The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

40 | boys don't cry

warning: scenes of violence

• [ b o y s d o n ' t c r y ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

SURE, PLAYING THE violin and participating in an orchestra was fun. Kicking your feet up whilst relaxing to Beethoven or some good ol' Mozart was also fun. And of course, listening to whatever else 'utterly ravishing' classical music existed on the planet could also be classified as sheer 'fun.'

But hold up.

Let's be real for a second.

We all knew that only applied if you were an elderly person living in a retirement home, whose only weekly motivation was the Friday evening 'Back to the 50's' gala. I'd almost forgotten the rather surprisingly competitive bingo that followed. Older people took the dog-eat-dog phrase to another level.

Not that there was anything wrong with that.

Trust me, retirement homes were where all the juicy stuff happened. Nanna had told me enough saucy stories about what happened in there for me to know that for sure. My favourite was the one about her high school sweetheart who had bribed the nurses working at the care home into giving him an extra dose of codeine.

I swear to God, that was what I aspired to be like when I was older. A real man. Truly inspirational.

The bottom line was that listening to three hours of classical music was not my cup of tea. Plus the company I had was absolute trash. I glanced at the three people sitting in the theater seats beside me.

Logan Thornton, the douche.

Talisa Lisin, the girl who still wanted to punch me.

Ashlei Kovalenko, the girl who I wished would just shut up about fashion for a good minute.

Fun. Fun. And. Fun.

My head tipped backward as I stared at the fancy Opera House ceiling, wishing I'd stayed with Lou at the hospital beside Prince. I hoped he was feeling better after the incident.

Genuinely, I really had tried to focus on the music but I'd immediately lost interest as soon as Arlo had done his performance. He had deliberately left out the fact that he'd only be on stage for the first hour. Arlo probably knew that I wouldn't have turned up had I known that.

Kill me now.

When some opera singer hit a scratchy note, I glanced at my phone for the twentieth time and it still said no service. Giving up, I wearily nudged Talisa who sat next to me. "Fuck, I can't bear this anymore. I'm out of here. I'll be at the yacht." She shrugged her shoulders after her green eyes briefly landed at me.

We'd reached a stalemate. Talisa was still being bitter about our misunderstanding and I'd given up on apologising to her. She was acting like an ex when literally nothing had happened between us.

"Sure. Try not to fuck too many girls along the way," Talisa said crudely knowing it would tick me off. My jaw tensed as I looked at her in disbelief. I'd actually toned down the one night stands recently.

Get off your high horse. We know that's only because there's a distinct female who's constantly on your mind.

Smiling fakely, I winked at her knowing it would wind her up. "I'll try not to. Although they do seem to become delusional under my charm and think I'm into them." Her upper lip shook as she whipped her head back to the stage, her brown hair swaying in the process. Chuckling, I stood up and silently slipped out of the royal box where we'd been sitting.