Badboy & The Troublemaker

│Love│*

"Sometimes you break your heart in the right way, if you know what I mean." 

∞Love∞

~Ash~

I sit with my head leaning against the head of the seat as I look ahead at the highway. We were going right on the speed limit. A thick silence settles over us as we head to our destination. It was a comfortable kind of silence, one that we long for on a busy day. It was refreshing to sit here and not say thing. The silence was speaking volumes, volumes only the believers hear.

The adrenaline had worn down and all I felt now was the exhaustion, the exhaustion of a battle against cancer.  For the first time in a long time, I let my body give in, closing my eyes, I fall asleep.

"Ash" I hear as someone shakes me.

"Y-yea? Sorry I feel asleep" I say sheepishly as I rub away the grogginess from my eyes.

"We're here at the road you asked me to drive to" he says looking around, "Ash are you sure this I the right place? This is a cemetery" he says confused.

"I'm sure" I say and he nods following me. We walk through rows of tombstones until I stop in front of the one I am here for.

Michael Anthony Valentino

1996-2013

"July 25, 2013 was the day Michael died for me" I say staring at his name engraved in the tombstone.

"Ash you don't have to tell me anything" Austin says standing in front of me and I shake my head.

"I have to tell someone, please listen?" I whisper and he nods.

"I remember feeling irritated every time he was around me. I couldn't stand him. I guess it was because he had everything that I didn't; a great family, and not a care in the world. He lived life without regrets while I spent most of my time thinking about what I did to break my family apart. Darren was first to meet Michael when he came to pick me up from cheerleading practice. They bonded instantly" I say smiling sadly.

"I didn't understand what my brother saw in him that made him a great friend. But slowly I started to realize that maybe he isn't so bad, and maybe I shouldn't have judged him first hand. So I got to know him and I fell in love. I fell for the badboy who was a great person on the inside" I say softly.  I sit down in front of the stone and Austin joins me. I run my fingers over the name engraved on the stone.

"It felt amazing to know that I was lucky enough to know the angel hiding in that misunderstand guy. I felt so lucky to have him as mine. But I made many mistakes in my past. I got involved with the wrong people" I say quietly.

"I joined the ravens to make some cash, to put a roof over our heads and send my momma to her dream school. And of course I thought joining a gang would be easy. I just get the cash and walk out when I'm done. But I was wrong...so wrong" I say laughing bitterly.

"I didn't know that I was a target of the rival gangs. Being one of the strongest fighters in Vegas got me a reputation, and I let it get to my head. It was a mistake though, a grave one at that because when the love of your life is in danger, you fall harshly off your high horse. It too me took fucking long to realize my mistakes and when I did it was too late...they had killed him by then...two bullets to his heart , and my whole life turned upside down..." I trail off as my voice trembles. Tears start to roll down my cheeks as raw pain rips at my heart.

"I tried to kill myself because I was weak, I thought killing myself would solve everything but it only made them worse. Then I bumped into you in school. I was so rude to you, unnecessarily really" I say sniffling.