© Jojo B 2016

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*N.E.V* The Seven Deadly Simpson Brothers

28

(Picture is Diego)

"It's trashed," I said, devastated. "All of it, ruined."

Walter and I stood outside the mess of what my flat used to be.

In my bedroom, my curtains had been slashed into shreds and so had my pillows and duvet. The Santiagos had ripped the stuffing out so that it was dispersed all over the house in little fluffy clouds. The word 'PUTA' had been carved into the headboard with such force that I didn't even care what it translated as, the hate that I picked up from it alone, made me afraid.

In the kitchen, every single one of my plates, bowls and mugs had been smashed to pieces and lay all over the floor like a frenzy of sharks' teeth. The eggs in my fridge were now half dried on the walls and on top of all that, they'd also stuffed the sink with tissue and left the tap on so that water had overflowed onto the floor. Walter had made me stay by the doorway whilst he went and turned the tap off, his shoulders stiff with anger and his shoes making the water ripple.

My tiny living room was destroyed, my little sofa torn up, no doubt with the use of their knives. My small TV had been smashed beyond recognition and lay discarded off its stand and on its side.

As soon as we'd entered my bathroom, Walter told me to cover my nose. I didn't realise why until I saw the piss all over the floor and almost retched in my mouth. My bottles of perfume had been emptied into the sink and my toothpaste was squirted all over the walls.

Upset was an understatement. I was shattered.

I tried to imagine how different the whole situation would have been if I had been present in my home at the time the Santiagos broke in. It was a very frightening thought indeed. It had definitely been more than just Ario who'd trashed the place, but the thought of him being in the lead, hurt. I hoped it had made himself feel better.

"We need to take you away for at least the weekend, maybe longer," Walter said in a clipped voice as we stood outside my flat.

To be honest, I was surprised by how well he'd kept his temper in check.

"I'm not arguing with that," I said to him, sighing. "I really pissed him off."

"He's more pissed off with me than anyone else," Walter touched my shoulder, as if that was an assurance.

"Let's just go home," I said to him, leaning into his side. "I'll give my landlord a notice that I'm moving out."

"I'll help with the rent until that's sorted out," Walter said to me.

"Walter, I've been managing with the rent for two years, its fine," I gave him a smile. "Let's go."

"Alright," he said, mirroring my expression. "Alright."

We walked down the flight of stairs and let ourselves out of the building and into the cold wintery afternoon. We'd come here straight after school, as it was on the way to Walter's house and he'd had the smart idea to check to see if the Santiagos had played any moves yet.

And they certainly had.

Walter and I had only taken a few steps when I felt myself being roughly grabbed by my elbows from behind and ripped away from him. Walter barely had time to turn to me before Ario had hit him right in the jaw.

"No, don't fight!" I cried quickly before things got out of hand.

Walter must have been hit hard because he fell onto his hands and knees and struggled to get back up. Ario stood over him, holding his knife - the one I'd returned to him - in his hand. Diego was walking around Walter, grinning and laughing as he insulted him in Spanish and Miguel stood to the side, watching with a straight face.

"Don't let her go Manuel," Miguel said to his twin brother.

"She can try," Manuel chuckled cruelly from behind me.

I searched for Paulo, hoping he'd be sane enough to try and talk sense into his brothers and cousin Diego, but Paulo wasn't there, and neither was Carlos. The only two slightly calm ones were nowhere to be seen.

Ario, Diego and the twins had waited for us in an ambush. They must have known I'd come back sometime, and what was even better for them was that Walter was there too. Why hadn't I considered that this could have happened?!

"You're trespassing," Walter only muttered to them, spitting blood out of his mouth.

"So?" Miguel barked at him. "Are you going to shoot us? Where's your gun, man?"

"Walter," Ario grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head up so that Walter was in a kneeling position. "You knew all along? I bet you were all smug as you got your girl to use me, to get information on us."

Walter didn't say a word. He tried to look at me from the corner of his eye but Ario wouldn't let him so much as turn his head an inch in my direction.

"What are you going to do?" Ario held Walter's chin firmly and snarled in his ear. "I could kill you right now....I could kill the bitch too."

I couldn't stop the gasp that escaped my mouth. Ario was behaving in a way I'd never imagined he could behave. Walter didn't seem fazed, blue eyes must have been like this a lot when he was faced with his enemies...and now I was one of them.

"Stop with the small talk and bash his face already," Diego urged his younger cousin on with a menacing grin.

