CHAPTER SIX

CRYSTAL

"Timon and Pumbaa, really?" Crystal scoffs at the nickname Nazi has come up with for her and Lucas. Apparently, both of them represent a critical difference to the animation characters in the Italian man's eyes.

"Actually, I had come up with it yesterday when I picked you up from the airport." Ignazio smirks at her as he takes a huge spoon of God knows what he ordered, she could not even spell it. Therefore, she chose to go through the safe side by ordering three slices of vegetarian pizza.

Lucas insisted on the three of them going to a fancy restaurant since he will be leaving the day after tomorrow. He claimed to want to enjoy his away time from Nicholas. If they asked Crystal, she would have told them that the two Brazilian men act like an old married gay couple, and it was disgusting at times.

When Lucas declared his plans, Crystal groaned loudly to makes her opinion clear about his suggestion. Sadly, there was no chance of negotiation since Nazi nods at Lucas; gesturing his approval.

What she did not think of while she was getting dressed is the stares she will soon receive from almost everyone in the restaurant. After all, she is wearing a long black dress that covers most of her red heels. The dress is strapless and has no shapes or designs on it, it just a long neat fabric that covers Crystal's body, but that does not mean it is not elegant and classy. In addition, her hair is put in a beautiful side braid.

Some people give her disgusted looks thinking she is on a date with both men, while others –mainly the women- stare at her with sharp glares. You want them, they are all yours ladies. Crystal thinks to herself as she mentally rolls her eyes.

"Well, this is fun." Crystal mutters as she removes the olives and the mushrooms off her second slice of pizza.

"Do not be such a sore wolf, and what the fuck has the poor pizza done to you?" Lucas winks at the waitress, who approaches their table to refill their glasses with wine. The waitress blushes as she smiles back at the Brazilian man before walking away.

"Dude, I had my eyes on her!" Ignazio pouts like a five-year-old child whose candy has been taken away from him.

"Well, I acted first, sorry bro" Lucas pulls is fingers through his pulled back hair before taking a sip from his red wine. All the while Crystal sits there, assaulting her pizza as she thinks of how she would rather have dinner with Carey Mitchell rather the two men that are with her on the table.

She groans loudly when the waitress returns to ask if they need anything with her 'seductive' voice and attitude. Though Crystal is sure that if she is a man and saw this waitress that way she would vomit in her own plate.

"Is something wrong miss?" The waitress that Crystal reads her name to be Maria with a death glare. The Brazilian woman has been willing to behave for one day until she sees that slut glare at her. Just like pressing a button, Crystal's wickedness returns.

"No, it is just I have an allergy." Maria's face immediately softens, and turns of one of concern.

"Allergy of what miss? I will call the manager if you wish." Crystal tries to hide her smirk.

"I am allergic to sluts and whores." Nazi spits on his drink as the words leave her mouth as he tries to conceal his chuckle. She; however, decides to push even a little further.

"Yeah, it is just every time I am near one; I have this deep desire to barf as I imagine the cheap meat that is under their clothes." Once again, Nazi chuckles, only this time, he does not attempt to hide it.

Crystal looks over to Lucas to see him glare daggers at her; she has ruined any chances he had with Maria. She knows that her best friend will not mistake her actions as jealousy or love, both of them know that the only kind of love that is between them is brotherly love. Still, she finds joy in ripping away what he wants. Hence, the events that are unrolling right now.

"These kinds of words would only leave the mouth of a jealous woman." Maria smirks victoriously at the Brazilian woman.

"Crystal, it seems to me the lovely lady is implying that you are possessed by the green eyes monster because you envy her." Nazi tries to put more fuel o the fire, but it does not matter, she has never been affected by anyone's words, she will not start now.

"Oh, you mean from these fake lips, or the ugly make up, or perhaps it is the eyelashes. No, I know, it is definitely the fake hair, but that leaves the fake ass. Did I miss anything?" She turns to Ignazio with an innocent thinking face. She loves the fact that Nazi is going along with her game. Neither Lucas, nor Nicholas have ever done such a thing, it is rather refreshing.

"You missed the boobs love." Nazi smirks at Maria as he places his elbow on the table before him, and rests his chin on the back of his hand.

"Oh you are right. How did I miss them? After all, they are eminent as two overblown balloons." Crystal notices the flash of anger in Maria's eyes, something that brings warmth to her twisted heart. She does not bother to look at Lucas again, she knows that despite the façade he has, he is laughing his soul out on the inside.

Maria grabs Lucas's glass of wine and throws it over Crystal's breath causing Nazi to have his head in a 'o' shape, and for Crystal herself to chuckle.

"What kind of stupid person are you? Who throws red wine on a black dress? If my clothes were white, however;…" the Brazilian woman cuts her sentence to hastily grab her own glass, and throws the red wine on Maria's white shirt.

"…Well, it would be a different story." Crystal gives the woman before her a sweet smile as she watches her looking down at her shirt, and now visible purple bra.

"Oh come on Crystal, that was not nice." Nazi is barely holding in his laughter.

