An Old Friend [anthony]

[Pixel Ann Conner]

If Pixel heard one more person say "I'm so happy for you guys, congratulations." She was going to scream bloody murder. She was going to curse at them, slap them in the face then throw her glass of wine in it. They didn't know anything. This wasn't happy, this was... horrible. It was all horrible. She didn't want to marry James. She didn't care how many years he'd been working for her father, or how reasonably attractive he was, or that he can the Conner Crest tattooed on his chest, all the supposedly great reasons why she should marry him. He was twelve years older than her ar thirty-three, she didn't know anything about him, and once her father arranged the engagement, all James wanted to do was sleep with her. If he tried to run his hand up her skirt under the table one for time, she was going to stab him with her fork. She'd tried lying about being virgin and wanting to wait til the honeymoon, she wanted it to be "special". But that hadn't worked, he just said all the more reason they should have sex, so it didn't hurt on the honeymoon, and she just felt good. In truth, the thought of sleeping with him made Pixel want to barf.

So she excused before the main course, saying she needed some fresh air. James offered to go with her, but she declined and said that Joe would go with her. At which time she grabbed Joe by the arm and pulled him out of his chair by his wife, and pulled him outside. He didn't say anything about her being close to tears, he just went and got his car. It was funny, really, considering Joe came from a very Itlian family. But Joe's family had been friends with the Conners for years, and it wasn't like The Conners had a fight with his family, just the Prices, so Joe didn't feel weird about working for them, and Pixel really liked him, so unless she moved, he wasn't going to quit. He pulled the car around, and opened the passengers side door for her, and she got in. "Why aren't you taking one of your own cars, Pix?" Pixel shook her head, and raised her hands up for him to see. They were shaking so bad they were kinda blurry. He gave a short nod at he started driving.

Little girls were suppose to spend their childhood planning their wedding, and be so excited when it finally came. Pixel had never done that, and she sure as hell wasn't exited right now, she was running away from her own damn engagement party. She stared down at her shoes as they drove to where Pixel wanted to go. Joe was a little confused as to why the young blonde wanted to go to the west side, to the piers, where a lot of bad shit went down, but he drove anyway. It wasn't like he didn't have a gun if anything turned sour. Once they stopped Pixel jumped out, walking as fast as she could to get under one of the peirs, where it was dry. She tried to keep her breathing steady, but she just busted out crying, hunched over as she tried to keep herself from falling on the ground and sobbing into it. Her makeup was getting messed up but she didn't care, she just kept crying, and crying, and crying. She heard footsteps at one point, and she tried to quiet her crying, and when she spoke she tried to sound like she wasn't crying. "I'm fine Joe, I just need a minute, okay?" She said, tugging on the bottom of her minidress, which looked like she painted a strapless cocktail dress in glue, then rolled it in glitter. But it made her happy, even when everything else in the world sucked right now.

[Anthony Matthew Price]

Anthony had just finished skimming some drugs from one of his warehouses. He was walking along the piers making sure all was well before deciding what he should do next. Then he saw a girl. He wasn't sure what she was doing on the piers but this was sure no place for her to be. As he neared her, the tip of a tattoo on her back came into view. He'd know that mark anywhere. Mostly since it was burned into his back. She was one of them. And had a lot of guts showing up on the wrong side of town, and with no help.

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her, making sure she heard him cock it so she knew he could kill her anytime now. "You got a lot of guts coming around here .. and without protection" His dark blue eyes stayed fixed on her. "Turn around" It was no fun to kill a person when he couldn't see their faces. And oh how this would set off the other side of town. Or perhaps he wouldn't kill her. Kidnapping sounded funner. Marking her like he'd been marked seemed more fair.

[Pixel Ann Conner]

Pixel shook her head when she heard the gun cock. Really? Walk up on a sobbing girl, and pull out your gun? These Italians were such gentlemen. Pixel reached up, wiping away the black streaks on her face from where she'd cried off her "waterproof" eye liner. Then she turned around, looking Anthony dead in the eye. "You have to seriously be fucking kidding me right now, right? Do I look like I'm causing anyone any trouble? I'm not packing a gun, I haven't hurt anyone, the only thing I want to do is cry in peace, but you Italians can't help yourselves, can you? You see me, recognize me, and you go pointing guns at some girl that hasn't done shit. I just want to be left alone, and I can't find that in the other half of town, so will you leave? Because I'm seriously not packing heat, and if you don't believe me, you can pat me down." She them spread her arms and legs, still looking into his eyes, daring him almost.

