❪ 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 ❫

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗌𝗂𝗑𝗍𝖾𝖾𝗇 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━
the mistake. ╱ act one, chapter sixteen.
❛ i should've known ! ❜

𝙏𝙀𝙓𝙏 𝙈𝙀𝙎𝙎𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙎 !

❝ 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦 ❞

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
Do you have it?

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Not yet I'm gonna
need a few days

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I need the money Alex

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
I understand that, I just
new a few extra days
to get the rest

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
And I'm telling
you I need it by
tomorrow night

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
This isn't up for
discussion

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I'm not putting up
with anymore of your
bullshit

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Come on dude,
tomorrow's Christmas

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Can't you just give me
a second to figure it out?

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I gave you a chance
two weeks ago, times up

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I want my money now

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Marcus please

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
How about I give your
baby sister a little visit?

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
She sure does live
in a really nice building

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I've seen her online,
she's quite the looker

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I bet she could come
up with the money with
the right persuasion

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
Her apartment's
32b right?

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Don't even think
about

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
I don't want to
do it man

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
Give me my money
and I'll completely forget
about her

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
alright fine I'll
figure it out

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
Tomorrow, my house
no later than 8

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
Or that visit will be
a very real thing I
have to take

𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗨𝗦:
And you most
certainly will not
like what happens

𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙇 𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙀 !

TALIA WAS A NERVOUS wreck for most of the day, she was practically bouncing off the walls trying to get everything ready for when Alex comes. Talia was totally over-thinking everything she was doing, she wanted to make it perfect. The black-haired girl was putting too much pressure on tonight, and in the back of her mind, she knew that. But she just wanted this night to go smoothly. But she should've known that with Alex, nothing ever goes smoothly.

Talia never planned on setting up Christmas decorations, cause it felt kinda stupid since she was almost never there. Her apartment was a place that she really only used for sleeping, or a place to be alone for when she was in a funk. But since her breakup with Ryder, she avoided being alone like the plague. The black-haired girl practically lived at David's house, and thus helped him set up his Christmas decorations because she knew that it would be the only place where she could enjoy them.

But here Talia was, setting up a last-minute fake Christmas tree that she found at target. She felt a sense of nostalgia setting up the Christmas tree by herself, cause at the Romano household that's what she did. Her parents were never big on Christmas, but she loved it. And they always refused to help her decorate, but up until the sudden departure of Alex when she was twelve, he was always there to make her Christmas special. Before the drugs, Alex was the best person Talia had ever known. The amount of admiration she had for him was indescribable.

Talia always reminisced about all the times they shared before he became an addict. And Christmas always seemed to be the biggest one. So a lot depended on tonight being perfect.

A problem with Talia is that she always kept grasping onto the old memories of her brother. In a way, she probably will never grasp that the version of Alex she loved so dearly was gone, and he probably was never coming back. But in her delusional state of mind, tonight would be the breaking point of fixing their relationship. Talia could and probably would never see toxicity that Alex brings when he comes crashing into her life. No matter what people said, Talia always held onto the pipe dream that her brother was still in there. And it always ended up screwing her in the end.

꧁⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯꧂

A SOFT KNOCK caught the attention of the black-haired girl as she placed the freshly lit rose-scented candle on her living room table. With a bright smile, Talia opened the door to see a hesitant Alex. In his arms was a small over-night bag and a bottle of wine in the other.

"Hi," Alex greeted softly, leading his younger sister to do the same. She soon let him in and he found himself aimlessly eyeing her apartment. "I see you got a better apartment,"

Talia watched him with a careful eye, the sudden noise of him dropping his bag on the ground snapped her out of her thoughts. She lifted her head up to make eye contact with him, and she gave him a slight nod and smile. "Oh yeah, for the past year I've been getting a lot more exposure, so that means a massive increase of income,"

Alex let out a humorous chuckle, his thoughts being very funny to him. "Remember your first apartment?"

Talia cracked a wide smile, thinking back to the dingy apartment complex she called home when she was eighteen. "Oh my god, remember the family of cockroaches that lived in the hall,"

Alex took a seat on the sofa and Talia followed his movements, falling on the other side of the couch. Alex gave her an amused smile. "I can't believe it took you almost two years to move out of that shithole,"

Talia gave him a knowing look, "Well, I got accustomed to the cockroaches, they even became my friends,"

Alex let out a laugh, "Bullshit, every time you saw one, you let out the girliest scream imaginable."

