It’s been a long day without you, my friend
And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
Dejay had never been one for big events in Beverly Shores such as Beverly Shores annual’s thanksgiving. Most parties in Beverly Shores were the same for him- a place where the rich will mingle, and for him to be on the watch out- looking for any possible attacks, mistakes or perhaps enjoying a good talk with his friends, while he spent his time wondering how his daughter was handling things at home without him. If not for the fact that he was Emiliano’s bodyguard, then he would never really go to most events at Beverly Shores. See, Dejay, says that, but even when Emi was gone for about almost 5 years, he had still gone to those events, but that again, had been not out of his own true choice but because his daughter would ask him to go and bring something for him or because he wanted to have a nice chat with his friends and pretend everything was normal- pretend that Emiliano was not gone to God no where, without telling him he was leaving, or calling him to tell him where he was at and that Wylan- that Wylan was also not so far away- leaving the ‘golden squad’ as they used to be called to just Cameroon and him.
It was strange really, how when Wylan left, Emiliano followed suit but see the difference was that Dejay knew where Wylan was, but he had no idea where Emiliano was for all of this years, not even a clue and for years- Dejay had accepted his worst of fears, ‘Emiliano De La Cruz was dead’ , dead just after his uncle had died. He didn’t want to believe it, in fact, he tried every other possibility for why Emilio might be missing-kidnapped possible- but then why was there no call for Ransom? Maybe he was in jail- but Emi would never do anything to land him in jail and besides, he could be easily bailed out, perhaps he was lost in a different country and he didn’t speak the language and had no money with him? Possible, could be that, he hoped it was that and Emilio would someday come back to them.
When Dejay had said that he hoped Emi would someday come back to them, he had meant straight- straight back to them, instead of apparently planning out a movie first, he was going to be starring in a f*cking movie and he was apparently living in hotels now instead of Beverly Shores. Something that Dejay could not truly believe, he thought it was a joke, Emilio could not truly be back, he would have told him of his return, he would have come to Beverly Shores first- talk to his moms and siblings, talk to Cameron, talk to him but he didn’t and because of that, Dejay chose to ignore the ‘return of Emilio’ it was’t until he had gotten the text at 11 am in the morning to, ‘I met up with Wylan, come’ than Dejay fully accepted Emiliano De La Cruz was back.
He didn’t know what to do at first when he saw Emiliano again, he didn’t know whether to go and hug him, freeze in the spot or sigh. Most people in his position would perhaps be angry, but Dejay had never truly learnt the meaning of anger- he couldn’t be angry for too long, especially not at Emilio who looked guilty, so he went with his first choice, hugging Emiliano.
“How’s my godaughter been,” Emiliano had asked on the ride back to his hotel.
“Dara is at home now,” Dejay replied, “She’s been well, she missed you, you know, we all did.” Emilio had not said anything for a while, and Dejay knew not to push, he didn’t try to get the answers out of Emilio, because he knew Emilio well enough to know that he will tell him soon- he will tell him the whole truth, and maybe Dejay would forgive him- or maybe he won’t, but there would still be the same ol Emilio and Dejay, nothing new, nothing different- he hoped. 4 years was a lot of time, 4 freaking years, Emilio was bound to not be the same.
“Dara is turning 16 soon isn’t she?” Emilio asked breaking the silence. “I’ll throw her a sweet 16 party.”
"You don’t have to
"Did you forget she’s my goddaughter? Emilio had replied with a smile, “It’s what I have to do, besides I missed my favorite goddaughter. How’s life going for the kid?” Dejay smiled at that.
“She’s been well, she started dating, she’s dating a Wallace kid.”
“Which?”
“Claudia’s son, Orlando Wallace,”
It’s been a month since then, and it Emilio had told him he was coming back to Beverly Shores and he should come pick him up for the Thanksgiving feast and Dejay did, driving his daughter to his sister’s house first then going straight to Emilio’s hotel to pick him up.
They had arrived late, but Emilio didn’t seem to mind, and Dejay knew he was perhaps going to make a big grand entrance, as usual.
“Interesting,” Emilio had said .
“What is?” Dejay asked.
“Being back,” With that, Emilio had asked Dejay to go sit down. He was perhaps planning what to do, how to make his entrance, and Dejay was a little tensed about this, because things were not like before, there where new people now, people who didn’t understand hat his sudden reappearance might mean for Beverly Shores and even Dejay, who has been here for 13 years did not know. How was Beverly Shores going to be now with the return of their ‘golden boy’ as Emilio was crowned by the media. He took a deep breath, adjusting his tie and scanning the room. The familiar faces of the old guard were there, but so were many new ones, people who had come into prominence during the years of Emiliano’s absence.
Dejay found a seat near the back, where he could observe without drawing too much attention. His eyes flickered to the corner where Emilio hid and was not yet noticed, and as he took a sip of his water, Emilio made his grand entrance and obviously people where shocked. It was a long pregnant silence, before Emilio decided to break it again by talking to his siblings and Dejay sigh.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t have done this Emilio,” Dejay muttered to no one in particular as he took a sip of his water.
He waited to see what Emilio would do next, would he follow Santi like instructed or not? He was busy wondering the next move of Emiliano that he did not notice when Marco Manzo sat next to him. It wasn’t until he noticed the sound of someone’s fork falling under the table, and he had bent down to pick it, cleaning it with the wipes that were neatly placed on the table, turning to the person with a, “Here, It’s clean now” That he noticed it was Marco whose fork had fallen.
@cordyx - Marco
mentioned:
@novella - Cam
@benitz786 - your boy
@raviola - Santi briefly
@Caticorn - sunny briefly