Paper Trails 2 | Draft

18.

Mature content. ;)

"Give a man a mask and he'll become his true self."

*****

Raven and Niccolò were arguing. I came into the apartment, startled by their voices loud and authoritative. I put down my bag and inched towards her room. The door was closed, but they were loud enough for me to hear the conversation.

"—doesn't make up the fact that you didn't fucking tell me anything!"

"I did what I needed to do."

"That's your answer?" She sounded incredulous. "That's all you're going to fucking say? Are you kidding me?!"

"She's not ready to see you."

"She's my sister!"

"And you turned your back on her the first chance you got."

I opened the door, already seeing where this was going. Raven stormed towards him, and I jumped in before she could get a hit in.

"Raven!" I grabbed her, pushing her back a little.

"This is none of your business, Neila."

"As your friend, I'm telling you to calm down."

"And as your friend, I'm telling you to get the fuck out of my way." Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and I could see the rage in her eyes. Right now she was a predator, and I was in the way of her prey.

"Don't take your anger out on her," Niccolò said, taking a step forward. "This is on me."

"Damn right it is, you son of a bitch!"

"Raven—"

"Neila, give us a minute." He was calm.

"What? Are you kidding? You see how close she is to snapping? She plays with switchblades, okay? I'm not about to leave the room so she can poke a few holes in you."

"I can handle myself."

I ignored him, turning back to my friend. "You know when I'm upset, I tell you to leave me alone?" She opened her mouth to speak, but I went on because the question was rhetorical. "Okay, well, I'm a hypocrite, cause I'm not leaving."

"Neila—"

"Shut up, Niccolò."

"I knew, I knew you were going to spit some bullshit at me like I'm stupid," Raven snapped at him over my shoulder. "And then you tell me I turned my back on her? How dare you?"

"That was...a low blow. I apologize." Niccolò took another step forward. "But I made her a promise—"

"You made me a promise."

"I made promises to both of you. I was trying to honor both of them."

"How is not telling me honoring your promise to me, Niccolò?"

"I promised you that I would look out for her. That if and when she was ready to talk to you, I would let you know. That if and when you were ready, I would let her know. I promised her I'd give her time to think." His hand was on my arm now and he gently pulled me out of the way.