"Hey so how is it over there? You having fun? You doing good?" I casually asked, phone to my ear laying in bed staring up at the ceiling as I waited for Vee's response, picking at my 100 thread silk sheets.

"Harry, it's 4 in the morning here..." Vee's half conscious voice slurred over the speaker.

"Oh wow, it's 6 am here, just a few hours ahead of you. Isn't that like, so cool how each part of the globe just has different time zones-"

"Mhm. Really cool babe. I'm really sleepy still so I'll call you when I wake up, okay?" She informed in a slow, gravelly voice as I tried to mask the disappointment in my tone.

"Oh right, sure of course, you must be tired-"

"Yeah."

"I should let you go then. Ha, just call me whenever you want, or whenever you're free you know- I'll- I'll be here." I continued, sounding completely pathetic even to my own ears as I heard her release a small "mhm" of acknowledgement.

"Okay, I love you. Night." Vee's soft, sleepy voice said, and I had no idea whether it was because she was half awake or she just didn't care but the words slipped out so naturally out of her mouth that I was stunned into silence for a moment, blinking with wide eyes, sweaty hands, a racing heart, and flushed cheeks.

Say it, just fucking say it back you idiot.

"Vee, I- I care about you so much and I- hello?" The sound of her heavy breathing emanated from my device, the kind of breathing I was now so used to falling asleep to since it was the sound of her sleeping besides me.

I stayed on the phone a little longer, even if she was no longer awake, staring up at the ceiling listening to her slow, steady breathing as if she was laying right beside me before I decided to end the call, not wanting her to wake up to find me listening to her sleeping on the other line like a creep.

My head turned to the right side of my bed where Vee always slept, the space looking empty and cold as I ran a hand over my face in frustration.

My gaze then moved to the floating red balloon in the corner of the room, the 'I love you' seeming to mock me with the words that struggled to pass my own lips.

I sighed, resting my head back onto my pillow.

I really needed to get out.

There was a time 'BV' as I liked to call it, Before Vee, where I'd spend my days out in the sun, on my private yacht or beaches chasing exotic babes in bikinis with a bottle of champagne, laughing and spraying their slick bodies with the expensive drink.

Thought I could try reliving that now that Vee wasn't here.

I sipped at my glass of champagne, cupping the side of my mouth and letting out a holler of celebration, smirking, watching one of my closest mates Chandler chase the Puerto Rican girls around the yacht, bouncing and giggling.

One of them came closer to me, batting her lashes and combing a manicured hand through her wet, jet black hair as she sent me a smile.

My own smile immediatly dropped.

"Don't touch me I have a girlfriend." I quickly pressed myself closer to the corner  I had permanently situated myself in with a stern face, raising the hand that was holding the red balloon up to stop her and opening my buttoned, pastel shirt to reveal the shirt with Vee's face on it underneath.

All my friends looked at me, at least one or two sun kissed women clinging onto each of them aside from me where I had isolated myself to the shaded far end of my yacht, holding on to Vee's red balloon she had given me, hand still raised to the sweaty, shapely girl in front of me like I was a holy priest and she was some type of horrid exorcist.

"If this what love does, god forbid it ever happens to me." Charles released a bubbly laugh, the other guys raising their drinks and chuckling in agreement as I faked a sarcastic laugh that faded with the passive aggressive smile on my face.

"She completely owns you." Kreg snickered, letting the brunette besides him leave teasing kisses over the side of his neck on one of the stretched chairs.

"Yeah, and so what if she does. At least I'm not secretly pining for that waiter Ben at that French restaurant on Laurel street." I scoffed, watching Kreg's face flush as he sunk further into his seat, completely shutting up and letting go of the confused girl besides him.

"You gotta relax a little Harry," Charles advised with a laid back smile as I focused my brooding gaze on him.

"Your girlfriend isn't here, that's the time when you can finally be free man. Chill a little." He continued, everyone letting out a chorus of agreements after him as my shoulders slumped slightly in realization.

He was right.

What happened to me?

