Eli Borrelli

22: Birthday boy

Alessandro turned to look at Matteo, who just shot his hands up in surrender.

"Don't look at me, I'm just trying to read my book," he said with scared eyes. I wasn't sure if he was scared of Alessandro or me.

After a while of me shooting him my puppy eyes, Alessandro let out a deep sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Fine, but we are drug testing you the second you come home," he said giving up.

"Thank youuuu," I sang giving him a hug, which he was clearly not expecting.

Matteo POV.

"I've gone way too soft, haven't I?" Alessandro asked completely surrendered.

"I don't know about that, but all I know is that you just made them really happy, by letting them be a normal kid for once," I said with a smile.

"But yeah, you were never that soft with any of us," I added getting a small smile from Alessandro.

He was giving those away more easily nowadays.

That night, Dimitri and Ethan were at our house for dinner. Dimitri had some business with Alessandro, who had gone home early for once in his life, and Ethan had started to come around more often. I was never given the full story, but from what I've gathered, it was important, for Ethan to have someplace he felt safe in.

Eli POV.

Two days later, I was in my room stressing about what to wear. I had a shit ton of things the boys had bought for me, but I always felt too guilty to wear them. At that point, I think I might have worn something they paid for once or twice. The problem with that was, I didn't have a lot of nice clothes. It was never a priority for me. My clothes were always practical and warm. They had to be. I worked outside most of the year in conditions, that would shock anyone on this planet.

So, it was already six o'clock, we had already eaten, and I was leaving in thirty minutes. Lorenzo would drive me to Abby's, where we'd spend time together as a group before the others started coming in. I had thirty minutes to come up with something to wear. Google wasn't of much use, since what came up was either suits or hoodies.

"What's up?" Antonio asked as he just barged into my room.

For a long time, I didn't dare to say something about the boys just walking into my room, because it was their house, but I was clearly getting more comfortable in it, and I wasn't sure what to think about it.

"Fucking knock you dildo," I called getting progressively impatient.

"Chill out," he said throwing his hands in the air.

"What's wrong?" Antonio asked as he saw me in the closet fuming.

"I have no idea what people wear to things like this. I've never really been to one. I mean I sneaked into a couple for the free alcohol, but I never thought about what to wear," I complained falling down onto the little bench.

"I'm not that good with clothes, but I've been to my fair share of parties," Antonio said with a smirk.

"My savior!" I exclaimed throwing my hands in the air.

"Calm the fuck down, and listen," he said with a chuckle.

"Just wear something casual, but better, than your usual school clothes. Like instead of jeans you can wear straight pants, or instead of your flannels you can wear a collared shirt," Antonio explained.