: - watty's shortlist 2022 - :
{riff ff}
Elizabeth Russell seems to have everything but the one thing she's always wanted comes with a different kind of price.
Riff thinks that he has everything he's ever wanted when it comes to the Jets but an unf...
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// - chapter twenty two - \\ "close enough to hurt me."
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DOC'S DRUGSTORE FRIDAY MORNING
The outside shutters over the storefront windows were down, the accordion grate across the door was partially drawn; the place was in silence which was unusual for the usually lively drugstore. The Jets were sat and stood, dotted around the store, shock giving way to a sharp, scary and unfamiliar grief that sets them all on edge. Baby John was sat away from the other Jets, behind the counter with Tessie at his side, she wasn't sure what to do other than just sit with him because he hadn't said a word since they arrived from the Salt Shed. Graziella was sat in the booth with Velma, both girls crying when they heard the news but crying for different reasons. Velma was upset because she knew what this would do to Elizabeth, the girl that loved Riff more than she loved herself whereas Graziella was selfish and believed this rumble to surround her; she was crying but no one felt sorry for her. The girls only knew the simple fact: Riff was dead. The Jets didn't tell them much more about what had happened but that was all they needed to know.
When they had first arrived at the drugstore, not all of the Jets came together; in their panic to leave the shed, they had dispersed and arrived at different times. The last to arrive had been the person that everyone had been waiting to see, they didn't know how she had gotten inside the shed, they didn't know how much of the fight she had seen but they knew that she was struggling the most with this grief and they didn't know how to help her. Diesel had led her inside, one hand on her shoulder as they entered the quiet drugstore; she kept her eyes trained on the ground because she knew that she would fall apart in a matter of seconds. Velma leapt out of the booth and stood in front of her, wrapping her arms around the girl and feeling her own heart burst when Elizabeth began sobbing, crying onto her shoulder as her friend attempted to comfort her.
Within an hour of being in the store, Elizabeth had stopped crying, she hadn't said a word or made a sound and was sat in the corner of the room with Diesel. He was holding her hands, which were placed on her lap as she stared into the middle of the room, her eyes glazed over as she watched nothing in particular. Ice glanced over to her, making eye contact with Diesel as they both worried for her, she was like a sister to them and they couldn't imagine what she was going through in that moment. Tony was downstairs in the basement; Valentina was talking to him and no one else had been down there. The old woman had wanted Elizabeth to stay with her but the girl refused to move from her spot in the corner, it was as though she had flicked a switch and her emotions were turned off. Graziella gripped her rosery beads even tighter and looked over to where Ice was guarding the door to the basement. "I wanna go see him, talk to him!"
"Tony just wants to be alone right now, he don't want to see us." Ice replied, knowing that he definitely didn't want to see Graziella when he was in love with a different girl and she couldn't offer him anything. As much as they usually liked her company, Graziella wasn't particularly welcomed to grieve with them, pretending that she really cared about Riff or Tony when they knew she only cared about herself.
