Ares: Dark Mafia Romance

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

Scarlett

When Lily told me she saw him in the park two years ago, I thought she had him mixed up with someone else. It's not like the Koslovs didn't live in this city, but there was much talk about them moving from town to town, city to city, and never settling down.

There was much talk about the Koslovs around town. It wasn't gossip as much as it was news whisperings here and there about the many accomplishments they've done. It really wasn't until the eldest, Alek got married and settled down, and then Leo followed in his footsteps.

The only unsteady one that was left was Ares, the youngest. I hadn't seen him since high school, and I couldn't believe it's been that long. It's been almost eleven years. The boy with a crooked smile that would read books under the bleachers blossomed significantly.

I had blue eyes, but they were nothing like his. His resembled angry and stormy nights, unresolved tension and resentment, yet they were magnificent and so vividly beautiful to look at. So mesmerizing.

I remember how short his curls were in high school, but they seemed longer almost past his ear, and they were as disheveled as always. The last time I saw him in a suit was prom....and I wonder if he remembered that night. If he even thought about it. If he knew how much I regretted every word I spoke, that sometimes his face of pure hurt haunted me at night.

I never in my life thought we'd bump into each other, but then again I never thought I'd ever move back to this godforsaken city. When my father's drinking went from a few weeks binge to full-on abandonment, my mother took us, and we left New Jersey.

Now, we were back in this city, and the memories of who I was and what I did haunt me everywhere I go. I couldn't take back who I was in high school, and I couldn't erase the pain I caused him. I could just be the evolved and bigger person and hope that no one held any grudges.

Besides Ares. It was obvious he wanted to kill me when he saw me. I could see that look in his eyes. A look that was too murderous for someone as soft and sweet as Ares, but maybe I didn't know him. Maybe it was all fake. I had insisted on it, so it had to be true.

Right?

That was the odd thing about the whole ordeal. It didn't feel fake. None of it did. Ares...was real, genuine, sweet, and innocent. Every emotion, feeling, and word he offered me came from his heart and it didn't matter how many times I told myself it was all fake, it wasn't. It could never be fake.

What I had with Ares; I've never had with anyone else. Every man that I've ever hooked up with or even spoken to was stupid, couldn't keep their eyes off my rack, or automatically assume that since I smiled at them I wanted to sleep with them. It wasn't like that with Ares. We never got intimate.

Never even shared a kiss. I used to tell myself it was platonic, a way to use him, to take advantage because it was funny. Even if everyone in high school was stupid, pranks always resulted in hurting someone in the end.

I hurt him. I lied to him. I broke his heart, and the worst part was that I laughed while doing it. I knew it was real to him. I knew he liked me, hell he may have even loved me at one point, but I didn't have that anymore. I didn't have the right to have that ever again.

The Ares Koslov that I saw today wasn't the Ares Koslov who used to know the answers to everything and always have his hand raised. The Ares Koslov I saw today was more aloof, chill, laid back, and oddly stoic. I couldn't decipher a single emotion that washed over his face.

Despite what I couldn't see, I could feel everything. I could feel his anger, his distaste, his resentment but maybe that was all I deserved to feel from him. He didn't owe me anything. I should apologize, but it's been years and maybe he's forgotten about it.

Maybe it wasn't that important for him to have ever remembered. Maybe he was angry because he saw my face again, especially since we had left the city right after graduation. Mom and dad fought more and more, and the source was always money problems.

Dad worked less and started drinking more, and then suddenly it was too much for mom, too much for us. Lily was still a child, and she didn't deserve to see our parents fight. She didn't deserve to understand what was going on, adapt to a situation, and for her to be an adult at her age.

Even if she could understand everything that conspired between our parents, she was still a teenager. All she should worry about at that age was if someone were to ask her to prom. She didn't need to see my father drinking so much that he couldn't even pronounce her name or one day for him to drop her off at the wrong school.

Mom and I made the decision to pack up our s**t and leave. We found a place and we both dove into any job we could get our hands on. Even though money was tight, we did what we had to, and so far we were doing well.

I gathered up my stuff and tossed my coat on before taking the elevator down. We only had one car and since my mother worked night shifts at the hospital as a nurse, the car was with her, and I had to take the bus. I swiped my card and sat in the front and waited for the bus to reach my stop.

