Let's set the world on fire, we can burn brighter than the sun

             NATHANIEL was adjusting, slowly but surely, to the idea of trying to maintain a friendship with Manny. If he’d been put in this position years before, he’d have thought it was impossible, but now… Well, everything was different these days. He knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight, but he was more than willing to at least make an effort. He nodded slightly as Manny spoke, “Alright, we can just scratch that one straight off the list,” Nate answered, glancing back at the books on the rest of the list, “Can you point me in the right direction to grab them?”

                  NATHANIEL hadn’t intended to interrupt any conversation, pausing when he realised Manny was on the phone and taking a step back, rocking on his heels as he waited for the other to wrap up his conversation. Manny had been the person he’d been looking for that afternoon - not for any further, deep conversations, just for a little bit of guidance. He smiled as Manny’s attention came back towards him, “Sorry– I just had a question,” He started, pulling his phone out of his back pocket, “I’m still tryin’ to finish getting stuff ready for the baby,” Nathaniel continued, scrolling through his phone until he found the small collection of baby books he’d been trying (and failing) to order for weeks, “And I know you work at the bookshop in town - I was just wondering if there’s any chance in hell you’d be able to help me find these books?”

                    “OH, it probably is, but – here I am regardless,” Mackenzie countered, shrugging. She knew, rationally, that getting blackout drunk wasn’t going to help anything - but she’d take the relief of a few hours of being able to turn her thoughts off. It seemed like a constant problem, that her mind had run a thousand miles ahead of her and she’d never be able to catch up - perhaps that was part of the entire issue, that part of her had tried to move past everything that had happened, and she still felt stuck behind it all. She offered a short laugh as Manny spoke, “We gonna spill our souls over a couple of whiskeys, huh?” She asked, shaking her head with a gentle tease. “But I guess – you first?”

LOCATION: Tappin’ Boots

WITH: Anyone @edtstarter​

After her incredibly long and laborious shift at the hospital, Remi just managed to gather enough energy to change out of her scrubs and let her hair done before heading straight to the bar. Her job was incredibly rewarding but sometimes also stressful and draining, both mentally and physically. And tonight all she wanted was a good drink, good music, and good company. She mindlessly flicked through the jukebox searching for something she at least recognised from her own music taste before landing on For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder. The opening chords instantly lulled a smile upon her lips as she returned to her seat at the bar where she was nursing a whiskey on the rocks. “I’m sorry, but what?” Remi exclaimed to the innocent bystander beside her. “Did I hear that right? Did I really hear that bunch of kids over there say they’ve never heard of Stevie Wonder before? You know, I seriously wonder how their generation get through life without reverting back to their caveman ancestry. That one definitely looks like he tries to do cool vape tricks to get girls.”  

          “I know, Manny, I don’t doubt of your feelings over Mikki or Nathaniel’s feelings over my sister, but thank you, for bein’ honest with me, it has a hot minute since anyone had the courage to be so,” it would take some time for it to fully seep into her mind, it was a whole lot of information, after all, none of which should or would interfere on present day’s happenings, but heavy information nonetheless. “A friend of mine said that you never really knew with addiction, that you were never truly rid of it— but for now I trust Nate, he never did anythin’ to break that trust and he seems to be in love with his daughter and with my sister alike, to the least I can do is give the guy some reprieve and some ease for his mind,” she shrugged, not really planning on discussing such a personal matter with Nate, especially when they weren’t exactly friends, just part of the same family. “I haven’t been very good at processin’ much since what happened with Jared, but my mind will catch up eventually, it’ll just take some time, I guess.”

         Being involved with Chase meant that for years on end Nora had also been involved with the Fuentes family. The brunette had stitched up some of Chase’s co-workers whenever they came to them and just because she had willingly stepped away from that life the minute Chase went to jail, didn’t mean that she magically forgot everything they went through and everything she had seen when it came to them. Seeing Manuel walking down the street, Nora decided to approach him, after all, she was attempting to rekindle some of her old…friendships, even if she didn’t know whether or not friendship was the right word to use when it came to them. “I was just askin’ how Latte is doin’, haven’t seen him in a while, or you, but I mean, that’s my fault, I did spend a whole year away.”

          “Fuentes’ business?” Maggie raised her eyebrow at her cousin, asking him just like that. She hated those cryptic phone calls, had always hated them ever since she was a little girl and her own family got roped into it all. Her mother was a Fuentes and in an effort to keep her children away from that, she had all but severed ties with her sister, still, it had been almost impossible leading a normal life. Magdalena for once, understood her mother, seeing as she didn’t want Mia anywhere near that, even if she wanted the little girl to have a family. “I was saying that Mia’s birthday is coming up in a couple of months and I really have to start organizing it… and also that I met Mikki last week for our writing group and she is looking great.”

“Just asking if you were gonna be at the bookstore tomorrow since I was gonna bring Leo by –he’s been wanting to see you.” Arianna responded. Her son absolutely adored being around his family. She figured he must get it from his father since Ari was the least family oriented person that there was. “Is everything okay, though?” the brunette asked, a little concerned. Maybe it was just her, but she could’ve sworn his tone sounded different on the phone. 

Jamie didn’t notice that the guy next to him was on the phone when he asked him if he could hand over the laminated menu of the bar so he could pick a snack to go along with his drink. As the male didn’t move, the carpenter finally realized that he was actually busy and remained patient for a couple of minutes. “Don’t worry, I’m sorry I bothered you.” he replied the man hung up the phone. “I was just wondering if you could give me the menu on your right.” he explained, pointing at said menu.

mannyfuentes‌:

He’d be lying if he said that there wasn’t part of his mind that was wondering why he had just risked everything by telling her. He could have hidden it for the rest of their lives if he needed to, hell he had hidden it from the town all this time, he’d hidden the fact he was even in a cartel from Nate their whole relationship. But then that was the problem, what they had was real. And he knew that he had to be honest, however painful, lying would be far worse, and he had to learn to come to terms with that. But when he lived the life that he had lived, somethings were harder to explain. “Ok” what could he say? he couldn’t try and justify this, because he knew outside the business there was no justification. He could explain that he only ever killed people who were somehow connected to it, that no one innocent had ever suffered. But the fact remained, he had killed them. “Sorry? What are you sorry for? All I want is for you to be happy and feel safe. And if that’s not with me… then it’s not with me” though he could almost feel his heart break as he spoke. “You have somewhere to stay? I can go to mami’s if not” and he knew that was not going to be something that took a few hours. But he wasn’t going to just let her wander aimlessly either. He had other places, and if she was still arguing with her mami… well he had to offer. 

Hearing his words, Mikayla had to look away again, closing her eyes as tears began brimming and she had to fight them back. Her feeling for him ran so deep – much deeper than she had ever felt for anyone before in the past – and now it was possible that all of it was for nothing, that this moment may force them to part ways. Now she understood all of the songs about heartbreak, what it meant to be terrified to lose someone you loved to something other than death, and a part of her wished she had never allowed herself to be open in the first place so she wouldn’t have had to feel any of this. “I’ll stay with my dad. I’ll call him or… something. It’s okay, I’m not going to kick you out of your own apartment.” She sniffled some and wiped her hand under her eyes quickly as she made her way towards the bedroom. “I’ll get my things. I’ll, um… I’ll reach out when I’ve had some time to process everything.” She didn’t intend on keeping him in the dark for too long, but she had no idea how long it would take before she was able to either accept him for everything that he was or she had to cut the cord completely. Haphazardly tossing things into the bag she’d brought with her when she’d left home a few weeks back, she made her way back out to the living room and slowed by the door, looking back over at him. “I love you. I’m sorry.” Opening the door, she was down the steps to the main road before she knew it, wandering the streets in the direction of Kings Park, the tears finally falling.

Art noted the way Manny tried changing the subject so they wouldn’t be focusing on him anymore and he figured he would be nice enough to let him. Manny wasn’t really the time to open up to anybody, but especially not when it came to something like his relationships, and Art would be lying if he said it didn’t hurt a little that Manny either felt like he couldn’t or just didn’t want to confide in him. “I’m fine now, yeah. Got a new job I’m enjoying and trying to take it a day at a time. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t take another one, especially since you’ve got a lot going on. Just depends on what you wanna do. I could drive, but you probably wouldn’t trust me driving your car such a long way.”

               MACKENZIE had always tried to avoid looking helpless in public - or at least, had tried to curb her emotions enough to keep them within the four walls of her home, but that didn’t seem to be the case these days. It seemed as though it had spilled into every aspect of her life, and she was struggling to keep her head above water - but every day seemed to leave her more on the edge of drowning. At least, tonight, that drowning was in a bottle of her favourite whiskey. “Hey, Manny,” She acknowledged, almost chuckling at his words, “Yeah, that was kinda my entire plan for the night. Stress relief, or whatever you wanna call it.”

           “I will,” Anna nodded before the sudden intense change of topic. Anna never knew how to deal with these bombs falling on her lap. “You were with Nate and now Nate’s with my sister and… you… ah,” her brows were furrowed in nothing but confusion as Manny shared this piece of information with her. On one hand, she was nothing but appreciative of his openness, Anna had developed a certain disgust for secrets as of late when she started talking more with her sisters and honesty always seemed the best way to go. On the other hand, these details of Nathaniel’s private life and Manny’s were fumbling around in her mind and she didn’t know exactly what opinion she should take out of that. Letting out a low whistle after a few seconds of silence — or minutes? — it didn’t matter. “Thank you… for tellin’ me that— truth be told, I don’t have a tainted image of Nate, I never really did,” she swallowed, trying to choose her next words carefully as she didn’t want to pry on anymore that Manny was willing to give and neither did she cared for invalidating his experience with Nate… it was definitely hard picturing the two of them together when all she knew was Nathaniel who had a baby with her sister and even then, she felt as though she hardly knew the guy truly. “I know what he’s shown me, that he is in love with my sister and that he… he’s nice. I don’t believe in past mistakes defining who we are today, Manny, so beyond lovin’ one another, whatever happened between you two and whatever happened to him, brought you to Mikayla, and brought him to Jenna… I believe you’re both better today than you were back then, right?”

              NATHANIEL hadn’t quite expected to have left behind so many open wounds in Edens Town - yet none of them had hurt quite like this one. He should have known, really - in leaving town without a word, he’d left a huge chunk of his life behind. At one point, he’d thought his life would be intertwined with Manuel Fuentes’ forever, but of course, that hadn’t been the case. As painful as it had all been, he was sure that was for the best. They’d both moved on - and he knew they deserved that much, at least, to be able to move on without wondering about what could have happened or might have been. There was no going back. 

                 "Yeah, I know, and I’m sorry,” Nate repeated, nodding. “I didn’t mean to be radio silent, it all just… Kind of happened - and once I was in a headspace out of Edens, it was… A complete world away, you know?” He wasn’t sure there was anyone other than Manny or Jenna that he’d have been willing to be quite so open about everything with, but if he couldn’t get it out of his system now, he never would. “I think, at the end of the day, we’ve both moved past it. We’re both a hell of a lot older now. Just – start on a new chapter.” He finished, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Strange, a decade had passed, and it almost felt like no time had at all. No, he wasn’t still in love with the man, that had died the day he realised he had been left behind. But he had never thought that he’d even see him again, let alone have this conversation with him. Weird was an understatement right now. Almost nothing had changed, and yet it felt like everything had changed as well. If this was what growing up felt like, he wasn’t sure it was a feeling he was ready to get used to just yet.