Inevitable - CB (EDITING)

22. Beautiful Nightmare

It'd been two months.

And everything had changed.

It wasn't a gradual change, it was everything all at once. Although their stay in Barbados carried a lot of darkness and baggage, they had decided to leave it all behind as a painful but distant memory. As soon as they arrived back in LA, everything seemed to just fall into place for the better. Reign had prayed to God every night that it would. She prayed long and hard that she could finally get the peacefulness that she'd always wanted, she would have even been okay with tolerating High School drama if it meant she could only have peace of mind and a safe place for Devon to grow up.

It seemed God had answered her prayers.

"You ready to go?" Hilton asks from behind her snapping her out of her thoughts. She turns around to find the boy standing there impatiently with a bunch of textbooks in his hands. School had become a mantra amongst them; Hilton has always been smart yet too extra reluctant to apply himself to his education. He'd feared that if he did, he'd actually start to believe in the idea that he could have a new life away from all the gang business and he didn't want to give himself false hope. Yet since they'd been back, he'd decided it was time for him to face that fear.

Reign scurries around the large kitchen grabbing the lunchesf that she'd made for them and rushes towards him. "I'm ready." He starts heading down the hall, towards the door but stops when he realises she isn't following him.

She stands there glaring at him as she holds up the different coloured paper bags which contained their lunch.  "You forgot again!" They'd gotten into the habit of playing a little game in the mornings that Reign had bothered to make Lunch where Hilton would pick a bag and then discover what was inside later on in the day. It was silly but it had become their thing.

"Sorry sorry, I'll take the Blue one. Crip gang!" He shouts while throwing up all the gang signs he knew with a small smile then throwing an arm over her shoulder. She hands over the bag as she rolls her eyes at his silliness; the boy was a damn fool. He notices the look on her face and kisses her forehead as they leave the house.

They'd agreed to share the place temporarily while Reign looked for another apartment but Hilton didn't want her to leave. Every time she'd have an appointment with a real estate agent, he'd make sure to bring something up or find an excuse for her not to go. There'd also been countless times where Hilton would lie and say that she wasn't home when the estate agent would turn up at the door.

It was more than him wanting to live with his girl. She made his house a home and it was wouldn't be the same without her presence. It wasn't a house that was greatly used by the Sanders family before but since their main house had been burnt to the ground after the explosion, it would do as second best.

It was a large white and marble estate like something out of Greek mythology. Just the entrance alone was enough to take your breath away and keep your feet glued to the doormat. It was a true sight. Yet, Hilton has never recognised the magnificence of its beauty until Reign's spirit came and turned it into a sanctuary. It was like the house flourished in her presence, everything seemed to work better when she was there. The trees blossomed and the birds sang sweet tunes every morning. The house belonged to Reign, it willingly gave itself to her.
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They're about to get into the car when Hilton's eyes land on two men standing across the street trying to appear nonchalant and completely normal; they were awkwardly leaning on their vehicles and talking amongst themselves like neighbours catching up before a long day of work yet they stood out. From their cheap leather boots and combat jeans in the hot weather of LA, Hilton knew these guys were from the local DA's office. People around his neighbourhood had a very similar and distinct dress sense that would go unnoticed if it wasn't paid attention to and these guys weren't following it. They were trying to hard to blend in which made them stand out.