𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒

FIFTEEN | THE ROUGH DRAFT

!! **TRIGGER WARNING: TALK OF CHILD ABUSE** !!

The day after Mateo and Felicity's second kissing incident, Mateo was finding it a bit difficult to maintain that nicer and more understanding persona he had been working hard to build up.

He was sat at his desk, struggling to focus as his thoughts began to consume his mind. The man was beyond stressed out. He felt conflicted; he felt confused; and he felt guilty.

He was conflicted because there was no doubt in his mind that his feelings towards his young "assistant" were evolving. They were changing in a way that scared him, and in a way that he knew would only cause him trouble. When they kissed the other day, he almost didn't stop. But he couldn't let things go any further than they had already, no matter how much he wanted them to. So he was simply torn between right and wrong.

He was confused because he genuinely didn't know how he ended up with two very different women interested in him at the same time. There was Christine, who was obviously stunning. She was any man's dream woman. And then there was Felicity, who was completely eye-capturing, but so incredibly young. There were very few men his age who would desire her in the way that he did, so he didn't understand why he felt so drawn to her. There was just something about her that he couldn't get enough of.

And he felt guilty because he knew he didn't deserve the affection of either one of them. Christine had made it very clear that she wasn't going to give up without fighting for him, but he felt nothing remotely romantic—or even sexual—towards her anymore. And he honestly couldn't understand why she was so attached to him. Even with Felicity, he struggled to fathom how she could have developed any feelings for him at all, especially considering how poorly he's always treated her.

He was a huge asshole.

And he knew it.

But it wasn't like he wanted to be that way. It's just what came natural to him. Though Mateo lived a very privileged lifestyle throughout the decades, that didn't always mean his life was easy. He faced his fair share of adversity too.

Just like Felicity, Mateo had his own mental vault full of bad memories that continued to haunt him.

Growing up, Mateo struggled to make friends. Him and his older brother attended a very prestigious private school full of other children whose parents were wealthy beyond comprehension. Naturally, the school was riddled with kids who had clearly been spoiled rotten, so it was tough to find people to build meaningful relationships with.

However, Mateo especially struggled, as everyone usually drifted towards Diego. Mateo was quiet and shy, while Diego was far more witty and outgoing. People who talked to Diego genuinely liked him, while nobody ever gave Mateo a second glance. And though Diego always made an effort to include Mateo in activities, as far as anyone else was concerned, it was just Diego's weird, younger brother tagging along.

This fact obviously hurt him. His whole life, he felt like he was living in the shadow of someone else—his own brother, a better version of himself.

But the effects of Diego's popularity extended beyond just primary school. Diego had been a high achiever in both the academic and extracurricular sense, which made him highly sought out by other schools. This led into Diego being sent away to one of the top junior boarding schools in the world at just 12 years old, leaving Mateo alone with just their parents.

Despite the great opportunity, Diego didn't want to leave his brother behind. He begged his parents to let him stay, but they insisted he went anyway. It was hard for Mateo to adjust to being the only child at home, but he managed to survive.