To Fall So Deep

Despite the howling winds, and the frosty air, Nina, Leina, and a few Ashford locals managed to spend the morning at Vitale's Place for a relaxing Saturday brunch. Sitting in a booth next to one of the front windows facing Main Street, Nina and Leina treated themselves to tea and an assortment of finger foods. The restaurant wasn't busy at all, and Nina assumed everyone was at home, or at Town Square preparing for the final debate and open forum for both running candidates. While Nina had hoped that Harry would be working, he and the rest of the wolf pack were still at Debutante practice.

"Oi Elissia!" Leina had a mouth full of Avocado Rolls as she hastily waved her hand in the air. Elissia turned over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at her normally sane friend,

"What? I'm folding napkins!" Elissia retorted. She stood at a table not too far from where Nina and Leina sat, folding clean white pieces of cloth with an older man-- her father and the owner, Mr. Kenneth Vitale.

"Bring out more of these," Leina held up the square, porcelain plate and pointed to the single remaining roll. "These are to die for!"

"Anything else your royal gluttony?" Elissia dramatically bowed, holding out the ends of her black skirt in the process. Leina scoffed as Elissia turned to face Nina, "or for you lady Macaron?"

With no shame Nina pushed her plate to the edge of the table, "you can bring me back some more pistachio flavor."

"Of course," Elissia chuckled. She grabbed the empty plates from the table and went towards the back kitchen.

"So you're not going to the open forum?" Leina asked.

"My dad doesn't want me to be there," Nina shook her head. She took a sip of the warm, honey-infused tea in her hands, "he has a feeling that Styles will try to make me look bad and my dad doesn't want me to witness it in public."

"How's everything at home? Your sister? How's she doing?" Leina's sincerity in her tone, and her body language let Nina know that her questions were genuine, and not laced with obligation.

"It could be better, but it's not terrible. My sister is finally starting to get the feeling back in her arm. Though she was having fun asking everyone to punch her because she couldn't feel the pain," Nina laughed, shaking her head as she remembered Kathleen's first morning with feeling in her arm.

"That totally sounds like Kathleen," Leina chuckled. "Is your dad still planning to move?"

"I don't think we really have a choice. Money is really tight these days. Even with my job at the cafe paying for my and Kathleen's things, it's still hard," Nina let out a deep sigh, falling back into the cushioned bench.

"Well you know that both Elissia and I are here if you guys need anything," Leina reassured, and Nina just smiled, thankful to have such supportive friends-- Joleen was never this nice.

"Excuse me?" Mr. Vitale approached the two girls and Nina immediately sat up straighter.

"Yes Mr. Vitale," Leina grinned.

"I'm sorry to have eavesdropped on your conversation," Mr. Vitale started, a thick Italian accent coating his voice, "but Nina, I'd like to offer you a job serving at the Debutante ball next Saturday."

"Wait, what?" Nina's eyes grew wide, leaning in towards Mr. Vitale. He grinned,

"I'll be short on staff that night since half of them are participating in the event. You'll work about six hours. Prepping food, serving it, and then helping clean up. You'll make one-hundred Euros for the entire night. So what do you say, Nina? Would you like to do it?"

"Sir, yes! I would… oh my gosh! Thank you! I don't even know what to say!" Nina stood up from her chair and flung herself towards the generous man, embracing him in a loving hug. Mr. Vitale laughed, patting Nina on the back.

"What's going on here?" Elissia smiled, placing the plates of Avocado Rolls and Pistachio Macarons on the table.

"Your dad just offered Nina a job working the Debutante ball next weekend," Leina informed.

"No way? That's so awesome!" Elissia exclaimed.

"Yea, your dad is going to pay her one-hundred Euros," Leina added with a wink. Elissia cocked her head, an expression of confusion on her face,

"What? We're only supposed to get fifty---"

Leina's hands rapidly reached up to cover Elissia's mouth in attempt to cease the the remaining words that lingered at the tip of her tongue. She pulled Elissia down into the empty space next to her and grumbled quietly,

"I know. As far as Nina is concerned, we all get one-hundred, okay?"

"Mmmhmm," Elissia's answer was muffled beneath Leina's palms.

"Good girl," Leina whispered, and dropped her arms from Elissia, rubbing the top of her head.

Nina looked at her two friends with a raised brow, slightly suspicious of their odd behavior but quickly shrugged it off. She was just happy, and blessed that she had scored another job to help out with any payments for the month. Plus Harry would be there-- dancing a waltz with Jezabelle, but he would be present nonetheless.

School was already difficult enough when Nina had to resist the strong urges to talk to him, or to hold his hand. And she knew she would have an even tougher time to keep her cool, and not succumb to temptation of slapping Jezabelle in the face.

