The most chaotic thing on my phone weren't thousands of unnecessary photos I keep in my gallery or some random games. It was the group chat of me, Leon, Ren and Joseph.

Group chat (Joseph's Feet Ticklers)

Ren: << Leon? >>

Leon: << Stop molesting me. >>

Ren: << Wanna hit the gym in an hour? >>

Leon: << The gym is right in front of a fucking fast food restaurant and every time I'm laying on the weight bench I see it. No. >>

Ren: << Okay, fattie. >>

Joseph: << For how long didn't we have a group hangout, three years? >>

Leon: << Yeah, because someone needed to take his girl on a 2 year-long trip instead of his homies. >>

Ren: << Matteo? >>

Leon: << No. Your dad. >>
          << Except he never came back. >>

Joseph: << 💀 >>

Ren: << MY DAD IS STILL HERE. >>

Matteo: << Well...Well...Well... >>

Joseph: << Slid the chat up to hide this ugly group chat picture and Leon's forehead is still visible. >>

Leon: << At least I have foreskin. >>

Joseph: << foreHEAD. >>

Leon: << I could use some head right now too. Might call Valentina over. >>

Matteo: << I'll touch you. >>

Joseph: << Apart from useless information: The wedding will take place on the 12th of January. >>

Joseph met his current fiancé Ife about three years ago and proposed to her a year ago. Now they're getting married in Botswana in a couple of months and I got invited to his wedding.

Ren: << Congrats, brother >>

Joseph: << Thanks, man. >>

Leon: << Congratulations! 🙂🙂🙃🙃 >>

Joseph: << I'm scared. What are you trying to tell me? >>

Leon: << I'm very excited... >>

Joseph: << If you pull up any shit on my wedding day you know what's going to happen with you. >>

Ren: << When my future wife gets introduced to Leon I'll lose her. >>

Matteo: << Jasmin? >>

Ren: << Fuck no. >>

Leon: << Who said that you'll ever get bitches Ren? You had a borner because you did the woohoo with your high school crush in Sims. >>

Joseph: << NAH THAT'S CRAZY >>

Matteo: << Ain't no way... >>

Ren: << HEY CMON THAT WAS YEARS AGO! >>

Leon: << Still embarrassing enough. >>

Ren: << You look like the stock market of 1920. >>
         << Your hairline isn't a coastal line, so why is it residing? >>
         << You're the reason shampoo has instructions >>
         << Your forehead has its gravitational pull. >>
         << You look like you sit on public toilets. >>
         << You're the type of person who would trip over a wireless controller >>

Leon: << OKAY OKAY I GET IT! >>

Joseph: << Understandable. Have a great day! >>

Shortly after I got an incoming call from Joseph who was laughing his ass off. "I'm dying right now, please...HAHAHA...TURN YOUR CAMERA ON."

I cackled as well, seeing Joseph after months...or...years for the first time again. "Ay, never saw you with a different haircut." He remarked.

"Yeah...But you changed it. Looks pretty good, to be honest. Is it for the wedding?"

Joseph rested his hand on top of his afro, viewing himself in the camera instead of me. "No I'll get myself braids soon again, I'm sick of Leon molesting my hair."

I grinned until he mentioned a topic I hate to hear on a Saturday morning. "You know, DAI still hears my phone calls for some reason."

I groaned, trying to hold myself back to not ripping every piece of paper on my table into pieces.
"I thought after you found Ife, you'd keep your hands away from DAI."

"And I thought after you found Lara you'd too."
I scoffed, checking my emails meanwhile, forgetting that I was on a video call with him for a good minute.

"C'mon, you know that the key to happiness is forgiveness."
"I could never forgive him for what he has done to"

Joseph interrupted me: "Here we go again...Man, look. You love this woman don't ya?"
"What has one thing to do with the other?"

He smiled softly. "When you won't solve this conflict with a name I won't say when you have me on free speaker, but you both know who I mean, it's about to end dirty. You know that DAI knows way too much about you and could be the end of your happy relationship, happy life, and happy family."

My body felt like it would be held up by strings and he'd play with me like a marionette after he said that. "This asshole will never get me. The only one of these fuckers who can reveal shit about me is Grigori Adonis Cherny."

Grigori is undeniably an amazing hacker who used his talent on uncountable enemies of our old "friend group". Now I fear that he's able to hear every single talk or data I'm transferring without noticing. I overheard that he already recovered from our little fight in Greece.
This makes me on the one hand relieved that I didn't murder him and on the other that he's still a threat.

My brain already smoked by thinking of this hot topic, and I'd rather not touch it anymore. Suddenly my eyes switched to the door, where Lara leaned against the doorframe with nothing on but a plain white shirt of mine with the first few buttons unbuttoned and nothing else. Her hair was in a lazy bun and red lipstick.

She yawned, stretched herself, and blessed me with a sleepy smile.

"What got you smiling so hard, Teo?", Joseph asked. I didn't gift him another gaze of mine: "Nothing but an angel leaning against my door frame."

I added a harsh: "I'll call you back later, I'm busy." and ended the call. Lara folded her arms in front of her chest. "You were rude to him."

I huffed, placing one hand on top of the door frame, focusing on how the shirt didn't even define a single body part, being too oversized for her. "It was Joseph, a friend of mine. He understands, no worries."