"You know what, you're right," I began with a nod, bringing my lips inward in thought as I stepped out under the sun, walking to the sun deck of the yacht right near the railing to look at the clear blue sky and the calm waves of the sea before I turned to look at all my friends.

"I'm my own person. I don't need someone else to make me feel complete. I can do, whatever I want." I emphasized, raising my own glass in the air as my friends cheered.

"Yeah!" They bellowed out.

"If I want to dance and make a conga line around my yacht with a bunch of beautiful women, I'm gonna do it!" I threw my head back and brought my arms in the air as the claps and whistles became louder.

"Yeah!"

"It's cool if Vee's busy, because Ima be just as busy here having the time of my fucking life!" I pointed at the floor with a firm, confident stance as all the guys brought their arms up in celebration while I downed my drink, grabbing the nearest person, taking the Puerto Rican girl's hands and placing them on my waist from behind.

"Let's turn up the fucking music and conga!" I announced with a heightened, loose voice as all the girls on my yacht giggled while the men cheered, all of them moving to go behind me to form the conga line before the sound of ringing filled my ears from the inside lounging area.

"Wait stop! Stop! Everyone shut up!" I immediately yelled before anyone could actually switch the music on, gone was my laid back, careless bachelor attitude as my my arms were spread out in front of me before I pried whoever's hands were on my waist off of me, darting through the crowd of people.

"Move! That's her! That's my girlfriend!" The wide, excited smile on my face similar to that of a child's on Christmas Eve as I raced to my ringing phone, shoving anyone in my way with no care, even some of the girls before I jumped onto the couch in the inside lounge room, belly flopping on the cushions and quickly grabbing my phone with wide eyes, bringing it to my ear panting.

"Hello." I beamed, breathless as I rested my chin in the palm of my hand, laying on my stomach with my feet in the air like some love-struck teenage girl as I eagerly waited for a response, my heart pounding.

"Hello, this is a personal notification from Saint Laurent head quarters that your new leather shoes have been shipped-"

My thumb ended the call before the pre-recorded message could even finish, a feeling of emptiness settling in the pit of my chest as I looked down at the black screen of my phone with a solemn look, not knowing what to do with myself.

I looked over my shoulder at the party of people waiting for me out on the sun deck, my mind swimming with doubt before I forced myself to put my phone on mute, slipping it in my back pocket as I got up and smiled at them.

To say I got piss drunk was an understatement.

The top part of my shirt seemed to be unbuttoned somehow along the way in the midst of my vigorous conga dancing, a large piece of tape over Vee's face on the attire underneath since I felt sad every time I saw her as I lead the line of beautiful, half naked women besides me in their bright colored bathing suits, some red balloon tied to one of the loops of my shorts as I shimmied my shoulders.

Through the loud thrumming music, wolf whistles of my friends, and squeals and giggles of the girls around me I felt the sudden vibrations of my phone in my back pocket, making me laugh at something one girl behind me whispered into my ear, her hands on my broad shoulders as I fumbled to get my phone, the device slipping clumsily through my fingers before I finally answered it.

It was a FaceTime request from someone -who, I didn't really know since all the words on the screen seemed all blurred and jumbled.

"Captain Styles of the S.S Conga line, what can I do for you!" Was the greeting that left my upturned lips, my words slurring together as Vee's unamused face appeared over my phone.

"Are you... drunk?" She squinted her beautiful brown eyes at me, brows knit together in irritation as I laughed.

"Naaahhhhhhhh....." I trailed off, sticking my tongue out my open mouth at the same time as the sweaty girls behind me let out high pitched "naaaaahhhhh's" imitating me and making me laugh even more.

Vee kept a very straight, almost deadly serious face, staring at me.

God she was such a bummerrrrrrr.....

Why isn't she smiling... I love when she smiled... I love when she pouts too...

I just love her so much.

"So who are they?" Vee asked, trying to take a better look at the girls behind me as I slowly blinked at her with heavy eye lids and a dazed grin.

"Oh, these are my besties here.... this is Sofia." I smiled, resting my head on one short, big breasted girl's head besides me as she twiddled her fingers, smiling and waving at the phone.

