THE FIGHT

Don't waste your energy on pointless people, babe.

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Warning: Violence

CHAPTER X

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IT WASN'T UNTIL a few days later that they took Daniel out of the ICU. A couple days after that and he was back with a full cast around his arm. Weeks later, the cast was removed and a home nurse visited every second day to change the bandages. As time went on her visits became shorter and shorter and more time was put between them.

Until she stopped visiting at all.

Months later, Daniel was finally back to normal. Or as normal as he could get with 'permanent nerve damage'.

I didn't notice any difference.

His full recovery suddenly became the subject of every gossip session in the house and I was no exception.

“Did you hear that boss is better again?” A friend of mine, Anna-Maria, asked as we both cleaned the kitchen.

I looked away from my mopping and frowned at her. “Of course I did. Everyone has,” I huffed. “Plus, I was literally there when he got shot. They wouldn't want to keep me in the dark.”

She stopped wiping the tables and looked at me with a grin. “You never told us what happened on the trip, by the way. We still want to know.”

My stomach dropped with dread as I thought back to Vincent. Ever since I got back, he was what kept me up at night. It was a constant battle with my conscience. Every time I felt like I had a minute to breathe, my mind would just scream about how I had blood on my hands and I could never be a normal person.

I never was, but just thinking back to the brutal way I killed him always made my stomach lurch with disgust at myself.

I guess I had reached the stage that Guillermo described. The stage where I realised I didn't care and then I got pissed at myself for not caring. I was scared though.

He told me that at one point, I would stop feeling completely and I didn't know what to think. Because some days, I already believed that I didn't feel things as much as I should.

I shook my head at Anna and turned back to cleaning. “I haven't told you because it's really not important. It was boring.”

I wished.

“Boring and boss comes back with a gaping bullet hole and is fighting for his life? If that was boring, I would never want excitement,” she said, dropping her sponge and sitting at the island. She beckoned me over before continuing. “Something tells me that you just don't want to tell me what happened.”

Before I could respond and confirm her hypothesis, a third voice joined the party from the doorway.

“What else do you think happened?” Lola asked as she walked into the kitchen with two other girls. They started setting up dinner. “Boss obviously only brought her with him so he could whore her out. I mean, who wouldn't want a cheap whore like her?” As she walked around gathering ingredients, I couldn't help but wish that she would slip, fall and break her neck. “No wonder she wouldn't tell any of us a thing.”

“Shut up, Lola,” Anna-Maria muttered. She placed her hands on my clenched fists and I slowly released them. I looked at the red marks my nails left in my palm and shook my head.

Some days I felt things too much.

“What? I'm only saying the truth,” she said with a shrug. She didn't even turn around to us as she continued to gossip about me as if I wasn't even there. “Araceli is an easy whore that any man would want to hump and dump before throwing her away. I wouldn't be surprised if boss himself hit it.”

She laughed as I glared daggers at her back and the girls continued on awkwardly. They knew that the next thing that was going to happen was a fight and if La bruja caught us fighting, the two opponents wouldn't be the only ones she would punish.

“Oh, is this still about how I took your boyfriend?” I asked before I could even bite my tongue and walk away like a mature person. “If you're calling me a whore because he found something better, then the only real person here to blame is you.”

“You shut up right now!” she said, turning around swiftly and pointing the knife she was using to the cut vegetables at me.

As the other girls gasped, I remained indifferent because this was literally my life. I wasn't able to count on one hand the amount of times I had bottles broken over my head by jealous ex-girlfriends before. If she wanted me to feel threatened, she had to try some other way.

“Oh what? We're not talking about whores anymore?” I mocked as I inspected my nails. “Because I was definitely going to own up to the name if it means being more of a woman than you'll ever be.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

“But it was you who started talking. Are you not going to finish what you started? Don't worry, I'll finish for you. I could go on and on about how Carlos kept telling me how much more of a woman I am than you while he made love to me,” I said, resting my head on the back of my hand as she literally seethed in front of me.

“Lola, calm down,” one of the girls who walked in with her said, trying to pry the knife out of her hand, but she didn't let go. She kept her focus on me with a hard glare on her face.

“No. I'm going to kill this bitch. I'm actually going to kill this bitch,” she said to her before sharply looking at me.

Now, I didn't take kindly to my life being threatened. So I obviously stood up to the challenge.

I shot up out of my seat and walked around the table, approaching her as she slowly backed away from me. Even though she was the one that was holding a knife against me.

“Kill me then,” I mocked, pressing my chest up against the tip of the knife as it shook violently in her hand. The girls gasped at my boldness, but I didn't care. “You said you want to kill me? Kill. Me. I'm right here bitch, kill me.”

“Araceli, stop,” Anna said, rushing to me and trying to pull me away from the knife, but I yanked my hand out of her grip and glared at her. She backed off, not wanting to get in the middle of this.

“Kill me, bitch.” Before she could even blink, I had hit my wrist off hers with the knife and just like that, it went flying out of her hands and to the other side of the kitchen floor.

I could hear the sighs of relief reverberating around the room as more girls slowly came in to see what was causing the noise. They shouldn't be relieved though, because I was the only one about to end someone's life. And that someone was Lola.