"What are you talking about? That was awesome" Lucas chuckles to Crystal's utter surprise. That is when the anger façade breaks off Maria's face, she actually looks like she is about to cry. He suppresses it; though, as soon as it leaves his mouth.

"Okay, that is enough, the both of you. Can we leave now?" Lucas's eyes hold pity for Maria, but Crystal feels like she brought it to herself; she is the one who threw the wine on Crystal first. Lucas puts in Maria's hand way more money than necessary.

"Consider the tip an apology for my friends' rude words." He murmurs in the waitress's ear. Crystal is tempted to make a sly remark about what her best friend just done, but she decides that she has done enough.

They are about to leave, but are stopped by the manger who stands before Lucas with a stern look. Although the manager –who appears to be in his mid-thirties- seems kind of hot in crystal's opinion, that opinion changes when he speaks.

"Everything okay her Maria?" Only now does Crystal realize that they have attracted an audience. Another thing she notices is the manager's hand slipping slowly into Maria's, but she chooses to wait for a few seconds to comment on that.

"No Carlo, this woman and her friend are humiliating me in front of the entire restaurant." She points a finger at both Crystal and Nazi with fake tears in her eyes. Before the manager gets to say anything Crystal decides to completely burn the waitress.

"Oh My God! So all we do is tell the truth, and you go crying to your married boyfriend to cry on his shoulder? You do realize that you just proved us right, right?" Maria's cheeks flush red with embarrassment and shame, while the manager's eyes go wide, but unlike his girlfriend he immediately recovers, and attempts to make lies of what Crystal just said. All he does; however, is make things worse.

"Behave yourself lady. And about what you just said, one, I am not married, and two, me and my employee are not dating." Ever since the manger came into view Nazi has hidden his face, and Crystal takes notice of it, but she focuses on the dump couple before her.

"Okay, one, the ring on your finger says otherwise, and two, I saw you reaching out for her hand and tying your finger with hers. I suggest you just let us leave, you are only making fools of yourselves." The redness in Maria's gets even darker, and the manager seems like he is about to explode. He takes two large steps towards her before Nazi blocks his way, but Crystal, not wanting to miss anything, moves her head to the side to witness what is yet to happen. She is amazed when the manager's face turns pale when he sees her Italian mafia friend.

"I did not know that she is with you Mr…"

"Well, she is, so I suggest you choose your next moves and words very wisely." Crystal notices how Nazi prevents the man from saying his surname in front of her.

"Have a pleasing night sir." Nazi smirks evilly at him before grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the restaurant with Lucas right on their tale.

"Was that really necessary?" Lucas huffs in his best friend's face as they walk back home. The restaurant is like ten minutes away from the house, so Crystal insisted they walk much to the men's dismay. Crystal is in the middle, while Lucas is on her right and Nazi is on her left. If anyone saw them they would say that they are her bodyguards, and in some way they kind of are, they just do not get paid for it.

"You knew from the beginning that I did not want to go. You should have guessed that I would pull something like that. Not to mention that I was bored." She smirks as she tangled her arm with Nazi's. As for the Italian man, he clutches to her arm to help hold him up. He can hardly stand straight due to his hysterical laughter at what happened just a couple of minutes earlier.

"That was the funniest thing that has ever happened to me." He announces as he uses the arm that is not holding Crystal's to clutch at his stomach.

"Why did the manager act like you are his master?" Crystal knows better than to receive the truth, but she sees no harm in trying. Who knows, maybe Nazi is not as of a big liar as her brother and best friend.

"That is because I am kind of is." Lucas tries to understand his words, while Crystal gives him a raised eyebrow.

"I mean I am his boss. That restaurant is one of the many that I own in Italy, and man do I need to re-employ some people." He mumbles the last part to himself.

Crystal looks to her right to find Lucas still a little intense.

"If you took me to a café like this one, none of that would have happened Lucas. No offense Nazi" She points at the little café they pass by as she tries to lighten up the mood just a little bit.

"None taken."

"Shut up Nazi, and you know that I do not mind… your episodes but only as long as it is either Nicholas or me are the victim. That poor woman did not deserve what you just did to her." Knowing her best friend, she knows that that is not why he is consumed by ire; he is just not pleased that she brought unneeded attention to them, but responsibility and maturity has never been in her nature.

Nazi is about to say something but Crystal squeezes the arm she is holding to tell him to leave him to be the drama queen that he is.

"You are right, he is a drama queen." Nazi leans in, and whispers in her ear.

"Did I say it out loud?"

"Aha." He smirks at her as they reach the house.

Crystal sits on a wooden armchair in her new front porch as she allows herself to drown in her thoughts. Lucas only spent three days with her and Nazi before eventually going back to Brazil. Part of Crystal is relived that Lucas is gone. She loves her best friend, but the past couple of days have been lousy that she needs some time alone away from the mafia and its lies.

Alas, she is not granted that alone time, because it has been a whole day since Lucas's departure and Nazi is still in her house. She was tempted multiple times to politely ask him to leave, but she reminded herself at the last second that he has been a great help to her in the small amount of time she has known him even though –like her brother and best friend- he is a fat liar. The second she laid eyes on the Italian man, she immediately recognized him as Ignazio Aldini, an Italian mafia man.