Vee gave her a tight smile before dropping it altogether, turning her glare back to me.

"And this is Mariana." I grinned, Mariana giving my cheek a quick kiss, having to jump and press her wet body against mine to reach my face before she giggled, covering her smile with her hand as I laughed at the fact that I almost toppled over, struggling to stay on my feet, my arm slinging itself over her shoulder so I wouldn't fall to my death.

It was almost like I could hear Vee grinding her teeth across the screen.

"I can't- oh god. Wow, okay Harry." Vee was looking around everywhere, everywhere else but me as she rubbed at her forehead, her chest rising and falling rapidly before she set her eyes back to me.

"You are so going to get it from me when I get back and you're sober." She warned, pointing at me through the screen making me point at myself with widened eyes.

What did I do?

"And you, don't you ever place your lips anywhere near my boyfriend, understood." She said with such a ferocious tone in her vexed voice that I was even scared for Mariana who nodded her head with big, terrified eyes, slowly side stepping away from me.

I don't know why my baby was so mad, I was just having fun, like old times.

"Don't do anything stupid and take care of yourself." Vee advised, her gaze falling to her tape covered face on my shirt, a flicker of sadness overtaking the angered look in her eyes before it quickly left and her face hardened as she ended the call, leaving me to stare back at my lock screen in silence.

I had like... the best lock screen eva.

It was a picture of Vee.

Her eyes were closed and she had her lips pressed against her palm, then if you put in my passcode and opened my phone my lock screen would be of her again with puckered lips, her palm below her chin facing upwards like she was blowing me a kiss.

I giggled, drifting away from the crowd and sitting myself down in the corner, leaning my face against my palm opening and closing my phone so it switched from my lock screen to my home screen, as if Vee was really blowing me a kiss making me smile.

I made sure to hog all the blankets until she let me take those pictures of her for my phone.

To say I regretted everything that whole interaction between Vee and I on that yacht would be a lie since I really don't remember anything the day after.

Like, nothing at all.

Which leads to how confused and lost I was when she wouldn't answer any of my calls the next few days.

That was until the big emergency happened, the one that made me do something I never thought I'd do until today.

"What the hell took you so long?" I dropped my phone from my ear and gave Arlo a look when he entered my room, readjusting the fedora on his hat.

"Apologies bro, I wanted to ride my bike over here, help Mother Earth out a little but then I realized I couldn't. So then I was gonna take a bus but then Alan and I got in a kind of quarrel about him just driving me here." My brother explained, rubbing the back of his neck before another person appeared at the entrance, leaning against the doorframe.

"Guess who won that argument." Alan said, spinning his car key with his long pointer finger as I ignored him and looked over at Arlo.

"Why couldn't you just ride your bike or something?" I questioned, remembering that I only invited one person to my house and that unfortunately was my sibling.

"Sitting down isn't really an option for me right now." Arlo casually shrugged, his words taking only a moment for my mind to fully process before my disgusted gaze snapped over to Alan who was smirking, resting his hands behind his head.

"Don't look at me." He said, making a face as Arlo and I looked at him.

We stared at him for a few seconds before he dropped the act and an arrogant grin spread across his lips.

"Okay, okay, look at me." Alan cockily raised his hand, winking and clicking his tongue before turning and exiting out of the room.

I looked at Arlo who still had his little laid back posture, slumped relaxed shoulders and hands stuffed in the pockets of his tight skinny jeans while he rocked on his heels, as if he didn't just witness the most awkward encounter five seconds ago.

"I'd ask if you two were dating or just anal buddies but we've got more important stuff to worry about, look!" I panicked, changing the subject to a more serious matter as I raised the shrinking red balloon Vee gave me with raised arms.

Arlo squinted his green eyes at the object in my hand a bit, leaning forward and resting his palm on his knees before he placed his hand over his chest.

"Aw, bro I love you too." He smiled, nodding his head and patting my shoulder as I rolled my eyes.

"No, that 'I love you' message is for me from Vee. She said this balloon symbolizes her love for me but it's deflating!" I shook the sad looking balloon in his face with an evident frown, becoming desperate.

