Gio (5th Street)

  Bianca stared at him flabbergasted, for a moment before shaking her head and speaking. “Felix, I’m sorry that I hurt you. I really am. But let me assure you I am not that type of person. I would never play those kinds of games just for the sake of revenge. I wish that I could explain to you why I did it. Why it happened but I don’t even understand it yet myself.” She brought up her hand and waved it over her head. “And this. All this craziness with the media is why Gio and I haven’t been together lately. Not because we’ve stopped seeing each other but because I don’t want to give them anymore to write about. I want it to just go away already so that seeing him won’t be such a circus.”

  The disappointment in his eyes made her feel guiltier and at that moment she knew everything he’d said about how he’d changed after falling for her was true. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. “I believe you, Felix. I believe you’ve changed and that’s good for you. But my heart is in another place now. I can’t do anything about that… I don’t want to.”

  They spoke for a little longer before he apologized again and actually wished her happiness with Gio and she hugged him goodbye. Just like she’d known from the very beginning, Felix did have a good heart. It just took him a while to figure out his heart could be happy in only one place.

  ~*~

  Gio walked into the gym office ready to pack up his stuff, just as Jack stood from the desk where he and Hector had been playing chess. “He beat you again Jack?”

  “Yeah, damn it. I’ll get him one of these days.”

  Hector laughed. “Not likely. It’s been a long long time since anyone’s beat me.”

  “Abel’s right, you smart ass,” Gio said throwing the paperwork for the new youth boxing classes he was trying to get going into his backpack. “You should join the chess club at school. There’s gotta be some kind of scholarship you can pick up as good as you are.”

  Hector rolled his eyes. “Don’t get him riled up on that again. I walked in there once and walked right out. Nothing but nerds and don’t get me started on the chicks in there.” His face soured.

  Gio glanced at Jack who was over by the wall heater fiddling with it. “Well, you’re not there to pick up, ass. You’re there for the possible scholarship.” He turned back to Jack. “I thought you had that fixed.”

  “I did,” Jack said without turning away from the heater. “But it stopped working a few days ago.”

  That thing was so ancient Gio didn’t know why Jack bothered with it. It didn’t even heat much either when it did work and it always stunk like gas. Gio had warned Jack a few times about getting it checked again.

  His phone rang just as he finished zipping up his backpack. He pulled it out of the backpack’s front pocket and saw it was Noah so he answered. “What’s up?”

  “So what happened?”

  “With what? The paperwork?” Noah was going to be helping him get the classes going.

  “No, with you and Bianca. You ain’t seeing her anymore?”

  Gio pinched his brows together. “No. I am.”

  Noah was quiet for a moment. “They’re saying she’s back with Felix. Roni saw pictures. She’d told me earlier this week that’s what the rumor was since you two haven’t been seen together. I told her it was bullshit until she showed me the pictures of the two of them just today. She’s laughing in some and then in another one they’re hugging. They’re calling the whole thing with you and her a publicity stunt for his fight. You haven’t heard about this?”

  As much as Gio knew the media was full of shit and how ninety percent of everything they printed was completely made up he hated that his heart was already beginning to beat a little harder. This had to be some kind of bullshit story. “I don’t read or watch that shit anymore. I’m sick of it. So no, I hadn’t heard anything about this but just like the rest of the crap they write it isn’t true either. She’s still with me and those photos are probably old.”

  “The stories are probably a lie but the pictures aren’t old.” Noah said very matter of fact. “They were taken today. Did she tell you about seeing him today?”

  “I haven’t talked to her. I was just now gonna check my messages and texts but my phone rang. I’ll call her right now.”

  Anxious to get this straight now, Gio was off the line with Noah in seconds. He did have a text from her and he clicked on it.

  Call me when you can. We need to talk.

  No x’s and o’s or smiley faces like she usually added to her texts. Gio gulped hitting speed dial. He wasn’t jumping to any conclusions. The damn paparazzi had done enough already by keeping them apart this long. He wasn’t about to let them mess with his head. He’d get this shit straight right now. Thoughts about how the last two times he offered to drive up to see her and she discouraged it popped in his head. She had perfectly good reasons for it. It’d been a media frenzy up there ever since the story broke about them. His showing up now would only make it worse. Not once had it even entered his mind that she might be blowing him off.

  When it went to voicemail he sat down in front of the computer on Jack’s desk and set the phone down. He logged onto the internet and googled Bianca Rubio. Immediately all the endless articles about the scandal came up. He scrolled through the newer ones. The ones he hadn’t seen or heard anything about.

  Boxer’s love triangle all a publicity stunt to hype fight. Exclusive first photos of Sanchez and Rubio back together again.

