, keeping to himself for the remainder of the time, which some might take as rejection.
Nare did too.
Still, she wanted some kind of closure - she can take a no for an answer, but she liked to hear a bit more than that.
“You seem to be having a very bad time,” she approached with her glass, sitting down next to him. He smiles, politely, and she smiles back.
“I’m afraid parties are no longer my thing,”
“Oh, really?” Nare crossed her legs, still looking at Toni who seemed to have had more interest in anyone else in the room. -“How come?”
“I’m sure the answer would bore you,” he smiles, diverting gaze from the room to her, only shortly. -“Let’s just say I’m not,”
“Very well,” she nodded, taking another sip of the alcohol. -“Maybe you can use some company, right now, no?”
He says nothing, and whatever masochistic shit she has in her keeps her sitting there still.
“I feel this will not be your normal form of communication, but could we speak honestly for long enough for you could tell me what’s with the cold shoulder?” she asks, after a pause far too long for a pleasant chat. Toni, somewhat surprised, looked at Nare, but she continues. -“Was I too direct, was I not direct enough, or am I just not that interesting to you?”
He looks at her, but instead of keeping this strict direction, Nare flashes a little smile. Tired one, perhaps.
“I won’t tell you to be gentle, but perhaps I am hoping the diplomat in you will devise the answer to this one,” she said, finishing her drink while he glanced away for a second after someone passed next to him, using the moment. She placed the empty glass onto the small side table next to the sofa, leaning lightly into the back, unsure if she’d like to hear the answer.
He seems amused, for a second.
“Perhaps I should take a lesson from your book of answering a question,” he started, Nare glancing away this time, as he leans into his place.
“What do you mean?”
“The clever way of not truly answering any,” he glanced at her, smiling a little.
“I’ve been told I should work on opening up to people, yes,” Nare acknowledged, folding her hands on her knees. She feels like smiling a little more, but the nervous sensation in her stomach keeps her from doing much. -“That’s it then?”
He seems a little bit confused right now. He seems like he is about to say something else, but she stops him, speaking first.
“In the light of this new honest policy everyone is eager to see me attempt, I’ll start,” she said, with a smile this time. -“The second I figured out we’ve met before I was officially initiated here, I knew I liked you, I enjoyed our conversation, no matter how many layers of allegories it was wrapped into,” Nare says. -“And, I don’t actually know what you’re thinking, but let me assure you that nothing came from a bad place.”
She feels like it might be too much already, but she feels like she is not yet done.
“And in any case, I could ask you the same, don’t you think?” she shrugged, realising it could be this entire place that is made out of a group of people forced into a falsely trusting relationship while actually creating paranoid individuals going about their days avoiding honest communication. -“But, that should be water under the bridge, Antonio,” Nare speaks. -“Should you decide to have a normal conversation with me, I’d be delighted. No pretences, no ulterior motive, nothing behind it. I am flirting because I like you, and I seek your company only because I enjoy it, no games.”
“Perhaps once our guests leave, we can have another attempt at making a conversation that sticks,” he says, and she feels like she’s been made an empty promise, but nods at him nevertheless.
“Let's hope that comes of it,” she threw on a charming smile before leaving him where she found him. Leaving the conversation much sooner than she wanted to, anyway.
getting ready for the showdown
Considering the circumstance of her own heritage and the prejudice about Latin people, their customs and tradition, it really seems like a very typical situation one might encounter in any decent novels made post 2010 when heroines were no longer God-worshiping saints trapped in the bodies and the wardrobe of your regular whores.
No. Nowadays, the heroines are contemporary women, flawed, agnostic, career-focused, sexual creatures willing to unapologetically enjoy a reasonable amount of sex within their story arch, which mightier might not be their end-game man of choice. More often than not, said heroines contemplate about the other man while in bed with a different one, not because there is something inherently wrong with the man next to her, but because of the simple and undeniable standard she can set: there is no “the right one”, there are no limitation and sex is to be enjoyed.
While one might argue this paints a very bad image of a contemporary heroine as an anti-hero in her liberation, most simply choose to ignore any kind of critical thinking, simply projecting their own insecurities onto the content they consume.
Luckily for Nare, she was never a huge fan of the novels.
“Do you think the Chairman is here because of the upcoming election?” she asks, stepping out of the walk-in shower. She made a few more steps, turning towards Gavin who stepped out a moment later, catching a towel she threw his way.
“What?” he seems distracted, looking away from his reflection in the mirror.
