Page 10 of Chaos & Corruption

“Why do you say that?”

“Dude, I don’t know if you’re fucking with me right now or if you really live under a rock, but her brother is the real deal.”

“So?” I say with a shrug. “Her brother is a boxer. Big deal.”

“I watched a documentary on him the other day,” Webber continues. “Do you have any idea who that girl’s grandfather was? What am I saying—of course you don’t.”

He rolls his eyes dramatically and takes another swig of beer.

“I think we need more shots,” he mutters.

Ignoring him, I ask, “Who was her grandfather?”

He scoffs.

“Only the most ruthless gangster to ever live.” He takes a long pull from his beer before lowering the bottle and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His gaze meets mine as he points a finger at me. “Your pretty little piece of ass is a mob princess.” Then he bursts into laughter. “Dodged a bullet, Reggiano.”

“Literally,” Robinson mutters.

And yet I still scan the room hoping to catch another glimpse of her.

Did I mention I’m a huge fan of The Sopranos?

Four

Victoria Bianci

“Answer your damn phone, Mila,”I hiss into my cell. What the hell happened to girl code? You know the unspoken commandments that go with having a best friend. Mila broke the first commandment the second she excused herself to go to the bathroom—or maybe I broke it since I didn’t follow her. Whatever. In my defense, she did say she’d be right back which led me to believe she didn’t want company. I didn’t think much of it and maybe that’s because I had five shots and two Malibu Bay Breeze’s under my belt at the time. That would also explain how I found the courage to go over to Alex. My brother calls it ‘beer balls’, but I prefer ‘Tito tits’ but any way you slice it, nothing good ever comes from liquid courage. Oh, that’s another term!

I’m rambling, aren’t I?

I tend to do that a lot when I’m drunk or pissed and currently I’m both.

I’m also apparently stranded at a bar thanks to my best friend. Wobbling on my heels, I hit send again. If she doesn’t answer this time, I’m calling an Uber and because I’m feeling petty as fuck—she’s paying for it.

It rings three times before going straight to her voicemail.

I roll my eyes at the sound of her chirpy voice.

This is Mila, leave a message.

She should change it to ‘this is Mila, leave a message or ten, but don’t worry, I won’t answer any of them’. That’s so much more fitting.

Grinding my teeth, I leave my fifth message.

“It’s me again. I swear to God if I find out you left me here to hook up with some guy, I’m going to kill you!”

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit harsh. I’ll probably just mix her whites and brights on laundry day.

I end the call and mutter a stream of curses as I swipe through the gazillion apps on my phone, searching for the little black U. I balked at the idea of compartmentalizing all the apps when my aunt suggested it, but maybe she was onto something. There’s gotta be a better way than this.

“Told you, you dodged a bullet with that one.”

My head lifts at the familiar voice and I come face to face with Alex and his two roommates.

Great! Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any worse, in enters the three stooges, Moe, Larry, and what was the other one’s name…Henry? No, that doesn’t sound right.

“Everything okay?” Alex asks and as soon as the question leaves his lips my eyes widen.

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