  He clicked on the link and froze. The pictures of Bianca and Felix were dated today. Like Noah said, these weren’t old. In them, they were engaged in what seemed like a happy conversation, since in some of them they were not only smiling but laughing. Then there was the one of them hugging, Felix’s arm tightly around her waist, her arms around his neck, face resting against his chest, eyes closed—today.

  His phone rang just as the thrumming in his ears started up. With his heart in a near panic he glanced at the caller ID. It was her.

  “It smells like gas in here.” Hector’s words barely registered as Gio answered his phone, still staring at the picture on the screen.

  “Bianca?”

  “I have to make this quick, Gio. I’m rushing back to my car right now. I tried to make a stop at the market. Bad idea. This is getting out of control.”

  Gio clicked on more of the headlines.

  Love triangle ploy to boost publicity of Sanchez/Bautista fight. Couple happily back together.

  “Were you with Felix today?” His own words sounded odd. Like he was hearing someone else say them.

  Bianca sighed on the other end just as Jack banged the heater making Gio look up.

  “Yes, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Gio straightened out in his chair, feeling a bolt of something almost electric sear through him. “So these pictures were really taken today?”

  “Pictures?”

  “Yeah, Bianca,” he stood up unable to sit anymore. “Pictures of you and him together laughing—hugging—his fucking arms around your waist.”

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. “They have pictures of that already?”

  It all sunk in at once. The realization that the photos weren’t fake. They weren’t old. She’d really been with Felix today. Her sudden declining need to be with him. Noah’s theory. The pungent smell of gas in his nose as he looked up to watch Jack take that last hit at the heater with a screwdriver that caused a small spark.

  The explosion was massive, sending Jack flying across the room. Gio’s body was lifted into the wall behind him whipping his head back violently. The desk, with everything on it, flew right into his face and everything went silent.

  CHAPTER 24

  It’d been over an hour since the line between Bianca and Gio went dead. She tried to convince herself that he hadn’t hung up on her. There had to be a reasonable explanation for why they’d been cut off and he was now not answering any of her calls or returning her texts. Even with the pictures he couldn’t possibly believe the stories about h
er and Felix being back together.

  Toni had called her about a half hour after her call with Gio to warn her about the new stories. The new photos of her and Felix coupled with the stories the media was circulating were pretty damning. She suggested Bianca give Gio a head’s up. The media sure had a way of making even the most innocent of photos seem like some kind of deep moment between them.

  The more time that passed without her hearing from Gio, the more anxious she felt that he might actually be buying into the hype. He couldn’t possibly, could he? But it was late already. They usually talked in the evening until bedtime.

  The television was on low as she walked into Nana’s house. Having to be sneaky just to run her errands after she got off work tonight had made her get home later than usual.

  Everyone was home now, including their neighbor Jerry, a widowed man her mother’s age that often came over to have coffee and chat with them. They were all in the front room as she walked in through the kitchen door from the driveway.

  Her mother was the first one to turn to her, the expression on her face alone was alarming. “What is it?”

  “You haven’t heard?” Nana asked, picking up the remote.

  “Heard what?”

  “I’ll rewind it. It’s been on the news for the past hour.”

  Bianca began to roll her eyes. The pictures—the rumors—she was so sick of it all. Her mother and Nana couldn’t be falling for this, too, could they?

  She took a few steps through the dining room. They all sat staring at the television as Nana rewound it. All set to hear more about her and Felix’s ‘publicity stunt’, Bianca crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame that separated the dining room from the spacious front room.

  Nana stood and started toward Bianca as she hit play. The reporter’s first sentence sent a heart stopping chill down Bianca’s spine rendering her literally unable to breathe.

  “We are live on the scene where an explosion at the 5th Street gym in East Los Angeles has left one dead and several critically injured. It is unclear what caused the explosion but authorities believe it may have been a gas leak. The name of the deceased is being withheld at this time pending notification of next of kin.

  “According to witnesses, the explosion took place just after eight this evening when most members are usually gone but we have no confirmation yet if the deceased or the injured were employees or members of the club. The fire that destroyed more than seventy percent of the old building is now completely out but the investigation will continue into the night.”

  “Bianca,” Nana’s words came through a tunnel. “Bianca, breathe.”

  Gio hadn’t responded to her calls or texts because he couldn’t. “He’s dead?”

  Nana caught Bianca before she went down. “Bianca!”

  Somehow Bianca managed to latch her arms around her grandmother’s shoulders. Her mother and Jerry were already by her side helping her grandmother get her onto a chair. “Honey, they don’t know anything. He could just be one of the injured. You haven’t talked to him at all?”

  “No!” The reporter had said an hour ago. That’s how long it had been since she’d last talked to him. When the phone went dead. That’s when it must’ve… “Oh my God!”

  She tried standing, wanting to bolt out of the room and drive to LA but they held her down. “Bianca, you’re hysterical! Sit down, sweetie. Calm yourself!”