“All you ever do is run your mouth,” I hissed, getting up in her face as she stood tall and acted indifferent even though I knew she was dying inside. “And then you're so quick to say I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna kill you and then pick up a knife. But when it actually comes to the act,” I pushed her and she stumbled back. “You can't do shit.”

“Fuck off,” she said, pushing me but I didn't budge because I didn't take kindly to my life being threatened.

Without even moving, I pushed her again. She tried to push me, but I blocked off her arms and used that opportunity to push her again.

“Araceli, it's okay. Let's just go,” Anna hissed from behind me, glancing at me with worried eyes, but I didn't listen.

I pushed Lola until she tripped over her own legs and fell to the floor. Without wasting a minute, I got in top of her and started landing blows onto her face.

“Stupid little bitch,” I muttered as I punched her right in the nose.

Her legs kicked out from under me and she tried to buck me off with her hips, but when that didn't work she went with the oldest trick in the book. She started pulling my hair.

I let out a yelp of pain, but I didn't allow her to get me down. Instead, I grabbed a fistful of her brown curls and yanked at it before pushing her head down against the tiled floor. She gritted her teeth, but said nothing as I did it again and again and again.

I probably would've ended up killing her if it wasn't for the voice that pulled us out of our hate induced trance.

“What in the—Girls! What is going on here?” I looked up from Lola and rolled my eyes as La bruja glared down at the both of us. “Get up off her right now.”

I didn't stop beating Lola, but she stopped trying to get me. Instead, she invested all of her energy in crying and pretending that she was the victim.

“Araceli!” A pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist and yanked me off her as someone else went and helped Lola up. I glared at Pablo, who was keeping me from giving her face the proper rearranging it deserved, but did nothing else except for quietly get my breath back and let the adrenaline in my bloodstream drop.

“What have I told you girls about fighting?” Margaretta yelled at all of us as she fully entered the room. It was only then that I noticed Daniel was with her. No wonder Pablo was here. None of the guards entered the kitchen regularly. “Especially you.”

She pinned a hard glare on me as I rolled my eyes and stepped out of Pablo's arms. He let me go, but still kept close to me in case I was going to attack again.

“I didn't do shit. Ask her what happened.” I pointed at Lola who was busy cowering behind Daniel as if she was a victim or something.

“I don't even know what I did to her. She just started attacking me—”

“You held a knife to me, bitch!” I interrupted her. “Dios mío,” I let out a bitter chuckle as I turned in a circle to shake off all the energy I wanted to use to punch her face in.

Suddenly, I lunged at her, but Pablo knew me better and pulled me back before I could even throw in a decent punch.

“I was only trying to defend myself! Do you see how crazy she is?” she said to La bruja as I struggled against his grip until I realised that I was only making myself look bad.

“We were just talking and then she threatened to kill me with a knife. You can ask everyone else here! They all saw!”

“She already slapped the knife out of my hand before she started beating me up! She just wanted to hit me!”

I opened my mouth to talk again, but La Bruja beat me to it and exclaimed, “Enough! The both of you!” She glared at both of us before looking back at Lola. “Is this argument about Carlos? Again?”

“I don't see why you're getting defensive over a guy that cheated on you,” I muttered under my breath as she glared at me with a fake smile on her lips.

“And I don't see why you're getting defensive over me calling you exactly what you are; a whore.” She then lowered her voice. “It's probably the exact reason why your mother put you out.”

I couldn't see anything but red as she said that. I just wanted to strangle her and bury her alive and burn her and drown her all at the same time.

I struggled in Pablo's arms to try and reach her, but he didn't budge. But I didn't give up. With one last kick and I mighty jump, I had enough leverage. I outstretched my hand and threw a sides way punch right into her nose before going back into Pablo's chest, completely satisfied with what I had done.

She let out a pained scream and cowered behind La Bruja as the nose that only started to stop bleeding started all over again.

“That is enough.” I probably would've been scared of her warning voice if I was actually scared of her. Good thing I wasn't. “The two of you are both on toilet duty for two weeks,” she said, making the rest of the girls sigh in relief.

If Lola and I were doing it, that meant they didn't have to.

We didn't complain. Or at least I didn't because the beating I was able to give her was worth the punishment. Plus, what was the point of regret? I already did it.

“Now, apologise. Both of you.”

Lola glared at me before glaring at La Bruja. “I'm not going to apologise to her! She just punched my nose.”

La Bruja looked like she was considering it for a second before she nodded her head and turned to me with an expectant look. I felt my jaw drop.

“You don't expect me to apologise to her, right?” She didn't give me an answer, but I already had my own. I slowly peeled myself out of Pablo's arms and began to walk to the doorway. “I'm not going to fucking apologise to her.”

“Araceli, come back! Where are you going?” she called out to me, but I wasn't planning on coming back.

I glared at Lola and pointed to her. “This is your warning. Keep my name out of your mouth.”

And after my eyes met Daniel's amused ones, I was out the door.

*****

I decided to update again because I liked this chapter, lmao. You get to see more of Ara's character.

In regards to the whole sequel mumbo, I'll think over it and come up with something by the next update.

Have a good day, love ya.

PS. I hate the smell of the body wash we're using. It doesn't even smell like coconuts.