"Don't rush me Diego," Ario scowled at him.

"Then let me rough him up a litt - "

"No. He's all mine," Ario cut him off and held his knife to Walter's cheek.

"Ario please," I pleaded. "I'm sorry, I really am. Please don't hurt him."

Ario looked at me properly for the first time and I saw a whole mixture of emotions in his blue eyes. I was hoping that I could get through to him, hoping that even though he was angry, he wouldn't take things too far.

"Asking on his behalf makes me sick Coral," Ario said blankly. "You should know that."

I tried to pull myself out of Manuel's grip which only caused him to hold me even tighter, if that was possible. I hissed in pain and that caused Walter to shove Ario out of the way with his shoulder, before rising up to his feet.

"Don't you touch her," Walter aimed a deathly glare at Manuel.

Diego laughed and punched Walter right in the side where his ribs were healing. Walter dropped to one knee, groaning as he breathed with difficulty.

"Please let go of me," I tried begging quietly to Manuel.

"Why would I do that?" he scoffed. "Just shut up and watch your boyfriend take what he deserves."

"Come on Ario," I looked at him instead. "Please tell him to let go of me. I'm not going to run. Not without Walter, and you know he would never run."

Ario glared at me for a few moments and then he finally sighed and nodded at Manuel who released me with a push forwards.

"Don't think about doing anything stupid like calling the police," Diego spoke as he waved his knife at me. "Because I'll kill you before they get here, I guarantee you."

"I won't," I said, trembling.

"Get this done and over with," Walter snapped angrily. "I've got shit to do."

"No," I argued. "We can talk this out. There's no need to fight."

Diego laughed again, "You're a funny bitch, you know that? Walter is a pain to us all, so why would we 'talk this out'?"

"Don't call her that you - " Diego cut off Walter by punching him right in the face.

"Diego!" Ario shouted. "I told you he's mine."

"You're taking your time hermano," Diego replied. "We are in their territory, like he rightly said, the others could show up anytime. And besides, the guy pisses me off too."

"Yeah, hurry up Ario," Miguel said, looking up and down the street. "I get the feeling our time is running out."

I hoped so bad that Walter's brothers were happening to be passing through this way. I didn't want Walter getting hurt anymore than he already had been.

Ario spat out curses in Spanish and the gripped Walter's face again, holding the tip of his knife under his chin.

"Today you're lucky," he said to Walter. "I don't feel like killing you in front of your girl. It wouldn't be nice."

Walter smirked and spoke in a low voice as blood trickled out his nose, "You wouldn't kill me anyway. If I was dead, who would you have to hate so much?"

Ario pressed the knife harder into Walter's flesh and I held my breath, not wanting to say anything to cause Ario to actually cut Walter.

"Don't test me," Ario growled. "Don't take our hate for each other as some sort of friendship. One day this will end, and only one of us will come out of it."

Walter spat in Ario's face and I internally crumbled.

"Good to know you've accepted your death," Walter replied.

Way to make the situation even worse, but then again, this was Walter, and Walter's temper wasn't to be reckoned with.

"No one has to die," I said in a trembling voice.

"Shut up, bitch," Diego snapped. "You're interrupting."

"Stop calling her that," Walter yelled at him, and Ario didn't stop him.

"You aren't in the position to make demands," Diego looked down at Walter teasingly. "And waitress, I enjoyed taking a nice, long piss all over your bathroom floor. It was refreshing."

I felt anger fire up inside me, but I knew not to act. What could I do? Probably get myself hurt, or maybe killed. People like Diego were best to leave ignored.

But it seemed Walter had trouble doing that.

Still on his knees, he punched Ario in the gut, despite Ario's knife still hovering by his face, and got to his feet a second time. Walter ran at Diego and got in one punch before Miguel and Manuel pulled him off and rained heavy kicks down on him.

"Stop!" I shouted in a shrill voice, knowing I was being heard (and ignored) by anyone in their homes nearby.

They only stopped to let Ario through and Walter lay panting on the floor, holding his damaged ribs in agony and looking up at Ario with loathing. Walter's free hand reached into his pocket to get his own knife, but Diego saw and stepped on it before he could. Walter gritted his teeth in pain as Diego ground his hand into the pavement and my legs were shaking so hard in fear and adrenaline, I could have dropped any second.

"Diego stop," Ario said to him.

Diego pushed his hair out of his face and gave his cousin a frown, but still took his foot off Walter's hand.

