The Untold Secrets of Bonnie and Enzo, based off the secrets series.
Chapter Five
Enzo
There she is, the girl he used to know. It's visible in her green eyes that she's getting turned on. She was always weird like that, the speed, the danger always got her burning inside. Then he had to slow down and all the fire dissolves. She puts on her seatbelt and mutters something about the Bonnie he knew was gone forever, but he was calling her out. Enzo had big plans to bring his best friend back, whether she likes it or not.
"What happened to the turnout?" she asks as they drove by the spot they use to park at during small town drifting. "It looks like you can't even take the road up to the cove anymore."
"You can if you walk or have a four-wheel ride and ramp the hill." The turnout is blocked off by a large fence so that no cars can reach the dirt road that leads to a secluded area near the lake. "They blocked it off after they busted a bunch of people for drug and alcohol possession."
"Anyone I know?" she inquires, simulating indifference.
Enzo thrum his fingers on top of the steering wheel. "Yeah, you're sitting next to one of them. But mine was only for alcohol."
Her friend gasps in the backseat and he caught Bonnie secretly rolling her eyes.
"What did you get?" she asks calmly.
"Probation and anger management classes." he replied very nonchalantly.
Her head turns towards him. "Anger management classes?"
"I also punched Jeremy Gilbert in the face," he explains. "Pretty hard. Broke his nose and everything."
Her friend gasps again and he wondered how Bonnie could be friends with her. She seems like a naive barbie doll.
Bonnie studies him acutely with her stunning eyes that always gives away what she's really thinking. "Gonna tell me why did you punched him?"
"I think you know why." He carry her gaze forcefully.
"I asked him to drive me to the bridge, Enzo," she says it like it throttles her. "It wasn't his fault. He was just doing it as a favor."
"He should have never left you there alone." he flips the blinker on, making a turn down a dirt road that leads into a field of tall, dry grass. "Not in that condition. You could barely think straight. In fact, do you even remember anything about that night?"
She fiddles with a band of bracelets on her wrists. "I'm not sure."
"Are you not sure?" he accuse. "Or do you not want to admit it?"
She starts to open her mouth, but then clamps her lips shut, and turns toward the window, dismissing him and the conversation.
Bonnie
The night she went to the bridge, she had been in a weird funk the entire day. Her mom died a few weeks earlier and she couldn't seem to get rid of this vile feeling in her chest and she wanted it to go away. So she took extreme measures and decided to walk in her mother's footsteps for a night.
Her mom wasn't awful. She had her good moments, but there was a lot of bad ones too. When she was up, she was great - a lot of fun. At least that's what Bonnie thought when she was young. However, as she got older, there was a painful comprehension that it wasn't normal to go on huge shopping sprees, take off in the middle of the night for a road trip, pretend she could fly...
But the night on the bridge wasn't the worst night she had ever experienced. It was just the last push to her swifty decline toward the loss of control over her life.
"Bonnie, where are you?" Enzo's voice snaps her out of her own head. "You were dazing off on me."
They were parked in front of Ric's single-wide trailer located in a field, near a junkyard and an abandoned apartment complex. Bonnie unbuckle her seatbelt, climb out of the car, and flip the seat forward to let Rebekah out.
"No thanks." She shakes her head, cowering back in the seat. "I think I'll wait in here for you guys."
"You're much safer inside, love." Enzo points to a crumbling shack in the middle of the field. "That's a crack house over there and trust me, if they see you sitting in here, by yourself, they're going to come over and harass you."
Enzo was messing with her, but Bonnie let him be because this place isn't that safe of a spot anyways.
Her face pinches and she crawls out of the car. "Who is this person's house we're at? It's not a drug dealer, is it?"
"No, it's just an old friend." Bonnie trades a secret glance with Enzo and feelings rush through her. Ric was once Enzo's stepfather. His mother and Ric were married for a few years and most of their happy childhood memories consist of him, camping, fishing, working on cars.
Bonnie meets Enzo around the front of the car and when he took her hand, she didn't object. Being here is like traveling through time and it hurts to know that the man who showed her that life can be good is now dying.
