Carl's POV:
I was in the parking area when I saw a familiar figure, and an amused smile appeared on my face. I walked towards him, just to tease him some more.
"Ciao, cugino pazzo! We met again." He turned his face to see me. I was a little taken aback by the red mark on his face. "What happened to your face?" I asked, my fists getting tight for some reason. He touched his face cautiously, his eyes were dazed as if he... cried?
"Tell me who in the hell did this to you!" I half growled and glanced at his good-for-nothing bodyguards who just looked down after seeing me glaring at them.
I looked back at his face. He was looking down at the back of his hand. I looked in the line of his sight and found a little bruise on his hand as well. What in the hell did he get himself into? It's not even two damn hours since I've last seen him.
Did he fight with someone? No, he's not the type to engage himself in a fight. He enjoys watching them but never meddles in them. Or did he get attacked by someone? If yes then I freaking kill that piece of... I glanced at Dane and Rob. I don't think that's the case either because both of his guards look neat and fine.
"Primo fratello, just tell me what happened?" I tried again this time in a calm voice. Erin said Vin only actually listens and answers when you talk politely and with respect.
Maybe she's right. As soon as he heard my softer voice, he looked at me. His eyes were a little red, he's definitely cried, but why?
"Carl…" I looked at him. "...can you leave me alone?" He asked in a voice that I never heard from him. He usually likes to mess with me with his shouting and murmuring but right now he seems... normal?
"Sure but first, tell me who did this. I will kill whoever hurt you and..." I said in a dark voice that no one likes.
"NO!!!" He shouted in horror and grabbed me by my collar. "Don't you dare to lay a finger on her!"
"..." What?
"I... I will not leave you alone if you did anything... to her. Did you hear me Carl!?" He growled, imitating my signature darker tone perfectly. Well, I don't think he was just imitating.
"I won't," I whispered lightly and waited for him to calm down.
If it was some other day, I would have broken his bloody hand for grabbing my collar. He looked me in the eye for a few seconds, maybe seeing if I was telling the truth or not. He must've seen honesty as he finally let go of my collar and pushed my chest lightly, dismissing me.
.
He opened the car door for himself, making me surprised. Honestly, I didn't know he could even do this much for himself. Because he likes to pretend to be a freaking King of the damn world. As he sat inside Rob and Dane moved to go. I grabbed both of them by the backside of their collars and dragged them with me.
"Let's get to the point... What happened?"
They first looked at each other, did some kind of silent chat and turned to face me as if they made some kind of mutual decision.
"After you left earlier, signorino goes to his classroom. He looked annoyed because of what you did..." Dane gave me a hesitant look, after seeing me not getting angry at him he continued "And Miss Amy was there alone in the class. We don't know what exactly happened inside."
"Then a boy and a girl entered the classroom. We heard some loud voices. We waited and were about to go in when they both came out of the classroom. We couldn't get in because they stayed near the door." Rob said while thinking to himself. "They looked nervous for some reason."
"But we saw Miss Amy leaving the classroom even before it ended. And I followed her as you asked. She walked to the girl's restroom. I saw her coming back with a wet face that she wiped with her scarf. I think that was normal." Dane said while making a confused face.
"When the class ended, we waited for signorino to come out. When he didn't come for quite some time. We entered and found him like this." Rob motioned towards the car.
"Did he tell you anything that happened in the classroom?" I asked. They shook their heads.
"We know he cried, we saw the slap mark, and the small bruise on the back of his hand but we didn't ask anything. He doesn't like to explain himself."
I just narrowed my eyes while thinking.
I need to find her...
_____
Amy's POV:
I left the class first because I was too distracted to learn anything new. My arm still felt numb, and I felt uncomfortable while holding up the pen to write. Should I see a doctor?
After I left the class, I just went to the restroom and washed my face to make me relax a bit. It's good that tomorrow is Saturday. Hopefully, I'll recover by next week before my college days.
.
I was walking on the side of the road. Suddenly I got the feeling as if someone was following me. Unconsciously, I began to speedwalk. I took out my cell phone and texted my roommate.
Me: I think someone is following me!
I sent the text and my current location to her just in case. I dialed 911 on the screen but didn't call, just put my thumb above it for the emergency.
