Bree sat on the playground watching the others play; she had never been very sociable. She was too "angry" and "displaced" in the green hills of Ireland. The town she and her mother lived in was small and friendly for the most part, made up almost entirely of a family- cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces and nephews all running around the streets causing a ruckus more often than not. She kind of liked that about the town, everyone knew everyone and they were kind and caring towards her ailing mother. That was important to her. Her mother had so few friends back in Boston but here in their native homeland she had family and friends.
"Bree! Connor's in trouble!" a girl shouted and Bree looked over where a group of children were all chanting. Bree shot up like a shot and took off down the hillside towards the crowd, ready and able to defend her friend.
"Where the hell's Murphy?" she shouted at the girl as Bree pushed her way through the crowd. Connor and Murphy were Bree's neighbors and although her mother had hoped the devout twins would help tame and calm her scrappy daughter, but they only placated and riled her up more.
Bree made it through the ring of students and threw herself against the kid on Connor and throwing her knee in his groin when he stood. Arms wrapped around her middle and Bree shot back to throw her feet up to kick the other kid in the face hearing a loud crunch before another pair of arms wrapped around her feet and two boys successfully pinned her to the ground, a mass of boyish giggles.
"Oh Bree, my hero!" Connor cooed girlishly as Murphy grinned down at her from behind her head. Bree struggled against her friends' hold before it registered they set her up.
"You said you wouldn't let her hit me!" the kid cried holding his nose, "Jesus!"
"Lord's name!" Connor and Murphy scolded jokingly as they pointed at him. Bree took their loosened grips to knee Connor in the gut and punch Murphy in the jaw angrily.
"What the hell! I thought you were hurt!" Bree shouted at the laughing brothers. Murphy rubbed his chin as Connor held an arm around his middle.
"Don't be mad at us, lass," Connor said smiling that charming smile as Bree got to her feet., dark eyes glaring at the grinning Irishmen.
"Yeah we just wanted to rile you up a bit," Murphy added standing and leaning down to peek up at her. Connor pulled her into a hug, kissing her temple.
"You know we love you, yeah?"
Bree opened her eyes as the twins' childish giggle faded into the morning fog of consciousness. She blinked at the early rays of sunshine peeked through her curtain, bubbling through the small lined between plastic barriers. She wiped drool from the corner of her mouth and heard another loud banging on her apartment door.
"Rent, O'Connell! I want your fucking rent!" her landlord shouted as he banged another fist so hard the door wiggled a bit. Weak as hell door, she thought looking at the door through the doorway of her bedroom. With unkempt hair tangled in a knot on her head, Bree pulled herself from the cover and hissed as her bare feet touched hard and freezing concrete floor. She grabbed the envelope from her nightstand and all but leaped across the floor trying to avoid her feet from freezing in place. Bree blew at her bangs and ripped the door open after undoing the various locks, fixing her landlord with an angry but tiresome glare. Her short and bulbous landlord, a man she often mentally likened to Danny Devito, stared up at her in annoyance. His chest hair bushed up through the neck of his wife beater as he crossed chubby arms over his chest, regarding Bree with distaste, before taking in her attire. She wore short gym shorts and a baggy tank with an athletic bra. She may have not been a glorious and golden morning person but she was still pretty, perhaps the prettiest in the complex- especially to a guy like Nico Gabbareli.
"Got your money, sweet cheeks?" Nico asked in his typical lecherous fashion. Bree narrowed her dark eye and smacked the envelope on top of his head before grabbing the hand reach up for it and spinning around pulling Nico's arm behind him and pushing his arm up forcing his joints to stiffen painfully.
"What'd I tell you about your fucking pet names, Gabbareli?" she asked in a threatening calm. Nico gasped and winced in pain, shouting pitifully,
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry just- ah ah not that arm that's my good hand!" Bree shoved him into the wall before releasing him and smacking the envelope she picked up against his chest. "Jesus, fucking bitch," he breathed starting back down the shabby hall towards the staircase and back to his apartment on the main floor. Bree watched him and stretched her arms over her head while heading back inside, stifiling a yawn as she used the flat of her foot to kick the door shut. Rolling her neck, she began locking al six locks meticulously and then heading to the bathroom in need to wash the filth off her from dealing with the man in charge of her housing.