“I asked if you think there’s something interesting happening behind closed doors with the Chairman? Possibly regarding the election,” Nare repeated, twisting her hair into a towel, heading straight to his wardrobe, looking for a shirt. She did not have to say it, but she had to know whose name was going to show up as the one representing the Rojas cartel.
“Not that one,” he said as she reached for one, pushing her aside. -“And, I have no clue,” he replies calmly, handing her a plain white shirt, she very casually tucks into her jeans.
“I want to know if the transition has been made,” she replied. She fails to mention the fact she is also curious about the shipment which was never mentioned again by anyone.
“Didn’t your source have any new information?”
“No,” Nare shook her head, before pulling the towel down, stepping back into the bathroom, digging through his hair products shortly before pulling out some cream, thinly spreading it into her hair, keeping an eye on Gavin in the mirror. -“It’s frustrating to sit and wait,” she said, leaving the bathroom. Gavin was back on the bed, laptop next to him.
“You really have an issue with not knowing shit,” he chuckled playfully.
“Yeah, you’re the one to tell,” Nare bites back. -“If the situation was reversed, we would be somewhere on the side of the building, clinging onto the goddamn wall to plant…a. bug,” she finished, staring blankly at a spot above him. -“Gav,” she says in the end.
“Nare, come on,” he closed the laptop, sitting up.
“No, no Nare, no nothing,” she cuts him off. -“You want to stir shit, that’s fine, but when I want to find out what’s going to happen to me—“ hand tapping twice on her chest, -“suddenly, we are not doing anything reckless? Bullshit.”
Gavin looked at her, somewhat surprised and possibly disapproving of the scene, only she did not care one bit.
“I have no information, I cannot ask Samar because he is not allowed into any meeting and my mother is in love of the idea of Matias and would not conjure a possibility he is not working in my best interest,” she finished. -“One more bug, Gavin. I’m asking you as a friend, ” she says, seriously. Nare wasn’t sure what made him consider it, but he nodded his head in agreement.
“Okay,” he said. -“But this is going to be a bit harder, the only space he feels comfortable conducting business is the office Lady M assigned to him, and he’s there all the time,” he continued.
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying we’ll have to go in during the time he’s there, there’s a better chance to infiltrate than to break in,” he continued, waiting for her reply. Set in her way, Nare nodded.
“Fine, let’s just get it over with,” she said, returning back to the bathroom.
Gavin made the plan - given the fact he’s been in the office more than a few times doing some random errands for Toni, he knew the layout and he had a chance to do some light face scanning for the people there - there’s an aid working for him that is similar in height and hair colour - Nare will use the new mask technology to go in as the woman. It makes very little effort to keep the girl distracted enough to replace her phone, keeping her working at the deck alone while Nare is showing up for the meeting instead. There’s a moment of nervousness that almost takes over. Gavin is sitting nearby, keeping his eye on the original aid, close by so he can stay in touch with Nare.
“Ready?”
“As much as I can be,” she says, walking from around the corner, towards the room.
“Chill it with the catwalk, the mousy sitting on the deck is not confidently walking into that room,” she hears a soft chuckle in his voice, taming it down a little. She grabbed the handle, two men on the outside paid no attention to her as she walked in.
To her surprise, the Chairman is not alone - Antonio is there, apparently just arrived as the man is gifting him with a nice bottle of bubbles, along with a hand-written message, and Toni gracefully accepts the gift.
Nare finds her place in the back of the room, near the entrance, opening her notepad, trying to detect a suitable spot for a bug while the two men conversed idly, chatting like two friends who lost contact ages ago.
“So, I take it there is no issue with Evelyn either?” he continues as Toni made some remarks on the new recruits, and she tries to listen in, trying to play her part. The guards standing near her make notice of her presence, holding the semi-automatic rifles in their arms, glancing at her as she makes a space for herself, and she just smiles, politely, keeping her head down as she continues scanning the room.
The AR Five-Seven, used as a complete riffle here, was a lightweight model which could be a bestseller due to the power, ability to upgrade it to an AR-15 or M16 rifle. It had a straight blowback, the most basic, but a very effective kind, if the batch is properly made - if you find yourself at the aim of that combined with a good shooter, at least you’re sure it will be quick.
“I made an attempt to ensure she would not,”
“An attempt?”
“Unfortunately, I was overridden in my decision to do so,” he said. Nare looked around over the rim of her block, trying to figure out the right position when she feels a light buzz around her ears. There’s a glitching sound or rather a visual image of the mask in front of her, and blinks, drawing a breath just before a very familiar sound you’d often hear before a device dies.