I saw a bus coming towards me and I took it without even looking at where it was going. I felt my heart racing and sweat appeared on my forehead. I breathe to calm myself down.
That bus took me one stop away from my home. It took me an hour - more than usual - to get back home. As soon as I closed the door my knees gave up. I sink on the floor while leaning against the wall. What is going on in my life?
I unlocked my cell phone and texted again to my roommate.
Me: At home, safe and sound, don't worry.
I took a selfie and sent it too. Just so she doesn't worry too much.
.
A few hours later at night, I received another text message. I shouted covering my mouth with a pillow.
Unknown: You think you can run from me!
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Erin's POV:
When I entered Lucchese's mansion guards were looking at me like they were expecting me. I ignored their gazes and directly ran towards Vin's room.
I saw Rob and Dane knocking on the door calling signorino. Even master Enzo was there, rubbing his forehead looking tired and confused. Laure kicked the door a few times while shouting. Rex was standing on one side making a bored face. He's not a fan of Vin, everyone knows that. Maybe he was just here because of master Enzo.
As soon as everyone noticed my unannounced appearance, they looked relieved. Master Enzo took a deep breath and came towards me.
"I don't know what's going on here. But I'm glad you came. Can you please bring Vin out of his room?" He asked in his polite but deep voice.
"Yeah, Erin, do something. He's not listening to anyone. I think he was breaking some things in there." Laure pointed at the door with her thumb over her shoulder.
"Breaking things?" I was surprised. But even before they could say something I ran towards the door. Rob and Dane nodded a little hello and took a step back giving me full authority.
"Vin?" I said loudly while knocking at his door. "Young master, it's me! Will you please open the door?" I didn't ask 'what's going on' to anyone because Carl already gave me a briefing about the mess he created at college. "Vin, please open the door. Everyone is worried about you."
"Well, if you didn't open the door at three, I'm gonna break it." Laure came forward while folding her half-sleeved T-shirt. I instinctively open my arms to protect the door. Thanks to master Enzo's strong arms, she was held back from doing anything stupid.
.
She was acting wildly then master Enzo had to take her away. Rex also followed them while rolling his eyes at his boss's betrothed. Well, I can't protest him at that. Now only Rob, Dane, and I left. I took the spare key from Rob and opened the damn door.
Lights were off in the room, and I signaled my friends to stay outside. I entered alone and called Vin in a small voice.
My foot stepped on something and a crunch sound came. I think I broke something. I walked towards the side table of his bed and turned on the lamp. My eyes widened at the condition of his room. Everything was broken. He gets angry often, but his anger disappears as fast as it comes. All of this was also new to me.
I don't think Carl knows the whole story!
I looked around, his bedsheets were thrown on the floor, his pillow was torn apart, and all the feathers spread around. On the floor were broken vases and picture frames. Even his favorite action figures were spreading here and there on the floor. But where is he!?
I saw a silhouette on the other side of his bed. He was sitting on the floor. I walked towards him. He didn't even look up to see me.
"Vin?" I said carefully as I sat in front of him. "Look at me please." I asked softly.
"..."
"Don't you want to talk to me?"
"..."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me." I sat beside him, looking at his figure in dim light. He was looking down while hugging his legs. I wanted to look at his face.
We remain silent for a long time. I didn't know what to say... so I just remained silent and gave him some time. Light sobbing sounds came, breaking the silence.
Is he crying?
My eyes widened in the dark. "Wh...what happened?" I whispered.
Finally he started in a voice that made me worried.
"I... I hurt her." He said agonizingly. "I ... I left marks on... her." He looked at my face in a daze.
He did whattt!!! I don't know what expression my face was showing after hearing this.
"You know, what's making me feel worse? She... She didn't even cry... or complain. She just..." His voice broke.
He was crying so hard that he started to hiccup while sobbing. I saw him weeping too many times before when I was his therapist, but this was the first time that I saw him broken like this.
I don't even know what to say to him to make him feel better. Never in my wildest dreams, I can imagine him in this devastated condition.
"Hey, Erin," He stared blankly at me. "What do I do now?" He asked like a little kid.
"..."
"She was looking at me like... I don't know. She..." He was rubbing his hands together anxiously.
