Cuarenta y Ocho
“Yup, that’s her,” My cousin confirms as he shifts his weight, clasps his hands together in front of his stomach, and rolls his head to the side with his face tipped back.
“This is who killed your guy, man,” Gabe says with a fucking accusatory tone, and my brain rewinds to that piece of shit gangbanger that I fucking stabbed to death. Of fucking course he’s somehow tied to this. Because I’m literalmente the unluckiest bitch in the world.
“IT WAS YOU?! YOU FUCKING KILLED ONE OF MY OLDEST FUCKING FRIENDS? YOU STUPID FUCKING BITCH!! He screams at the top of his lungs, and Alvi’s men keep his ass restrained, as I stand tall behind my desk. I feel fucking proud of myself.
“SHE KILLED MY FUCKING BOY! I HAVE THAT SHIT ON VIDEO!!” blondie guy screeches out, and he sounds like a little bitch having a tantrum, “SHE OWES ME!!” Yeah, this dumbass man can get fucked. I owe him fucking nothing. Na-da, wey.
His fucking ‘boy’ deserved it. Men who try to hurt women deserve to die, and I don’t feel fucking bad that this motherfucker is out here grieving garbage. I don’t give a shit how fucking butt-hurt he is, I’d stab him, too, if he came after me.
“There’s no debt to be honored after the shit that he tried to do to her,” Alvi assertively commands, “You can fuck right off with that.” Mr. Fucking Blue Suit looks like he’s fucking butt-hurt, and I sincerely hope that motherfucker catches cancer fucking early. Bye, bitch.
“I don’t know about all that. We can tack it on to the fifteen months she owes me. There’s a fucking price tag on that shit,” mi primo adds. I can feel the hate rolling off of him, and I feel hot under everyone’s eyes as they catch on.
“?Verdad, prima? (Right, cousin?) You good out here? You're living a nice life, going to this fancy-ass college, huh? That’s alright, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a fucking rat.
???TU PINCHE SOPLONA, WEY!!! (YOU FUCKING SNITCH!
!!)” He spits out in a loud, venomous voice, like he’s one of those poisonous copperheads found in the Bronx.
And here I thought I was the only snake in the room.
He lunges forward with these big, bugged-out black eyes, and he looks like he wants to fucking kill me just as two of Alvi’s guys grab his ass.
I scream like a little bitch and drop down behind the desk before my shaky fingers pull my beanie down over my face.
Lo siento mucho, Hecate, pero I’m so sorry, Hecate, but I can’t be brave anymore.
He’s never gone after me before. He’s never yelled or been violent with me, and he’s never fucking hurt me. Pero, this isn’t who he was; he isn’t the same man.
He’s fucking bigger and meaner. And it’s not just because of the terrible fucking neck tattoo that he now has of Payton. It’s his whole persona. This is who he was going to be, no matter what.
He’s a version of himself that the capo s were tailoring him to be.
And he’s using all of his special talents.
This right here is why the OG’s were grooming him for next generation shit; he’s fucking patient, y he prepares y he fucking plots…
y he never forgets. We both have perfect fucking memories. Must be a family trait.
“?PINCHE SAPA! ?A TU PROPIA MALDITA SANGRE? (FUCKING SNITCH! TO YOUR OWN FUCKING BLOOD?)” He yells over all the other noise in the room, making sure to call me a fucking rat over and over.
The strain in his voice sounds like a battle cry, and I crouch down as low as I can to shield myself from being hit with his words.
?LO Sé, VAL, LO Sé! (I KNOW, VAL, I KNOW!)
“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID! FOR WHAT YOU FUCKING TOOK FROM ME!” He screams, and it snuffs out the bell above the door as it opens.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING YELLING AT MY GIRL LIKE THAT?!!” Hunter shouts as he bursts into the shop. The energy of his presence is so strong, it feels like he’s led a million-man army to save me.
I cautiously stand up from behind the desk and catch my man stepping up to my still restrained cousin as he gets in Gabe’s face. I feel like my past y present are about to smash into each other; Valentine y Edison, New York y Virginia, The Bronx y Havenwood, Gabriel y Hunter.
“I FUCKING HEARD YOU FUCKING SCREAMING AT HER FROM OUT-FUCKING-SIDE!!” The two tectonic plates of my world are colliding in real fucking time as Alvi’s guys struggle to keep them both separated.
My man’s hands reach above literal bent bodies and clamp around my cousin's neck, before he screams in his face, “YOU PIECE OF SHIT, MOTHERFUCKER!” And it’s like the whole fucking place shakes.
