#maybe ‘don’t let your yearnings get ahead of your earnings’ if you’ll regret it later | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

madlvvewrites · 5 years ago

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/ * starring ; @uphorics .

the day had started off as every other, seemingly ordinary in comparison to sean’s usual weekday rituals. his family’s bookstore had yet again been bustling with customers, all yearning to fulfill their new year’s resolution of reading a book a week, but sean knew that at least half of them would fall off the wagon by february. however, he certainly wasn’t complaining about their business as he ventured to the bank with a hefty deposit weighing down his backpack. usually his mother brought the deposit in, but she had an appointment to get to so sean was left responsible for the day’s earnings, briskly walking down the street to the bank around the corner with his ball cap propped over his eyes to shield him from the glaring sun. he brought the deposit before, but carrying so much cash at once always made him uneasy so he approached the teller quickly, ready to get the weight off of his shoulders. “just dropping off the deposit for kent’s korner,” he announced as he reached into his backpack to pull the bag out. however, just as he was about to slide the money and his id over to the teller, he heard the bank doors behind him slam open. “everybody put your hands up!” a muffled voice shouted, causing sean to swing around wide-eyed. four large and burly men stood before him with black masks drawn over their features, piercing eyes staring out of the holes cut into them, and black clothes covering their body. but what they wore wasn’t what made sean freeze where he stood — large rifles and handguns were held by each of the men, raised and pointing throughout the bank. sean had only seen guns at the fun range his father used to take him to every now and then and had thought himself comfortable with them, but seeing one pointed directly at him changed that thought almost immediately.

frozen in place, sean watched as two of the men approached one of the tellers and began demanding access to the bank’s vault. as they shouted, the other two men swung their guns around the bank. “civilians down on the ground! make a peep and you’ll regret it.” feeling the gaze of one of the men land upon him, sean immediately dropped down and pressed his back against the wooden counter behind him before watching as the men began slowly walking around the perimeter of the bank, eyeing each person cowering on the floor as their partners continued to shake their guns at the tellers who were shakily trying to open the vault. his phone suddenly felt like a heavy brick in the pocket of his jeans, but he knew he couldn’t risk it, he wasn’t that much of an idiot — if only he could say the same for the woman sitting across the bank from him who, once the armed man had his back turned to her, fumbled through her purse for her cell phone but only succeeded in dropping her keys with a loud clatter. the man immediately turned back to her and swiped the purse from her hands, cursing loudly. “you idiot!” he shouted and before sean could blink, the man had swung the purse against the woman’s head and she let out a yelp as she crumpled back against the wall. “hey!” the shout slipped past sean’s lips before he could even think, drawing the attention of the two men on patrol. “don’t touch her!” a lump immediately formed in his throat, but he couldn’t back down now — maybe if he distracted the men enough with his own stupidity, someone could dial 911. leaping to his feet, sean balled his fist and dug his nails into his palm as he glared at the men, whose lips curled into smiles as they approached him. “and what’re you gonna do about it, kid?” one of them taunted. sean could feel his muscles grow taut under his skin as he tensed. “just don’t touch her. take your fucking money and go, no one has to get hurt,” he responded. “oh, i’ll decide whether someone has to get hurt,” the man closest to him growled before leaping forward and plowing a fist into sean’s cheekbone before he could even blink. he could hear his kickboxing coach cursing him out for not being on guard — easier said than done when your opponent had a gun in his hand — and he fell back, his ball cap flying off with the force of the man’s punch. he could hear the other men shouting at their partner to calm down, but he didn’t seem to hear them as he shouted, “what’s wrong, pretty boy? did that hurt?” shaking off the shock of the punch, sean straightened up and braced himself for impact — but it never came. when he glanced up, he saw the man who’d punched him struggling in the grip of two of his partners. “oh come on, he’s just some dumb kid who doesn’t know any better, let me teach him a lesson,” the man growled at the others, but they had worried expressions on their features as they glanced between sean and the man struggling in their grip. “dude, calm the fuck down, it’s him. she gave clear orders,” one of them said, obviously trying to keep their tone hushed but the bank was quiet enough that sean could hear their words. she? he frowned in confusion, but his questions were soon answered the fourth man coming up behind his partners, two large black duffel bags weighing down each of his shoulders. “you lay another hand on that kid and vanessa will have your head, dumbass,” he barked before thrusting the duffel bags into the arms of sean’s attacker and turning his attention towards sean, who was frozen by his confusion and still seeing stars in his left eye. “you’ve already given him quite the shiner, but we’ll mark it down to sheer stupidity on both of your parts,” the man said with a laugh, stepping closer to sean, who began to stagger backwards but the man reached out to grab his arm and forcefully pull him forwards. “i’d keep your mouth shut about this, kid. just forget it even happened,” he warned him, the eyes that peered out of his black mask looking him up and down before his gaze froze on the deposit bag sean had somehow managed to keep a tight grip on. sean felt his gut twist as the man’s eyes creased with a smile sean couldn’t see. in the blink of an eye, the man snatched the bag from sean’s grip. “hey, you already got your money, fuck off,” he barked, his mind going to the bills piling up at home as he started towards the man who only shoved him backwards. “just because we can’t beat the shit out of you doesn’t mean you’re completely off limits — think of it as payment for sparing your stupid ass. now shut up and sit down or i’ll ignore my orders and give you another shiner to match the one my friend already gave you.” sean opened his mouth to snap back at the man, but something in his eyes tightened his throat and he fell back, reaching down to pick up his ball cap and fit it back on top of his head. obviously pleased with his decision, the man nodded and turned back to his partners. “alright, we’re out, boys, we take any longer and the boss will have our asses,” he ordered and the four disappeared out of the front door. seconds later, a black suv screeched past the front doors of the bank. almost immediately afterwards, several police sirens sounded in the distance but all sean could hear was the words of the large man repeating through his mind, “you lay another hand on that kid and vanessa will have your head.”

