Vinnie Confesses

[Vinnie Giovanetti]

It didn't take long to pick up a pizza from work. They always told him that if he ever wanted a free pizza, he could have one. Or seven. Which was probably the only reason he hadn't quite yet because aside from the perks, his work sucked and was ungodly boring. But anyway, after hijacking Coop's keys and taking his car, Vinnie picked up two pizzas (one cheese, one sausage) and started off towards Esme's. On his way out of the apartment, he'd also grabbed the Breakfast Club and the Avengers. Both of which she probably had.. but he'd suggested a movie, so he thought the least he could do was bring his own.

Parking on the side of the street opposite Esme's house, Vinnie paused before getting out. The pizza boxes were sat in the passenger's seat making the window all steamy. And with the smell those things were giving off, there was no way this would slip past Coop. He'd know for sure Vinnie had taken his car without asking. Would he know today? Not likely. Coop had pulled an all nighter at the bar the night before and hadn't woke up yet and it was, what, five thirty already? Yea. He'd probably find out in a day or two. Either way, today or tomorrow, the thought still made Vinnie flinch and he pressed two fingers to his eye to feel if the swelling had gone down.

Ooh. Still tender, he thought, looking in the rear view mirror at the puffy black and red circles around his eye. At least today he could fully open it.

Unbuckling and grabbing the pizza boxes, Vinnie awkwardly shifted out of the driver's seat and onto the road. He literally slipped off the seat, not thinking to get out before grabbing the boxes. After closing and locking the car, Vinnie headed across the street and up to Esme's front door. Jon's car was missing.. must've been at work. Which Vinnie was actually happy about. He wanted to talk to Es.. and just Es. No distractions. Aside from the baby. But y'know.

Ringing the doorbell with his nose, Vinnie took a deep breath and looked down at his arms. He was wearing a hoodie, but the sleeves were pushed up making the bruises over his left arm rather visible. "Ah shit," he said quietly as he lifted his arms (and the pizza boxes) to his face to try and pull the sleeve down with his teeth.

{ www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=77416505 }

(and for reference, he's got a black eye, bruises up his left arm and on his back. yep.)

[Esme Russel]

{ www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=77421764 }

It was unusual for the townhouse to be even remotely messy as Esme almost (okay definitely) obsessively cleaned. She didn't want to scramble to pick things up when people like Vinnie decided to drop by with no real warning. She typically didn't mind because well motherhood can feel isolating and having a big support system was important but today just wasn't a good day. She didn't feel sick exactly so it wasn't that; she just felt like something wasn't right and she couldn't quite place her finger on what it was. Was she just hungry? She'd been eating all day already and she felt just a tad more at ease.

Maybe it was because Vinnie was coming by and she still suspected his boyfriend of being an abusive cunt face. Sure he was a guy and he could apparently handle that kind of thing but that didn't make domestic abuse right! What if things went too far? What if he happened to magically own a flame thrower and killed Vinnie in the heat of the moment? Didn't he realize that Vinnie was fragile? He was tinier than a baby elephant for God's sake! She didn't have any real reason to believe that Cooper was an actual danger to her new best friend but she just had this feeling.. Maybe it was her mother's intuition confusing Vinnie for her child and therefore her responsibility to keep safe.

The child that she was actually obligated to be take care of was perfectly fine so it was possible, in her opinion, that she was simply looking for something new to protect. Why couldn't she have felt this way about someone like say Gavin? He was actually sick! She loved him and definitely wanted to take care of him but the urge to 'rescue' him wasn't there like it was when she thought of poor Vinnie being threatened with swords and tied to the ceiling by his feet. He probably also forced his penis in his mouth, too.. Yeah he definitely seemed like that kind of person. She could totally picture him stuffing Vinnie in the oven as like a time out when he talked back or breathed when he was told not to. Didn't he realize how dangerous that this relationship was?