  They managed to keep her there but each passing minute was torture. Nana tried giving her a pill to calm her but Bianca refused. She didn’t want anything blurring her state of mind. She needed it clear in case she managed to escape out of there and drive to Gio’s side.

  After watching more of the news broadcast, which didn’t seem to have anything new to report other than more small details of the possible cause and more witnesses giving their accounts of the event, Bianca finally gave in and called Felix.

  “Do you know anything?” she cried into the phone. “Is Gio dead?”

  Just saying it made it hard for her to breathe. Her mother stood next to her stroking her hair and back.

  “No, but he was one of the ones rushed to the hospital. That’s all I know about him. I’m getting ready to leave now. I’m flying down. Jack...” He paused and Bianca heard him take a trembling breath. “Jack didn’t make it.”

  The intense relief of hearing Gio was alive was replaced with bone numbing sorrow. Sorrow for Felix—sorrow for Gio—for all of them. Jack was their father and what Bianca had done to Felix and Gio struck her like lightning now. She hadn’t just come between two friends. These two were like brothers. “I’m so sorry,” her words were barely audible as the invisible fist that squeezed her windpipe didn’t allow for more.

  He didn’t speak for a few moments but she heard his trembling breaths. He was crying. And more than likely he was all alone. Alone in his huge cabin. Bianca wanted nothing more at that moment than to be there to comfort him.

  “I gotta go,” he finally said but he was clearly broken up.

  Bianca knew it was too much to ask. A blatantly shameful request given the circumstances but even now like all the times she’d been helpless to fight her feelings for Gio, she couldn’t hold back. She’d beg if she had to. “Take me with you,” she whispered. “Please.”

  To her surprise his response was immediate. “I’ll pick you up in a few minutes.”

  The moment she was off the phone she rushed off to her room to pack a bag, her mother and Nana right behind her. She explained to them quickly through tears about Gio and Jack. The emotions utterly consumed her. The grief of their loss was overwhelming but at the same time Gio was injured. She didn’t want to think the worst but if Jack had been killed, how bad were Gio’s injuries? Were they life threatening? Was it something he would bounce back from or was it something that would alter his life forever?

  And 5th Street—it was all of their livelihoods and it had been virtually destroyed. Noah had a child on the way. A family to think of now. All these things bounced around Bianca’s frazzled mind as she signed rapidly to her worried mother that she’d be fine. She was just processing it all, she wasn’t hysterical, even though she felt the incredible urge to let out a blood curdling scream.

  She ran out the front door as soon as she saw Felix’s car arrive. Bianca promised Nana and her mother she’d stay in touch, and stay calm no matter what, even though she knew that latter was doubtful.

  The paparazzi had followed Felix and were already snapping photos as she reached his car.

  “Are you moving back in with him now?” one of the photographers yelled just as he snapped the photo of Felix’s driver taking her overnight bag from her.

  “Is it true it was all for publicity?” a different one asked now. “Or did you really screw his friend to get back at him about Shelley?”

  Bianca had been patient enough with these vultures and they had said the wrong thing at absolutely the wrong time. She didn’t care anymore if they got this on camera; she was so sick of them. With her middle finger in the air she yelled what she’d been wanting to say to them all week. “Go fuck yourselves, you bunch of blood sucking assholes!”

  Bianca actually felt a tiny bit better as she got in the car until she saw Felix’s grief stricken face. She hugged him hard feeling the incredible anguish she’d felt when he first told her about Jack all over again as he cried unabashed against her shoulder.

  ~*~

  Gio stared at the news reports numbly, switching from one channel to another as they went to commercial, ashamed to admit the stories and images of Felix and Bianca hurt just as much as the coverage of the fire.

  His second home, 5th Street had been destroyed. Jack was gone and Gio still had room to mourn for Bianca. He watched the latest reports that showed her getting into Felix’s car with her luggage and flipping off the photographers. They were now said to be on their way here—together.

  Gio had never felt so stupid in his life. He’d hardly said two words since he came to, over an hour a
go, and the doctors advised him that the pain he was feeling was from his body being slammed against the wall. He’d been bruised and scraped up pretty bad from all the flying debris but otherwise the worst injury he’d suffered was a concussion. They didn’t think it was too bad but they did warn the pain would probably worsen in the coming days when the whiplash and soreness really set in.

  Even that had him thinking of Bianca. Memories of the day they’d gone snowboarding for the first time and the days after when he’d barely been able to walk but it had been worth every single ache.

  Then they let Noah and Abel in. Both looked wretched and he knew something was very wrong. When they told him Jack hadn’t made it he’d gone mute. Not even his mom or sisters could get him to talk until he said the only thing to them he’d said at all: “Can I be alone?”

  The only other thing he’d been sure to say after flipping through the channels on the television for nearly an hour was to Noah. “Whatever you do. Do not let Bianca in my room. I don’t even wanna see her.”