As both Nina and Leina continued to enjoy the rest of their brunch, an explosion of boisterous cheers and jeers filtered through the open doors and into their ears. The debate. Nina reached her hand up to her face and placed it on her forehead, rubbing it as if to soothe the stress building inside of her.

“You okay sweetie?” Leina asked. She held her warm cup of tea to her lips as she looked at Nina with concern through the steam.

“I’m just… I don’t know,” Nina sighed. “I think I should be at the forum right now supporting my dad. I mean Corrine and even Kathleen is there. I already know that press is having a field day with my absence— wondering where the delinquent is, and what trouble she’s getting into.”

“Do you want to go?”

“What?”

“Do you want to go? To the forum? I’ll come with you,”

“You don’t have to--“

“I don’t have to, but I want to.” Leina reached her hand over the table to hold Nina’s.

Nina gave Leina an expression of pure gratitude as she nodded her head in agreement. Nina stood up from the booth, straightened out her dress and threw her peacoat on. Leina did the same. Their movements caught the attention of Elissia who was serving a family a few tables down. Just as Nina and Leina grabbed their purses and threw money next to their bill, Elissia approached them.

“Leaving already?” Elissia frowned.

“We’re going to the forum,” Nina answered.

“Wait for me. I’m coming with you,” Elissia was already running towards the back before Nina or Leina could even answer.

Three minutes later Elissia ran through the swinging doors and back onto the main floor like an animal stampede followed behind her—napkins, pans, and utensils plummeting to the floor with a loud crash as she struggled to put her coat on. In the background, Nina and Leina could hear Mr. Vitale shout at Elissia’s lack of vigilance, and the girls chuckled.

“Okay! Ready guys!” Elissia stuck a beige bear beanie on her head, and gestured at the door.

“There’s fourty minutes left, and we can walk there. It’s only a block away,” Leina informed.

The trio started for the main entrance when Mr. Vitale popped his head out of the swinging doors, “Nina!”

Nina turned her head immediately at the sound of her name, “Yes, sir?”

“Tell your dad I wish him luck!” Mr. Vitale grinned.

“I will. Thank you Mr. Vitale! For everything!” Nina gave him a thumbs up and rushed out the door with Elissia and Leina.

As the girls sped walked through Main Street and turned the corner on Civic Drive, the roaring of the crowd grew louder and louder. The Town Square courtyard was filled past maximum capacity with people reigning from Ashford, London, and neighboring towns. Several reporters from a diverse array of stations were sprinkled around Town Square, their cameras in perfect aim of the candidates.

Leo Dela Vera and Desmond Styles stood at the top landing of an enormous white building made of stone—City Hall. They each had a podium with a microphone attached, and their surnames plastered on the front.

Nina stood on top of a trashcan and scanned the vicinity looking for Corrine and Kathleen. Immediately she spotted them sitting off to the side behind her father. When her eyes drifted to Desmond Styles however, she saw a familiar curly-headed boy in a black suit sitting next to a proper woman in an expensive dress. Nina exhaled deeply, realizing that she had stopped breathing for a moment. She felt her insides twist and churn of seeing Harry, and all she wanted was to feel his loving arms wrapped around her body.

“Do you see your family?” Elissia asked, looking up at Nina. She looked down,

“Yea, they’re sitting behind my dad.”

“Come on, we’ll take you there,” Leina said, holding out her arm to help Nina.

Nina reached down and grabbed Leina’s arm, carefully squatting down before attempting to jump. But as she brought her body forward, she caught glimpse of a group of smiling boys in sweat pants and hoodies.

The wolf pack.

“Do you need help there, little lady?” Niall asked, his voice deep as he mimicked a Western cowboy accent. He held out his other hand to grasp Nina and with the help of both Niall and Leina, she leaped back down onto the sidewalk.

“Nina, how have you been?” Liam asked, pulling a very surprised Nina into a hug. “I’m so sorry for ditching you and Harry. I feel like total ass.”

“Same here Nina. Please forgive us!” Louis begged, hugging Nina from behind. Liam hadn’t let go yet.

“We got your back. And we’re not going anywhere!” Niall promised, joining the growing group hug.

“Can we be buddies again Nina? Please?” Zayn threw himself onto the huddled bodies securing Nina in a warm embrace.

“Aw, they’re so adorable,” Elissia sighed, letting her head fall to Leina’s shoulder.

Suddenly, another loud cheer echoed around them and their arms dropped from one another, and their heads turned in the direction of the lively crowd. From a slew of reporters, one was chosen to ask a question directed to Leo Dela Vera. Leina, Elissia, and the wolf pack gazed at Nina who felt her heart drop the moment she heard her dad’s voice through the speakers,

“Thank you for your question Mister Bellevue, and the answer to it, I would have to say no.”