Sure none of this probably actually happened but she had convinced herself that it was true and there was no changing her mind until she opened the door and smelled the delicious pizza. "Oh my God! I'm starving!" She was acting like she hadn't had anything to eat in a month and a half. "I'm sorry about the mess... I haven't had the chance to clean." The 'mess' was really just a box of cheez-it's and a glass of tea on the table but she still felt this intense guilt that the house wasn't perfect.

[Vinnie Giovanetti]

When Esme took the boxes of pizza, Vinnie quickly pulled both sleeves back down to his wrists and smiled as he entered the house. "Nice to see you too," he said, reaching a hand up to his bangs to try and brush them over his eye. But that was an unrealistic attempt seeing as his hair was far too short. "Es.. your house is not dirty. You should see mine," he teased, picking up the box of cheez-its and taking a handful. She almost always helped herself to his food... so he figured he could do it too. But one handful was all he took before closing the box and bringing it, along with the cup of tea, to the kitchen. "See? Now its clean. Those were literally the only things out of place," he added, turning to take the boxes from her and then setting them on the coffee table.

After flipping the boxes open and grabbing a couple napkins from the kitchen, Vinnie took a seat on the couch and laid the two movies he'd brought before the pizzas. "I didn't know if you actually wanted to watch something so I brought these," he said, leaning forward for a piece of the sausage pizza. "Come sitttt!" he whined, patting the cushion next to him. "I have lots to tell you," he added in a sort of sad tone, trying to convince himself to tell her exactly what he'd come to tell her. But it wasn't going to be easy. Not only because he didn't like when he was wrong (she'd be right about the whole Cooper thing all along), but because that's not something you just bring up in conversation.

After finishing his first piece of pizza, Vinnie was starting to overheat. She must've had the heat up way higher than normal. That, or his hoodie was far too warm for inside. Which it was, but there was no way he was going to take it off. No way.

[Esme Russel]

Esme let out a small sigh as Vinnie picked up the box of cheez-its and the glass of tea from the table. Sure the house wasn't the messiest place in the world but that didn't mean that it was remotely clean to her. Why did things have to be awful before people could accept that it was unclean? She had a cup, a plate and a fork in the sink that needed to be washed, a floor to mop so it 'sparkled in the sun'. It wasn't until Vinnie whined at her to sit down that she remembered that he was even here in the first place. How was she suppose to focus on him when her house was falling apart? She was immediately snapped out of this when he stated that he had a lot to tell her. Was it her imagination or did he not sound happy about this?

"Oh.. Are you okay?" She didn't really think much of him wearing his hoodie inside since it was October so it was getting cold out. She didn't want to just awkwardly stare at him so she forced her attention on a delicious slice of pizza which wasn't very hard. She just wanted this pizza inside her! She'd forgotten how starving that she was until she took her first bite and then suddenly she couldn't have enough. She typically didn't eat more than one slice but now she found herself reaching for a second with no shame at all. It wasn't like Vinnie was going to judge her! He was one of her closest friends and well... friends let their pregnant friends eat as much as they need to without saying that they're going to get fat.

She wanted to comfort him somehow so he knew that he could tell her whatever was up but she didn't know what was too far. It was then that she noticed the bruising on his eye. Cuntface.. Who else would do this? She was holding back her commentary on it just to see if he was going to be honest or attempt to lie to her.

[Vinnie Giovanetti]

Vinnie shook his head a bit when she asked if he was okay, but smiled and looked up at her anyway. "Oh yea," he said, pinching his eyebrows together as he tried to look like she should've known that he was fine. "I'm.. I'm great!" he even added an awkward little laugh that ended in a sigh and him reaching for more pizza. "What would make you think I'm not okay?" Now he was just making it weird. Going on and on about the fact that he was 'okay' probably wasn't the best way to convince her. Especially since he was most certainly not okay and he noticed her looking at his eye.

"Oh do you mean this?" he asked, still trying to smile as he pointed at his eye with the piece of pizza in his hand. "Pff, that's nothing. Just a black eye. Y'know. Out gallivanting in the woods and y'know WHAM. Punched.. in the face by.. air.. So how about those movies?" Vinnie looked away from Esme and back to the pizza on the table. His smile had vanished and he'd set his piece of pizza down, then moved his hand to his arm and started to rub it gently. For no reason, really. Sort of a comfort thing.

