Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My heartbeat was racing. My nuckels were white from clutching the steering wheel so tightly. They all lied to me. I felt so stupid for not realizing they were hiding something from me. Dad was always gone late at night when he thought I was asleep. He went to a funeral at least once a month. After Angel died Ariella was always way more busy. I thought she was cheating on me.
"Will you please slow down." I looked to see Ariella held panicked eyes. I looked at the speedometer and saw that I was way over the speed limit. I slowed down but kept from looking at her. I turned up the music to fill the silence that had consumed the car.
After five minutes Ariella seemed to have enough of it and turned off the music. "Where are we going?" she asked as she rolled down the window. It had stopped raining and now the air was filled with that after rain smell. Ariella stuck her hand out the window, "I'm sorry I kept everything from you for so long." I kept silent. Ariella gave up on trying to get me to talk and turned up the music.
Soon, we reached our destination. I pulled the car up to our old spot. We both just sat in the car for a moment not saying anything. After another minute I shut off the engine and got out of the car. I went to the back and opened the trunk. After moving the spare tire I found the hidden compartment. Dad has one in all if his cars for emergency things. I found a blanket and grabbed it. I walked to the front of the car to see Ariella wasn't in the passenger seat anymore. Up ahead I see her by the cliff. We would always come here, set out a blanket and talk while watching the sunset.
She turned to look at me "I haven't been up here since the day after you left." She helped me spread out the blanket and we sat down, keeping a distance from each other. "Are you going to talk at all?"
"Did you know they wanted us together just for the future of their gang?" I wanted to get right into it, no beating around the bush. She sighed and layed down. Fiddeling with her fingers, she stared up into the sky "I suspected. But I swear today was the first time that suspicion of mine was confirmed."
"Did you ever think of just telling me?" I layed down as well. Us, laying down together, was a safe place. It felt right, like old times.
"All the time. Every day that you dropped me off at home when I had an 'emergency'. Every time you told me you loved me I wanted to tell you. But Collin you have to believe me I had no choice. I didn't want to keep it from you But I had too." I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at her "Because of my father, right?"
She looks at me, her eyes softening, "No. Because of you mother." She sat up crossing her legs and facing me. "Your dad wanted me to just tell you. He thought maybe if your mom thought I told, she wouldn't be as mad. But your mom made me promise to never tell you. She said she didn't want me to be the one to turn your life upside down. I couldn't break my promise to her. I hope you understand and won't hate me as much."
I looked at her seeing her beautiful brown eyes shinning slightly "I could never hate you Ariella. Not even if I tired."
Her lips turned up slightly. She layed back down and stared back up at the sky. "Don't hate the boys either. I swear they never knew your father was the other leader. They just thought they were keeping the secret from you for your protection." I almost forgot about the boys. I'll have a talk with them later. But for now I just nod letting Ariella decide for herself what that nod meant.
"That door from the room last night, with the snake and rose, what do those words mean?" I had been thinking about that all night last night , as well as trying to remember where I've seen it.
"The long paragraph is names of fallen members. And the three big words are in Japanese, Korean and Persian. The words are fight, courage and loyalty My dad said that every member needs to be able to fight, be loyso and trustworthy and have courage." she said sitting up again she pulled her shirt down slightly to reveal a tattoo and there was the three words engraved on to her skin just beneath her collar bone. I restrained myself from reaching up and touching her tattoo.
"Why those specific languages though?" I asked. She fixed her shirt "Well because every one in the gang is either Mexican, Korean, Japanese or Persian. And 'famila' is for every one, but written in Spanish because that's the language of the founder. And then fight is in Japanese because when the gang first started the best fighters were Japanese. And loyalty is in Korean because I the beginning the founder saw that the mebers that were Korean were the ones most willing to die for the gang, had the most loyalty. And courage is in Persian because they had the most courage. So basically they chose to write those words in this languages to show the greatest aspect that they brought to the gang but also to show that everyone mattered i guess, like their culture and they individually mattered? That's the only way I know how to best explain it." She shrugged.
"So then do the boys all have this tattoo too?" I asked as Ariella layed back down. While she looked at the sky I looked at her. "No, it's not a rule but it's sort of become and unspoken agreement that only leaders and future leaders have all three words tattooed on them. So as of right now only me, my dad, and your dad have this tattoo." She looked at me searching my eyes for something. As of right now. I sat up and looked at her in the eye. "Did you want this?"
She gulped and sat up too. "I didn't have a choice."
"That's not an answer."
"No, Collin, I didn't. I was fine with taking over the company, but I didn't want the gang. I always knew Angel would take over, but I also knew that he didn't want the gang. But he said he was taking it over for me. He said that he knew that if I was apart of that world I would change and he didn't want that. And then there were nights when I could hear him pacing around in his room, throwing stuff. I would go to him and he would hug me like he thought I was going to disappear," her voice cracked and she took a deep breath. "He would break down into tears. He told me things that, were...intense. After all that I didn't want anything to do with the gang. But then with the accident I had no choice. It got easier, though. I saw why dad loved the gang like they were his blood, because really, they were. Everyone looks out for each other. There's bad of course there is, but I guess all the good just has a way of outweighing the bad." Both of us were silent for a while. "Do you want this?"
I looked out into the sky, it was going to rain again. "I don't know."
