Strawberries and cigarettes | vh

16

Alana

I expected Vinnie to just leave me there, so I was very surprised when he asks, "do you wanna uh shower cause you went to the beach and all." He rubs his neck clearly not used to the girls he fingers staying around.

"Sure." He gestures me to go in there being only one shower. Vinnie strips down and starts the shower while I'm still in my bathing suit. We get cleaned up and dry off.

Vinnie throws me one of his shirts. "You can wear that if you want." He suggests and I oblige pulling it over my head. The shirt reaches my mid thigh. "You look cute." He comes out wearing a fresh pair of clothes and drying his hair with a towel.

Vinnie walks to me and gives me a peck on the lips. I look at him surprised. "What was that for?" He just shakes his head looking down. "Felt like it." He gives me a small smile which I reciprocate. "Ready to go?" I ask as he grabs his bag. "Yup let's go."

"Why were you the only one there?" I question halfway through our drive. "Well today the gym wasn't supposed to stay open but I had to practice."

"I don't even get what's this stupid fight about?" He gives me an amused smile. "Beats me. I'm just doing this for the money." That earns a laugh out of me. "Course you are."

"I guess Bryce and Austin have beef and well they're both people who like to showcase it to the entire world so here we are now." He shrugs. We reach the house and I park my car to see Vinnie already halfway down the driveway. I stay in the car for a few minutes to gather up my thoughts.

Before I get up my phone rings. It's an unknown number which makes a confused. I pick up but don't say anything. There's a buzzing voice before a distorted voice on the other line. "I'm watching you baby." I immediately start looking around never having received a call like this. "Who-who's this?". The person tuts on the other line "Now now don't look around. You can't see me but u sure can. You look rather lovely this evening babe." Before I can comprehend what happens the line disconnects.

"Fuck." I quickly get out of the car and practically sprint towards the house shit scared. I don't even bother to greet anyone and go straight to my room and slam the door shut. My breaths come out shaky, scared from whatever's going on.

I hear a knock on my door and stiffen. "Hey you good?" I relax when I hear Vinnie's voice. "Um yea I'm good." The door slowly opens revealing Vinnie standing in the doorway holding a bottle of water. "I heard your door slam and thought something might've happened."

"Everything's fine just applied more force than necessary." He looks like he isn't convinced but doesn't say anything. "Anyway Alex made some weird salad for dinner if you want."

I grab my phone and follow him to the kitchen. I grab two bowls and Vinnie gets the salad and serves us. "This doesn't look that bad." Vinnie looks at me as if I've grown two heads. "Don't judge a book by its cover Vincent." I laugh at his reaction and take a bite of the salad which like I said wasn't bad at all. "It's good try it."

He stops picking at his and takes a bite. "It's edible." He takes another bite.

We finish our salads and load the dishwasher. Vinnie decides that he wants to watch a movie with the guys and joins them and I decide to call it a night being way too tired from the beach.

When I enter my room I see Mia sprawled across my bed. "Thomas kick you out?" I tease her. "He wishes. He's watching a movie with the guys so I thought we might as well get some girl time." She grins. "Okay where's Kouvr?" She shudders at this. "I went to call her but heard some noises and assumed she was preoccupied." I laugh at that. Poor Mia.

"Alright then whatcha want to talk about?" I get in bed next to her getting comfy. She notices what I'm wearing and smirks. Oh boy. "Nice shirt where'd you get it?" She asks. "I thrifted it." I lie straight through my teeth.

"Thrifted in Vinnie's closet you mean." She scoffs. "This is not his shirt." I try to lie again. "Please I've seen him wear this shirt more then I've seen girls leave his room-" her mouth snaps shut when she realises what she just said. "Sorry."

"What? Why should I bother me?" I try to act innocent . "Cause you're wearing his goddam clothes!" She shrieks and I cover her mouth. "His rooms right next to mine!"

"So I was right." She wiggles her eyebrows. "It's nothing we just kissed once." She gestures to my clothes. "I blew him." She almost screams but tries to keep it low. "He fingered me." That was her last straw. She squealed like a fucking mule. "Oh my god!"

"But seriously though y'all would look cute." I shake my head. "It was a one time thing."

"Bitch please I've seen him make googly eyes at you more than I've seen him wear that god forsaken shirt." She scoffs. "I don't know. I'll see how it goes." I sigh and she nods understandably. "So what about your little friend?" She asks.

"Which one?"

"The barbie obsessed with your mans." I almost choke on the water I was trying to drink. "Who Tati?" I splutter. "Yea that one. Isn't she like obsessed with Vinnie?" She asks. I just shrug in response. "I mean I guess she finds him attractive. That's another reason why I can't do-"

"Let me stop you right here." She cuts me off. "Who did he kiss?" She asks. "Me." She nods. "Who did he go down on?" I pause and give her a look. "Go on." She urges. "Me." I lowly reply. "There you go. Now put a bitch in her place." She supplies the solution. "Alright I'll talk to her I guess."

The next two days passed pretty quickly in me working on my music, the show wrapping up and Vinnie with his upcoming fight. Finally it was Saturday, the 12th. The day of the fight. I woke up around 9 as we were supposed to reach the venue at 11 and Mia was like a Godzilla on lose. "Lana I give you five seconds to get your clothes on before I drag you there naked." She bangs on the bathroom. God how did she even get a key to my room.

I dress up quickly not wanting to face her wrath. I got dressed in a oversized top with shorts and sneakers, I decided to go with shorts as it was pretty hot in Miami where the event was taking place. I got a text from Mona that she will be meeting me directly at the venue along with Tati as they were staying in a different hotel from us. Ours was fully booked. The reason being all the contestants were staying here.

I checked my phone to see it was already 10:15 and left to go downstairs to see everyone gathered. "Fucking finally!" Mia shouts. "Come on people hustle!" She pushes everyone out into their respective cars. I decided I was too lazy to drive and caught a ride with Alex and Kouvr.  "What time does this thing start again?" Kouvr asks.

"I think the weigh in will start at 12 and the fights at about say 2? I'm not really sure tho."

"I'm pretty sure that's it. I talked to Tayler and Nate earlier and they said that the weigh in was at 12 and the fights about an hour or two after it." I remembered Tayler mentioning the time when we talked the day before.

It took us about twenty minutes to reach the venue and saw that it was pretty crowded. Alex's phone rings which was connected to the car and he picks up. "Yo." Thomas' voice comes from the speaker. "Sup man." Alex greets. "So remember that we've got access passes so you won't have to wait in line and get access to the dressing rooms if you want to go."

"Yea I've got em bro. We'll see you in there."

"And uh Mia wanted to let Lana know if she wanted free condoms-" my face turns red. "She was joking Thomas. She meant for Alex and kouvr." I quickly try to come up with a response. "Alright then see you in there." He ends the call and Alex and Kouvr look at me with weird looks.

"Don't ask."

-
Ugh collage essays are a pain in my ass. It's too unfortunate that I'm straight af