flawless [vinnie hacker]

31.

When they leave the bathroom almost an hour later, they bump into a blonde, tall girl with a pretty smile and a nose piercing (some of the attributes Vinnie used to look for in a girl).

"Oh my God! Vinnie!" The girl jumped to his arms, causing Vinnie to let go of Hera's hand. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I know! It's been so fucking long!" He looks so happy to see her.

"What have you been up to? I saw you bought that car you used to talk about." She bumps his chest with her fist.

"Oh, yeah, I fixed it and now it's my baby." He says. "Uhm, Hera, this is Faith." Vinnie finally introduces them.

"Hello." She says with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"Holy shit, you're so pretty. Where is your dress from?" Faith seems so nice, but the little sparkle in her eyes (and Vinnie's) hurt a little. So she can't help herself when she simply answer with a 'It's thrifted'. "Ugh, I don't know how you find such pretty things when you thrift. Honestly, I get bored."

"It takes a lot of patience." Hera shrugs.

"So, what have you been doing?" Vinnie asks, he's still standing very close to Hera, but they're not holding hands anymore.

"I managed to get some modeling gigs, which was really fun. And that got me some sponsorships so... yeah, it's been going great!"

They start talking about things Hera doesn't understand. So when she whispers to Vinnie's ear 'I'm going over to say hi to Larray' he just smiles and nods.

It stings a little, but whatever.

"Why is Vinnie talking to Faith?" Larray says with almost disgust.

"We bumped into her." Her explains as she grabs a White Claw. "Why?"

"I mean... Vinnie was like, in love with her."

"What?" Hera almost chokes on her drink.

"Forget I said that." Larray turns around and runs. The brunette doesn't feel like moving, so she stays in her place and downs her beverage.

She turns around again, only to find Vinnie and Faith sitting down, talking with big stupid smiles and laughing. The blonde girl touches his biceps "unintentionally". The worst thing about the whole thing is Vinnie leaning towards her and shooting her that dumb charming smile.

Hera decides not to go to her boyfriend and see if he can bother to remember her existence, until he does, she's going to drink straight from a Don Julio bottle that she found.

She's almost one third of the bottle down when Hera gets tired of waiting and decides do go over to them.

"Hey. I'm leaving."

"What?" His smile disappears. "Why?"

"Dad says he wants me home." Hera shrugs. "Have fun, text me when you're home."

Hera doesn't even gives Vinnie the chance to say goodbye, but she can hear him calling her.

"Hi. Sorry. Were you sleeping?" She asks to the other person over the phone. "Can you come pick me up?"

They hang up just in time. Vinnie touches her shoulder and she turns around.

"I'll wait with you here." He says.

"I don't want my dad to see you drunk." She says, which isn't exactly the truth. "You should go inside."

"I feel like you're upset about something."

"Just go back inside." Vinnie frowns.

"Why are you mad? Are you... are you drunk?" His eyes drift to the bottle in her hand. "How are you already drunk again?"

"I'm not mad." Hera smiles but she can tell Vinnie knows it's not genuine. "You should really go back inside." With Faith, she wants to add, but Hera doesn't want to sound crazy.

"You are mad and I don't fucking know why." He rolls his eyes. "It's always something with you."

"Go back inside, Vinnie."

"So you are mad about something! What is it this time?" He steps closer to her.

"I already fucking told you I'm not mad. So back the fuck off." She pushes him lightly.

"Is it about Faith?" He asks, he doesn't seem as mad anymore. There's actually a glimpse of guilt behind his eyes. So he does know what he did.

"She must be waiting for you." Hera smiles. "Wouldn't want to keep her waiting, would we?"

"Hera, it's not-"

"Just go, please."

"Hera." He calls for her when she turns around. "Hera." Vinnie steps in front of her.

"I don't want to talk about this." It's a lie again, she wants to scream at him for flirting back. "Can you please leave me alone?"

"You are not fucking standing here alone, I can see those guys guys eyeing you."

"I don't think we work." The brunette says in a quiet voice, she watches as Vinnie's eyes open and panics. "We don't do anything but fight, I can't keep it up." She sits down on the final steps of the house.

"Wait, no, hold on." He crouches down in front of her and places his hands on her knees. "You're drunk, you don't mean that."

"I do. I'd rather be just friends if it means I'll stop feeling like this." She's slurring out words, but the word vomit can't be stopped now. "I wasn't a jealous person. I wasn't possessive. I wasn't insecure before you."

The blond boy just blinks at her confession.

"But you not stopping girls when they flirt with you, not setting boundaries with them... you're making me feel crazy. You know, the only reason I wore this fucking dress is because I saw Renata all over you on Michael's story."

"I'm sorry, I didn't... I never meant for you to feel like this. But, please-"

"My dad's here." Hera stands up quickly and walks away, but stops just before opening the car door. "Please don't kiss her."