Forbidden Love...💟

The Con Artist's Con

Luca's POV

Putting away my work for the day, I stood up from the desk. I moved quickly towards the balcony for a fresh breath of air. The city looked beautiful. In its own way. Fierce and calm. Surprising blend of nature. It was an unusual feeling.

It is unsettling, unsurprisingly. Far away from home, so I'm naturally a bit homesick. I haven't been here long. I have come to realize, it's not a vacation and the year is coming to an end. I'm staying here longer than I would have liked to. I have but me to comfort myself. My other choice would be...

"Knock knock." Alec barged in. He looked around the room with a judging look. His gaze finally landed on me in the balcony. "You won't ask so I will proceed. Who's there?" He waited for me but continued anyway. "Broken pencil. You say, broken pencil who?"

"I say, never mind, it's pointless." Alec looked directly at me with a straight face. "It's not making you laugh, is it?" I continued to look at him. "It didn't make me laugh either but I did anyway. You know why?" Alec moved closer to the balcony. He switched on the lights. "Because I care about my friends....."

"Because you are crushing big time on Carlotta." I interrupted him. He began laughing like a psychopath. "No, I don't." His laugh was very high pitched. "Uh huh." He laughed again, the same maniac laugh. It startled me. "Stop laughing like that, it's unsettling."

He sobered up and opened his mouth to speak again. I already knew what he was gonna talk about. "My laugh isn't the thing that is unsettling you. A certain fierce mademoiselle, I believe is the reason." He switched to a French accent. The accent was okay but does make it hard to hear the bullshit he says.

"Ah, ha. You roll ze eyes in protest, monsieur." Alec continues in his beloved's accent. "As long as you hear your accent, the French one, I'm fine." I quipped. "Aah, haa..." I pretended to throw something at him. He yelped, falling down and rolled away. "Stop with "Ah ha"s."

"Okay, fine. Seems like you are going to pretend that nothing I say means anything to you." He settled himself in the fancy chair near the balcony. No idea why it's there. Apparently, modern interior designing is about stuff that ties the room together, not functionality.

By the time, I pulled back from the thoughts, Alec was pouting and staring at me. I rolled my eyes. "Let's say that your opinion matters to me. But doesn't mean I have to agree about all of them, right?" He shrugged nonchalantly. This annoying imbecile.

"Celestina...No I'm not calling her mademoiselle." This time, I threw a rock at him. Which happens to be in the balcony as a part of the table. Perfect, I really need to so something about the ridiculous design thing. "Celestina may impact the group dynamic and individual people in the group. Even I can admit, that I compete with her and fight her. But she has no special impact on me, specifically."

"Remember when you told me about con artists. That however smart they may be, their downfall is when they start believing in their own con." He remembered. "There is no con here, Alec." I gestured at the door. "I have work to do..." He left with the last word. "I hope not." Bastard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was not in any mood to do work or tired enough for sleep. Just an unclear mind. I left the room and entered the gym in the far end of the house. It was a deadly silence. I usually preferred it but I didn't want hear myself think. I blasted random music into the head phones. All that mattered was that it was loud.

Each blow at the punching bag made it fly. I was really unsettled. My emotions were mess. My punches were getting weak, pathetically so. I was deeply homesick. I'm stuck. I keep hitting the same place expecting things to change, over and over. All it took was one punch in a different direction at the exhausted bag. It broke down.

I hastily left the room and went to take a shower. After changing my clothes, I rushed downstairs. It was quiet. Too quiet. Nobody was here. Not my security guards or my friend or my annoying cousin. It was lonely. I could hear a continuously buzzing sound and a crash.

I leaped over to the area where the sound originated from. It was my phone. So many texts that it practically vibrated of the table and killed itself. Bravo.

⚔The gang⚔

Michael🗡: Since none of us are going home for Christmas. Makes sense we spend it together.

Lucy🍦: With our own traditions

Alena🏹: Ew, enough with gooey sap

Carlotta🪡: That is sweet and shut up, Alena.

Alec🪛: Do we have to go?

Lucy🍦: It's Christmas.

Carlotta🪡: Yessss

Alena🏹: Of course, dum-dum

Jake⚒: The theme is off the hook. I mean, Christmas at a club.

Carlotta🪡: The party will awesome, no doubt.

Alena🏹: Yes, of course, we'll be there.

Derek💣: Themes? What am I missing?

Michael🗡: Go back and read.

I stopped reading the texts because 1) the brightness is too much, 2) it just got too confusing, 3) you need time to process them as a group. All the ridiculous emojis they saved themselves as were showing up. They said that it was their level of dangers. Lucy made sense as an ice cream. Derek is a ticking bomb. Carlotta causes pain just like prickly pin. Oh, alliteration. Jake breaks as much as he builds. Michael was one strike blow. Alec was a screwdriver. Hah. Alena is just her.

My phone blew up with more texts. I just skipped over to the end. And look who came online, same time as me.

Jake⚒: I'm simply shocked, Lucy. And thwarted.

Lucy🍦: 😑 very normal 😑

Alec: Says the girl who is using emojis as quotations.

Celestina🖤: I gladly accept that I am not normal and I'll put an end to this. I ditched you all.🙂

Luca🖤: Told you so.

And the rest of the texts were nonsense insults. Most didn't make sense. But that wasn't what captured my attention. Few things.

First of all, I am feeling less homesick and they are more or less my actual friends. I have come to accept that now.

Second of all, I am stuck with those dorks at Christmas and they are really involved.

Last of all, who the hell put the black matching heart next to the names Luca and Celestina?

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Hello, my pretties. This book has actually reached 1K. This means so much to me. You have no idea. Thanks for reading. I will try my best to updates sooner than later. 🖤