"Walter," Ario bent down in front of him. "I'll see you around, man. But until then, take this as a parting gift."

He pressed his blade into Walter's cheek and drew a red line down it from Walter's cheekbone, down to his jaw.

"Hopefully that should give you a nice scar," Ario smiled "to add to your collection of special souvenirs from me."

Walter held his face and gritted his teeth as blood trickled through his fingers and I stood rooted to the ground, stunned.

"Vamos chicos," Ario murmured to the boys and they walked away from Walter and towards the East Side.

I watched them leave and just before they were out of sight, Ario turned around and looked right at me. I thought he was going to smile maybe, or look apologetic in any way, but instead he gave me the middle finger and disappeared.

***

I'd made Walter go to A&E to get his cut stitched up, despite him disagreeing. He said Landon could do it for him, but I'd reminded him that Landon might not have been at home, and then what?

Walter had frowned, in discontent rather than pain, throughout the period it took for the doctor to put in six soluble stitches to close the wound down the side of his face.

"You should rest," I said to Walter when we got home.

"I need to talk to Phoenix," Walter shook his head, "about leaving for the weekend. I don't have a car, remember? If he agrees it's a good idea, then I think we'll all probably go."

"Okay Walter," I said, knowing I couldn't get him to lie down for even a second while he was determined like that.

The basement door opened and Eli came up with a towel draped over his shoulder. He was dripping with sweat and looking quite fatigued. I had forgotten about the home gym the Simpsons had in their basement.

"What happened to your face?" Eli frowned at Walter.

"None of your business," Walter snapped back.

I wanted to interrupt the pair of brothers before they started arguing. Was it really that hard for Walter to see that Eli was actually just concerned?

"Get out of my way then," Eli said to him blankly.

And then again, Eli had a strange way of showing it.

"Walter," I put a hand on his back to try and settle him. "Phoenix?"

"Yeah," Walter nodded and cast Eli a glare before he moved on.

Eli narrowed his green eyes at the back of Walter's head and I sent him an apologetic look before he went upstairs.

"Where's Phoenix?" Walter demanded at Gio and Gomez who were in the living room watching TV.

"He just came in," Gomez didn't even look up at us. "Went up to his room I guess."

Gio, who was rifling through a packet of crisps, sighed when his hand came back empty. I just knew he was going to ask us to get him more before he opened his mouth.

"Walterrr?" he looked up at us with a cheeky smile and then widened his eyes when he saw the state of his brother. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Walter rolled his eyes and turned around. "Let's go Coral."

"Okay," I backed up and went to stand at the bottom of the stairs. "I'll wait in your room while you talk to him."

"Don't let him scare you," Walter said to me. "Let's go together, you don't have to say anything to him if you don't want to."

"I won't be," I smiled.

I followed Walter up to Phoenix's room, and waited outside with him while he knocked. I noted that Phoenix's door was the only one Walter actually knocked on before entering.

"What?" we heard Phoenix call, and Walter opened the door.

Phoenix's room was spacious, but not because it was really big, rather because it was quite bear. He must have kept all his weapons and things tidy and organised in one of the big chest of drawers he had, because something told me Phoenix didn't have enough clothes to fill all three of them.

Landon was lying on Phoenix's bed and Phoenix himself was sitting up against his headboard. For a split second they just looked like normal brothers just chilling after a day of college of something like that.

"What do you want?" Phoenix looked at us.

"Don't tell me you haven't seen the size of that plaster on his face," Landon gave Phoenix an incredulous look. "Do you have stitches under there, Walter?"

"Yes," Walter grumbled, looking away. "That's not what I came to talk about - "

"But I'm still going to ask," Landon cut in, getting off Phoenix's bed and walking up to Walter to touch his chin. "Which one of them cut you?"

Walter turned his face, pushing Landon's hand away, "Landon, don't touch me. We need to leave for the weekend. They destroyed Coral's flat, completely messed it up...and if she'd been in there at the time, I don't know what they would have done."

"Are you okay, Coral?" Landon asked me. "You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "It was Walter I was worried about."

"Hey, I'm fine," Walter touched my elbow discretely. "So Phoenix, are you driving us or do we have to take the train out of here?"

Phoenix sighed and then to my surprise, he simply nodded.

"I've been needing a break myself. Trying to figure out what they are planning to do is wearing on my mind," Phoenix said.

"How long are we going for?" Landon turned to ask Phoenix. "We can't leave our turf unpatrolled for long, especially when the Santiagos are already trying to take our businesses from us."

