The Mad Ones², 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨

06 𝙥𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧

06
𝙥𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧

JJ.
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PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE ON THE CUT KNEW WHO OCTAVIA GELLER WAS. She had a notoriously famous brother and father— one sold drugs and the other was a raging alcoholic before he'd offed himself by flying a plane into the ground.

After that happened about two years ago, people started talkin' that Barry was gonna go down a similar path while springing up pity towards Octavia for being born into a cursed family. They spoke about her angelic smile and kind eyes that she'd apparently inherited from her mother, and how they hoped she would never change and stay a darling, little girl.

My quick take on it?— Octavia was never a darling, little girl.

Sure, she had a pretty cute smile and eyes that always seemed to shine a little, but there was always a Devil behind her smile and a sultriness to her watchfulness. She didn't go down a dark road after the death of her dad like Barry had, but with people watching her every move now, waiting to see how she coped with her loss, it came as a shock to everyone when she started dating Andrew Remorca.

I wouldn't have cared about the rumors if Andrew hadn't been my fucking idol back then. He started working full-time at my dad's car repair shed after getting expelled from school for—  you guessed it, fighting on school grounds. They called him 'Grim' since he always wore this brooding expression and never talked unless he had to.

But, God, could the guy fight. John B used to think I had a crush on him since I fangirled hard whenever Grim lunged over the table at some jock during lunchtime before proceeding to pummel the shit outta him. He was only two years older than us, but so much more intimidating.

He had a heart though. Otherwise he wouldn't have offered to teach me how to throw a punch back one day when he saw me coming into my dad's car shed with my face swollen up. He didn't ask who I'd gotten into a fight with. He didn't know there was no way I could hit my dad back like that. But Grim taught me anyways, and I gladly accepted the lessons.

Then the rumors about him and Octavia started spreading, and all of a sudden Grim stopped fighting. He stopped teaching me too.

"You told me you fight to channel your anger." I'd reminded him. "That you have so much anger boiling inside of you that if you didn't hit something, you'd go crazy."

"Mm, yeah." Grim had responded dryly.

"So?" I'd scowled. "Where's that anger now, huh? Where'd that shit go!"

"I'm channeling it differently now."

"Care to share with the class, Grim?" I'd started losing my patience by then. Truth was, I'd gotten a bit addicted to brawling with him. "How're you channeling it now?"

"By fucking." He'd been sucking on a lollipop that'd turned his lips a little green. But he finally pulled it out and met me dead in the eye. We just stared at each other for a few seconds before he put the candy back into the side of his mouth and returned his attention to turning a wrench over the lugs in a bike tire he was fixing up, his snake tattoo flexing as he lengthened his neck.

Grim kept going through a shit ton of green apple candy for the rest of the day we worked in the shed, but we barely exchanged another word after that. When I was ready to leave, he told me he was gonna stay back and that he'd close up. I didn't think anything of it and left, but then when I realized I forgot my phone and had to go back, I walked back into the shed and heard someone tearing shit up inside the supply closet.