She knew she shouldn't have blown up at a guy that was pointing a gun at her, but she didn't care. Her stomach was twisted into knots, and all she wanted to do was cry, and puke, or maybe both. She didn't need this, she didn't need this guy pointing a gun at her. She was scared, like she was probably suppose to be at this point, she didn't care if he killed her, it wasn't like she had anything to live for. She didn't see why she had to marry someone she didn't love, or have kids she didn't want, and death was a way out of that. She wasn't brave enough to do it herself, but if this guy did it.. it would be a way out. Probably a twisted way of thinking, but that's how she felt.

[Anthony Matthew Price]

Anthony watched as she turned. So it was daughter Conner. Killing her would earn him extra bonus points with Cordelia. But, again not as fun. He slowly lowered his gun. His eyes staying on her. Once it wasn't pointing at her any more he tucked it away. He adjusted his hat and slowly moved towards her. When he got to her he let his hands move over her body. She was hot. No denying that. Once he was satisfied there was no gun or any other weapons he let his hands drop but didn't move away from her.

There was a slight smile on his face while he looked down at her. She was pretty hot. They'd been in school together some time ago. Or at least on the days he showed up. She was the it girl and he was a loner. They never talked but he knew who she was. Whether she knew him that was another story. "Now .. Putting you're .. backround aside for one moment Irish girl. Why is such a beautiful girl crying .. And why is she crying on enemy territory?" He tilted his head to the side. She was just as beautiful up close as she was far away.

[Pixel Ann Conner]

Pixel stayed still for the pat down. She didn't really do.. guns. Like she had some, and she knew how to shoot them pretty well, but it was like makeup for her. Yeah, she wore it, but not often. There were a few times she packed her gun, but those were the times that she knew she might be getting into trouble. She didn't wear a shoulder holster, like Anthony was right now. She wore her holster on her thigh. It was her standard stealing a car gear. Blue tank top with a black button up short sleeved shirt over it, dark blue jeans, thigh holster and black running shoes. Pixel might not look it, but she was fast. She could take off like a jack rabbit at the first sign of trouble, so she normally always wore running shoes.

Clearly, tonight, she wasn't dressed for stealing cars and causing trouble. Besides her form fitting mini cocktail dress, she were heels. She could barely walk fast in them, let alone run. Pixel reached up after the pat down, putting her hand where Anthony's shoulder met his, very kissable she might add, neck, and used him to balance herself as she stepped out of her shoes. Anthony was so much taller than her when she wasn't wearing the heels. Hell, he was taller than her when she was. How tall was he, anyway? Seven feet tall? He was stupid tall. Had he been this tall in high school? She'd never had any classes with him, he was a year ahead of her, and he was rarely at school anyway, and when he was it's not like she just stormed over and began talking to him, and asked how tall he was then, and he hadn't been this tall then he was twelve for sure.. So when did he grow a million inches, and why the hell hadn't she grown any? Standing here, with Anthony towering over her, with a gun at the ready.. it was hard not to feel a little.. small, unprotected, like he could take her out at any time.

Then he did something she wasn't expecting.. He called her beautiful, she looked up at him questionably, wondering if he was joking. Her expression turned to confusion when it seemed as though he was being honest. First of her, she was Irish, his sworn enemy. Second, she'd just be bawling her eyes out, she probably looked like a train wreck. She reached up, dragging her index finger under her eyes, and they came away with black smudges, she kept touching her eyes until she was satisfied she no longer looked like something that had crawled out of sewer. "Why'd you do that?" She questioned, looking back up at him again finally, after having been looking away to fix her makeup. She was sure the only thing still in tact would be her guava flavored lip gloss. "I mean.. why'd you call me beautiful just then? I'm not exactly looking my best.. and I'm Irish... and I mean..." Now how was she gonna answer his question.. it was a perfectly valid question on his part. What the hell was she doing here, and why was she crying.

