Familia

Leona and Devon at the Fiori

   The two young lovers arrived at the famous night club. Leona thought they were supposed to go there with their group of friends but after they all had a dinner together their friends left to leave the two lovebirds together.
"Were are you taking me?" asked Leona in a chuckle as she had her eyes closed.
"To a place you certainly gonna enjoy" answered Devon with a smile on his face, while parking the car.
"Can I open my eyes now?" questioned Leona as she felt that Devon switched off the ignition of the car.
"Let's go baby" Devon simply replied, watching his girl's reaction.
When Leona finally opened her eyes she saw the name of the place written in huge phosphorescent capital letters.
"Devon no way! You brought me to the Fiori!" she exalted.
"I know we don't go out much –more like never-, so when we're out I want to make it big for my dancing queen" he answered, proudly smiling at Leona.
"Well that is for sure 'something big'!" she agreed. "Let's immediately go inside!" she gloated while jumping out of the car.
Devon was amused. He was glad he got to bring Leona to that fancy club, as he knew his girlfriend loved to dance and to party as hard as she worked all year round. That was finally her break, that was party time.
As soon as Leona entered the club, she rushed to the dancefloor, among some dancing drunk people who would have never set a foot on the dancefloor if it wasn't alcohol –or coke. But Leona was absolutely sober and clean, she danced with passion and with her heart, everybody could see she was truly having fun.
"You're not joining me?" she shouted through the crowd to her boyfriend.
"I don't know..." hesitated Devon.
"Come on!" she laughed as she grabbed his arm.
And here they were, both dancing on the dancefloor, Devon trying to perform some weirdly uncommon dance steps, and Leona dancing around, laughing at him, and laughing of joy, simply enjoying the moment. Everything was perfect. Leona was just carefree at this moment, she felt like she was far from everything, like she was far from her everyday life responsibilities. For a few minutes she was immersed in a kind of peaceful comfort. That was until her gaze crossed another one.
'That's impossible' she thought. 'Not him again'.
In the VIP corner of the club, sitting behind a table with three other guys, Tony D'Angelo was staring at her.
First Leona thought she was mistaking some random guy for the disrespectful show-off she unintentionally met a few hours ago. But there was no mistake, it was Tony.
'Why is he staring at me like that? What the heck?' she thought while keeping dancing.
Tony was indeed staring at her very forcefully, as if he was on the lookout for every single action of hers. It was quite unsettling. But what was more unsettling –even frightening-was the look Tony gave to Devon when he noticed he was escorting Leona. The young girl thought Tony's dark brown eyes were like little black peas staring at her boyfriend; she felt like Tony could get up right now and shoot the boy without any second thought. At this very moment, Leona was scared.
"Devon, let's go out" she said grabbing the boy's arm.
"What? But we've been here for barely ten minutes!" protested the boy.
"I want to go out, please!" she claimed.
"A-all right, let's get out" he said puzzled, while following Leona on her way out.

***

    Once they were outside, Leona stopped at the car and Devon sighted her questioningly.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Nothing" she lied.
"Come on" he said.
After a moment of silence, Leona finally admitted:
"There was a man in the VIP corner, he was gazing at us"
"Well...you should have told me, I would have been more watchful...but you always tell me not to pay attention to the guys who look at you, so that I don't get in trouble' as you say..."Devon told.
"But it wasn't about the way he looked at me, it was the way he was looking at you, he was literally staring at you too!" explained Leona.
"Well...maybe he is interested in men" Devon tried to joke.
Leona huffed. But then she imagined such a macho as Tony trying to defend himself from being gay, and that thought drew a hint of a smile on her face.
"Stop being silly...The look he gave you had nothing of someone 'interested', it was a scary look! It was like he was about to punch you...or to shoot you, really!" she clarified.
"You know, in such a fancy club those who sit in the VIP corner are generally gang leaders, or powerful drug dealers, they're outlaws...maybe what you saw was their natural way to look at someone, actually..."Devon tried to reassure her.
"...maybe" Leona finally said, not really convinced, but wanting to end this conversation.
'But wait 'she thought, 'Devon said this was where the outlaws sat'. Leona frowned. 'He could be an outlaw' she suddenly realized, as she was reminding herself the attitude Tony had with her at her house. 'But what would an outlaw have to do with dad?' she suddenly wondered.
"So I drive you home, princess?" Devon's voice suddenly pulled Leona out of her thoughts.
"Y-yes , please" she answered, still confused.
"But first, a little late night car ride, as you like them!" Devon added, making Leona a wink.
"You know me for sure" she answered with a smile. After all, her questions could certainly wait until the morning to be solved. That was her night with Devon. She had to enjoy it.