She was just a girl.
Just another girl that was on the borderline of childhood and womanhood, but she hadn't had much of a childhood to brag about. Just another girl at the Whammy's house that had snagged his attention for a heartbeat of a moment before becoming just a waste of three seconds.
Until she scored high on her test. Passing him.
Mello had gone into a rage, glaring at the girl for a distance as she and her supposed 'brother' sat in the corner of the makeshift classroom, discussing Shakespeare's work.
The boy was odd too.
He wore goggles on his head and had strange vivid blue eyes, like the girl's.
They both made it to the top of his 'Persons of Interest' list when he found they were both marked as three and four on the succession list.
He'd been angry.
He'd been angry and he didn't mean it. He didn't mean to call the girl -Bri- that name and even when he did he hadn't meant to say it so loud. She stared at him for a moment as if she would cry, lower lip trembling slightly and her cerulean blue eyes widening a fraction.
But what he hadn't expected.
She called him something worse. Every foul word no one in the Whammy's House was supposed to know spilled from her lips as she shouted them at Mello. Commenting on his name, his hair and how much of a jealous bastard he was just because a girl was smarter than him.
Oh, how he hated that bitch.
Mello couldn't help but be curious.
Curious about that girl who'd risked everything just to tell him what she thought of him.
Strangely enough he became friends with her brother -Matt- and they'd contemplated the best way to break out of Whammy's House -jokingly of course. No one ever left Whammy's House without permission. Just the thought of pulling a jailbreak was just plain stupid.
Bri had joined them for lunch, telling Matt a story about heroic man who risked everything for his girlfriend. She went into great detail on how the hero teamed up with the former bad-guys and learned how to make explosions and ride a motorcycle. And then how the villain tricks the girlfriend into falling in love with him -Stockholm syndrome, she explained.
"What book is this?" Mello asked. He didn't recall the title or anything about the book.
The girl simply looked at him and said: "I wrote it."
It was embarrassing to dance.
Mello did not dance. Near was excused from dance lessons. Why couldn't he?
"Mello!" He turned and the same time the Jeevas twins grabbed either of his arms and had hauled him into the dining hall where everything had been pushed aside for the occasion.
He and Bri were paired up.
He blushed in embarrassment when a teacher told him to put his hand on her waist. When he hesitated, Bri grabbed it and put it there. Snuggly cupping the curve of her hip he felt the waistband of her jeans through her shirt. In turn she put her hand on his shoulder and he jolted, thinking she would squeeze the pressure point there like she always did when he was being 'difficult'.
Bri liked to learn everything about the human body and the last time Mello had pissed her off she'd shown him personally all she knew about pressure points.
Their hands clasped and Bri nodded to him, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Ready?" He nodded. "I'll lead if you want..."
"No..."
In the end Matt and Bri had ended up demonstrating to the class and Mello watched, embarrassed still. A blush stained his cheeks when Bri was spun around and her blue eyes locked with his for a brief moment. She smiled at him.
Mello did not like being touched.
Sadly, Bri was a very 'hands on' individual and was always giving hugs or looping arms with him or ruffling his hair.
He'd swatted at her hands the first few times, but had become accustom to it. Seeing how Matt was the same.
The pair was like a couple of fairies. All smiles and giggles, spreading the love.
But not everyone liked that.
Bri was bullied because she was so strange. An older teenage boy pushed her down one day and stole her notebook. Mello had fought to get it back and got hauled to Roger's office and then the nurse.
Bri put a bandage over the cut on his jaw.
"Thank you Mello." She pressed a kiss to the injured spot and ruffled his hair, softly, before showing the nurse the bruise on her back.
At twelve Bri's character changed slightly.
Changing in way that neither of the boys understood. She became more serious, but her usual playful nature was always there. She though a lot about things and would sometimes make faces if she got too far into her thoughts. Then she'd get angry sometimes and snap more often certain weeks of the month. Resulting in Matt and Mello running for their lives while she threatened to break bones they didn't know they had.
Matt liked to play with computers.
Computer games, but also he was a first-class hacker that could get them anything they wanted and Roger wouldn't be wiser.
Via the boy's got their Sex-ed online.
At fourteen Mello's hair had grown at chin length.
Silky blonde hair that was smooth and straight. Matt's hair stuck up in all directions due to not brushing. And Bri's hair was auburn-brown princess ringlets that shaped her face.
He often watched her as she pulled it back into a ponytail. The bones of her neck exposed.
Bri liked feeling the bones on the back of her neck through her skin, she liked the vulnerability she left her neck in when she did so.
Mello had to agree.
He was filled with great pride the day it happened.
He'd get to meet L.
When he told Bri she had smiled and nodded and asked questions, but she wasn't excited.
