Slowburn

Chapter 100

        I was laying across my bed with nothing to do. I was feeling pretty cooped up by day 3 of isolation. I know I'm in a beautiful home with lovely grounds, but with all the people I keep trying to avoid I haven't gone to enjoy any of it. Plus, I feel oddly guilty 'enjoying' myself when my death threat looms on. 

When my parents Facetimed me this morning I had to sit in front of a blank wall so they wouldn't see that I'm in a place other than the apartment they know me to live in. You would think they wouldn't notice a detail like that, but you don't know my mother. 

She's wonderful, but she's nosy. She would absolutely notice. And questions are just something I can't handle right now. I hate lying. I've been a hypocrite giving the glaring eye to Renzo, Dante, and all of them for being liars when here I am lying to my family all the time. 

The severity of the lies are certainly not comparable but still, I hate lying.

        There was a knock on my bedroom door so I rolled across my mattress and opened it. "Dante" I was surprised to see him. It's the first time since I'd told him back at my old apartment to stay away from me. This 6'2 mobster with his neck tattoo and treats in his hands. This was our thing in the past. He comes to my door apologizing with treats. 

"Sweets aren't going to mend this" I sighed at him when he tried handing me that bag. "I know" he said, but he looked kinda sad. I don't want that to pull on my heart strings. I can't. I loved Dante as a friend, but after knowing the depth of their crimes I just can't do it anymore.

He stood on one side of the door's archway and I stood on the other with a pause. 

        "Kat, I just wanna say something if you'll let me" he lowered his hand that had the treats in them. I sighed but nodded okay and let him in. Both of us were a little fidgety and unsure of ourselves. He placed the bag on my nightstand and only after that did he wipe his hands at his sides and turn to face me.

"I've tried to think of a million words to help me try to come talk to you. I see the way you look at me and Ren now and I know you hate us...if there is any way I can fix any of it then I will, you just gotta tell me how. And-and if you truly think there is no way you could ever forgive us or look at us the same way again, then...I guess I understand. You see us as monsters who murder people, but I have feelings too Kat, and I'm really dang sad if I'm telling you the truth" I've never seen Dante look more serious and somber than this. 

His shoulders sagged and he hung his head low. Dante tried to look at me throughout the entirety of his speech, but when he became sentimental his eyes dropped down.

        I wiped a quick tear from my eye and released a shaky breath. I was wringing my fingers so hard together with no place to put all that I was feeling in the moment. "I don't know what to say," I admitted. Dante nodded and picked at the hem of his shirt while he appeared to be thinking for a moment. 

"Kat, hear me out. If you're going to kick me out of your life I understand, but if I can't be there in person, in your everyday life, then I'd like to leave you with something" he picked his head back up and spoke with more conviction now. It left me wondering what he could possibly leave for me.

When Dante pulled something from behind his back I jumped back in shock and clutched my chest. 

        "Jesus, Dante! What in the heck?!" Dante held a gun in his hand which startled me. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. "I'm not gonna give it to you or nothing...I just wanna teach you how to use one. Just in case. Just to know how to" he was entirely serious about this. I was incredulous. I just shook my head.