“CALM THE FUCK DOWN!” Alvi shouts as he tries to pry Hunter off of Gabe, who fights the strong-ass hold that my man and the neighborhood guys have on him. “LET HIM GO, HUNT!”
“GET HIM THE FUCK OFF ME!” My cousin bellows, and Alvi pulls this pendejo away.
“ENOUGH! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!” Tattoo guy shouts as Gabe takes in big gulps of air while staring at me with angry fucking eyes and steam coming out of his big-ass nostrils. Carajo, wey, he’s fucking pissed.
He looks like one of those bulls that are about to charge. Maybe it’s the red stitching on my man’s hockey hoodie that I’m wearing.
“DON’T FUCKING LOOK AT HER! LOOK AT ME, MOTHERFUCKER. SHE ISN’T YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM, I FUCKING AM. FROM NOW ON, YOU TALK TO ME,” Hunter roars from Alvi’s bear hug grip as he tries to get him to calm the fuck down, and the two other guys pull Gabe further away.
“BABY, YOU OKAY?” he calls for me, and my voice box feels like it’s been taped shut. “ED?! FUCKING ANSWER ME!”
“EVERYONE JUST TAKE A FUCKING brEATH. FUCK, NONE OF YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES FUCKING LISTEN!” Alvie shouts.
“Did you say, Ed? That’s not her fucking name,” Gabe laughs like it’s fucking hilarious, and a sharp pain rips through my head. It hurts so bad that I hold my skull in my hands and rub circles over my temples.
“I already fucking told you, she isn’t your concern,” mi cabrón hits back. The chaotic energy is too fucking much, and it’s making my brain literally hurt.
It’s the same pain and pressure that I’d get when a fucking storm was coming through. It would always be some disgustingly hot and humid day in July when it would hit a hundred fucking degrees down in the X, then the clouds would fucking cry for all the bad shit happening down on the streets.
Ms. Santos told me that. She called it ‘reframing.’ It may have worked. I remember I’d tell myself that the rain was gonna wash away all the bad shit in my head.
“You tell your man out here what your real fucking name is, prima ?” I can hear the ruthless undertone of his voice, and it overpowers his New York accent. “You tell him where we’re from, Val?”
“STOP FUCKING TALKING TO HER!!” Hunter shouts, and I squeeze my eyes together when I’m hit with another searing pain.
“Your little boyfriend know you a hood rat, Val? He know about the bad shit you’ve done?
How you sold drugs? How you were passed around like a dirty fucking puta (whore)?
” His voice grates over my nerves, and I wish he’d just stop, but I know it never will now that the universe has put us back together.
“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY, MOTHERFUCKER?! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”
“You need to calm the fuck down, Hunt, I fucking mean it,” Alvie snaps, and I switch from rubbing my temples to squeezing the back of my neck to relieve the pressure building in my head.
“Someone’s in trouble,” the baboso, slimeball , that no one fucking cares about, adds.
“AGAIN MOTHERFUCKER, FROM NOW ON, YOU TALK TO ME AND ME ONLY!”
“That’ll cost you,” Mr. Polyester Suit adds from his fucking guarded corner, and it makes my cousin smirk like he’s amused that whatever plan they’ve pieced together is finally working. To me, it looks like a grown-ass man’s in fucking time out.
There’s no fucking way that this loser contributed to any fucking plan; diabolical, revenge, or otherwise. He looks like he has ten working brain cells. My cousin, or Payton , is behind whatever it is they’ve got going on.
“ED?! ANSWER ME, BABY!” I can hear his voice, but the pressure in my ears is so strong it makes me wonder if this is what being on a plane feels like, or if there’s a cumulonimbus cloud that’s formed in my skull. “Alvi, man, I’m gonna need you to get the fuck off of me now.”
A storm was coming, I could fucking feel it. I also felt his hands pick up my face and pull my beanie off my head before I was up in his big y strong y inked arms. My skull felt heavy, and I couldn’t keep it up any longer, as my face rolled onto his muscular shoulder.
The thunder claps inside my head, and lightning strikes behind my eyes as the storm quickly approaches. My heart is beating so fucking fast that I start to sweat and feel hot all over. The black and white tiled floor looks weird on the wall, and I can’t keep my eyes open.
And then I see her. She’s looking back at me in my mind’s eye, and she’s carrying a big-ass navy blue umbrella with gold lettering. I can make out 'KINGS PREP' even though the letters are fuzzy. I remember Gabe holding it for us all to walk under on those wet walks to school.
Her face comes into focus and she looks fucking derranged. It scares the shit out of me.