L4d 1 & 2 oneshots ❤ (CLOSED)

Carnival games pt.2

Part 2! All the same warnings apply form last chapter!

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Emma looked at Nick again, confusion humming through her body as she watched him kneel to heal Coach. One minute, he was a raging asshole and the next he was a knight in shining armor. She frowned, looking away. It didn't help that he was a very attractive man. Emma let out a little huff, replacing the bandages on her hands before running her hand over the ones around her chest. Her mind clung to their conversation earlier, a bubble of rage sparking behind her solar plexus. Emma looked around, thinking it over. Maybe she'd misheard him in some way? After all, Nick seemed to be changing his tune- opening up as she was. His accent was odd to her ears, so it wouldn't be a stretch to think she'd misheard him.

Nick surprised her the first time he spoke Spanish- he'd thrown plenty of hints that he understood her casual use of it, but caught her off guard when, rather than an American accent, a Cuban accent left his lips. She hadn't ever heard a Cuban accent in real life, but recognized it from the way it made him sound like he was talking with a mouth full of marbles- an infamous quirk. The way he spoke reminded her of Ellis in a way, his accent cutting up words and taking as many shortcuts as it could, like some kind of Caribbean redneck. Oftentimes, when he commented to her- a little quip or jab- she'd miss something, a word or two getting lost in all that stuffing between his cheeks. She could, for the most part, figure it out and fill in the missing pieces but on more than one occasion, she'd needed to ask Nick to repeat himself.

So maybe that was the case- maybe she'd just overreacted and misheard something and blown up at him for no reason. Emma's mind ran through the conversation again. She bristled as soon as she'd remembered his words- calling himself marimacho. Emma's shoulders tightened, memories of highschool flooding back to her psyche at the term. The popular girls were awful all the same, but, in her experience, the latina girls were more creative in their bullying tactics.

One of their favorite ways to bully Emma and her non-girly friends was to call them 'boys'. They'd titter and laugh to themselves, chirping about the 'Marimachos' in the hall or whine about how they were too much like the stinky guys to be using the girls' locker rooms and toilets. Emma flushed every time they called her and her friends that- talking about them as if they were the kind of creeps you'd see in stranger danger ads rather than real people. Fury still burned in her chest whenever she was called that, the word, though harmless, holding too many bad memories for her. Maybe Nick had caught on to the way she dressed and looked and just repeated the bullying tactic. Was he really that shallow, to go for petty insults like a teenager?

Confusion squeezed up next to her anger as she thought over his words once more. Why would Nick call himself that? Marimacho was a particularly cruel way of calling someone a tomboy or a girl trying to be a man- why would that apply to a dude? Emma hummed. Maybe it had different uses where he grew up or in Cuba in general. But still, it didn't excuse the fact that he'd tried to peek at her boobs while she was down. Anger burned on her cheeks as her brain replayed his words, calling her hon as he tried to chat about her chest. What a damn creep!

Emma jumped when her shoulder was nudged, spinning around to see Rochelle smiling next to her. "What's got you so tousled, Em?" She chuckled.

Emma blinked. "How could you tell?"

"You're radiating rage and look like a beet."

Emma gave a weak smile at the gentle tease. "Guess I'm not that good at hiding my emotions."

"No ma'am you are not. Well, at least not anymore now that I know you. Now, tell me what's up," Ro said, leaning next to her.

Emma sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know... it's kinda complicated."