Masked [BXB]

Chapter 2

Old habits die hard. So did the cat from curiosity itself. And he was aware he was going to screw up sooner or later by his gut feeling. Almost always, he knew what was bad and what was not. His leg bounced up and down from both uneasiness and excitement was otherwise.

A young woman, Natalie Rossali, sat beside him out of discomfort. Grinning out of glee once she saw. "Lucil. I cannot believe that you are one of those scaredy cats right now. Are you really a man? I suppose not." She said.

The dark haired, Lucilio, did not give a comment but snickered. Fake snickered.

"She's thinking about coming over for thrice a month. Maybe more.. Tried to convince her but no, she just had to be coming over today. Bullshit, right?"

"Is it not your Mother?" He did not nod his head, but it felt so. Lucilio's pissed of expression revealed everything. Natalie hesitated, uttering out complete nonsense unrelated to the topic. It was not much although it did drive him away.

She whispered. " You see how busy outside is compared to here? There are tons of people outside and they're not coming over to the shop."

Natalie's head turned, full attention for a minute or two as she pointed over. Natalie was right. Several of them, mostly women, dressed in suits or dresses.

Her Uncle owned the small store for a good twenty years. Older than Natalie herself. For as many people there in the shop there were, it was doing neither good nor bad for the day.

A warm and soothing background feeling. The small light hearted sound of a ringing bell whenever someone would come in. Colorful plants and flowers around every corner.

His face softened. Both legs curled up closer on the tallest step of the stool. Strangely there were more outside than in like Natalie said. Tons. Had something big happen? It wasn't always that was going to happen.

Lucilio got up from his seat, alerting Natalie's attention and went over to the door, opening it. The ringing of a bell. Faint it was as well as Natalie's voice calling for him.

They were all over the place, yelling and throwing nearby things around. As if they lost it all. Gone crazy because of some kind of witch-hunt rumor. As odd as it sounds, it was coming from his neighbors. All of them which he knew. Madness was what it sounded like out there.

With their messy, baggy clothing, head-to-toe either dirty or smoked from work. Screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs until it would burn. But it wasn't long. The other side wouldn't just listen.

"'Our' kind isn't invited?! To hell with you! His invite never clearly said who can't and who can!" One yelled out. They roared. "He couldn't have just invited rich bastards like you! We worked our asses off through hell for such little money!" No matter how loud it was it wouldn't be able to beat the other side's power. Money.

He paused. Natalie stopped him and yelled his name out. "Uncle's calling us over! Come on! And don't walk so crooked, women won't like that." As Lucilio searched around, he found his father near the back of the crowd motioning them to come over.

Something about his expression was different unlike how the crowd roared. Once over it was even louder as hell. The feeling as if your ears would explode. His father flattened out a piece of paper after he pulled it out from his huge pocket and pointed at the title. 'Invitation'.

"Those rich bastards are too blind to see I stole two of 'em." He laughed heartedly right after whispering in close.

"Why would you show us that right now?!" Natalie whisper-yelled. Behind a crowd bothered her, with a huge amount of people around, one or two could see. Eventually leading to a huge ruckus. The crowd roaring loudly caused Natalie to repeat her question once more, followed up by a smack on his forearm.

"Just watch. You may never know if you don't see it now. " He wasn't talking about the invitation, but just pointed up ahead. Between cracks people left out. Lucilio shifted his attention away for a split second witnessing what he was talking about.

Many people head did but more. Oh, how it did cause a majority to move away. As if it were nothing.

He laughed again.

At home, Lucilio came back with a brown bag in hand. His grandfather stopped him at the doorway, greeting him with a smile. "Since when have you gotten your shoes this dirty, eh? Boy?" Most of his teeth were almost gone. Half of it was just black patches, not even a pattern. Lucilio placed the brown bag on the countertop in the kitchen. The bag of small gifts Natalie and her family would send over. He moves the bag on its side and reached in.

"There was a big commotion near Nata's."

Inside the bag, he reached in there was a small box of tea bags, several ripe fruits and always an envelope. He placed the box of tea bags in the cupboard, looking over at the mangoes when he finished. Then sliced one in half, made grid lines and flattened it out to take a bite. Sweet as he slurped It up.

"Grandpa. Do you want any mangoes? They're sweet."

Juice fell into his palm and it was sticky once he touched them. "Really? Sure." Lucilio gave the other half over, licked his palm from the juice and looked at the letter.

A bit of dirt smudged on the side. Nothing new but that. He turned the envelope around to its front, opening it from there. A red sticker was placed on the front with a letter 'A' in a golden color. The paper inside looked as if nobody ever touched it at all, but there were small creases. He unfolded the paper, and just at a glimpse he quickly closed it.

He knew and could just tell from the sticker itself, but holding it was a whole different level. The envelope wasn't from Natalie at all but from the famous, maybe a millionaire, Mr. Atticus.

"Grandp-" He paused, quickly. Stupid of him, he thought, knowing he was quick to jump to conclusions. It was his chance, a ticket to get out and definitely he wasn't going to let it go. After all, it was a party he had gotten an invitation to, from fate itself.

Lucilio shifted his attention away at his grandfather. Grey and white haired as he would smile even if his senses gone bad. Like they say the grass is always greener on the other side. Perhaps it was just sheer luck his grandfather was first to come in mind of the 'people to worry' list.

Whenever his grandfather overlooked, mostly making mistakes, it was hard to look at. Instinctively thinking, it automatically became a job to do, although it wasn't Lucilio's but his mother and siblings. Mother always used to do everything before he decided to take a scary step forward while they watched. It became something he couldn't stop remembering.

"Leave the lights on. Mom'll come back soon." The plan was clear and he had made up his mind. All he needed to do was be a part of the crowd or else who knows what happens. No guaranteed.

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He thinks it is funny.