A while later, Ario and Paulo got ready to walk me home...well to West Side where Walter was to meet us, at the line that stood between neutral territory and Simpson ground.

“Hey Coral, do you want some chocolate?” Ario asked me, rifling through the sweets cupboard.

“Sure,” I nodded.

“Oh,” he came back with one small bar of Milkyway. “Well I thought we had more.”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Just give it to me.”

Ario laughed in my face, “You’re so funny.”

He unwrapped the chocolate and put the whole thing in his mouth, leaving me to shake my head at him. If anything, the way Ario was with me, made me happy. It was how a brother and a sister were with each other and that’s what I wanted. Yeah the two of us argued sometimes, but it wasn’t often. It just made our bond real.

“Estúpido,” I called Ario stupid as Paulo walked in.

“Was that supposed to hurt my feelings?” Ario said blankly, forcing me to hold back laughter, for he had that bored expression on his face again.

“That wasn’t even mean, Coral,” Paulo laughed. “You’ve gotta curse more if you really want to be effective.”

“Yeah, I’ll just stick with the nice-ish insults for now,” I chuckled and Ario smiled too.

I said goodbye to Carlos, Diego and the twins, before the three of us left the house. It was even colder out, now that the sun was setting and it was getting dark. We walked through neutral turf where all the shops were, and then we continued further West until we came to the boundary between the two.

***

Walter and Gomez were standing there waiting for me. Both had their shoulders hunched up from the cold and the wind blew through Gomez’s blond hair. Walter was wearing a hoodie underneath his black leather jacket, with the hood drawn over his head. Walter looked at Ario with a stern stare as we got closer. We came to a stop, the two pairs of brothers just a meter away from each other.

“You’re late,” Walter muttered, his irritation directed to Ario.

Ario broke off his scowl directed at Walter to check his watch before continuing to glare back at him.

“Eight minutes late,” Ario replied in a deep tone. “That’s not an issue.”

“I don’t need you to tell me what is and what isn’t an issue,” Walter clenched his jaw.

No matter what they would have said to each other, an argument would have come out of it. That’s just the way it was with Walter and Ario, but they had to compromise when I was there. Both respected that I wanted a relationship, and therefore some form of contact, with each one of them.

“It’s okay,” I held my hands up and then looked at Walter and Gomez apologetically. “Sorry we made you guys wait.”

I could sense both Ario and Paulo rolling their eyes at that.

“Thanks for dinner,” I turned and smiled at my cousins.

“No problem,” Ario muttered, still annoyed.

“Anytime,” Paulo replied.

“Let’s go, Coral,” Walter said to me.

“Hasta luego, chama,” Ario said later to me after giving Walter a final look.

“Ciao,” Paulo smiled and said bye.

“Ciao,” I waved back at the two of them as they turned and started to walk away.

“You guys okay?” I asked Walter and Gomez as we headed in the opposite direction, homewards.

Gomez nodded, “School was fine. I came to give Walter company, even though he said he didn’t want it.”

“Yeah, because who wants to be around you?” Walter mumbled.

“Thanks,” Gomez said flatly.

I laughed and looped my arm through Gomez’s, “You’re fun to be around.”

“See,” Gomez sent Walter a look. “At least Coral appreciates me.”

Walter rolled his eyes as a great gust of wind blew at us.

“Damn,” Gomez tensed his muscles.

“Walter, why didn’t you bring the car?” I shivered, knowing that he preferred walking a lot of the time.

His hazel eyes filled with concern and he pulled me away from Gomez and put me underneath his arm, tucking me into the side of his chest.

“I didn’t realise it would be so cold,” he said to me. “Do you want me to call a taxi?”

“No,” I cried. “Home is literally only fifteen minutes from here.”

“We could run?” Gomez suggested with a jokey smile.

“Don’t bother wearing yourself out before tonight,” Walter muttered.

“A ten minute run isn’t going to wear me out,” Gomez replied.

“Well I’ve been training all day,” Walter said. “I’m pretty tired.”

“Maybe you should sit this one out?” I asked him, already knowing the answer.

“I can’t,” Walter replied. “I want to fight.”

Too much training tired him before fighting and too much fighting weakened him before training. I figured his training was more important to Walter, and he also knew it wasn’t ideal to fight so much, but he still chose to. It was a part of him, another way to let out his rage and with me being stuck in the middle, I couldn’t really pick sides anymore. I could only hope that the two gangs didn’t cause each other too much harm.