On the Sunday, we all slept in until after midday. I didn’t realise how fast the time had gone until I checked my phone. I had a text from Ario asking if I was still up for coming round.

“Walter,” I turned over to face him.

He had his dark-haired head buried in his pillows, and he slowly stretched his body and lifted his head when he heard me call him.

“I said I’d go and see the Santiagos this afternoon,” I told him.

Walter’s face soured, “That’s really not the first thing I want to hear when I wake up in the morning.”

I laughed lightly and kissed his scarred cheek. He reached over with his hand and stroked mine. I placed a hand on his chest, feeling his heart thump steadily. I liked doing that.

Walter had a boxing bout this evening and I wasn’t sure if he was up to his full performance. The fights could be quite demanding and Walter’s bruises from the gang battle were only just fading.

“Are you feeling okay for tonight?” I asked him.

He nodded, “I’m good. I’m going to win.”

“Good,” I smiled. “I’ll meet the boys there. Who’s coming to watch?”

“Phoenix is busy,” Walter said. “Landon will come, he usually does. Eli might be with Hayley, but the triplets will make it. They have nothing better to do.”

I chuckled, “True. I doubt they’d spend their Sunday evening doing homework.”

Walter half-smiled and shook his head.

I laughed and pointed a finger at him, “Don’t act as if you weren’t the same when you were still in school.”

Walter grinned, “That’s true.”

“Good luck for tonight,” I leaned down and pecked him on the lips.

“Thank you, seaweed,” he smiled back at me.

***

It was a lazy day in the home of the Santiagos, although Carlos however was working in his office. Ario and I lounged in the sofas watching a movie as it had started to rain outside and we couldn’t go to the shopping complex like we’d wanted to. I’d managed to meet him around 2pm and he’d already been to football and back. They started early most weekends, he told me.

Paulo was in the living room also, cleaning all of his knives, even though they already seemed pretty spotless. He was slow and meticulous the way he wiped them down and I could tell that he just liked to clean them. His older brother Miguel was sitting beside him, watching the TV with a vacant expression. He looked like he was about to fall asleep. To be honest, Diego was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the action.

All of the boys sported bruises and grazes from the last fight. They were just starting to disappear, not that the injuries bothered them in the slightest.

“What are you watching?” Manuel asked in English as he walked into the living room without a shirt on.

Ario made a sound as if he was just waking up and I kicked his leg.

“Don’t act like you’re bored,” I said to him. “You suggested this. I wanted to watch something else.”

“You did?” Ario grinned at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about and I had to smile.

“You know full well I prefer comedy to a violent action movie,” I said.

Manuel looked at the screen as guns were blazing in the movie and he shrugged, sitting down in the sofa next to Diego.

“We’ve watched this before,” he said.

I noticed a scratch on Manuel’s chest that looked quite fresh. It must have been caused in the fight earlier this week.

“Are you okay?” I asked him and Paulo and Diego turned their attention to me.

Manuel looked at me in confusion, “Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

I pointed to his chest, “That looks painful.”

He looked down at himself, “Oh. That was Eli.”

“That’s nothing,” Diego scoffed.

“I know,” Ario said, pulling up his own top.

He pointed to a bullet wound in his side, right under his tattoo, “That was Walter when I was sixteen. It was the first time I’d ever been shot and it hurt so bad. I don’t even remember much, I lost a lot of blood.”

I widened my eyes, feeling a whole lot of mixed emotions. I knew the Santiagos had injuries from the Simpsons, but to hear it from their mouths made it so real. I felt bad even though Walter had suffered similar serious injuries from Ario.

Ario ran his finger along a faint white scar down the middle of his toned stomach, “That one was Phoenix. I’m pretty sure he tried to cut me open. It was after I put Walter in hospital one time.”

“Shit,” I breathed.

“This one here,” Ario pointed to a stab wound near his hip, “Walter again. That time I was seventeen.” Then he pointed to more. “Walter. Landon. Eli. Walter. Phoenix. Walter, again.”

They looked bad. I knew Ario had a lot of scars but being told who had given each one of them to him, made it feel a lot more personal. It was scary. He’d been close to death so many times. Mostly because of Walter.

“Diego, show her the one Phoenix gave you,” Ario said to him.

Diego stood up and lifted his top. I had to look closely because he had a lot of hair on his chest, but I noticed a raised mark that ran across it. I rounded my eyes. It was a pretty big scar.

“How many stitches did that need?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“A lot,” Diego simply replied. “That one almost killed me. I was in hospital. They had to give me blood.”

He pointed to another raised mark, smaller and circular this time. I recognised it as another bullet wound. It was next to his left shoulder.

“This one was Walter,” he said. “It hurt like a bitch when Carlos had to dig it out with his fingers.”

“Show Coral the scar on your head,” Diego nodded to Paulo who was still cleaning his weapons.

Paulo came up to me and sat down on the carpet so I was looking down at his head. He cleared some of his hair away and showed me the back of his head. His scalp was a lot paler than the rest of his body, and there was a large scar there that looked like it had been incredibly painful indeed.

“Oh damn,” I opened my mouth.

“That was Severn,” Paulo said, turning to face me.

My eyebrows shot up. I was speechless.

Paulo smiled at my shocked expression, “Yeah, he hit me with a bat. He actually cracked my head open.”

“Shit,” I gaped at him. I couldn’t believe it. Was Severn really that strong?

The boys laughed at me and I shook my head in disbelief. The fact that they were all still standing was amazing. The same to the Simpson boys. The stuff they did to each other was brutal.