𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

𝐡𝐮𝐢𝐭

"Ugh." Tara rolls over, faint memories circling in her brain. She rolls over, causing the fuzzy blanket to fall off her. The cold air surrounds her as soon as the material stops making contact with her skin.

"Fudge." She mutters before falling off the bedroom of her bed.

Bed? The last thing she remembers was falling asleep while watching The Devil Wears Prada.

"Oh shoot. I have orientation today." She remembers, while slowly getting up.

When she finally gets up she's greeted with a fully decorated room, complete with all the things that she had in her old house.

Her hands grasp around the small cup that was attached to one of the plants that were already starting to curl around her bed frame.

"Huh. I must have been super energetic." She mumbles, running to the bathroom to water all of her plants.

Tara hums a random tune as she carefully waters her plants, careful not to get any water on the floor. When she finished that, she made it her priority to get ready for her orientation and also look good while doing it.

Humming while walking back to the bathroom to do her routine, she looks out the window. The sky was blue and the clouds were pink, reminding her of cotton candy.

The mellow sound of classical music streams through the small, beige-colored room.

In the bathroom, water gathers in Tara's hands as she washes her face. As she scrubs all signs of her jetlag, she sees the peeling paint on her hands.

"All I had yesterday was pink lemonade. I don't think you can get drunk on that." She talks to herself as she brushes through her frizzy brown hair, trying her best to tame her hair.

A sharp exhale comes from Tara as she looks at herself in the mirror.

It's just like Australia.

Right?

Various thoughts run through her head as she tries to imagine how the meeting could go. Tara places her hands on the edge of her desk, trying to not overthink how this could go,

"I can do this." She reassures herself while grabbing her backpack and walking downstairs.

Once she gets downstairs, she greets both Maurice and Atlas.

"Hey Maurice, Hey Atlas."

"Hey Piglet. Where are you going?" Atlas asked, concerned about his sister.

"I have orientation today at the university. Plus, I woke up late so I really have to go." She rushes out, grabbing her backpack and running out the door.

"Well, that was interesting," Atlas mutters, turning back around and working on his pancakes.

Ding.

Atlas pats his pockets, pulling out his phone to check if it's his phone making the noise. When he turns on his phone he's greeted with no notification,

"It's not my phone."

"It's mine," Maurice says, fishing through his pockets for his phone. He finally pulls it out, his face turning white as he scrolls through the message.

"Crap." He mumbles, also adding a couple of colorful words underneath his breath.

"What happened? Did another brick of coke get stolen from the crosswalk?" Atlas asked nonchalantly as if this was an everyday thing. Maurice looks up, wondering how he knew about that situation,

"First of all, how did you know about that? I thought that I told everybody not to tell you." Atlas smirks, flipping the pancake onto his plate and drizzling a heap load of syrup onto it,

"I'm your right-hand man. I know everything." He said, shoving the fork into his mouth.

"Lovely. But, that's not the problem. It's bigger than that." Maurice whispers, trying to figure out how to break the news to his best friend.

"Then what's the problem?" Atlas asks, walking over to the kitchen to put his dishes in the sink.

"Tara's been discovered hanging out with you."

Crash!

The dishes fall from his hand as Atlas stands there in shock. How had someone found out about his sister and him? He had taken all the necessary precautions to make sure she would be safe.

"By who? How?" A flood of questions come out of his mouth as he questions Maurice.

"ACE put the picture out first. I think that EQUAL's already seen it. But the good thing about it is that they hadn't seen her face." Maurice says, scrolling through his phone, most likely looking through the mafia channels for any information.

"That means we have some time," Atlas says, opening his fridge and pulling out his handgun, tucking it in his waistband.

Maurice, seeing the gun, quickly gets up, pushing Atlas against the wall in an attempt to calm down,

"What are you doing?" He asks, pulling the gun out of Atlas's waistband and quickly disassembling it, throwing the pieces somewhere.

"Hey!" Atlas protests, trying to get out of Maurice's grip.

"Not until you've calmed down," Maurice says sternly, with a tone that leaves little to be discussed.

Atlas exhales sharply and Maurice finally lets go of him. Atlas starts to slowly gather the pieces of his gun that were strewn across the floor.

"Sorry about that." He mutters, breaking the tension in the room,

"I get really overprotective over Tara sometimes and I really want her to live a crime-free life." He adds, cocking the gun until he hears the click.

"What were you planning to do?" Maurice asks, keeping an eye on the emotionally fragile man.

"I wanted to go and kill all of them," Atlas mutters, getting a glass of water to try and calm himself down further. Maurice looks at him with an eyebrow raised,

"That would cause a gang war to break out. It would also cause your sister to be in way more trouble."

"That's true. It's just, I don't know what to do about our whole predicament." Atlas mutters, rubbing at his temples. Maurice instantly sympathizes with him, he understands that sort of feeling.

"No, I understand Atlas. I sorta feel that way about her as well. But we have to wait." Maurice tries to explain his thinking as simply as possible.

"So, what do we do?" Atlas asks, playing with the safety switch on his gun.

"We wait for the other side to make a move," Maurice mutters, his hands going into fists by the side of his body. Atlas grins, this would be fun,

"Let's do it."

Hi! Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. I've been writing a lot more since I have had winter break for these past couple of weeks. Also, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2020 has been a pile of crap and I'm only hoping that it could go up from here. 

Make sure to vote, comment, and share if you enjoyed it.

TPWK

-Sky