Shit, just tell her.

Then Vinnie lost it. Dropping his face into his hands, tears started poring down his face like fucking waterfalls. Immediately he got real red and started to sweat as he tried to hide the sobs, but that was no use. He'd been holding it all in for far too long. He'd never cried about it before. Not once. Anything with Cooper was fine. It was cool. It was whatever. A black eye would heal, a couple bruises on the arm would fade. But he couldn't hold it in anymore. Dropping his hands, Vinnie let himself fall into Esme's shoulder where he buried his face into her sweater. He tried a couple times to explain himself, but each attempt only ended in embarrassing squeaky sobs.

[Esme Russel]

Esme was about to tell Vinnie that he needed to man the hell up and stop lying to her when she suddenly had his face buried in her sweater. He didn't have to say that Cooper was abusing him for her to know that he was. She was most definitely not the smartest person in the world but it'd take a total moron to not put two and two together. She'd been in this awful situation personally with Chase and she knew how guilty that she felt when she did admit that he was hurting her. She felt this obligation to protect him when everyone was against him but that didn't stop her from repeating her friends' mistake - wanting to murder the man who did this which would likely only push Vinnie closer to him. "Cooper is hitting you, huh?" It wasn't really a question. She was being motherly with him; running her fingers through his hair and gently stroking his arm. She seemed so eerily calm like she wasn't plotting someone's murder in her head.

What was she suppose to tell Vinnie 'oh hey I want to murder your abusive boyfriend'? She bit down on her bottom lip and pecked him on the top of his head affectionately before saying in a soothing voice, "It's going to be perfectly fine, okay? You're going to stay here until you find somewhere else but you are not going to stay there alone with Cooper." She probably should'v asked Jonathan what he thought about another man staying in their basement but this was important.. Life or death basically... How horrible would she feel if Vinnie went home and then his body was found next week in a ditch somewhere because Cooper heartlessly tossed him out like a piece of garbage?

She slowly moved him away from her and headed into the kitchen to get a bag of frozen peaches to put over Vinnie's bruised eye. "Okay and on an unrelated note, do you think that a human body would fit in the back of my car?" She actually managed to say that pretty casually but he'd have to be an idiot to not realize that she was talking about hurting Cooper. She just really wanted that stupid fucking cuntface to suffer the same way that he was making Vinnie. Didn't he realize how humiliating this whole situation had to be? Penis.

[Vinnie Giovanetti]

Vinnie didn't answer her. He was too busy sniffling and trying so hard to stop crying. It was a good thing he wasn't wearing makeup or something because it would be ALL over her shoulder. He'd literally made a wet mark the size of two of his heads. Lifting his head and leaning back against the cushions, Vinnie watched as Esme went to the freezer and brought back a bag of oeaches for his eye. He really didn't need it... his eye barely hurt. Well, it hurt a little more now cuz he'd been pinching it shut and crying. But either than that, the peaches were unnecessary. Either way, the chill was cooling him down and relieving the red in his face. "Thanks," he whimpered.

When Esme asked if a both could fit in a trunk, Vinnie couldn't help but laugh. He kind of knew that she was half serious.. but it was such a silly thing to question. But just as fast as he'd been to giggle, Vinnie's face fell straight again and he turned to look at her. "Don't hurt Coop," he said in a very puppy-like way, a very innocent, vulnerable way. He almost couldn't believe he'd said it but.. he meant it. He didn't want Coop hurt. And that confused him as much as he was sure it confused Esme. "I mean.. maybe at least I should talk to him, huh?" He tried to make his comment sound at least a but reasonable. "How about.. how about I go home and try to figure things out and when I'm done I'll call you. and if he's a dick.. you can put him in your trunk," he said with a silly smile. Vinnie was very embarrassed for having cried, so he was trying to brighten the conversation. But his smile faded.

"Please though, Esme..." he whispered. "I love him. Don't hurt him."