Trapped In Your Bleeding Heart (Riff x Reader)

Chapter Eight - Tony

"What do you think you're doing with my sister?!"

Upon hearing the loud noise, Riff instinctively pulled me closer to him, and turned me away from the yelling. "Stay here." He murmured to me, releasing me and walking towards the noise.

But I couldn't just stay there. That was Bernardo yelling, there was no doubt. Which means something could've happened to Maria. The blonde girl who had been dancing with Riff earlier pushed past me and ran after Riff. I could hear more yelling, but was suddenly very scared to get involved. I didn't want Riff to know that I lived with his enemies. Although I'm not sure why I cared.

I could hear Bernardo yell again.

That's it—

I pushed past the large group of people who had halted their dancing and made my way to the noise. Maria stood next to a tall white boy, who stood next to Riff, who stood in between the tall white boy and Bernardo. "Let's all just calm down." Riff said, facing Bernardo. "In fact, let's have a chat."

Snowboy and Diesel appeared on either side of Riff, and two more Puerto Rican men appeared behind Bernardo.

"Let's." Bernardo said, leading the group of six out of the gym and towards the bathrooms.

I rushed to Anita's side. "What happened?" I asked.

Maria ran to me and grabbed my arm. Anita walked up to the tall white boy. "Do you want to start world war three?" She asked, strutting out of the gym.

He and Maria locked eyes. "I'm sorry..." He said.

"No! Don't be!" Maria urged.

Anita looked back to us. "Girls!" She shouted, eyeing the tall white boy. "We're leaving."

I didn't question her. I knew things would be explained to me later. But why were we leaving without Bernardo? Were the six men who went to the bathroom going to fight? I was suddenly worried for the safety of Bernardo, but not only that...

I was worried for the safety of Riff.

After one night. One dance. Hardly one conversation. I suddenly felt the urge to care for him.

This is bad.

The gym was within short walking distance of our apartment building, so if Anita wasn't worried about Bernardo, I wasn't going to be either. I looked to the right of me, where many cars were parked. In the truck bed of a navy blue GMC pickup sat Squinty, tail wagging fast. I hung back, looking in the direction of the dog I had become so fond of.

"Rose? Are you coming?" Maria called.

I looked to the pair. "I think I'll hang back for just a bit. For job purposes." I responded.

Maria's face fell. Anita nodded. "We'll meet you back home when you're done. Be careful walking alone." She said.

I nodded and waved to them, slowly backing towards the cars. As soon as they were out of view, I whipped around and walked to the dog. "Hey, Squinty!" I greeted.

Squinty smiled his doggy smile and squinted his eyes. He flung one of his paws up to the rim of the truck bed and dipped his nose down to my face. I laughed lightly. "You're pretty sweet, considering your dad is known to be pretty mean."

I pulled my face away from the dog to get a better look at him. To this, Squinty's head tilted to the side, and his tail froze with his focus. I tilted my head along with him, and matched his gaze. Now that he was so preoccupied, he sort of looked like Riff when he was focused on dancing. "Actually," I said, letting out a small laugh, "you two resemble each other quite a bit."