"You're always spitting out some deep, philosophical metaphors and shit. What do you think this means? Is this her saying her love is going to slowly die for me? So does she not love me anymore- is this her way of breaking up with me? She's probably not even coming back home to me is she?" I was thoroughly freaking out now, hyperventilating with wide, hopeless eyes not bearing to even think about the possibilities of what this deflating balloon meant for Vee and I's relationship.

Arlo rubbed at his sharp jaw for a moment, releasing a small "hmmm...."

"I think it just means the balloon is running out of air man." He finally concluded, looking over at me as I turned my head to him.

"That's it."

"Yah, it's been almost a week since Vee left, it's normal for a balloon to lose air like that." He explained in a calm voice.

I moved my eyes back to the shriveling balloon in my hands.

"Oh."

"I'd say to pump some air back into it though, refill her love with your effort and attention." Arlo finally spoke something 'Arlo-like' and I was immediately on my feet at his words, nodding like an idiot, frantically looking around for some kind of pump for the balloon.

"Right, refill, refill," I chanted under my breath, catching Bennet pass by my room just as the right time making me call his name in a rushed, overly urgent voice.

"Yes sir." Bennet straightened at my door, nose high in the air as he stared at me with his usual blank face.

"Find me a pump for this balloon so I can refill Vee's love with air!" I hurriedly instructed, showing him the dying balloon in my hands.

Bennet just stared at me for a long stretch of time before he closed his eyes, slowly inhaling like he was trying to stop himself from slapping me before reopening them.

"Of course sir, would that be all?"

"Yeah."

"Hey Bennet. Really doing a great job on those breathing exercises I taught you. It's really mellowing the harsh vibes around you." Arlo complimented my butler who sent him a minuscule hint of a smile.

"Yes sir Arlo, they have helped me in more ways than one." Bennet lowered his thinning head in a curt nod before glancing over at me.

"In more ways than one..." He slowly repeated in a low, ominous voice as I blinked at him.

"Why the fuck are you looking at me?" I spluttered, thoroughly offended as Bennet kept quiet in response, giving me one last look before turning and swiftly leaving.

Oh he better run.

"You love her."

Arlo's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, making me turn my attention to him as I released a small breath.

"I've never seen you act like this with any girl before her." He continued.

"Yeah." I swallowed, looking at the balloon in my hands, reading the three capitalized words on it as I sat down on my bed.

"And you can't tell her cause of mom."

My eyes stayed trained on the ground to avoid his gaze.

"Yeah." I confirmed in a soft murmur.

Maybe this was why I called my brother here, not just because of the balloon thing- but because of the whole 'love' thing.

He was the only one who knew and understood why I struggled to say those three words so much.

If I had to summarize it, my mom's head was fucked up and in return she fucked our own heads up as well, ever since we were young.

To go further in depth, she had a specific mental disorder called Capgras delusion.

Capgras delusion made a person hallucinate and make them think that a friend, spouse, parent, loved one, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical imposter.

So in our mother's eyes, we weren't really her sons, we were people pretending to be her sons, or two boys that looked like her sons but really weren't.

That was why she always punished us, always tried torturing us to confess that we weren't hers and to tell her our real names.

And what else could I have done at six, screaming my own name, the only one that I had and the one that was given to me as my own mom belted me, telling me that wasn't me.

Arlo experienced the same thing.

It only got worst as we grew older.

Our mom still didn't see us as her actual sons, and with the way we grew looking more and more like our dad who had passed away in our toddler years, she began to treat us oddly, becoming nicer, no longer inflicting any physical pain on us.

She became flirtatious with her own sons.

In her eyes we looked just like how dad did when he was a teen, and since in her mind we weren't her sons she would try to get closer, try touching us, kissing us in a way mothers shouldn't do to their sons.

"Love me! Tell me you love me! I love you so much you can take me, take me!" She would repeatedly scream and beg, frantically banging on Arlo and I's door in the middle of the night as we covered our ears, wanting nothing more than to block out her crude, unorthodox requests she had for her own children.

When she told us she loved us or wanted our love, it wasn't the mother son kind.