It seemed too hard to answer his question though, and instead she just began playing with one of his suspenders. He was kinda.. looking mighty fine. Suspenders, button up, whatever the hell the name of that hat was. It all looked really hot. Sure, it wasn't the first guy Pixel had seen dressed like that in this business, but he just seemed to do it.. better. Like the shirt hugged in the right places, and if she weren't engaged, she'd probably loop a finger through one of the suspenders and begin pulling him away to somewhere private, where.. stuff, could happen. Pixel liked stuff. She wished she could do stuff now. But she was engaged and she had never cheated before, mostly because she'd never really had any relationships, but that was besides the point. If she wanted to do stuff, she'd have to do it with James, and that made the sick feeling she'd just gotten rid of threaten to come back. She didn't know what it was, but something about Anthony just her relax a little bit.. Even though everything in her should be screaming right now. "Hey.. can I borrow this?" She asked, reaching up and grabbing his hat, then placing it down on top of her her head. Her hair was down, instead of it in normal pony-tail, curls water falling over her shoulders and down her back. It actually looked really cute with the hat.

Pixel smiled softly, barely a hint of a smile as she adjusted the hat of top of her head. It had one of those bands on the inside so it would fix smaller or bigger heads. Pixel had a smaller head, but still the hat stayed in place fairly well. "How do I look?" She asked, and did a little twirl so he could look at all of her. She knew she was attractive, she just didn't think she was looking all that beautiful. Sure, she'd wiped away the makeup that had been running down her face, but that didn't mean anything, she still felt like she was she looked like a hot mess. Pixel stopped twirling, and because she was slightly dizzy she sat down onto the ground, kinda fall hard on her butt. She reached up, grabbing Anthony's hand closest to her and tugging on it until he was sitting down neck to her. She closed her eyes, her hand playing with the hem of her dress absentmindedly. She was still trying to figure out how to answer Anthony's question, but it all seemed like such a long story and she really.. really had no idea where to start. Highschool maybe, where she'd started getting pressure for marriage? Or should she skip ahead to the engagement to a guy she knew nothing about? Pixel took a few deep breaths in and out, trying to steady her breathing. She opened her eyes, looking down at her hand playing with the hem of the dress and stopping, then she realized she was still holding onto Anthony's hand. She pulled it away slowly. "Sorry, I'm just.. emotional right now.." She stated simply, then looked over at him, her eyes fixing on the pools of crystal clear blue water he had for irises. "I'm.. I'm getting married." She said, then looked away, down at her left hand, with a pretty big engagement ring on it. Like James thought the bigger the diamond, the more wild she'd get in bed or something. She began pulling on it, trying to get it off, but it was like it was glued there. Pixel popped her knuckle trying to get it off, but she just kept trying. She didn't want to be married. She didn't want to have James' kids. She didn't want to do this anymore she just wanted to be happy. Pixel hadn't realized it, but as she started pulling the ring off, she started crying all over again.

[Anthony Matthew Price]

Anthony just watched her wipe the rest of her make up from her face while he thought about her question. The answer was because she was just that. A beauiful girl, runny makeup, Irish and all. A girl couldn't help who gave birth to her. Now her judgement might be a little clouded cause she still follows the wrong people but doesn't mean she wasn't beautiful. Then he felt her hand taking his hat off him. She was putting it on and twirling around for him. He couldn't help but smile and let out a little laugh. "Down right sexy"

Then they were sitting on the ground. She was saying she was emotional right now, not like it wasn't obvious or anything. And that she was getting married. Anthony looked down for a moment silently. His eye were staring at her hands. It wasn't long before he noticed she was trying to take the ring off and tears were back to overfilling her eyes. He had to admit he sorta felt bad for her. "I said you were beautiful cause I meant it. Even with your runny make-up and .. Being Irish .. You're beautiful. Maybe .. even being from the wrong culture doesn't matter. We have the same color hair and the same color skin, had it not been for all the bad blood between our families maybe we could have been friends. But you are beautiful" His hand found its way to her cheek to make her look at him. Then his lips were touching hers.