"I just think there's more to life than the succession."
It was everything to him.
He'd greeted L face-to-face, smiling.
But the smile did not reach his eyes and the World's Greatest Detective asked why.
Mello told her of Bri and Matt.
"Aw, B2 and M2." L referred to them as and Mello explained that they were also three and four in the succession. L had been amused and asked more questions.
Somehow they'd ended up talking about the original B -the World's Greatest Criminal.
"Would you be willing to tell this story again? Write it perhaps?"
Mello had asked Bri to help him.
Bri had laughed when she heard that BB -Beyond Birthday- was the original B.
Mello found it scary that she took pride in having an akin to a murderer, but the way she spoke, she could almost rival Beyond Birthday in his shot for title as the World's Greatest Criminal.
"You're only great if you don't get caught."
She smiled leeringly at him and Mello shifted in his chair. They weren't even supposed to be awake at this hour, let alone in the library talking about the most efficient way to beat in a skull.
It was her inner sadist talking.
Mello loved going for walks with Bri.
They would race and jog and walk and talk and then lay in the grass and watch the clouds roll by.
He watched her tug the bottom of her shirt back down, it had rode up when they wiggled through the grass like dogs in some sick act of randomness. Her skin was smooth and pale there.
She touched her navel through her shirt and debated with him about belly-button rings.
He should have run when he saw the needle.
Matt and Bri collected the essential: ice cubes, matches, bandages, needles, an apple and two sets of earrings.
Bri locked the door and looked into the mirror making a dot on her ear with a marker before numbing it as Matt disinfected the needle with the matches.
She drove the needle through her ear, biting back a cry of pain and putting in the earrings she had swiped from a teacher's room. Matt was next and took pride in the hoop earring on his cartilage.
Mello was next.
He said no.
Bri insisted, straddling his waist and pushing back his hair just so and pinching him the same time she drove the needle in his ear.
He had to admit it looked good.
When they first kissed, it was like they were drunk.
High off of life and chocking down their laugher on the roof as they cursed everything except the stars.
It was more of the danger of it.
They weren't supposed to be up there. They weren't supposed to get 'attached' to other Whammy kids.
They basked in it and her fingers got lost in his hair.
They only broke apart when they saw Roger's light flicker on.
Their relationship consisted of study dates and holding hands under the table and looks.
Long, long looks that said everything and nothing.
Mello liked spending time with her and smiled all the time he was with her.
Roger noticed, but said nothing. Matt welcomed him to the family. Other people stared.
As quickly as it began: it was over.
Bri's and Mello's shouts could be heard throughout the yard and Mello took multiable hits to the chest.
They're personalities clashed too much. They loved each other too much. They didn't say enough.
This began 'The Cycle'.
It took them months to talk to each other again.
Matt had donned his loyalty to either side, before bowing out completely until the broke lovebirds could learn to get along again.
Talking turned to laughing. Laughing turned to flirting. Flirting turned to Bri giving him a kiss on the cheek before going up to bed.
They were together again the next day.
Fifteen; Bri and Mello ended it again.
Staying friends for the mean time seemed to be a good idea.
Bri scored higher on her tests and one day went to talk to Roger.
She was silent for a few days and what she said shocked both of the boys.
She wanted out.
The decision to break out of Whammy's had been well planned and Bri had been harboring money from relatives that knew where she was, but didn't want to take her in from yearly birthday cards. Matt contributed his portion too.
They printed off maps, bus station times, planned communication logs.
Bri even let Near in all the deal.
Mello didn't ask, but she had blackmail on him.
Yup, he loved a girl who was scary as hell.
When the day came that she was leaving. Everything seemed normal.
She smiled and did her homework and asked questions and beat Mello in a times table race.
It was normal. Too normal.
Mello felt the twist in his gut.
He wanted to go too.
Near was playing lookout from his bedroom. Matt was patrolling the teacher's hallway.
That left Mello to see her off.
Roger had woken up for his nightly rounds and from the yard they could see every light in the house turning on.
They ran.
The scaled the wall with a fire safety latter they'd set up and Mello followed her.
They met at the top: one leg on freedom the other on Whammy's.
"What are you-?" He took her face in his hands and kissed her.
It felt longer than it actually was and Bri didn't waste any time getting into it, but when Mello pulled away he stared at her.
His hands hanging in mid-air, not sure what to do with them.
"I'll find you when I get out."
He wouldn't see her for three more years.
This is the first story in what I hope to be a blow out hit! I know it's an OC, but I don't plan to make Bri -Brielle- a Mary-Sue character. She sort of warped in her own way.
The sequel is up right now on my profile. This one is a one-shot tryout, the other one is the chapters but it's written in this format.
First story, leave me some love.
Chow
