Content warning: A little NSFW ahead. No real nudity but a slightly suggestive image.

Monte Vista was grey and rainy around the time Gina got with Doriano. It was right on the border between summer and autumn, in a period of heavy rains and cold winds that swept the town. Thinking back, she knew it couldn’t be as grey as she remembered—it was more that her mindset had, in time, tinted her memories.

She remembered vividly the first time she slept with Doriano. She remembered feel of rain on her skin and drops in her hair as she greeted him on the patio. He had come over so they could ‘do homework’ together. Even before he arrived, she knew they wouldn’t get any work done. Gina wasn’t a doing-homework kind of person, and he was even less so, if that were possible.

They pretended that they were going to work for a bit, got out notebooks and pencils and pretended to make outlines. They sat around looking pensive with pencils pressed to their lips, until they burst out laughing and their concentration left.

Gina was still amazed at how different he had been since they had come back from the summer holidays. Perhaps it was just because she hated Carlotta and Carlotta had warned her away, but she felt drawn to him in a way she hadn’t before. He didn’t hit on her the way he had always done. He seemed interested in her and listened when she talked. It was like he was a different guy.

It was hard to remember why she had ever been wary of being around him, because it started to seem like they had so much in common. After their laughter died down, Gina told him that they must get back to work.

She picked up her pen and notebook and started scribbling blindly, until Doriano’s foot nudged her.

“This is boring.”

“It’s why you’re here,” she said. “To make this project together, remember?”

He groaned and dropped his head back. “Let’s not do that. Tell me about Cavalcante.”

Gina froze, the pen hovering over the page. It had been over a month, she could feel her feelings for him fading—transferring, as it were, to Doriano—but the pain was still there.

“Why?” she snapped. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Oh come on, Regina, we’ll make fun of him. It’ll be great. Let me start: He looks really dumb.”

Gina rolled her eyes.

“What an amazing insult. Do go on.”

“He’s a snob,” Doriano continued, heedless of her sarcasm. “And extremely boring. He’s not even very good-looking and… he hurt you, which is the worst of all. Your turn.”

“No.”

Doriano raised an eyebrow. “No? Don’t tell me you’re still into him.”

“I’m not,” she said, “but I don’t want to talk about it. He’s an asshole, that’s all.”

Doriano moved a little closer and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I can tell you’re still sad, you know.”

“I’m not.” Gina pushed his hand away and glared. “Stop. Talking. About it.”

“Regina…”

“Oh God, why can’t you just call me Gina?” she asked, jumping to her feet to stare him down. “Everyone else calls me Gina, so what’s wrong with you?”

He got up as well and with his impressive height it became harder to stare him down.

“I like Regina more. It’s a beautiful name.”

Gina blushed. “Stop.”

“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” He said it without sarcasm. “I use the name because it’s beautiful and you should feel beautiful. It’s the same reason I talk about Cavalcante, you know.”

“Because he should feel beautiful?” Gina spat, though her anger was fizzling out.

Doriano laughed. “No, because I want you to feel like he’s an asshole, because he is. You deserve to feel good about yourself, you deserve to feel beautiful and wanted.”

In hindsight, she realised he moved like a predator. He had her fixed to the spot with a stare and he walked close slowly, deliberately, taking her into his arms with all the confidence of a prowling tiger.

He claimed her lips with fierceness and little finesse. At first Gina was so surprised she stayed still, but he whispered between kisses that she was beautiful and she gave into the sensation. The crushing pain that had lingered like a whisper loosened and she let herself feel loved.

There was never a moment after that when she hesitated. She gave herself to Doriano willingly, and he was a generous receiver. It wasn’t even bad sex, she realised later. She had no frame of reference at the time, but in looking back, it was enjoyable—particularly for a first time.

Maybe it was why her memories were so grey. When it happened, she didn’t hate it. Hell, she liked it, and so her mind did what it could to make the memories match her feelings.

He was a decent lover. Not terribly concerned with her pleasure, but just concerned enough that he left her blissfully happy for a few days. It took that long for her to feel used. To realise that one moment she was still aching after being dumped, and the next she was in his arms. It had gone too fast, she hadn’t been ready, it wasn’t how she wanted it to happen.

She tried to push it down and assure herself it wasn’t like that. And when she talked to him about it, he told her she was silly. They were good together, he assured her, and so she kept on seeing him despite the nagging doubts. She pushed those down, ignored them, and kept on going.

Gina continued in her happy daze for weeks. She liked Doriano. She liked the sex. She liked not thinking and not hurting. But as reality had a tendency to, it came crashing down on her hard.

The rainy days continued, the grey skies had become a permanent fixture over all her meetings with Doriano. On the day when she realised what was going on, it would have been any other day where she lounged in the gazebo with Doriano and Amanda and tried to convince herself that her relationship—or whatever you called it—was great.

Of course, Carlotta had other ideas.

There was no introduction, no preamble or warning this time. It seemed for all in the world like the blonde had just coincidentally passed by and seen her chance to try again. All she said was:

“Check his phone.”

Gina turned and glanced. “Whatever, Carlotta.”

“He’s your boyfriend, right? So borrow his phone and check his messages to his friends.”

“I don’t have time to deal with your jealousy,” Gina said.

“I’m not jealous, I want that asshole to go down and once you get your head out of your ass, I need you to help me.”

Gina let out an incredulous laugh. “Right, blondie, good luck with that.”