fast forward two hours .

with a shaky hand, sean threw his car into park after pulling up in front of the large home he used to know so well. climbing out of the car, he could feel his heart racing as memories began to fly through his mind — sneaking into vanessa’s bedroom window that overlooked the driveway he walked up, the movie nights in the living room he could see through the curtains, and the first kiss he shared with vanessa on the front porch he stepped up onto. a lump formed in his throat as he stared at the front door, the man’s words still echoing through his mind. he hadn’t been able to push them away, even as the police had questioned him and drilled him with questions as a paramedic checked out his bruising cheekbone. the injury was nothing he wasn’t used to though — after years of wrestling and kickboxing, he’d suffered worse injuries so sean had only rolled his eyes at the concern of the paramedics and brushed off the ice pack and pain pills they’d offered him — he had more on his mind than a little black eye.

the cops had told him to follow them to the police station for further questioning, but he immediately drove off as soon as they let him go to his car. he told himself the entire drive to vanessa’s house that he was only going to demand his money back, even though the police had ensured that the bank would cover anything that had been taken from him — he wanted to say that it was the principle of it all, getting back what had been taken from him, but he couldn’t deny the anticipation that built up in his gut as he drove towards vanessa’s house. he couldn’t drop what the bank robbers had said, that somehow she had something to do with why he’d come out of the confrontation with nothing more than a black eye, and he knew he had to find out before it ate him away.

sinking his teeth into his bottom lip, sean took a shaky breath and reached a hand up to push the doorbell. after a few moments of silence passed, sean clenched his jaw and raised a fist to pound against the wooden door. “vanessa!” he called without thinking. “it’s sean, let me in! we need to talk.” texting or calling ahead before he came pounding at her front door may have been a smart idea, but after not seeing the girl in years sean was unsure of how she’d react to him giving her a heads up that he was coming to take back what her gang members or whatever had stolen from him.

#( k . sean ) / * 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 .#/ * sean & vanessa .#uphorics #tw guns #tw bank robbery #tw violence #i apologize for this novel

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