"Whatever, you be in that kitchen in the middle of the night and have one of those fuckers run across your foot, then you tell me how you'd react,"

The two fell into a small fit of laughter but Alex was quick to silence it with the thing they'd been avoiding. "Look, Talia, I can't even begin to explain how sorry I am about what happened a couple of nights ago. I was just angry and stressed, and I was an asshole and took it out on you. I'm just-"

Talia was quick to dismiss his statement with a wave of her hand, "Alex, it's water under the bridge,"

"Are you sure?"

Talia nodded profusely, "Of course,"

Alex nodded nonetheless and tried to change the subject. "So what's on the agenda tonight?"

Talia smiled a little and looked at him with happiness filling her features. "Well, I ordered Chinese and we can watch a few movies, get a little drunk, who knows, let's see where the night takes us,"

"Well, I hope you have stuff that's a little stronger than this cheap wine I brought," Alex remarked, referencing the bottle of cheap red wine resting on the living room table.

Talia gave him a mischievous smirk, getting up, she turned to him and gestured to the kitchen. "Come on Alex, do you even know me? Of course, I have something stronger."

꧁⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯꧂

TALIA WOKE WITH THE worst headache imaginable, no doubt from the large amounts of alcohol she consumed last night. With a hand clinging to her head in pain, she gripped her cellphone in the other to check the time. After reading that it was twelve in the afternoon she dropped her head back onto her pillow, attempting to gain the effort to get up.

Once stepping onto the soft white carpet of her bedroom floor, an immediate urge to gag flowed through her veins. And it wasn't long until she found herself on the floor of her connected bathroom, letting out the contents of her stomach into the toilet. She felt like she got ran over by a truck. Leaning her head on the toilet, Talia began to regain the consciousness of her surroundings, and she wanted to go check on her brother, who was supposedly meant to be passed out in the guest bedroom.

Talia suddenly wondered how she even made it into her bed, recalling the night again, she remembered before fullly blacking out, that she was on the couch with Alex and they were making fun of Frosty the Snowman. Then the rest is completely gone.

With absolute strength, the very hungover Romano child made her way to the kitchen. As she got coffee ready, she went to wake up Alex. Upon seeing the guest room empty, a sudden feeling of dread dropped in the pit of her stomach. Talia searched her big apartment in and out, and Alex was nowhere to be found. She hazardously checked her phone, and she noticed three messages from the man himself.

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
I'm fucking sorry

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
I'm gone, don't come
looking for me okay?

𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗫:
Bye Talia

At first, she thought he was sorry for bailing, but it got a lot worst for Talia when she realized things were missing. Her computer, all of her fancy filming equipment and even the money in her purse was missing. Talia's heart was bursting into pieces, and it broke a little bit more seeing her prized possession was gone, her baby, the guitar Alex had boughten her for her tenth birthday was gone.

And was probably getting sold to a pawn shop with the rest of her stuff. That hurt the most, she kept that guitar close to her, she loved it more than anything. It still looked like it did the day she got it, that's how much she took care of it. That guitar was her rock in this whole situation. That was a reminder, a hope, that kept the old Alex alive. And now that was gone, there was no hope.

She practically collapsed to the ground sobbing. She gripped her t-shirt tightly, finding herself rocking with a pain she had never felt before blooming in her chest. The loss was indescribable, and she felt all her air leave her body because of it.

Her sobs weren't light, they were loud and ugly, and just ripping from her throat. She felt helpless, she needed someone at that moment, and no one was there. Talia suddenly realized with the loss of her guitar, that the old Alex was never coming back. And she can't do a damn thing about it.

↝↝↝↝↝ 𝐓𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒... ↜↜↜↜↜

GIF MADE BY THE LOVELY sunsetswerve

WATTPAD REALLY BE SAYING MY MOST IMPRESSIVE RANK IS #859 IN 5sos WHEN IM ALSO #24 IN lukehemmingsfanfic, KINDA STUPID.

But anyway, hi love you guys, I really love waking up to a shit ton of comments, it makes my heart hella happy.

And I hope that you like this heartbreaking chapter, but honestly who didn't expect this to come? But we will soon be back to our happy and funny regularly scheduled programming, and we be gettin to Talia meeting Luke soon. Be excited my loves. Just one more chapters of sad/soft Talia. Then we're back baby.

BUT IMPORTANT THING.

What did you all think?

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