Rebekah tugs the bottom of her dress down self-consciously. "Are you sure I'm okay going in here?"
"Relax," Bonnie tell her as they reached the front porch. "Ric is a good guy, he just likes living a non materialistic lifestyle. He chooses to live in a place like this."
Rebekah forces a tight smile. "Alright, I'm relaxing."
Enzo squeezes Bonnie's hand and then knocks on the door, before letting themselves in. The trailer was small with a narrow kitchen connected to a boxed in living room and the three of us nearly fill up the space.
Enzo slides his hand up her arm and drew Bonnie to him. "Are you going to be okay?"
She nods, forcing the tears away. Enzo kisses her temple and she don't retreat this time, allowing herself one small moment.
"It'll be okay," Enzo says. "And I'm here for you."
Time to face the music.
"Where is he?" Bonnie took a deep breath, moved away from Enzo, and smothering the old Bonnie away. He points over her shoulder. She turns around and her heart drops into her stomach. The medium build, tall man, with bright blue eyes and a head full of hair, has shifted into a frail, skeletal figure, with sunken eyes and his head shaved.
Bonnie hesitated to hug him. "How are you, Ric?"
"I'm always okay. You know that. Not even a little cancer can bring me down." He smiles and it's just as bright as it always was. Using his cane, he limped toward her. She met him halfway, in front of the leather armchair and gave him a gentle hug, afraid she might break him.
"How have you been, my little Bon Bon?" He steps back to take a look at her. "You look different."
She self-consciously touch her hair. "I changed my looks a little. Thought I could make a few changes here and there."
He shakes his head pensively. "No, I don't mean that. There's something else. You seem down."
"I'm fine, really" she denies and not very well. "I feel great actually."
He offers her a tolerant smile. "You've never been a good liar, you know that."
The tension resolves, except with Rebekah who looks like she doesn't know what to do with herself. She dawdles near the door, fidgeting with her watch and her hair as she glances around the snug trailer.
"Ric, this is Rebekah," Bonnie introduce, motioning her to come closer. "She was my college roommate."
Rebekah steps forward and gives him a small wave. "It's nice to meet you."
"Same here." Ric nods his head welcomingly and then arches his eyebrows at me. "So college? That's where you ran off to then."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I called," she apologizes. "I just needed a break. From, well everything."
"I'm not going to lie and say it didn't hurt me a bit." He rests his weight on the cane, and his arms and legs look too thin to be moving. "You're like a daughter to me and I thought you trusted me enough to come to me if you were going through something."
His eyes darts to Enzo and she wonder if he told Ric about that night on the bridge.
"I need to make a phone call." Enzo holds up his phone as he backs for the door. "Rebekah, why don't you come outside with me?"
Rebekah gladly obliges and the door swings shut behind them, rocking the house.
Ric collapses into the chair, sighing with relief. "We need to talk Bonnie."
Preparing herself for a lecture, she drop into the caved in sofa across from him. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
"Do you think you need to be in trouble?" He props his cane against the coffee table.
Bonnie pull a throw pillow on her lap and slump back into the couch. "I don't know. It's hard to tell what's right and what's wrong anymore."
He rocks in the armchair. "You've always had a good grasp on what's right and wrong. You just have a hard time admitting that sometimes you choose the wrong."
"I know that." she gesture at herself. "That's why I changed into an Bonnie who doesn't do any wrong and who can keep control of her life."
"That's not what this is. This is you running from your old life and you can't control everything. Even if you want to." His words send a chill down her spine.
She pluck at a loose thread on the pillow. "Did Enzo tell you about the night before I left... did he tell you what happened, what I did?"
He presses his cracked lips together. "He did."
"So then you understand why I ran away. If I don't change, then I'll turn out like her, I'll turn out just like my mom," Bonnie admits aloud for the first time and a weight lifts from her chest, but falls right back on it, "I'll lose control."
He hunches forward with a sad expression on his tired face. "You know I knew your mother really well."
"But only because you always had to come fix everything after she had one of her episodes."