[Pixel Ann Conner]

Pixel continued to cry as he explained himself. Okay, well.. She wasn't not beautiful that wasn't what she was saying. Pixel knew she was pretty, she just didn't see why he.. a Price, thought as much. She thought about his sister, and what Pixel figured the older Price would call her. Or maybe she wouldn't call her anything, she'd probably just try to kill her. But there was no way in hell the girl would call Pixel beautiful. Maybe there was something wrong with Anthony's head. Maybe it was in his pants. Yeah, they seemed like a likely situation. Thought honestly, Pixel didn't have much room to talk, she was the one thinking about pulling him around by his suspenders and finding somewhere private to remove them. So really, she didn't mind that he was calling her beautiful, and down right sexy. It was pretty than James' "you're so hot" as he began trying to strip her. Honestly, the guy probably would have at least seem her chest by now if he wasn't so freaking awkward and knew how to work a bra clasp.

Then Pixel was looking away from her hands, what she could see of them through blurry eyes, because Anthony was pulling her face to look at him, then he was kissing her. Oh, they were on kissing terms now? Tell a guy about your engagement and let him call you down right sexy one time, and suddenly it was make-out city. Not that she minded, of course, all Pixel had wanted to do since she found out about this stupid engagement was have some hot one-night-stand, and Anthony had the hot part down, now just for the one-night-stand part. Pixel ditched trying to get off her engagement, and instead wrapped her arms around Anthony's neck, and swung her leg around him and crawled in his lap, facing him. Her skirt was hiked up because of the way she was sitting. Much more and everyone would be seeing her underwear. Suddenly it was like Pixel's hands were trying to get everywhere on Anthony's body at once. First his hair, promptly fucking it up, then down his chest and abs, then around to his back, deepening the kiss as she softly dug her nails into Anthony's back. Then her hands were back on his chest, and her hands were twisting in his shirt as she pulled away, panting. She'd been kissing him so hard and passionately, she'd forgotten to breath. "This better not be a fucking game. Like if there are your goons hiding out somewhere, tell them to go away, okay?" She was trying to be realistic while also trying to figure out how the hell Anthony knew she needed him to kiss her just then. "Not let's go back to making out." She grinned a little bit, then her lips were back on his, and she began hastily trying to unbutton his shirt. In this moment, she had every intention of making Anthony cry out in ecstasy, and beginning how good he was.. She thought his name would sound sexy in screaming form.

[Anthony Matthew Price]

Anthony felt her leg swing around and now her straddling him. Her lips were kissing him back, he half expected her to pull away and slap him. Mostly cause he's Italian and she's Irish and partly cause she's engaged to someone else and her lips were supposed to be taken. But his guess was, was that she didn't really like this guy. So he could see where the kiss would be appealing to her. But fact remained that he was still an Italian. But he liked the way they were kissing. Then her lips were pulling away from his and she was speaking. He let out a small laugh when she said goons. He didn't need goons to protect him he was the enforcer, it was his job to kill people and so if he felt threatened he'd kill you.

"Its just me Irish girl. I don't need goons to protect me. I am the protection." He was good with going back to making out. He smiled some while he kissed her back. Her hands were unbuttoning his shirt. Sooo she wanted more then kissing? Or she just wanted to see his tattoos or his hot muscles. But he was going with the first. That she wanted to do more then just kiss and he .. oddly was cool with that. His hands moved up her thighs and slid under her dress. Good thing about dresses really, the girl was easily accessible, and there wasn't wasted time on removing a crap ton of clothes. He never thought he'd be doing this with her. Sure maybe any other girl in town but not her.

[Pixel Ann Conner]

It was good to know no one but Anthony was there. Well, and Joe, but Joe was probably reading right now, not watching her get it on with the Italian Prince of River City. God, this was so wrong. She should feel so dirty right now. She should have drawn back from the kiss and slapped Anthony so hard the sound of it echoed in his head for a week. But she didn't, because something in her was screaming at her to sleep with the next male she saw, and Anthony kissing her had opened the flood gates. Now all she could think about was getting his clothes off, or at least out of the wall of the places she wanted right now. Then Anthony's hands ran up her dress, and it was like she lost control of her body for a moment, and her hips were grinding into his, and she had to pull away her lips from his and moan softly. "Fuck." She said softly. IT had clearly been too long since the last time she'd had sex.