Crystal was looking forward for her stay in Italy believing it would be a ticket out of all the scheming and the deceiving, at least temporarily. She; however, is disappointed to be met with more mendacity.

"Well, Crystal it has been an honor to meet you." Nazi stands by the front door. He carries his gym bag, where all his stuff are.

"This sounds like a goodbye." She turns around to face the mafia man. She demonstrates a face of sadness, but secretly she cannot wait for him to be gone so she can maybe start on her new book.

"Yeah, I have my own business to run. Therefore, I cannot stay here forever. Now, that you know your way around, and have all your clothes and stuff brought to you from Brazil, I can leave with a tranquil mind."

"Thank you for everything, really." For once, her smile is genuine. Despite everything, she is grateful; she knows that without him and god knows who her brother asked for help, her parents would have succeeded in abducting her.

"Do not worry about it. Remember, this is not goodbye. You have my number; if you need anything do not hesitate to call even if it was in the middle of the night." Crystal nods while she watches her new friend take his car keys out of his pocket as he makes his way to his white Ferrari.

"I almost forgot, I talked to Nick about an hour ago. He said you are not answering any of his calls. I do not know why you would do that, and I am not going to snoop, but I think you should talk to him; he sounded pretty shaken up." And just like that he is in his expensive vehicle, and driving away from her house.

Nicholas is another thing that is on Crystal's mind. He has risked everything for her; he even went far enough to ask the assistance from another mafia. She feels thankful to have a protective brother like hers. Still, she cannot find it in herself to pick up the phone and call him. She feels like she needs time, but with Lucas being with him and not her, Nicholas will go mad if she does not talk to him soon. In addition, she does not want him to doubt that she knows anything about his operations. Therefore, she pulls her phone out of her pocket, dials her brother's number, and waits for him to pick up his phone.

Surprisingly, it goes straight to voice mail, so she calls a second and a third time. Still, the same result. Despite all her instincts, she decides to try, and think nothing of it. Eventually, she cannot handle the curiosity, and calls Lucas who also does not answer.

Eventually her best friend calls her back at nine p.m. while she is asleep. Usually she does not sleep before midnight, but the quietness persuaded her into sleeping early. She groans as she rolls in her warm comfortable bed before her hand reaches out of the phone on the nightstand.

"You do realize that I was on a plane right?" Lucas's voice is full of sarcasm. She mentally slaps herself on the face for forgetting that.

"I was worried, I called Nick, but his phone was off. Do you know anything about that?"

"I just landed, and I am on my way to the mansion right now. The driver, however; told me that Nicholas's phone got broken. Do not panic, it happens, once I get there, I will give him my phone to talk to you, deal?" Crystal has always been able to tell when someone lies to her, and something in her gut tells her that Lucas is lying. Nonetheless, she chooses to shrug it off, it is not like he will confide in her.

"Deal, listen, I was sleeping before you called, so I will talk to you tomorrow morning, okay?" The man on the other end of the line says a quick joke about her sleeping before chickens before hanging up. Crystal sighs, and then shuffles once more between the duvets that are covering her entire body from the chest down. She lies on her bed for a while just staring at her orange ceiling, until she decides that she is not going to go back to sleep any time soon. Hence, she slips out of the warm covers, grabs some snacks from the kitchen, grabs her laptop from the living room, and goes back to her bed.

So far, Crystal has published two books, both of them is a stand alone, but they are of the same genre; science fiction. This time; though, she wants to do something different, maybe a romantic novel. She wants to try something out of her comfort zone, something that would deliver her a worthy challenge. Alas, every time she gets an idea, she decides that it is either not original enough, or not worth writing a book about. In addition, she is a bestseller author; every book she writes has to be as close to perfection as it can be.

Her first idea is a guy falling in love with a dead girl, but an amateur writer would come up with a better idea than this one. The second is re-telling of Cinderella's story. The problem is, there is no re-telling; crystal barely changed anything or added anything to the plot. The third is a murder case, but she wants to write a romance. Thus, it was not an option.

Maybe I should retire while I still have my pride and dignity. Crystal thinks to herself bitterly as she makes her way to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. If she is going to stay up all night trying to come up with an idea for her book, then she needs caffeine.

While waiting for the milk to boil, she goes over the list of the things she is certain she wants in her novel.

1. Romance

2. Non-cliché plot

3. Surprising ending

4. Contain a lesson about life

What angers her is that three out of these standards have not changed since she was twenty years old. Moreover, she has the bad habit of recalling her already published books, and that prevents her from creating something new. Crystal pulls her brown hair in a high ponytail as she tries to command her brain to create an extraordinary idea. This book will never get published!

When the milk boils, she makes herself a huge mug of coffee and reclaims her spot before her laptop. She comes up with more lame ideas before she finally decides to shut off her laptop, put on her coat and shoes, and head out of the door. Nicholas would kill her if he found out that she was outside of the house at eleven p.m., but right now, she needed a walk so she can think straight.