"What did she do?" I don't know why I asked that when I actually meant to ask what he did.
He froze for a long while.
"She... She smiled." He answered flatly. I think I heard him wrong. He smirked flashing craziness in his eyes. "She freaking smiled at me... Like she didn't give a damn about how badly I treated her." He shouted like a crazy person. And laughed.
Suddenly he stood up facing towards the light, now I could see his face more clearly. He keeps laughing like a maniac. His eyes were bloodshot and tears were falling down his face.
His crazy laughter was giving me goosebumps. He's not the Vin I know.
As if he read my face he stopped at once, still crying. He wiped his face and started rubbing the back of his neck while pacing around the room, thinking something.
I noticed he wasn't wearing the terry slippers that he only wore in his bedroom. There were small scratches on his feet. I stood up too and looked around the room for his slippers. When I found them, I sat on one knee in front of him and made him wear them. I don't want him to step on the glass pieces and hurt himself.
I stand right in front of him. He looked me in the eye sadly. A tear fell from his lashes, all the way down his cheek. His lips start to quiver and his voice gets shaky when he opens his arms to hug me.
"She will hate me for sure." I heard him whispering. I wanted to smile at that for some reason.
After hugging me for a long time, he finally let go and took a deep breath. Then he started to tell me about what exactly happened in the college. I wasn't that surprised when he started with my personal devil, Carl. He was saying the same thing that Carl had told me earlier but with a lot of hatred.
After that, he told me how he lost his cool completely and hurt Amy. I heard everything in disbelief. I can't believe Vin can do something like this. In his whole damn life, it was the first time when he found a girl he actually likes... only to end up hurting her. Badly.
And I won't deny it but my heart broke when he said Carl pushed his buttons. He was blaming him and I can't reason with him about that... not at the moment. I wanted to tell him that Carl was not planning anything...not this time at least. He even has a strange liking for that girl. If he's worried that Carl would hurt the girl he likes then he's completely wrong.
He said that Carl was following her - which is true - but that was only to protect her. And to make sure that she's safe.
When Vin gets followed in the college, It was me who asked Carl to keep an eye on both him and her. Well, I don't want an innocent girl to be tangled up in our mess so...
But telling him that won't make any difference so I remained quiet as he was blaming and cursing my poor Carl. After he drained all of his energy, I made him sit on the couch. At least he looks better now.
.
I opened the door, and both of my friends were leaning against the wall while waiting for us. I asked Dane to bring some water because Vin broke his jug and glass too.
When Rob and Dane entered the room, their eyes widened looking at the mess our young master created. They both looked at me in awe but I just shook a little to signal them 'not to make any stupid remark.' They got my signal because Rob just gave a nod while Dane kept nodding his head rapidly and then Rob had to poke with his elbow to make him stop.
.
"Vin! Let's go." I grabbed his arm.
"Where?"
"To the living room, where all of your fun stuff is. Don't tell me you forgot about our plan..." I exclaimed.
"...", "...", "..."
I received three pairs of confused eyes - actually four if you count Rob's glasses too which is… great.
"What are you trying to do Erin?" Dane came to whisper in my ear.
"I can't believe this. I came all the way here for a night stay and you guys forgot it." I pretended to look mad.
"...", "...", "..."
They just stare at me making me self-conscious. I took a deep breath and continued my lie. I was basically forcing a plan - that never really existed - on them.
"Come on, Vin! Stand up! You told me that we'll have a night PARTY on the weekend. You know, like the old days. We'll just play some games, watch movies, sing karaoke and dance..." I said excitedly. Have I forgotten to mention anything else? Maybe not.
As soon as Vin heard about the party his eyes sparkled. Wow, he's definitely something! I chuckled.
"Yeah, that's completely slipped from my mind. You know the side effects of college, it's affecting my brain cells." He said dramatically, making us look at each other in disbelief.
Is he the same guy who was moping around a few minutes ago?
"Let's go! Forget about sleeping tonight, boys!" Vin jumped up from the couch and looked excited as usual.
"Yes! Damn the sleep!" I shouted, matching his enthusiasm.
"That's my girl! I won't ever let you go!" He patted my head feeling too happy for a heartbroken guy.
Guess what!
Party mode on!
Our crazy Vin is back!
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