Lara smiled.
"Why are you wearing my shirt don't you have two whole walk-in closets of clothing?"

I stroked my 3-day-stubble beard I'm planning to shave off again. "You forgot to put it in the washing machine yesterday, so I used it as a sleeping dress because it still smells after you."

I smiled pressing her gently by the hips against the doorframe. "Is that so? Missed me so much?" I kissed her gently, savoring the very moment, not planning on letting her go.

"Hmh, I thought we were on vacation? Stop being such a workaholic."

I regretted working the whole night, I should've let her fall asleep in my arms while watching a movie.  Way more interesting than chatting with coworkers, while being supposed to stop working for two years to give my girlfriend the time of her life.

She fondled the collar of her (my) shirt, kissing it and leaving an imprint of her lipstick, I don't need a mirror to know my lips have one too. Let's not mention that the shirt was 2230 dollars. I fear that it's 4460 dollars of worth now.

"There are things which need to be done."
"For example resting and going to bed early today."

I loved how much she cared about me. She's not the first woman in my life to care about me, but the only woman ever to make me feel cared about. Who I let take care of me.

Her gentle words touched my soul every day, every split second and minute spent. Her unconscious actions, like hugging me from behind when I'm working and I forget about the letters of admonition and want to write one about how much I adore her.

No matter how much I hate her brother, I'll forever listen to how she's talking about him. Even when it's about his good sides, I don't think he had.
Her soul is too precious to get hurt and I don't want her to go through something like that again.

No man should ever lay a hand on her again, not when I'm still alive. I know I can't prevent every time DAI wants to get her when I'm not present, but I still try to. I want to protect this woman from tongues that spread wicked things about her, evil stares, and vile hearts. Although I can't. I'll forever try to protect the woman who brought light to my darkness, breath to my empty lungs, and eyesight to my blind eyes.

She was there for me in probably the hardest time of my life and I'll forever be thankful for that.

When we will break up, I will still believe in real love, because I can't deny something I had. My soul will forever long for her, she's the other half of me. The half I think about when going to bed when I worry when I'm anxious or grieving.

"Don't worry, I'll lay by your side tonight and will close my eyes after hearing your shallow breathing."
I lifted her head and kissed her forehead.

"I hope you do. I don't like getting left alone for too long."
Her voice dropped a little, remembering something. I cupped her cheek, trying to elicit a spark out of her again.

"You look ethereal."
She smiled shyly, waving me off, and wrapped her hands around my neck afterward.

"Mat, let's go. I made an omelet for you." Lara pulled me into the kitchen and I couldn't imagine being happier than this.

I sharpened the butcher knife, my mind on how the sharp side of it would slice Matteo's skin for a second time. And this time it will be way more exciting. His trousers prevented the view and I could barely see the deep red liquor draining his thigh.

I'll stick it this time in his throat, he'd lay beneath me and lose his status called "Lara's boyfriend". She deserves the world and he's not even worthy to be here. Not even in the belly of Sheol.

He's a malicious traitor with no empathy whatsoever. He uses Lara for her body, to have her as a trophy wife, and treats her like shit afterward.

When they finish their little world trip, he will use her to make him a sandwich, while she stays at home and he goes out and sleeps around with tons of women.

She deserves a better man and not a liar like Matteo, who fools her, while she is blind. She deserves a better boyfriend, one who is willing to lay the world beneath her feet and not his corpse once I'm done with him.

She deserves a mentally stable man, who acknowledges her for the soul and not the body. It gets me so unbelievably mad. I'll give her the best life once I'm done with her silly boyfriend.

Someone rang the bell and I stalked annoyed towards it. "What?" Grigori stood in front of me with loose papers clutched under his arm.

"I didn't mean to disturb you, but I've found some information, you might want to hear." We settled down in the kitchen and I slammed the papers onto my dining table.

Printouts of weird people in front of my mother's house, peeping through the window, account statements of tons of people including Matteo's or Leon's search histories, passwords, and chats.

"You told me to go back to work, once I recovered. Here you have it, Boss." Grigori's lip was still busted, had a free eyebrow cut due to the glass splinter, which used to be stuck there, along with other scars and thousands of bruises.

I grabbed the first paper sheet, examining
Leon's account statement for last month. "I guess Valentina doesn't like these minus two hundred Seventy Dollars."

He pointed the handwritten number out. I squinted. Even more, after he chuckled and stroked his freshly shaved chin.

"He visited the balloon store again next to the kiosk, we always went to after school."
San Jose's infamous balloon store holds many stories and I'm surprised that he betrayed his wife's boundaries.

"It's time for Valentina to consider a break-up." He fleshed his teeth. "For a guy like me possibly."

Oh hell no, he'd be a worse boyfriend than Leon.

He added another "Sister for Sister.", and I asked him to explain the 270 Dollars. Leon used Bitcoin, Grigori the blockchain explorer, bla bla bla.

The consequence is: that Leon does coke again or dealt with it, we don't know. We didn't find any illegal transactions in Matteo. Out every chat of his, phone calls, and search history whether deleted, private, or not.

Another look at 300 printouts and I know that today is going to be a long day regarding another step closer to ruining Matteo's life.
Another hundreds of printouts of Lara's and Matteo's chat which will make my blood boil.