"Sweetie, you're not her. Your mother was sick, she had a mental illness."
"Yeah, and I also know it's hereditary," Bonnie say quietly. "There is a higher chance that I have it just because she had it."
"But it doesn't mean you will." With unsteady legs, he pushes up from the chair and sits down next to her on the sofa. "I think you're so afraid that you'll end up like your mom that you're hiding who you really are, but you can't control everything, no one can."
"But I can try," Bonnie mutters and sits up, tossing the pillow off her lap. "You remember what I was like. All the crap I did. The stupid, irresponsible shit. I was a mess waiting and that night proved it. I almost... I... I almost killed myself Ric."
"No, you didn't. I heard the story and you would have never gone through with it," he says positively. "You were just trying to sort through some stuff. You still are."
"No, I was going to do it," she tells him, but it's a lie. "My mind may have been hindered, but I remember enough to know that when I climbed on top of that bridge, I was going to jump."
He shakes his head. "Then you don't remember what happened afterward with Enzo."
"Yeah, I do." Bonnie takes a faltering breath. "I kissed him and then left him on the bridge. Then I went home, packed up my stuff, and ran away."
"No, something else happened that night." His forehead scrunches. "Enzo took you somewhere else. At least that's what he told me."
Bonnie scratches at her wrist, trying to recall that night, but the events of that day are hazy. "I don't remember this at all."
"From what I understand you were out of it and pretty upset. Those two are not a good combination. Trust me, I've been there." His fingers seek his cane. "Enzo saved you from jumping, but there's more to it than that."
"When you say you've been there, what do you mean exactly?"
"I mean, I've been at the place where it seems like the only way left is down."
She filters through his words. "You know, I came here to see if you're okay, and somehow all we've talked about is me."
"And that's exactly what I need," he says. "I'm sick and tired of everyone wanting to talk about my death."
Bonnie open her mouth, but the front door squeaks open. She expected Enzo, but a middle-aged woman in black sweatpants and a white loose t-shirt walks in. Her brown hair is woven into a braid and she's carrying a large black bag.
She grins at Ric as she shuts the door. "You're being bad again. You know you're not supposed to get out of bed."
Ric rolls his eyes, but his face lights up. "Yep, I've been bad. I guess you'll have to punish me."
Bonnie tries to ignore their disturbing comments the best that she can, but it's ridiculously awkward.
"Bonnie, this is Jo." His serious demeanor eases as he says her name.
Bonnie stood up from the couch to shake hands with Jo, noticing there's no ring on her finger. "Are you his nurse?"
Ric starts to balance to his feet and she moves to help him, but he waves her off. "I got this. I'm not crippled yet. "
She sighs and moves back. "Yes, I'm his nurse and I'm supposed to be taking care of him, but he's a stubborn man and refuses to let me do my job properly."
He growls and then chuckles. Using his cane, he heads toward the hall, his feet dragging along the orange shaggy carpet. "Bonnie, can you stop by tomorrow? I want to talk to you some more."
"Okay, I'll come back," she promised as he vanishes down the hall. She turns to the nurse. "How bad is he?"
She drops the bag on the counter and unzips it. "What did he tell you?"
"That he has cancer," Bonnie tells her as she takes out some baggies from the bag. "But that's all. He doesn't like to open up about himself."
Reaching into her bag, she extracts a handful of prescription bottles. "No, he doesn't, does he?" She shakes a bottle filled with clear liquid. "He has stage four bone cancer."
Bonnie nearly fall to the floor. "Stage four, but then that means that..."
"It means that he has a hard, short road ahead of him," she says frankly. "You're Bonnie Bennett, right? And your father is Rudy right?"
Her fingers grasp the fabric of the armchair like it' was her lifeline. "Yeah, why?"
"No reason," Jo says with a shrug. "Alaric just talks about you sometimes."
"But you know my father," Bonnie states cautiously.
She zips up her bag and shuffles to the kitchen sink with the medication. "I was the nurse on call the night when he got ran over."
Because he was drunk out of his mind and decided to ride his bike in the middle of the Virginia highway. "So you take care of Ric, here at his home?" Bonnie changed the subject.