Confused looks turn into angry expressions, and she stands there, dropping the notebook to the ground as the guards raised their guns at her. The Chairman and Toni both got up, the private security detail pushed the man to the side, all eyes and guns pointed to her.
Overwhelming rush comes to a still for a split second, or less, reminding herself it will be quick. She swallowed hard, lifting her chin up in the hope it will cover this deafening sound of her heart beating its way out of her chest.
Her lips part for a moment, although she is not sure if she wants to say something, the eternity is cut short when the doors open, getting everyone’s attention.
The slow-motion movement of Gavin bursting in the room, laughing, burns into her memory, and he approached the Chairman in a few swift moves, saying the words, looking at her, glancing between them.
“Let’s not get someone killed,” he says with the same amused tone dripping from his voice, as she stood there in silence. -“Allow me to introduce you to Naressa Navarro, she’s with me” words slip his lips, he glanced over his shoulder towards her - the Chairman looked at him, shocked, before glancing over at Naressa, turning to Gavin again.
“Guns down,” he says shortly, looking at Nare up and down, a smile appearing on his lips easily. -“It seems like our new apprentice is younger and more reckless than we’d assume,” his attention was back at Gavin.
“I assure you, bold and daring are the words you should be looking for,” he replied, locking eyes with Nare, still in shock, who glanced away from his somewhat proud look, finally letting go of the breath she held in. -“Give her some time, I’m sure she’ll make you reconsider this small matter of semantics,” the smugness in his voice stroke a nerve in her. Nare glared at him, Gavin shortly looking back and finally the buzzing in her ears stopped, she’s breathing normally, she relaxes her face finally.
“Perhaps,” the man said, gaze plastered at her for far longer than she would found comfortable. -“I’m looking forward to sitting down with you, Miss Navaro, later on,” he took a step forward, reaching for her hand. Nare takes a step forward, the Chairman’s right hand cupping hers, while his left reached for her wrist. His words seem sincere, his intentions did not.
He glanced back at Gavin, nodding once, before Gavin gestured towards the door, both of them escorted out of the room. She locks eyes with Antonio for a split second before getting out.
She jerks from the grip of one of the Fevoc security guards, speeding up as they escorted them right to the main ground. Gavin stops at the top of the stairs, a smile curling his lips upwards, while she moved forward, heading up.
“Nare?”
The sound of his voice felt like scratching inside her ears, she pulls the mask from her face, letting it fall to the ground, walking forward, much faster than she would have normally, trying to contain whatever started to burn in the bottom of her stomach from whoever is watching, and this school is not a private affair. So, she chooses to keep herself private, walking up. Gavin picked up the mask from the ground, skipping a few steps heading up, pulling out the headphones from his ear. She throws him a glare, looking down on the stair rest, skipping up a little bit faster, heading to her room.
“Nare,” he called out once again, a little bit confused, as she reached her room. She walks past a few people, briefly catching a glimpse of Inessa Vasiliev, who is sure to find out about the events easily, chatting with Tomichi Kato, but she quickly makes her way across the hall and into her room. Without missing a beat, Gavin walked in as if he owned the fucking place, which might have seemed like a smart move to him.
Then, the doors closed, and she turns around sharply, stopping him in his place.
“Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
“What the actual—“ the fact there’s a genuine confusion on his face pisses her off, it makes her mad, and she can feel there’s something bottling up in the back of her throat.
“Yes, Gavin, what the actual fuck?” she hissed through her teeth clenched, not raising her voice for a single second, getting close enough to him to push him a little. -“What was that, huh?! Que sapearia, parcero? Is this how friends treat friends, is it?”
“Oh, calm down—“
“Get out, Gavin!” she raised her voice a second, getting back into his personal space. -“Get out, we are done, I am done—“
“Nare—“
“No!” she exhaled, strongly, silently. Nare shook her head, turning around for a split second to wipe a faint trace of what is about to happen whether or not he’s in the room. -“We’re done, okay? This is over—”
“There’s no return—“
“Fuck, Gavin,” the exhausted sounds come from the bottom of her throat, and instead of giving in to what she felt, she ends up giving it a short shrug. -“I don’t care anymore, okay?” she exhales the last word softly.
“Just get out, I’m done, and I don’t want to make a scene, but I promise you I will,” she crossed her arms on her chest. He stood there another second, before turning around. By the time he closes the door behind him, she’s already in the shower.
Focusing on all the bits I wanna do until we begin again....and until then, I'll be proudly: stressin' & progressin'!
Last edited by Zaralee (08/07/2021 at 09:15)
