"Honey? Have you seen some money laying around the house?" my mom feverishly through her purse. I look up from my book to throw her an uninterested look.
"No. Why?" She just sighs and shakes her head.
"Nothing. Mommy just misplaced some cash. Again." She looked me over, doe green eyes squinted before she sighs again. "Well," she walked over and placed a kiss on my forehead, "tell Mommy if you find it." She straighted up and looked around my room.
" Have you seen Dante?" She asked. Just as I was about to shrug, Dante enters the room, knocking on the already opened door. A bit redundant if you asked me. Mom turns around and smiles as he makes his way to his side of the room. "Hey, sugar. Dinnertime is around the corner, so take a shower and get dressed." She steps towards Dante and tiptoes, placing a kiss on his jaw.
He nods in acknowledgement. Her smile brightened and then she promptly exited the room, giving her love. I return to my flimsy book that I've musta read about ten times already. I turn my head, when I hear a slight clink from the other side of the room. Dante was standing a his dresser, stuffing something into a seemingly already full jar. Before I could make out what it is, he closes it and puts it in the back of his drawer. He closes it and turns towards me when he notices I'm watching. I nod my head in greeting and then pretend to return to my book. From the corner of my eye, I watch him watch me. He seems like he wants to say something, but decides against it with a shake of his head. He quickly jumps on his bed and unlocks the window above, opening it, and climbing out of it. I don't know how long I stare at the opened window, but not before long, I hear mom shouting for us to come downstairs for dinner.
"You owe me, again." I sigh
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I rub my arms roughly, trying to keep the cold away. My breathes could be seen as fleeting white clouds greatly contrasting with the dark atmosphere.
Now, when I said 'dark atmosphere', I meant it to have a double meaning. Number one being that Dante and I are ambling along a narrow and dank alleyway. Number two being how late at night it is.
Our footsteps crush the dirty snow beneath them, as we trudge along towards the end of the musty alleyway. Bright pink and purple neon lights guide us to the adjacent street as the snow seems to to fall heavier than before. The feeling of the blisteringly cold gust of wind wrapping around my bare arms has my teeth chattering audibl-
" Oof." I grunt out. I massage my nose from the damage it took due to crashing into Dante's back. "I'm sorry," I slip out through chattering teeth, " I-I just need a break-"
"We need to keep moving." I look at him in disbelief. I can barely run a mile in under 30 minutes and he expects me to walk for over half an hour without any stops? "We need to keep moving. It won't be open for long." Dante walks back to where I'm, almost literally, frozen. He stops in front of me and looks me up and down before he starts roughly pinching my arms and face.
" Ahh! Bro, stop! I'll walk, I'll walk!!" I cry out as I try to evade his assaults. His fingers move quickly from on spot to another, harshly squeezing my shoulder before going to my cheeks and then my elbow after leaving finger indentations on my wrists. I feel my knees starting to buckle from pure agony as I am about to just let my body become one with the ground before Dante finally let up and takes a step back. I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind when a sudden warmth envelopes me, now the only cold thing I feel are my crystallizing tears. But before I can revel in this newfound heat, the cold quickly takes over, but not as intense as before. Dante seems to sense this as he quickly grabs my wrist and drags my throughout the rest of our journey.
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I stomp my feet obnoxiously as I try to get the feeling back into my legs and rid of the clinging snow on my thin flannel pants. Dante and I have been standing here, on the porch of, probably, the most illuminated building in the city. The other buildings around us were flashing us with their neon greens, yellows, and blues; but the one we are standing in front of demands our attention with the animated signs of scantly dressed women sitting crossed legged, glowing red, pink, and purple. I couldn't see a sign where the name of the building is stated, but the loud music and laughter coming from inside was enough indication.
The streets were busy and full of people(hence it being nicknamed The City that Never Sleeps). Business men arguing over the phone, minor celebrities flaunting their wealth through tight clothes and pompous looking purse pets, while the commoners just pushed and shove past anyone in their way.
Zzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Dante steps back from the buzzer just as the door flings open.
"Welcome, Welcome!! Ooooo, you brought a guest!" I blush horribly as the, practically naked, middle aged women greeted us. I can tell that she's tall, but why she decided to wear seven inch heels? I don't know. Like mom, she has curly red hair, but you can see that it's dyed because of her dark roots. I really don't want to go further than that, because, well, she's naked, besides the green thong and yellow heels. So when she opened her arms wide-Im guessing to give us a hug- I squealed and yelled,
"I'M CELIBATE!!" silence fills the air between us. The lady, with arms still open, looking at me with a confused yet tender smile and Dante giving me the usual blank face with a side of amusement in his eyes.
"Uh, sorry." I cleared my throat awkwardly and sniffled a bit.
"That's ok, Hun. Dante," she finally puts down her arms. " What are you doing here? You already came by earlier. We do enjoy your visits, but please don't come more than you have to." She frowns when he doesn't respond. She quickly looked between the two of us before her smile returns. She beckoned us inside. "Come on! I know y'all cold. It is a long walk to get here." I was about to turn to Dante for answers when he decided to walk on in without hesitation. My mouth gaped open. Did he seriously just leave me alone to fend myself from this lady?! Said woman snickered when she saw my expression. "C'mon, babe. I don't bite." She winked before quickly chomping her teeth at me, causing me to jump back and have a mini heart attack. She laughed again before taking my arm and leading me inside.
Oh, boy.