Thankfully, I didn't have to walk far since it was right by our apartment. I walked a few steps to the apartment and pulled out my keys. Lily was sitting on the couch doing her homework with Louie, our dog sitting on the floor at her feet.

Her light brunette locks were in a ponytail with her bangs parted on each side. Even though her eyesight was s**t, she had gorgeous golden eyes hidden behind reading glasses that she took off when she saw me.

She looked more like my father than I did and was just as charming and as funny like dad was when he was sober. I on the other hand was like my mother, with my blonde hair and blue eyes, but mom had longer hair. I chopped half of it off when we moved back into the city.

"You're home. Hey, how was work?" She asked, looking up at me.

"Fine. Guess who showed up?"

I tossed my stuff on the ground and plopped down next to her. Louie came up and set his chin on my lap. I petted the top of his head.

"Who?"

"Ares."

She put her book down and her eyes went wide as she waited for more information. "What was he doing there?"

"I don't know. They had a meeting with my boss."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "With handsy Charlie?"

I scratched the top of Louie's head. "Don't remind me." I felt bile rise in my throat at the mention of my skeevy boss. "Ares didn't even look at me."

"Scarlett, what do you expect after breaking his heart and humiliating him?" She said with a loud sigh.

I reached for the drawer beside the sofa and pulled out a cigarette from the wrinkled box and a lighter. I lit it, inhaling deeply as the burnt smoky scent filled my lungs. It gave me a brief sense of calmness almost like a false shadow or façade and I basked in it as I exMorgand.

"I don't expect anything. I'm sure I'll never see him again. It's fine. How about you finish your homework and let me whip us up something to eat? Mom's working a double shift, so she'll be home late."

"You're not going to heat up some frozen pizzas in the oven again are you?"

I shoved her playfully. "No, you little s**t I'm not. Pasta?"

"Pasta sounds fine."

I stood up and Louie stayed on my trail as I walked into the kitchen. I poured him some food and cleaned out his water bowl and scratched his head before washing my hands. I put an apron around my waist and poured some wine for me to sip on while I took out the ingredients.

The ground beef was frozen so I guess it would be your regular meatless pasta with lots of spice and cheese. Thirty minutes later, I hand a bowl to Lily and sit down next to her. She put on New Girl, and we watched while we ate the decent meal I cooked up.

We laugh at the same scenes we always laugh at and even though we've both watched this show a hundred times, it was a comforting show to rewatch. Lily did the dishes and I helped her clean the kitchen before heading to take a shower and wash up. Lily was finishing up her homework on the bed next to mine, a room we shared since it was a two-bedroom apartment. It was fine. I didn't mind.

At ten, Lily was sleeping with Louie passed out on his bed that was in the corner of our room. He'd leave it in a few minutes and climb on top of Lily and fall asleep there instead. Once in my pajamas, I lay in bed and grabbed my phone. I shouldn't even be thinking about Ares, but my fingers were faster than my brain as I typed his name up in the search engine.

The Koslovs came up with very few results. Some were business, photographs, meetings, and short interviews, but that was it. Nothing to really pinpoint who the brothers really were or what they did behind the scenes.

I guess they liked their privacy, but it only made me more curious as I went from link to link until I found Alek's wife's i********:. Daisy Cooper Koslov. Most of her posts were pictures of their son and newborn daughter.

Other pictures were cute couple pictures of her and Alek, some on his motorcycle, while others were just random pictures. I went to her following and saw that she was following only one Koslov brother. I clicked on Ares's name and thanked God that his account was public.

He had a huge following, but only followed Daisy. It was clear that the only ones using social media was Ares and Daisy. I went back to his profile and scanned through his pictures. He only had six photos. Five of them were him and his nieces and nephews and the smile he had on his face in these photos made my heart do a backflip.

There was only one photo on his feed. It was a picture of his hand wrapped around some girl's neck and the purple lighting was horrible, blurry, with the caption. 'Best f*****g concert with the best girl ever.'

Whoever she was, she wasn't tagged, and I couldn't even tell who she was, but she looked beautiful. I shouldn't be jealous, but f**k it, I was. Was he dating her? Were they a couple? What was her name?

Men never tagged the women in their photos unless the girl wanted to be kept private or they were friends. And by friends, I meant friends with f*****g benefits. I turned my phone off and almost slammed it down on my bedside table before yanking the blanket over my face. I fell asleep jealous and angry, and I hated that I did.