Snow and her Seven

Chapter 5- Barely Breathe

Brutus needed to sort his shit out. One minute he gave Snow signals, the next he shut her down like a pedophile wanting to get into a children's park. She rolled her eyes, pulling out her phone and calling Mavon. Although, Brutus probably remembered she was just a baggage carrying eighteen year old with too much shit going on. 

"Snow?" 

"Yeah. Can you pick me up from the Warehouse?" 

Mavon was silent for a beat. "Was my brother being a dick again?" 

Snow shrugged a shoulder. "Eh. And bring Dominic too, I've got a new job" 

He hung up, texting her after that he was on his way, and Snow waited at the front desk with her old childhood friend. He paused his furious typing for a moment and glanced to her side. "Want a coffee?" 

Snow shook her head. "What are you working on?" 

Felix stopped his typing completely and sighed, pushing back from the desk. "Hacking mainly. Right now it's just that singer- Candy Jones? She owes us money for a meth shipment the other day" 

Snow nodded, glancing over his work- a big jumble of letters, numbers and brackets that made no sense to her literary inclined mind. "You've come a long way since hacking into other people's tvs in the mental ward" 

Felix exhaled sharply through his nose, stretching his thin fingers. He then gave her a full look, assessing her growth since the last time they had seen eachother at five years old. "You've grown. But you still have a penchant for breaking people's noses I hear" 

"It's in the blood." Snow murmured, turning back to the door. Felix agreed, both remembering times they would preferred stayed quiet. And buried. 

A head of curly black hair popped in the door, kind brown eyes crinkling as he saw Snow. "Hey Snow! Want to get lunch before hand?" 

Dominic turned up beside him, a hulking mass of pure bred Jock. He ran a hand though his dark hair and gave Snow a smile. "We gotta job together?" 

"Yeah. Lunch first though- I'm hungry as fuck" 

Snow turned to Felix, "Wanna get some lunch? You can bring your laptop and do it from there" 

He considered and nodded quickly, turning the desktop off and joining the three for a much needed food break. Mavon and Dominic were surprised he even chose to come. Dominic shrugged, the girl seemed to have a lot of surprises up her sleeves. 

Brutus watched from his on site office, stubbing out cigarette after cigarette as he watched them act all chummy and leave. He opened his drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, pouring a glass and chugging it back. What did she have that all the other fucks didn't? Problems. A lot of fucking problems was the immediate answer. Brutus growled into the air and suppressed the urge to call Mavon and tell him to leave Snow the fuck alone. 

He was spending too much time thinking about that girl. 

***

"So we're on a talent hunt" Dominic mumbled in between bites, oblivious to the looks they were all getting in the restaurant. "Yeah, for braniacs in chemistry college classes. Find'em, lure'em, staple'em down." She shrugged, handing her fries to the lean blonde next to her. "We're getting paid to do a roundup, and that's fine enough for me" 

Mavon held a sausage up, "You guys would make a good team. Beauty and her brawn" 

Snow scoffed, nudging her now-partner. Captain of the Football, Soccer, Wrestling and Shooting teams- he was the object of many pubescent girls fantasies. Plus, he was easy on the eyes. Broad, wavy haired and bright green eyes, he was pretty for such a rough man. 

"We'll go in an hour. I don't feel like starting yet and want to just chill for a bit" 

Mavon paused, hearing an edge in her voice. 

"What happened with my brother?" 

She rolled her eyes and looked to the ceiling, seeming to be praying to someone. "You're brother needs to make up his fucking mind. For a gang leader and business owner, you'd think he'd know how to make decisions and stick with them" She flicked her hand. "Not changing his mind like a little bitch" 

Mavon nearly choked on his sausage, no one had ever described his brother as a little bitch. Dominic grinned toothily, throwing a meaty arm over her shoulder. "My dear Snow- I think I'm going to love having you here" 

"A lot of interesting things will happen. They always do when Snow's around" Felix murmured, the first sound from him other than his slow chewing. Mavon already agreed. 

Dominic stood, gathering the attention of everyone in the diner. "Instead of mulling over it, why don't we just get started?" He gave Snow a wink and waved to the waiter. "Let's get some nerds to sign away their futures" 

Snow put a hand on her heart. "I thought Felix already had?" 

*********

Dominic was actually a lot of fun- Snow had seen him often serious in the games she was forced to go to, but never really himself. He was more than his gym muscles and had a wicked laugh that actually had her smiling for a bit. 

But when it came to business, his face clamped down and the friendly jock she knew turned into stone. all the chemistry nerds were more than eager to join Brutus in his meth adventure, some of them having a more than skewed vision of wanting to be in a real life Breaking Bad. 

Their mistake- but a well paid one. 

After a well rounded group of six were found and contracted, Dominic called Abel who picked them all up for an orientation and a quick run down on the business. They were now not my problem. 

"So, what do you do in your free time Queen of Ice?" Dominic asked as we both walked back into school. I shrugged, downplaying how heavily involved I was with my own music. It was weird not being taller than the guy next to her- since Snow was a good five eleven, but Dommy nearly matched Brutus' height. Stupidly fucking tall. And height was very attractive to Snow. 

"Usual stuff that any other introverted, narcissistic, pessimist does" 

"And that is?" 

"Take pictures of myself then attach cliche yet meaningful quotes that everyone knows I don't adhere to at all." 

Dominic laughed, a sound he seemed to make a lot. Snow didn't understand- sure, she laughed sometimes, but the amount Dominic does? He must either see fun in everything or have a very skewed vision of the world. Still, she appreciated it. It reminded her to be happy- or have some sense of satisfaction in her own privileged reality. 

"Seriously. We watched you for years and never saw you look remotely happy doing anything" 

Snow raised a brow. "Years? That's a whole new level of creepy." 

Dominic shook his head, leaning on a locker and giving her a once over. "Abel thought you were hot, but a different level. We saw you walk into the cafeteria and completely ignore everyone- even the 'nice' kids. Everyone thought you were a total bitch apart from Mavon" 

Snow put a hand on her heart, feeling a fresh pang of hurt but not at all surprised. She was a cold person, that's it. But no one ever tried to get past her walls- walls that would inevitably always be there. 

"Mavon stood up for you when girls bitched about you. He also punched us if we talked badly about you." Dominic shrugged, giving her an intense look as if he were now realizing something. "Shoulda realized that punk was right. You gotta whole lot more going on beneath that surface" 

Snow shrugged in mimicry, bored face back on. She owed Mavon a lot. She turned around and started for class- pausing for a moment when she knew he still waited for a reply. 

"No one ever cares about what's beneath. And if they do- they never put in enough effort to get through the shell" 

That was one thing my daddy had taught her. People always came in different packages, some with harder shells then others- but daddy could always break through because he put in the effort. No one else ever did. 

Until Mavon.