Even today I can still her screaming at me to the top of her lungs, violently banging at my door, shaking the barrier and telling me she'd make me feel good, that I should let her in and let her love me.

"That phrase is dead to me." I simply said, voice void of any emotion as a small shudder raked my spine for a brief moment.

"When Vee says it," Arlo spoke up after a few moments, making me raise my head up to look at him.

"Is it the same way mom says it?" He asked, gauging my reaction as I immediately answered his question without a second thought.

"No- no of course not. When Vee tells me I know she means it. She doesn't do it because she wants me to say it back or anything, she wants nothing in return. She just tells me because.... that's how she feels about me." By the end of my response my words become slower in realization, replaying her explanations from the airport in my head.

A small smile slowly made its way to Arlo's face as he heaved a sigh, lifting his fedora to ruffle his hair before situating it back on as he looked at my wall.

"That phrase may be dead to you now," He began, placing his hands over his hips as I gave him a look, knowing that the next thing he'd say would be something I'd have to take into consideration from here on out.

"But it only takes one person to bring life back into it."

Being excited after a week of not seeing Vee was more than an understatement in itself.

I eagerly waited in front of the airport gate like a loyal puppy, wagging its tail waiting for its owner to come back.

The second I saw her pixie cut hairstyle I knew it was her.

"I love you!" Was the first approach I had when I tackled her into a welcoming hug, lifting her small body up from the ground so her feet were hovering a few inches off the floor as I shook us side to side, hugging her.

"I love you I love you I love you I love you so much." I said, realizing how good it felt to say that to her, to let it all out before I realized Vee was screaming in my arms, trying to push me away.

And then I realized that the person I was hugging wasn't Vee.

"What the fuck is your problem dude! Get the fuck off me!" The teenage boy cursed, giving me a look as I quickly set him back down, his hands shoving me away as he tried fixing his headphones that slipped in our embrace.

"Oh- I thought you were-"

"Don't get anywhere near me you gay pedo freak!" He snapped and quickly recoiled back when I tried to help him, a few people stopping to look at all the commotion as the grumpy teenager grumbled under his breath, dragging his luggage behind him leaving me standing there with a look of disbelief.

Where's my Vee?

I already knew I was wearing a lost expression on my face without even having to see my face as I looked around, trying to find my tattooed girl before I finally heard her beautiful voice ring in my ears.

"Gay pedo freak." She echoed, making me turn so fast I almost experienced whiplash as I was greeted with Vee's -not so happy- adorable face.

"Vee!" I embraced her in a hug, her arms hanging limply at her sides as I squeezed the life out of her, bringing her body up slightly and squishing my joyful face against the top of her head, eyes closed with the satisfaction of finally having her by my side.

She stayed motionless in my hold.

"What's the matter?" I asked, gently dropping her back to her feet as I peered down at her straight, slightly irritated face in concern.

"Remember on Tuesday November 22nd, 4:24pm you got drunk on your yacht?" She began, narrowing her brown eyes at me as I blinked in surprise, my arms still slightly hovering over her in uncertainty.

"Umm.... yeah but...." How did she know?

Vee took in my confused state and retrieved her phone from her pocket, raising it between us showing me screenshots of what looked like to be a FaceTime between me and her.

With me on a yacht.

Wearing a shirt that had her face covered with tape.

Surrounded by a bunch of wet half naked Puerto Rican models.

The phone was then lowered, revealing Vee's harsh glare directed my way as I blinked, gulping slightly and staring in fear at my melanin babe.

Fuck.

AN: me patiently waiting for the plot twists to come since Rich Boy is either 40 chapters or around there.

I don't know man, I feel like you guys know me too well now, what if my next plot twist is predictable? Who knows....

BTW THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THEIR TIME TO VOTE FOR ME IN THE FANFICTION AWARDS LIKE DAMN I WAS LIKE aight it's cool if I don't win I'm just glad I got nominated thanks to you guys and then Boom you guys were non stop voting and supporting as always and I love you guys so much. Just been at work lately is all.

Comment your theories/predictions that you think will happen next or how you think this story will end.