She started walking and heard Carlotta saying:

“Check his phone and if you hate him as much as me after that, come meet me in the town square tonight.”

“Dream on.”

As much as she hated to admit it, the familiar sense of unease stirred in her chest and it was harder than usual to ignore it. Doriano looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“What did Uptighty want?” he asked.

Gina raised her own eyebrow. “Uptighty?”

Doriano waved her over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He kissed her and explained:

“You ever meet anyone more uptight than that?”

“Guess not, but she was just being annoying as usual.”

He completely dismissed Carlotta and instead started talking about the usual. Amanda hung on his every word, when she wasn’t gushing about how cute he and Gina were. It could have easily been a normal day, but Carlotta’s words stuck.

“Can I borrow your phone?” Gina asked spur of the moment. “Mine is out of power.”

“Now?”

“I promised dad that I’d text him once I got here and if I don’t, he might shoot you. Please, just a second?”

Doriano rolled his eyes, but he handed it over along with a little tap on her nosetip. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Gina smiled and sat down with the phone grasped firmly in her hand. It was a very new, very expensive phone and thankfully he had shown her how to use it—otherwise sne never would have managed to navigate to the messages. Before she made it to the right menu, however, she paused and thought: Am I seriously doing this? Because of Carlotta?

She was just jealous, Gina reasoned. It was like Amanda, who was all over Doriano even though she knew he wasn’t into her. That was all—jealousy. And still, Gina made her way into Doriano’s text messages and read.

Gina didn’t end up hating him as much as Carlotta.

She hated him much, much more.

How she managed to get away from Doriano and Amanda without making him know that she knew, she wasn’t sure. Somehow, she managed to hug him and kiss him goodbye without punching his face in and then she went home to pace her room until it was evening and she could meet with Carlotta in town. She wasn’t sure how it had come to this, but here she was, locking eyes with her most loathed classmate in the town square.

“How did you know?” Gina spat without greeting her.

Carlotta wasn’t taken aback. She crossed her arms and said: “I know things.”

“He’s disgusting, he and the others. Nobody else knows, or he wouldn’t still be getting with girls.”

She still felt sick to her stomach, thinking of the things she had read. Doriano bragged about his accomplishments with her and he shared all the intimate details that should have been kept between the two of them. The worst part, however, was the List they kept mentioning. She wasn’t sure what it was but something told her it wouldn’t make her happy.

Carlotta agreed. “No, he wouldn’t, and I want to expose the creep to everyone. I’ve been trying to warn off the others, but as you know that doesn’t exactly work.”

Gina grit her teeth. “I had no reason to listen to you.”

“I realised that. People don’t like me, so I need evidence and you’re my best shot at getting that.”

Gina paused. She still hated Carlotta but after what she had found in Doriano’s phone… she hated him more.

“Go on,” she said.

“You no doubt read about his… List in the texts, right?” Gina nodded and Carlotta continued: “It’s one of the lists from a ‘scrapbook’ he has at home. It has everything in it, everything these guys are doing with girls. The List is in there. Well, I want to get my hands on that book and spread it around. I know he keeps the damned thing in his home but I can’t get in without your expertise. As I see it, there are two options—breaking in or using you as a Trojan horse.”

Gina frowned. “Okay, back up, I’m not a fucking horse.”

“Right, you did skip our lesson on Greek myths…” Carlotta said with a sigh. “What I mean is, you pretend to be there to see him and then you let me in. You’ll probably need to incapacitate him while I search for the scrapbook. If you can incapacitate him.”

“Of course I can,” Gina said, angrily crossing her arms. “Watch me.”

“So, Trojan horse it is.” Carlotta smiled smugly.

“I haven’t agreed to any of this.”

“But you will. The alternative is you go to school tomorrow and kick his ass into the next century and in the process you will accomplish nothing. You’ll be suspended from school and his daddy will make sure nothing happens to him since the family donates so much to the school. This way you both get to beat him up and he doesn’t get to hurt anyone else. So, are you in?”

Gina felt a reluctant glimmer of respect for Carlotta. This was very far from her usual goody-two-shoes shit.

“Why do you care what Doriano does? Did he fuck you, too?”

“No, he didn’t, though not for lack of trying. I have my own beef with him. Are you in?”

Gina felt herself nod. “Okay, blondie, you’re on.”

Author’s note: Hi guys! Welcome back to Monte Vista and to another exciting episode of Doriano Is a Terrible Person. I hate him so much and it’s my own fault for creating him ahaha. There used to be a more severe NSFW warning with this chapter, because I had an actual nude shot for this. Just now as I was readying the chapter, however, I removed it. It didn’t do anything for the chapter and it honestly just made me uncomfortable – I had already blurred it a lot because I hated taking those pics. The one in here is really tame, but I left in a light warning, just in case. Another thing to say about that scene is I hope I’ve made it clear enough that it wasn’t a non-consensual thing. I’m not going there. Ever. But please do tell if it gives that vibe or something. I feel like this is more of him pushing on her emotions and Gina giving in because she’s a spontaneous person. Not necessarily weak-minded, but she’s very inclined to give into her passions. Anyway, like I said – if this gives you a bad feeling, speak up! I want to know if I’m hurting anyone, because that is not the intention. With all of that out of the way I hope you… eh, enjoyed is the wrong word, but I hoped you felt diverted for a bit while you read! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one.

Cheers!



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