“We got you,” Leina whispered to Nina, linking her arm with hers. Elissia did the same, and with the wolf pack as their bodyguards, they escorted Nina through the crowd like an unstoppable force.

Reporters, and faces from the mass took notice of Nina, and their attention slowly morphed in favor of the cowering girl. They glared at her with condescending eyes, scrutinizing Nina based on the embellished information that Desmond Styles had fed to them. Sensing her anxiety, Niall gave Nina a rub on the shoulder. Nina turned her head to look at the blonde boy behind her who gave an assuring nod.

“You’re okay,” he murmured.

“There has been several rumors regarding my family, and while there is some truth embedded within those claims, they are claims nonetheless and have been exaggerated to depict my family as swine. And it is simply not true,” Leo’s voice reverberated from the speakers and shook the crowd with an unforeseen vigor.

“Yes, my first marriage ended right after my second daughter Kathleen was born,” Leo continued, gesturing at Kathleen who sat with a confident grin on her face, “but I did not walk away from my family. To walk away when they were most in need of me is not in my prerogative as a politician, as a person, as a husband, and as a father. I may not have been there physically, but my heart still remained with them. And it still does.”

“Your heart may be with them, but is theirs with you? I don’t see your eldest daughter here in support,” a reporter pointed out.

“If you have been paying attention to the latest broadcasts from Candidate Styles, and I’m sure you have, then you are aware of the amount of slander concerning my eldest daughter Nina. The reason sir, that my eldest daughter is not here, is because I asked her to not be,” Leo answered truthfully and the crowd gasped, breaking out into whispers around.

Nina took a deep breath, and her friends quickly rubbed her back in support. Leo continued,

“I asked her to stay home because her attendance--“

“He was protecting me!” Nina shouted at the top of her lungs and in that instant, the hundreds of people in the crowd turned their attention from Leo to Nina.

The rowdy horde of people separated, creating a well towards the center where Nina and her friends stood. She stepped forward and with as much bravery and poise she could find within herself, she continued to defend her father,

“My father asked me to stay home because he was trying to protect me from Mister Styles’ crude slurs.”

Desmond Styles scowled at Nina but his attempt in intimidation didn’t faze her and she persisted in her defense, “Candidate Styles may have power, money, and several followers, but what my father has, that Candidate Styles is deficient of, is attention… For the people, for his family,”

Nina glanced at Harry who looked at her with such sincerity, it killed him trying to fight the impulse of running to her, and holding her tightly.

“Like Candidate Styles, my father Candidate Dela Vera, only wants what’s best for his family, and for Ashford. But what Candidate Styles refuses to understand, is that what he believes is right, may not be what is best.”

“This is an outrage!” Desmond hollered into the microphone. “This is exactly what I’m trying to inform you all about. If chosen to be your Mayor, Candidate Dela Vera will bring Ashford down. He can’t control his own children, as you can see from Miss Nina Dela Vera’s outbursts, so what makes you all believe he can control a city?”

“We’re not animals you can control!” Nina retorted in fury. “We can’t be trained to be power hungry robots like the Academic Incursive Act you implemented on my school. We are humans. The last time a power-hungry politician tried to control a mass and treated them like swine, the Holocaust happened.”

Several people from the crowd applauded, and erupted into cheers. Even Harry clapped his hands in agreement, however earned a death glare from his mother.

“Really Miss Dela Vera? You’re lecturing me about control, when you’re the one with the most anarchism in your body?” Desmond sneered. He looked away from Nina and to the crowd before him, “people of Ashford, Nina Dela Vera and her sister Kathleen Dela Vera aren’t here in our precious town on a whim. They are here because their mother unfortunately passed away when their house exploded from a gas leak. But according to an undisclosed and creditable source, Nina Dela Vera disobeyed her mother and went gallivanting all through out the night when the incident took place. Nina may not have started the fire that killed her mother, but if she had stayed home like she was told to, then who knows? The outcome would’ve been the ladder.”

Nina stood in utter shock. The pit in her stomach grew and grew, as guilt completely engulfed her. Tears steamed down her cheeks, and her voice was lost in the hum of the speakers. Her friends held her tight, trying to help ebb the ache she felt. Suddenly, an unexpected but familiar pair of arms embraced her.

“Baby it’s me. I'm here, and everything will be okay,” Harry breathed tenderly into her ear.

Notes

Happy Sunday Lovely Ladies!

I hope your weekend went well. If not, I hope that your week goes much much better!!! Well here's chapter 32. Actually one of my favorite chapters to write. I've got the rest of the story figured out and I've determined that there is about 10-12ish remaining chapters (including the Epilogue). As I inch closer and closer towards the end, my updates won't be so regular, mainly so I have time to really edit and make sure it's as top-notch as I can get it. Anyways, thank you all so much for reading!

-Erica Jaine <3