Jo turns on the faucet and fills up a glass of water. "I'm the house nurse he hired after he decided he didn't want to spend his last months in a hospital bed."
He only has months left? She needs to regain control of the escalating situation. She stumble for the door. "Tell Ric I'll see him tomorrow."
Bonnie trips down the steps and nearly eating dirt. Luckily Enzo was at the bottom and he drops his phone to catch her.
He steadies her to her feet, his fingers digging into her hips as he looks her over with concern. "Okay, what happened?"
"He's dying," she whispers, staring out at the dry field. "He's really dying."
"I know." Enzo holds onto her forcefully, the tips of his fingers touching her bare skin. "I told you this before we came over here."
Her lungs restrict oxygen. "I thought when you said it... well, I don't know what I thought, but not this." Bonnie waves her hand at the door without looking at it. "Not a nurse. Not a few months left."
His hands move around to her back and he enfolds her against his chest. She rest her head against him, breathing in his comforting scent. She starts to ask him what happened that night, but her fear of the truth shushes her. What if it's bad? What if it pushes her over the edge again?
"What do you want to do today?" he whispers. "You name it and it's done."
Bonnie pulls away, blinking back the tears. Her gaze travels to Rebekah sitting in the car, reapplying her lip gloss in the rearview mirror. "I have to take her to the shop and get her on the road."
Against her protest, Enzo cups the back of her head, and lures her against him. "You could just ditch her."
She slaps his arm. "Since when are you mean to girls?"
"Since they keep complaining about the sheer dullness of the town," he says in a mocking high pitched voice. "And the bugs. It's ridiculous. Ten minutes out here with her and I wanted to lead her into the crack house over there and run."
"That's not a crack house, Enzo." Bonnie shook her head, forcing back a grin. "And I know you better than that. I'm sure you want to get in her pants."
He pauses, and then slowly his hand explores her back and snuck to her ass. He grabs it, and bows her body into his, firing a heat deep inside her core and fumbling a moan from her lips. For a second, she forgot where she was.
"The only person I want to get with is you," he murmurs in her hair.
Bonnie regain control and shoves back. "Seriously? You're going to start this? Here of all places."
He swings a hand at the trailer. "Why not? Because of Alaric? He'd be happy to finally see us together. He's been saying for years that you and I will end up together."
Bonnie covers her ears. "I can't listen to this."
In three long steps, he's in her face, nearly stepping on her toes. "You think that just because you left, it would change how I feel? Well, guess what? You're wrong. I can't help how I feel about you. I'm still in... "
"Don't say it." she points a finger at him. "Don't you dare, Enzo St John."
He holds up his hands, wide-eyed and jeering. "Oh, now I'm in trouble. Cuz you used my last name."
She glance at the car, checking if Rebekah was eavesdropping on them, then whirls back and hiss, "You are in trouble. I've been back for less than a day and everything I've worked on concealing is falling apart because of you."
His eyes were shining brightly,. "Good. You're fucking crazy if you think that you can run off and change your identity. This unfeeling, preppy girl thing you got going on," he motions his hand at her tank top, white frilly skirt, and highlighted hair, "is nothing but bullshit. You can't just change who you are on the outside and expect it to change who you are on the inside."
Anger bubbles through her and she shoves him. "You're wrong."
His boots scuff the dirt as he catches his balance and smiles haughtily. "Am I? Because right now that fire I love so much is burning pretty bright." He reaches for her cheek, to touch her.
"Enzo, this is who I have to be otherwise I can't breathe. Please just leave it alone. That damn fire might exist, but I want it gone." Bonnie spins her back to him, praying he'll listen to her for once, because if he keeps it up, sooner or later she won't be able to resist.
But Enzo has never backed down from a challenge in his life.
Sorry it took awhile to update, I've been busy this week, but I checked all my reviews I'm glad you guys are enjoying. I promise some flirty Bonnie and Enzo interaction next chapter, Bonnie is real close to letting herself fall back into her old habits. Leave a review and let me know what you guys think.