“The New
Yorkers are finally here!” Matt mocked as Sophie and Todd walked through the door.
“Bet you forgot what fields and actual grass looks like.”
“Hilarious,
man.” Todd shoved his brother, watching as he stumbled backwards.
“Looks like
someone needs a bit more training.”
“You caught
me off guard.” Matt argued back causing Todd to laugh, before glimpsing over at
Sophie, who had already headed straight for Juliet.
They had
decided to come over to Matt and Juliet’s to enjoy a quick catch up before the
storm. They knew the moment the gang meetings began, it would be a whirlwind of
stressed out gang members on the urge of losing it with each other.
Everything
was incredibly tense right now and with both Jay and Jazmine in charge, there
was no room for mistakes.
“I missed
you so much!” Juliet screeched as the pair squeezed the air out of one another.
“You look amazing!
“So do you!”
Sophie exasperated, while watching as Juliet reached for her hand and held it
up in front of her. “What?”
“I was
hoping you had decided to keep your mistaken Vegas marriage on with Todd.”
Pulling her bare
hand back down, Sophie glimpsed back at Todd who had clearly heard that
comment.
“We are
officially divorced, thank God!”
“I’m free
again!” Todd called over with a grin on his face, while Matt and Juliet looked
at them both as though they were crazy.
“I’ll never
understand your relationship. Most couples in love celebrate marriage, not immediately
get a divorce.” Juliet laughed.
“We still
have major commitment issues.” Sophie teased. “Gotta make sure we can easily
get out if need be.”
“Plus, this
one has been married enough times. They never ended good.” Todd mocked, causing
Sophie to gesture a middle finger at him.
Although there
was some truth to Todd and Sophie’s comments, there was also no hiding their
love for one another. Marriage was something neither of wanted and that seemed
to be working perfectly for them.
..
As they all
finally gathered on the sofas, Amiya had squeezed herself in tightly between
Sophie and Todd. She had been practically a baby when Sophie lived in Brighton and
considering they didn’t see all that much of their friends here, Amiya was
unsure by the whole thing.
“Would you
like a drink or something to eat Amiya?” Juliet asked as she carried in a box
of biscuits.
The little
girl looked up at her before directing her attention straight to Sophie. It was
so strange to see one of Sophie’s children act shyly because they had all
naturally inherited the Dubois confidence.
Unsurprisingly,
Sophie didn’t answer for Amiya and instead just waited expectantly for the 8-year-old
to buck up the courage to do it herself. So finally turning to look at Juliet,
Amiya began shaking her head.
“No thank
you.”
“Okay, well
I’ll leave these here, so you can help yourself.” Juliet replied with a smile over
her face. She had a feeling if she was anything like her own children, it
wouldn’t take her long to cave in.
“Thank you.”
Amiya responded, in her New York accent, something that had uniquely set her
apart from her siblings. Juliet hadn’t heard her speak in a long time and it seemed
to get stronger every time she saw her.
“You have
the cutest little accent, sweetie.”
“I’m obsessed
with it.” Sophie perked up, as she brushed the stray blonde hairs from Amiya’s
face. “It’s so weird though because she’s the only one who got it.”
“So, she’s
the true New Yorker, meaning she must be seeing fields for the first time ever!”
Matt added, once again finding his own jokes funny. “She will soon see there is
more to life than buildings.”
“Does he do this
all the time?” Todd raised his eyebrows while looking at Juliet, to which she
nodded her head. “You’re turning into one of those dad’s who tells lame jokes
that no one laughs at.”
“I think I’m
hilarious.”
“Of course you
are.”
“Gotta keep
a bit of humour going with all the shit that’s going on in the gang, haven’t I?”
Matt responded, seeming a little more serious this time.
“Yeah, what
is the plan with that then?” Todd asked, causing the conversation to very
quickly slip into gang mode.
Sophie and
Juliet had been hoping to hold off from that for as long as possible however,
it was inevitably going to happen. It was why they were here.
“Jay wants a
meeting tomorrow night. Just be warned that they’re all in really bad moods
over this whole Kye thing, and Jazmine walks around like she owns the place.”
“Nothing new
then.”
“They’re
going to ask you to fake being on Kye’s side, to try and get him to confess
where they’re hiding at.” Matt added, and Todd didn’t even need to look at
Sophie to know what she would be thinking.
“I never
agreed to that.”
Todd didn’t
have a problem with doing that, but he knew Sophie would. He was supposed to
just be helping them figure out where Kye was, not actually become a gang
member once again, even if he was faking it.
“That was
just the idea they came up with. How else do you plan on doing it? We’ve tried
everything.”
“I’m smarter
than you all put together, I could probably work it out easily.”
“Not a
chance in hell.” Matt retaliated to Todd’s cocky comment. Although Todd had
said it with a teasing tone to his voice, Matt knew he wasn’t joking. He believed
he was smarter than them all, and in some ways, he was. But saying that to Jay
and Jazmine’s faces, wouldn’t go down too well.
“It’s too
risky for me to get involved.” Todd began before Matt cut him off.
“Sophie is
here to make sure you don’t fall into your old ways. It’s not risky.” He
retaliated while looking over to Sophie who was desperately trying to bite her
lip and not cause arguments with her daughter right here.
“It’s not
that. It’s Soph’s business. I don’t want anyone catching on with what I’m doing
and then it jeopardising things for her. That is too risky.”
Matt knew
this wasn’t going to be easy, but he was struggling to keep his frustrations
for his brother at bay. Although the old Todd had been someone he struggled to
get on with, in some ways, he missed him.
That Todd wouldn’t
care about anything else, other than getting the job done. He would do whatever
it took with no fear or apprehensions, as though it was so easy. However, now
he was making this harder work than Matt felt like it needed to be.
“Just turn
up to the meeting tomorrow and we’ll figure something out.” Matt sighed,
knowing they couldn’t exactly have this argument now.
He was
hoping when Todd was alone without Sophie, it may be a little easier.
“Have you
sorted that new gang out then now?” Todd began to ask, and it didn’t take Matt
a second to realise where this was going to go.
“We’re
getting there.” He attempted to shrug it off and hint at Todd that now wasn’t a
good time to discuss it, but Todd didn’t catch on immediately.
“Is H…” He
began before finally noticing the daggers Matt was giving him and quickly corrected
himself. “…is Jay still finding more members?”
“Yeah. You
can meet the ones we have so far tomorrow.” Matt responded with relief in his
voice, knowing how close Todd had been to revealing the fact that Hunter was
one of those members.
He already
knew telling Juliet was going to be intense, so now really wasn’t the right
time.
....
0 comments: