Gio (5th Street) (30 page)

“Get in the car,” Noah said, coming around and standing in front of Gio.

“No,” Gio said, moving over and standing next to Noah.

Gio knew what Noah was thinking. Felix was the welterweight champion of the
world
for good reason. His fists were lethal. But last night he’d taken a punch from Gio and hadn’t swung back—didn’t because he knew he deserved it. Now Gio, too, would stand here and take like a man whatever he had coming to him.

“I’m sorry, Felix. You didn’t deserve this but—”

“Did you fuck her in my house, too, asshole?” Felix spat the words loudly as he stalked toward Gio.

“No. I never touched her in your house. I swear. And I didn’t
fuck
her, okay. I love her.”

Gio saw it coming but, unlike in the ring, he didn’t attempt to dodge or even block it. Felix landed a solid hook right on Gio’s eye knocking Gio on his ass. Abel and Noah were immediately on Felix and Hector jumped out of the car. “What the hell?”

Gio’s hand was on his eye, shaking his head to rid him of the stars he was now seeing. Ever grateful for his friends or Felix might’ve beat the shit out of him and Gio would’ve let him. Doing what he had with Bianca, wrong as it may’ve been, was totally worth the well-deserved ass kicking.

He grabbed a handful of snow and brought it to his already swelling eye. Felix sure as hell could pack a punch. Gio would probably be sporting a shiner for at least a week, maybe longer. Of course Felix’s fat lip would probably be around for just as long. Gio was surprised he hadn’t knocked a tooth out with as much force as he’d hit him last night.

“You’re fucked up, Gio!” Felix yelled, still being held back by Abel and Noah. “To come here to my place and fucking do this. I’d never do something like this to you.”

“I know you think you wouldn’t. I didn’t think I ever would either.” Gio frowned as Hector helped him up, still feeling a little woozy. He spoke again, hoping somehow they all could understand. “I didn’t do this to you, man. It just happened.”

“Fuck you!” Felix pushed Abel and Noah away, looking completely disgusted. “Did you guys know about this?”

“No!” Gio yelled before Noah dared implicate himself. “Nobody knew.”

Felix stared at him, still utterly disgusted. “Get this piece of shit off my property.” He turned back to Gio just before heading back up the stairs. “Don’t ever call or even text me again. You hear me? You’re dead to me now.” He stopped and turned to face him again. “And tell that whore there are plenty more boxers at 5
^th
Street. She can work her way down the line.”

Gio jumped, ready to go at him but Hector stopped him. Abel and Noah readied themselves to stop Felix if they had to. Gio pointed at him infuriated. “Say whatever you want about me, dude, but leave her out of this.”

Felix scoffed. “Yeah, I have so much respect for that bitch now. I wouldn’t dare say shit about her.” He threw his hand in the air. “Get the fuck outta here!”

Gio wanted to yell back that he had a lot of nerve calling anyone a whore—wanted to push Hector aside and charge at Felix for even implying the nasty things he had about Bianca. She may’ve betrayed him but Gio knew she wasn’t
that
kind of girl. She was as much of that kind of girl as Gio was the kind of guy who would betray a friend like he had Felix. This whole thing was something completely unexpected that had just happened to the both of them. But Gio knew it was pointless. Regardless of why or how it happened Felix had every right to be angry—hurt. He’d trusted them both completely and they’d both stabbed him in the back.

So, he didn’t spew out all the angry words he had for Felix for disrespecting Bianca even though he’d do anything for her now. He leaned against Abel’s car and said what he really meant from the bottom of his heart. “I’m sorry, Felix. I really am.”

Felix’s only response, without so much as turning around, before walking back into his cabin was an outstretched arm and his middle finger up in the air.

Gio exhaled loudly and glanced at Noah who shook his head. “All right, I get why you didn’t block his punch but goddamn, Gio. You better make sure you buy an icepack before you start down the hill. That shit is gonna swell shut before you even make it out this driveway.”

Noah examined his eye. Both Abel and Hector stared at him like they didn’t know him. Gio could only imagine what they were thinking. He knew he had to explain to them on the way home. He didn’t want them thinking he was just an asshole who’d screwed a friend over—a friend who could’ve just as easily been one of them.

They drove silently until they reached the drug store where they bought the ice pack and some aspirin . When they got back in the car Gio, who sat shot gun, rested his head back, holding the ice pack to his swollen shut eye.

“Look guys,” he began. “I know what I did seems despicable but I didn’t just decide to go after his girl. We fell in love. Both of us, not just me. I tried to fight it. I—”

“You should’ve left,” Abel said staring straight ahead as he drove.

Gio lifted his head and glanced at Abel’s unsympathetic almost angry, expression. He reclined his head back again and closed his only good eye. “Yeah, I should’ve.” He had no choice but to agree. “I fucked up but it couldn’t be helped.”

He didn’t expect them to understand because if one them had done what he’d done to one of their closest friends before this ever happened to him, he’d be just as disgusted.

“So what?” Hector sat up leaning against the back of the front bench seat. “You and her are together now? Isn’t that gonna be weird?”

Gio shrugged. “It’s not like we’ll ever be around him anymore. You heard him. He never wants to hear from me again.”

“Yeah, but what about when he comes into 5
^th
Street?”

Abel turned back to Hector. “He probably won’t anymore.”

Gio opened his eye. “He wouldn’t do that—block you guys out and Jack—because of me.”

Abel lifted a shoulder. “He might. Maybe he thinks we were all in on this. We all decided to come up here and enjoy the weekend while you screwed around with his girl.”

Something tightened in Gio’s stomach and he sat up straight. “We weren’t screwing around.”

“Call it whatever you want, G. Bottom line is you betrayed your friend for a girl. A friend who was doing you a favor by bringing you up here in the first place.” Abel tightened his jaw. “That’s not cool.”

Hector sat back now that the conversation had taken a turn for the uncomfortable. Gio laid his head back again. It was beginning to throb and he hoped the aspirins would kick in soon. “I know it isn’t. I don’t know what else to tell you, man. You can’t fight love. Trust me. I tried.”

Nobody said another word about it the rest of the way home. They stopped and grabbed breakfast sandwiches which they ate in the car but other than that made no stops.

Gio thanked Abel for dropping him off and went inside, glad no one was home. He wasn’t in the mood to answer all the questions he knew would be coming from his mom and sisters. He was sure by now they’d heard something. He plunked down on the sofa in the front room and did what he’d been thinking about doing since last night—called Bianca.

Gio sat at the edge of the sofa now. “
Doing?
What’s he doing?”

She sighed. “Nothing bad really. He set me up with a laptop so we could video chat and was paying for the internet service on it so I could have the fastest service available up here. This morning Toni called to tell me about the photos going viral all over the internet. When I tried to log on the service was already disconnected. It’s no big deal. I didn’t expect him to keep paying for it. I’ll just get it under my name when I get paid again. It’s kind of blessing actually. Maybe it’s best that I don’t read all the stuff being posted about me.”

Gio stood up, glad that money didn’t buy everything otherwise Bianca might still be with Felix instead of him. “And what did he say?”

“Gio, what do you think? I betrayed him with his best friend.”

“Noah’s my best friend,” he reminded her. “And I don’t give a shit if he’s pissed, Bianca. I don’t want him harassing you. Maybe you should block his ass..”

He got that Felix was pissed. But Felix hadn’t exactly been an angel himself. Gio thought about the jazz singer he’d brought with him to the gym the day he invited Gio to train with him. According to Bianca, they’d been exclusive since last summer. So the chick in Chicago probably wasn’t the only one he’d been screwing while in a relationship with Bianca. As mad as he was now he had a lot of fucking nerve saying
anything
harsh to her. Like it or not, Bianca was Gio’s girl now and he’d be damned if he would put up with Felix or anyone disrespecting or harassing her.

“It was just two texts early this morning,” she said. “Basically to let me know he knew and had thrown you out, though I already knew you were leaving. And of course to tell me he wanted nothing to do with me ever again.”

“Yeah,” Gio turned when he heard the front door open. “He said that to me, too.”

His mother walked in the room. “Giovanni? Oh my God, your eye! What happened?”

“Nothing, Ma.” He covered the mouthpiece on the phone not wanting to get into the whole thing right now. “One of Felix’s jabs slipped during training, that’s all.”

“Your eye?” Bianca asked. “What’s wrong with your eye?”

Gio moved the phone to his other ear as his mother moved in to examine his eye closer. “I’m taking you to the emergency room. This looks terrible!”

Gio sighed turning his back to his mom. “Something like that. I’ll tell you about it a little later, okay? I’ll call you back soon. I promise.”

His mother walked around to face him, as adamant about taking care of his eye as he knew she’d be. Bianca finally agreed to wait for him to call her back and he hung up.

After finally convincing his mother there was no need for a trip to the emergency room, he was able to take a moment and log onto the internet. Bianca’s friend Toni and Noah were right. The pictures and story were everywhere. He frowned at some of the headlines.

Sanchez’s two-timing girlfriend caught red-handed in the arms of his best friend
.

But the comments from readers were even worse. Some made him slam his fist against the table. They were making comments like the one Felix had made about Bianca doing the rest of 5
^th
Street.

The only good thing was that apparently whoever took the photos took only two of them together that night. It must’ve been on a phone camera because the quality was very poor but they were clear enough that there was no denying what was going on. One was of them against the van kissing and another as they climbed in it. The rest of the photos going viral were taken at the bar. They had the story all wrong too. Most said Felix caught them and that’s what the scuffle at the bar had been about.

Clicking on link after link other photos of the two of them began to surface. Stills of them on the slopes and even a couple of them leaving her grandmother’s shop. He’d searched online before for stories about Bianca and Felix and he’d never seen any of these. Whoever took them obviously didn’t think them newsworthy until now. Now they could add their captions and create a story. All of the photos were innocent enough but the captions told stories of how they’d been betraying Felix for months and how these photos captured their “growing affair.” As if any of these people knew what the fuck they were talking about.

For a moment Gio understood the frustration Felix talked about when he said he hated having to explain the stories about him with other girls to Bianca over and over.

Worried Bianca might have seen these already and that she might be upset he called her but it went to voicemail. He left a message and took another aspirin. Logging off the internet he swore he wouldn’t read even one more story about it. Everyone could just screw themselves. The stories would die down soon enough and the tabloids would move on to the next celebrity scandal. The only thing that mattered was that no matter what anyone felt or said about it, he and Bianca were free to be together now. Nothing and no one could keep them apart. 

It’d been days since the scandal broke—days since Bianca had last seen Gio and an eternity since she’d last kissed his lips. She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye properly. What was worse was that this could go on for much longer.

Both Bianca and Gio had assumed that the story would die down soon enough. Not only had it not calmed down, they were turning it into a full-blown soap opera. The paparazzi were relentless in their pursuit of a statement from any of the three parties involved in the, now internationally talked about, love triangle. Because they were all Hispanic, even the Spanish tabloids had gotten in on it.

Bianca dropped the only class she’d taken on campus that spring because the once respectful photographers and sleazy journalists were on her now, as Nana so nicely put it, ‘like flies on shit.’

Gio had been fined for flinging one photographer’s camera across the 5
^th
Street gym parking lot. They were forced to lay low for now. The media wanted nothing more than to get more of the story that had everyone talking. At first, Bianca didn’t understand why it was such a huge deal, then she remembered Andy. Felix’s publicist always said any publicity was good publicity. Felix’s fight was just weeks away and Andy was probably loving the media circus surrounding Felix. If she didn’t know any better he was probably working around the clock to keep refueling the story himself. If she was right, this wouldn’t die down at least until after Felix’s fight two weeks from today. Bianca groaned at the thought that it might be that long until they could be together again.