"We leave on Saturday morning and come back on Sunday night," Phoenix said. "It's not long, but it's a break."

Landon and Walter nodded, and I was curious about where we were even going, but I was afraid to ask Phoenix.

"The coast," Phoenix spoke, looking right at me. "Eastbourne is where we're going, if you were wondering. We have an apartment there."

"Eastbourne," I smiled. "Sounds nice, I've never been there before."

"It's only a three bedroom," Landon wiggled his eyebrows at me. "It's kind of a safe house, so we didn't want anything that would draw a lot of attention."

"I understand," I shrugged. "Umm, can I ask a question?"

The boys looked at me, waiting for me to speak, which only made me feel more nervous about asking. Nervous of Phoenix's answer anyway.

"Can my friend Hayley come?" my voice dropped in volume. "I mean, if she's free that is."

Phoenix shared a look with Landon who started counting on his fingers.

"Yeah, there's room," Landon nodded.

"So, yes?" I raised my brows.

"Okay," Phoenix grunted. "As long as you make sure she doesn't go around saying anything about it to anyone. Because if she does, I'll personally see to it myself that she forgets all about us."

I tried not to show fear and only nodded, "She won't. She's trustworthy."

"Walter?" Phoenix spoke. "You know her?"

"Yeah," Walter shrugged a shoulder. "She's a good one."

"Fine," Phoenix nodded.

"Thank you," I sent him a smile. "I guess we'll all be sharing somehow."

"You just read my mind," Landon smirked and Walter gave him a look.

"I don't find that funny," Walter mumbled.

"You don't find a lot of things funny," Landon replied before throwing himself back on Phoenix's bed.

"Come on," Walter said to me, taking my hand.

"Bye guys," Landon called after us, and Walter ignored him

"Landon get off my leg," Phoenix was grumbling as Walter shut the door.

"So Eastbourne it is," I smiled up at Walter's bashed up face and then frowned. "I'm sorry they hurt you."

Walter shook his head, "Please Coral, don't waste your breath talking about them. I'll get my own back on them when the time comes. That's how it goes."

"But your face," I gently touched the plaster that covered the stitched up wound.

"Doesn't hurt that bad," Walter touched the side of mine. "I'll take some painkillers later before I go to bed."

"Be honest with me Walter," I folded my arms. "You're in pain now, so take the painkillers now and rest."

Walter took a breath and nodded, "Okay."

"Not just okay," I said to him. "I want you to be honest and say how you feel right now."

Walter looked at me through his dark lashes, a tiny smile on his lips.

"My ribs hurt a lot, it's hard to breathe. My face feels like it's burning and it stings when I talk or try to smile," Walter started listing. "And my hand, the hand that bitch ground into the dirt, is still pounding. And I've got a headache, from the punching in general. I think that's about it."

I blinked at him slowly, then opened my mouth, "Go to bed."

"Wait Coral - "

"I'll bring you medicine and food. Just stay in your bed," I touched Walter's sore hand. "We're travelling tomorrow. I want you to be okay."

He sighed and nodded, "Okay. I love you."

I blushed, not expecting to hear that at all. It was still very new to me and Walter had completely caught me off guard.

"I-I love you too," I tucked some of my hair behind my ear, dropping my gaze. "Walter get into your bed."

He chuckled softly and winced, before I physically had to push him to his bed and make him sit down.

"I'll be right back," I kissed his forehead.

***

I called in work and took the Saturday off before calling Hayley to see if she was free and wanted to come with us for the weekend. I hadn't really spent a lot of time with her recently, and I missed her. I just hoped she'd be available.

"Hayley," I cried when she picked up, trying to keep my voice down a little because Walter had thankfully fallen asleep.

I heard her laughing down the line, "Coral, what's up?"

"Please, please, please, please - "

"Please what?" I could hear the confusion in her voice. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes," I smiled. "Please say you're free for the weekend."

"Hmm...let me see," she murmured.

I was still chanting a multitude of please's in my head whilst I waited for her to reply, just thinking how Eli much would like it if Hayley were to join us too. I think anyway.

"I'm free," Hayley interrupted my thoughts. "I was just kidding when I said I had to think about it. I don't have to think about shit. I have nothing planned, it was just gonna be an empty weekend with a bit of babysitting. Glad to get out of that."

"Great," I grinned.

"So what's the plan?" Hayley asked me, excitement in her voice.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy for inviting you, but here's the deal...."

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