Rich Bastard {mxm}

Twelve.

"Sometimes a blast from the past is needed to make us rethink everything," -C.T

Day has passed into a dreadful night without a word from Vivi.

I assumed that she was greatly angry with me for the events at the restaurant yesterday. Even if I was wrong for what I said, I didn't think that it was right for Joaquin to get let off of the hook. Even I had started it long ago, he was still in no position to be seen as the good one.

Especially when he called me the one person I never wanted to be. 

I admitted that my comment about his wife was probably too much and offensive, but the least that Vivi could've done was come to my defense when he stated that I was exactly like Sterling. If Tomas did, why couldn't she? As much as his words hurt me, it stung a lot more when she had nothing to offer but silence.

"Ugh," I covered my eyes as I sat up on the bed in my studio. I was smart enough to convert half of this space into an apartment so whenever I needed to be alone, I could. "This could've gone a lot worse," I told myself, trying to be optimistic in this situation. It was super funny because I wasn't optimistic about anything. Rather, I was a realist. I just knew that it was highly unusual for Viivi to get mad at me, much less over a dude. 

But instead of dwelling over it and trying to fix what I couldn't, I just put away those useless feelings and got on with my day. There was nothing that I could do, considering that I was not the type of individual to make amends. What was lost was just lost.

"It's 2:30 already?" I groaned to myself as I throw on a Vuitton hoodie, realizing that I must have slept in too long. I picked up my phone to see that I had five missed calls from mother Satan herself, and two from Vivi. I stared at the phone, contemplating on whether or not I should return any calls.

"No," I told myself as I let my phone fall on the pillow, my feet making their way to where my canvas sat. Everyone just needed time to think about whatever it was they wanted to think about. I, for one, did not want to be in an environment full of chaos and anger because I didn't fare too well in those types of areas.

I didn't talk about feelings nor did I account for blame. It was what it was and let it be done. I picked up a paintbrush and I began to paint. I could feel the swarm of emotions leaving my body and staining the white paper with its touch, a sigh of relief coating me.

"Chez!" I heard a yell as the door to my studio opened suddenly. In walked in one furious Vivienne Baudelaire, her Coach purse falling on the chair as she closed the door. "Yes?" I replied, putting my brush down so that I could face her. "Why didn't you answer my call?" She asked as she stalked towards me, stopping just a few feet away.

I could sense the hostility in the air, singeing and crackling like electricity between us. "I wanted to give you time to think," She nodded, grateful for the answer and I swallowed the knot in my throat, this circumstance very new to us. "If it's okay, I'd like to speak first since I'm sure you have a lot to say," She motioned for me to go on and I did, knowing that it would be better.

"I don't know why you're so upset, to this point, when you are the one who pushed me into this situation. I told you that I didn't want to be around people like that, but you wanted me there for moral support," I folded my arms, counting to ten so that I didn't rage on her. "Even if what I said was wrong, you should've known that something like this would happen, Vivienne," She clicked her tongue, heaving a sigh. 

The gears in her head were turning just like they were at the restaurant yesterday. 

"You know the type of person I am. You know the things that I say. You know that I have no experience with people like Tomas and Joaquin. You cannot expect me to be kind when I have never been so kind to someone else before," With that final retort, I moved onto the next subject, making sure I had said it all. "Quite frankly, I find it astounding that you are changing yourself in order for someone to like you," I raised a brow, knowing she didn't think that I would call her out on her behavior. She was nice, but not that nice. "If you really cared for Tomas, then you should know that what I say in his presence is nothing compared to what he'll have to deal with if he manages to get that far."