VENDETTA || ɴ.ᴄ.ᴍ.

8. hold a lover close

a/n: i swear the story is gonna get good soon.

song; move along by the all american rejects
[ word count: 1241 ]

*

Brandon walked in the door, and loosened the thin black tie from around his neck. he felt strangled, like the tie was his stress - making him feel suffocated. placing his keys on the wooden desktop, brandon noticed cierra was up.

"hey," he called out, his response being an echo in her voice.

"how was it?" she asked, walking toward her brother who looked so tired.

with a sigh, brandon shook his head. he had just come back from the funeral of the guy they lost in the drug deal.  "sad," was all he said.

Cierra nodded slowly, "Do you know who did it?" she asked in a small voice.

her brother's expression turned dark, "nick mara,"

and just like that, she felt like she had been punched in the stomach; her heart was ripped out of her chest. she couldn't breathe. "What?" her voice barely above a whisper.

"Nick mara beat him to nothing," brandon sneered. "We missed him just before we got there,"

"Oh, my god," she gasped, feeling sick. "I'm gonna... i need some air," she rushed out, pushing past brandon and ignoring his confused calls after her.

Walking into the crisp september air, cierra felt the cold hug her neck. only wearing a hoodie and jeans, she wasn't really warm. her mind was racing, her head was pounding. her heart thumping. her feet found themselves following the breeze towards the direction of nick's house.

she knocks on the familiar door, and waits for it to be opened. when it does, she's greeted with his confused look. "hey," he says with a tone she can't quite put her finger on.

"hi," she says, a but colder than she wanted to sound. and he notices.

"Are you okay?" nick asks, giving her space to walk into the house. "Let's go upstairs," he tells her, and she makes moves upwards after greeting his brother chris with a small smile.

Cierra takes a few steps into the bedroom that carried his addictive scent, and sat on the bad with a sigh as she tried to hide her trembling hands. But it was no use. Nick had noticed and already took her smaller hands into his rough, visibly bruised ones. "Cierra," he said softly, "what's wrong?"

"Have you ever killed anyone?" She spluttered, the words leaving her mouth before she had time to think about how she wanted to phrase it.

His expression changed drastically, "what?" He whispered, "no!" He choked. "Never,"

She felt sick. He just lied right to her face. She turned away from him, not being able to look at his face. "Okay," she nodded, pulling her hands from his she placed them in her lap and looked at her old, worn out shoes. "Look," she began.

"What?" He asked, his voice becoming worried, "cierra-"

his voice stopped short, his head went light. What was she about to say.

"don't lie to me," she whispered, looking up at him through glassy eyes.

"never," He didn't know what to say, he just looked down at her shaking hands. "baby, i would never," he said in the same quiet voice, which cracked at the end. "what are you saying?"

turning away, she took a deep breath, "I just, maybe you... being in a gang just isn't..." she sighed and flicked away a stray tear, "I don't think i can do it,"