With Pain Comes Pleasure

Ten

Angelica

"Baby—" I turned and looked at Cortez and he fell silent. Christian sighed but stayed quiet as he pulled up to my house. They both got out and Cortez opened my door while Christian helped me out. Christian squeezed my face in his hand before leaning down to kiss me. I looked up at him and I could see him searching my eyes but I was sure all he saw was annoyance. He let me go before Cortez snaked his arms around me. "Stop pouting." He said rolling his eyes. He grabbed my chin kissing me. "Have a good day." He whispered. I nodded my head.

--

I ran around my room trying to get dressed for school. "Yikes." I heard Kassi say. I stopped and looked at Lala and Kassi. "What?" I asked. They both shrugged. "You just seem off today," Kassi said. "Did the twins do something?" Lala asked curiously. I glanced at Maya who was sitting on my bed texting. "I'm not talking about them," I said walking into my bathroom. "Fine, I'll just bother Maya," Lala said. "Who are you texting?" She asked her. I watched from the bathroom as a goofy smile spread across her face.

"Ooo it's a boy." Kassi teased. I rolled my eyes. "Yall need to exit my room and go get dressed because y'all will get left," I said. Lala stuck her tongue out at me as she left while Kassi rolled her eyes.

"You're texting PJ, aren't you?" I asked as I sat on my bed. She looked up at me. "Yeah, he's funny. And he matches my sense of humor. But don't worry we're just talking, I promise." She said sending a look my way. I chuckled. "I didn't say anything," I said. "You didn't have to your face did." She countered. "I'm just—you sound like me when I first started dating the twins," I said with a shrug.

"I do?" She asked. I nodded my head. "They are so sweet and funny when they want to be. They go out of their way to make me feel comfortable. I wouldn't say I'm in love just yet but those two understand me better than most." I said thinking about them. I kind of felt bad for being so cold this morning. I sighed. "Go finish getting ready," I told her.

--

"So, what really happened?" Kassi asked. I bit my lip and gave them tiny snippets of what happened. I figured it was better to just let them come to their own conclusions rather than tell them and deal with the hundreds of questions. Kassi thought it was funny while Lala stared at me. "What?" I asked looking at her. "Nothing." She said shaking her head as I pulled into a parking spot.

"Bye, my little tomato," Kassi said pinching my cheek. I looked at her confused. "I'll see you at lunch," I said with laughter in my voice.

Cortez

"Did she text you back?" Christian asked. I nodded my head. "Yeah, all she said was she's in class," I said. "We should have just told her," I said looking at him. When she asked us about our job neither of us were ready to tell her what we did. She was our escape from that shit and if we told her about it that would change everything. But knowing Angel because we didn't tell her she's probably coming up with the worst-case scenarios. "She probably thinks we're theses awful criminals," Christian said.

--

"What does that even mean?" she asked. "It's complicated." She questioned looking from Cortez and Christian. "What we do is dangerous and involving you would complicate things," Christian said. "How so?" She asked. "Angel," Cortez said. "You can have sex with me. I can go to family functions but telling me how you make a living would complicate things." She said. "That would mean whatever you two do is illegal." She mumbled to herself. "And if that were the case why would you two get involved with me knowing you're into illegal shit." She snapped.

The two brothers glanced at each other as Angel stood from the bed going to grab her clothes. "Angel, what are you doing?" Cortez asked standing. "I'm getting the hell out of here. I am not going to prison for anybody. Whatever illegal activity you two are involved in I want no parts." She said. Christian grabbed her stopping her. "Baby please." He begged.