GOOD GIRL [COCO CRUZ] - ON HOLD

1: the memory

"I need a drink, and I need to sit down." Isabella sighed and looked at Penelope. "The shops here are too... different."

Penelope rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you don't even know where we are."

Isabella shot her best friend a side eye and looked around. "Well, I know it's not home."

"Your Grandma had a house near here! We used to come into town with your Mum? When we were like sixteen?"

"Oh my god!" Isabella stood up. "This is Santo Padre?" She started to laugh as she remembered spending summers and Christmases down here in high school. "Well can you remember any bars?"

"Obviously I know one. Come on, get back in the car." Penelope smiled as she got into the drivers side of her car. The two girls drove along a bit until Penelope pulled up to a restaurant at the end of a block.

"This is definitely not how I remember this place." Isabella said, eyeing up two black motorbikes parked next to the space that Penelope was pulling into. She was less than impressed. "I don't like it here."

Penelope glared at her as she pulled a face. "I thought I was the snob out of the two of us. Come on, this is nostalgic."
Isabella rolled her eyes as she grabbed her handbag and stepped out of the car.

"Fuck!" She screeched as her shoulder crashed into someone's back, knocking her bag onto the floor. She mentally cursed before she had even turned around, already wanting to go home. Straight away the guy behind her bent down and began picking up her stuff, and Isabella soon realised from his helmet that he was the owner of one of the huge bikes sitting in the parking space next to her. He stood back up and Isabella instantly froze as she stared at his face.

"Holy shit..." He whispered, taking his helmet back off. "Isabella Lexington."
Her eyes stayed fixated on him as she took in his features. He'd grown a beard now, and grown into himself more - he looked strong, muscular.

"Angel Reyes? Oh my god!" Penelope suddenly squealed, running round from her side of the car. She threw herself on him, embracing him in a hug that he half heartedly returned, looking slightly confused. Isabella raised her eyebrows to apologise for her friend's over-excited nature.

"Why am I not surprised to see that you're still stuck in Santo Padre." She giggled as she took her bag from him.

"I could say, I'm definitely surprised to see that you are still here."

"Uh," A voice behind Angel spoke and the girls looked to see another guy, also with a beard and moustache, and even more muscular. "Angel?"

"Oh, EZ. You don't remember Isabella?" EZ looked blankly at the two girls. "We used to hang out down at that old scrapyard."
EZ looked Isabella up and down and raised his eyebrows.

"I know, hard to imagine." She said to him and smiled. Bumping into the Reyes brothers was bring memories of Santo Padre flooding back to her. Now, she couldn't believe that she didn't even recognise this place. "Isabella. I think we met once or twice."

"Ezekiel. I remember your name." He nodded his head at the dark haired girl stood in front of him.

"You two should come for a drink with us!" Once again, Penelope squealed. She was like an over excited child, and sometimes it embarrassed Isabella.

"Uh," Angel looked at them awkwardly. "That place isn't really our kinda scene." The brothers were more used to dive bars and dingy places to drink in.
Isabella looked at them, and understood what they meant. They both had leather jackets on, with sewn on patches that she only presumed they were part of some club. They were both covered in tattoos. Obviously, Penelope didn't get it.

"Don't be silly. We'll have fun." Penelope pushed and Isabella shot them both another apologetic look.

12 YEARS EARLIER
"Your summer is over in 2 days, Isabella. That's it."

"But we'll see each other again." Isabella pouted at her best friend as she jumped off of the roof of the old car that had been dumped in the scrapyard for months now.

"No, Isabella, you don't get it! You're going to college next year. There is no more summer."

"But my Grandma's house! We'll come back-"
Angel jumped off of the car and stood in front of her. Their faces were so close that they were almost touching, and Angel held Isabella's hand tightly.

"You even said yourself, Isabella. They want to sell it. You said your Grandma's moving in with you."

"But-"

"Our lives are too different now. I don't get to go to college, or get a good job, or be successful. This is it."

"So you're not even going to make an effort? You're just telling me you'll never see me again!" Isabella started to cry then, as Angel tried to speak.

"No, I get it." She let  go of his hand and started to walk away. "Fuck you, Angel Reyes."

That was the last time she ever saw him.

PRESENT DAY
"Mayans M.C." Isabella took a sip from her drink and looked at EZ and Angel. "That's so cool! A biker gang."

"Not a gang, a motorcycle club." Angel replied and Isabella set her beer down.

"Sorry. You know, I don't think I've drank beer since I was like, eighteen."
They were sat in a bar, different from where Penelope and Isabella had originally planned to go. Isabella had suggested the bar, somewhere that the two girls didn't really fit in, rather than the brothers. It was getting dark, and Isabella had already had quite a bit to drink, while Penelope sat with a miserable look on her face.

"You know you guys could come back to the clubhouse, if you want." Angel looked at Isabella, kind of awkwardly, but also hoping that Isabella was up for it. It had been 12 years since he saw his old friend, and already he didn't want her slipping away so easily again. "There's a party there tonight."

"Um," Isabella hesitated. She'd changed a lot, but she'd missed Angel. "That'd be nice, I guess."
Penelope sighed and stood up. "I'm going home." She shot the other three a dirty look. "And I am not going to some gang's hideout."
Angel and EZ started to laugh at Penelope's use of the words 'gang' and 'hideout'. Isabella cringed, worrying that Angel and EZ would take offence.

"Penelope? You're not coming? It'll be fun!" Isabella stood up.

"No, I'm going home. Are you coming, or not?" Isabella glanced back at Angel and remembered the hours that they had spent together every summer.

"No, I'm not." She said sternly and sat back down next to the boys.

"Good luck getting home." Penelope rolled her eyes as she walked out.
EZ looked confused again. "She's um..."

"She never really liked me." Angel chuckled.

"I think she was jealous." Isabella explained to EZ. "Of our friendship. She hated hanging out at the scrapyard, but then she felt left out."

"Right. That explains it." EZ chuckled as he watched Penelope saunter out of the door, thinking to himself that she was a snob.

Isabella picked up her bag and walked outside behind EZ and Angel. They both climbed onto their bikes and she stood on the pavement awkwardly.
"Here." Angel passed me her his helmet, and Isabella's eyes instantly widened. She took it and stared blankly at him. "Look, you ain't getting there any other way."

"I could walk... I'm not getting on that motorbike!"

"Okay, you walk in those shoes. We might see you when the party's over." EZ smirked.

"Argh, fine." She climbed onto the back of Angel's bike and held on tightly.

"I know you're used to being driven around, Isabella, but this'll be an experience for you." He patted the girl's leg and started up his bike as she rolled her eyes, chuckling slightly.