Her Mafia Brothers

Pool Party continued....

"Well I know why you like Nick," Frankie told Kate as we doddled slowly up the stairs. "He's pretty nice with no shirt on, isn't he?"

I made loud, exaggerated gagging noises. "Gross, guys! He's my brother!" And then I bit the inside of my lip remembering what my first reaction had been to meeting my brothers, and how I'd thought of Nick as my 'hot brother' for quite a while. My friend's reactions were understandable, really. My brothers were good looking.

Kate grinned. "He is nice to look at though, Carrie. And Rocco. He's pretty fine, too. I'm not sure what I liked better, his tattoos or his muscles."

"Both!" Frankie said, poking her tongue out at me as I made gagging sounds again.

"Alex is scary," Petra said. "Even if he wasn't in the Mafia, I'd find him scary."

"He's a softie, really," I said, defending my brother. Although I wasn't sure why, it was important to me that my friends liked my brothers.

"He didn't look very soft when he slapped your butt," Lily commented. "That looked like it hurt!"

I shrugged. There was no point in denying it - it had hurt, but the sting had started to fade now, even if the handprint hadn't.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It did. But he's soft when it matters. Like when he picked me up from school when I was sick and watched Moana with me." And killed Dominic. But I didn't voice that part to my friends. They'd be even more terrified of him if they knew a doctor had met his demise at the hands of my big brothers. Although I wasn't certain it was Alex who killed him, it was Alex who had bashed him, knocking him out cold, then dragged him away. My friends didn't need to know that bit.

"I even vomited on him," I added. "And he was patient and sweet with me, cleaning me up and looking after me."

"You vomited on him?" Lily looked aghast. "Ew! That's gross, Carrie!"

"It's not like I vomited on him on purpose!" I exclaimed. "I was sick!"

I pushed open my bedroom door and we all went in, shutting the door to drown out the noise from downstairs. The party wasn't even in full swing yet and already, the thumping beat from the speakers shook the house.

"How many people are meant to be coming to this party?" Petra asked. "I know it's been the talk of the school for weeks, but I don't know anyone who was actually invited. Besides us, of course."

I shrugged. "Heaps. Nearly 100, according to Logan. Apparently my brothers have lots of friends. Logan could be exaggerating though."

"Alex is still scary," Petra insisted. "Telling us he's holding us responsible for what you wear nearly made me wet myself!"

Kate giggled. "Wuss," she said, laughing. "What do you think he's going to do? Smack all of our butts?"

Petra glared at her. "Dunno. Maybe?" She turned to me, looking genuinely worried. "He won't, will he?"

I shook my head. "No." Maybe. I don't think so. But maybe. I squashed my doubts down. "Alex is fine, I promise. You'll like him, once you get to know him." I hope.

Leaving my friends chatting in my room, I went into my wardrobe and changed my teeny bikini for my pink swimsuit with the matching shorts. Thanks to Alex, I didn't have a choice. Not unless I wanted everyone to see that my big brother had slapped me. It was bad enough that he'd dragged me from the pool in front of everyone. I didn't need them to see the evidence of the whack he'd given me as well. That was too mortifying.

When I came out of my wardrobe, dressed in my pink swimsuit, my friends were still standing in a huddle talking.

"We didn't want to sit down because we're a bit wet," Lily explained. "Can we go back downstairs now, and get back in the pool? The party sounds like it's rocking down there!"