Guns and Roses

Fifty Five ~ Quinn

Grandpa looks at me funny as we watch the evening news. He decided that we could have dinner in the living room today to see what was being said about Rya.

I frown at him, "What?" I ask.

He shrugs and then looks back at the screen with a knowing smile on his face, "You've been grinning like a Cheshire cat since you walked in," he says, "Last time I saw that look was on your mother's face the night she met your father."

I look back at the screen and see Rya's face smiling back at me. It's a picture that Kira uploaded to Instagram about two weeks ago of Rya surrounded in newspaper cutouts describing her family's crimes.

The caption had been Sitting in her family tree and Kira had been freaking out about whether or not to post it. When Rya saw the post, she laughed the hardest out of all of us.

It was a joke then but now it paints an awful picture of Rya.

Out of curiosity I pull up the original post that Kira still hasn't taken down. I see that the comments have doubled since I last looked and I cant help myself but look.

And the apple didnt fall far from said tree.

Why is this still up?

Do you think her family photos are all mugshots?

Oh my God. Take this down.

Terrifying to think that psychopaths look just like everyone else.

I always knew she was going to turn out to be exactly like her parents.

Why is this still on your page? Are you proud of being her friend or something?

#fuckingcrazy

I shut down the app and quickly send a text to Kira telling her to take down the picture. She doesnt need to take the heat from it.

I look back up at the TV and hear the reporter speaking about Koroleva originally being Natalyla and how Rya may have came to claim this title. They're not actually too far from the truth.

I wonder if she's watching this too. If she is, how does it make her feel to see her family history picked apart like this.

"How is Bella?" Grandpa asks suddenly and I jump. I turn watch as he mutes the television. He hasn't said much about what happened whilst he was gone but he has muttered things about Bella every now and then.

I nod, "She recovering well I think. I havent been told anything otherwise."

"She saved my life," He says as if I dont already know that. If she hadn't been there he would have been dead for weeks, "More than once. We shared a room and she would come back every night still screaming abuse at those who held us captive. They beat her and held her down as she fought them with everything she had left in her. They starved her but she didn't back down. They never laid a finger on me because she always got between us. Said she could take it."

He smiles and leans back in his chair, "She would talk about Rya non-stop and was always asking things about you. I hope you dont mind that I told her everything I could think of."

I lean forward to hear his raspy voice better, "Rya's just like her mum then. She looked out for me when you were gone."

"And you love her?" He asks almost excitedly.

I think for a second. I thought I loved Ellie and look how that turned out. Would Rya turn out to be the same?

I try to think of a life with Rya no longer in it. It seems a lot more calm and peaceful but I dont want calm and peaceful. I want the chaos of Rya.

"More than anything," I say truthfully. If she turns around and breaks my heart in a few months then so be it, I'll have had the best few months of my life.

I'd give up the safety and security of my life here in a heartbeat if it means I get to live alongside Rya Guerreiro.

He leans towards me and grins, "But does she know that?"

I frown. I told her I loved her but is that enough?

This isn't a fairytale, I'm not going to give everything up because of love. It's so much more than that. Shes my best friend, my confidant, and shes so much more than she thinks she is.

Shes my person.

In this story, I'm not a knight in shining armour rushing to save a damsel in distress. If anything, I'm the damsel and she's the knight. But I'm okay with that.

Im the good guy falling for the bad girl and I'm loving every second of it.

I stand up. I've decided that tonight I'm going to show her I love her like it's a romantic movie. I'm going downstairs to arrange the best bouquet of flowers I ever have and then I'm going to walk over to her house in the rain and present them to her.

I'm also going to try my best to stay out of Viktor's way as I know he knows that it was me in her room this morning.

Grandpa gets to his feet beside me, "What are we going for?"

I grin, "Cliche. She says she hates them but I saw the rom-coms hidden under her bed."

He smiles, "Well then, you have a lot of work to do, dont you?"