Doomed
1196 Words
HAZEL
“Nothing… just that you like to stir trouble everywhere you go, don’t you, Hazel?” Nico says, "Cool," almost teasing.
I start breathing hard, the anger, the panic, and the humiliation pressing down on me. Nico notices and says,
“Come on, let’s go outside.”
He takes my hand and starts leading me. I don’t resist. A few people glance our way, but Nico doesn’t care, and right now, neither do I. All I can think about is that I got sold.
We step into the garden. Nico pulls out a cigarette, lights it, and asks, “Do you want a smoke?”
“No,” I say immediately. My mind is racing. Does he really want me to smoke right now? After this? I feel like my life is coming to an end.
All kinds of thoughts are going through my head. Finally, I mutter. "He sold me..." I finally say it. "He sold me… Nico, please,” I beg, my voice breaking.
“You’ve got to help me. I know he’s your boss, and you answer to him, but...he is going to let men sleep with me for money…please. He can’t do this.”
“He actually can,” Nico says softly, taking a slow drag from his cigarette.
That’s when it hits me. That’s why he brought me here. He’s never brought me out in public like this before, not somewhere so important. He brought me here for a reason...to show me that he’s a cold-blooded asshole.
All this time… he was just breaking me down, preparing me for this. I hate him. Tears start to fall, hot and sharp.
Nico sighs, running a hand along my back.
“Oh my god… I hate doing this. Nobody’s selling you to anyone.”
I remember the glass of champagne I drank earlier, standing beside Axel as he paraded me through the crowd. He was probably looking for a buyer, and I was the goods…
A thought crystallizes in my head, sharp and defiant. I will not lose my virginity because Axel decided who I should be with. No. That will not be the way. That will not be my first night. I will not give him that power over me. He's already taken too much from me already.
Nico stands close, patting my back absentmindedly as he smokes, looking like he’s thinking, when will she snap out of it?
I don’t think twice. I snatch the cigarette from him and throw it aside.
“What are you doing?” he asks, startled.
I pull him toward me and kiss him.
For a moment, Nico doesn’t move. He freezes like I just handed him a loaded gun. His hand stiffens around my arm, his breath catches, and then he jerks back so fast it almost hurts.
“What the hell are you doing?” His voice isn’t calm anymore. It’s a whisper, sharp and venomous, because even the walls could be listening. “Are you insane?”
I blink at him, my heart racing. “I... I...”
“You—what?” He steps back, glancing around the garden like he expects Axel to walk out of the shadows any second. “You just kissed me, Hazel. Do you have any idea what you just did?”
I shake my head, too stunned to speak, but he doesn’t give me time.
“Do you want me dead? Is that it? You want to get me killed because you’re mad at him?” His voice cracks, anger spilling over the fear. “Because that’s what’s going to happen if anyone saw that...if he saw that!”
“Nico, I...”
“No, don’t!” He runs both hands through his hair, pacing like a trapped animal.
“You don’t understand what you just did. A Morelli doesn’t forgive, Hazel. You’re Axel's property. His woman. If he even thinks I touched you.....” He stops, laughs dryly, almost like he can’t believe it, “...they’ll find me floating in the goddamn river before sunrise.”
“I didn’t mean to.....”
“Yes, you did!” he snaps, turning on me. “You did it because you’re angry, because you think you can mess with him, but this isn’t some normal man, Hazel! This is Axel Morelli! You don’t play games with him. He plays them with you...and he wins.”
He’s breathing hard, trembling a little. His eyes dart to the party again. “If he saw that kiss, if anyone even mentions it to him…” He shakes his head, swearing under his breath. “You just put a target on my damn back.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
He stares at me, jaw tight. “Sorry” doesn’t work in this world.
I swallow because I get what he’s saying. I know what he means, and I feel really bad.
I wasn’t thinking. I was mad and angry and scared.
“I’m sorry,” I say again, but he just shakes his head at me.
He’s pacing now. He’s no longer the Nico who is fun and teasing, the man who is so full of himself in a movie star kind of way, the man who’s sure of himself in everything he does.
No...he looks unhinged, like a caged animal. And we both know what happens when you touch a caged animal, when you push it.
“So what can I do?” I ask, desperate. “Just tell me what I can do. I don't want to cause you any problems.”
He doesn’t answer. He keeps pacing, muttering under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck.
“All right. You know what?” I say to myself, nodding as an idea forms. “I’ll go to Axel.”
That stops him cold. He stares at me like I just said something insane.
“I’ll go to him and tell him the truth,” I continue quickly. “You didn’t even want to kiss me. I’ll just tell him that I was the one who kissed you. And if he’s going to punish anyone, he should punish me.”
Nico’s eyes grow wider and wider, but I keep talking, the words tumbling out too fast to stop.
“He was going to sell me out anyway, right? So what does it matter if I kissed one of his men? It’s going to be okay. I’ll just talk to him, and we’ll put all this behind us.”
And that’s when Nico laughs...loud, hard, and sharp enough to make me flinch.
“You’re crazy,” he says between broken bursts of laughter. “You really are crazy.”
But it’s not a happy laugh. It’s a hollow one, the kind that sounds like it’s covering something darker. The kind that belongs to someone who’s already given up, who knows there’s nothing else left to do but laugh before everything burns down.
Nico keeps laughing, and I just stand there, my chest tight, realizing he’s not laughing at the situation. He’s laughing because he knows exactly how this world works...and how doomed I am for even thinking different.
- Writer