Then she was back to kissing him, her head tell her to stop, but her body not wanting for to, pretty much begging her not too stop until they were finished. But still... she didn't know Anthony, besides the fact that he was the bad guy. Or at least what she grew up being taught was the bad guy. James was her knight in shining armor.. not Anthony. If she slept with him, she's be betraying her family, her blood. If she slept with him.. and anyone found out.. she could be killed. She ran her hands up into his hair again, and pulled away slowly, looking into his eyes in the faint light coming from the moon. "Dammit... dammit, dammit, dammit." She looked away and got off his lap, still cursing under her breath. "Stupid.. stupid engagement." She said and finally yanked the engagement ring off, no matter how bad it hurt. "Stupid hot guy I can't fuck even though I really want to." She stood up, pulling her arm back and flinging the engagement ring with all her might into the mucky water. "Stupid fucking life." She fell back down beside Anthony, pouting, then looked over at him, and began doing his buttons. "I'm sorry... I'm engaged, and I shouldn't have led you on. I can't sleep with you, even though I want to.. okay?" She said as she finished buttoning his shirt. She was faster at it when she was actually focusing on it instead of just trying to get him out of his clothes as fast as possible. "And I'm sorry about the stupid hot guy.. I'm sure you're not stupid, I'm just.. unhappy right now." She looked up and gave me a small, forced, smile.

[Anthony Matthew Price]

Anthony kept telling himself that this was totally fine, that no one was going to find out about this. If they did he'd probably be a dead man. She was the enemy. Her and her family. But she was a hot enemy. And he'd never really been one hundred percent sure just what their families were fighting about these days. But they were and this wasn't right. He would be betraying his sister and his fathers empire. But right now he wanted nothing more then to lay her on her back and tell her not to scream. Couldn't risk someone hearing her. But before he had that chance she was pulling away from him completely.

"Its ok .. I understand. I'm sorry you're unhappy." He knew soon though she'd be unhappy and dead if she was caught by someone else in this territory. "Not that I don't enjoy your company or anything, but you should probably get out of here. If someone else were to catch you here then I'd be forced to hurt you and I don't wanna have to do that." Deep down he really did like her. Even felt that maybe they could be friends if their worlds weren't the way they were. She'd helped him once when they were little not he was returning the favor.

[Pixel Ann Conner]

Pixel listened to Anthony, and then nodded. She didn't know why she went to this part of town anyway.. She just needed to get away, as far away from James and her dad as possible without leaving the city, and the sound of the water was calming, so.. she just decided here when Joe had asked her where to. It was stupid, and reckless, and dangerous to come here, and Anthony could have killed her as soon as he saw her. Guns had silencers for a reason. She wouldn't have known he was there, she'd just be dead. She leaned in. "I can't sleep with you.. but making out is okay, right?" She asked and before he had a chance to answer she was kissing him and pushing him back onto the ground, half laying on top of him.

She did this so she could get in his pocket, and she carefully snaked out his phone so he wouldn't know what she was doing. She was an excellent pick pocket, even when she didn't have her tongue down the person she was pick pocketing's throat. Finally she pulled away, and looked down, making sure she'd typed everything correct while not looking, then clicked save and shoved Anthony's phone in his hands. "I'm under Ann, my middle name so no one would know if they saw your phone.. Send a text to me with your middle name so I can save it in my phone.. Oh, and your hat." She said and reached up, switching the hat from her head to his, then she got up, and walked over to her heels, stepping back into them. "You can.. text me or call me whenever.. and thank you.. For everything." She turned back to him, at this point he was already on his feet again. She walked over and kissed his cheek softly. "Goodnight, Anthony." She said with a smile, then began walking back to the black car waiting for her. Joe saw her coming and got out, opening her door for her, and she looked at Anthony once again before ducking into the car, then Joe got in.. and they were gone. Pixel watched Anthony turn into a little dot in the rear view.. then disappear from view completely, and she threw her head back. "I should have had sex with him." She mumbled, figuring Joe couldn't hear her. But he did. "James, ma'am?" Pixel made a gagging noise. "No, gross, I'd rather sleep with a Price."