A fractured fairytale

7

God, she was beautiful.

I'd certainly never seen her before. I'd have remembered her, for sure.

She was so different from the other girls in school. They were all overly flirtatious with me and my brother and I knew for a fact it was because our father had money. Jay was a good-looking guy and received a great deal of female attention, but girls weren't nearly as over the top and obsessive with him as they were with us and the only difference was the money.

But Rose hadn't seemed the slightest bit interested in me. She'd seemed intimidated, which was understandable. I tried to be as approachable as possible, but it wasn't easy when I was 6 foot 5 and everyone in school knew my father was the mafia don.

The other thing that set Rose apart from the other girls in school was the fact she didn't have to try to be beautiful. Her clothes were nothing special, not like Kelly who only wore designer clothing, her hair was still wet in places and was just scraped away from her face into a ponytail, and her face was free of makeup. My father had always told our mom that she looked better when she was in comfy clothes and without makeup and I'd always thought it was some cliché thing that guys said to sweet talk their wives and girlfriends but with Rose, it was true.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about her, looking for her. In my classes, in the halls, at lunch. I searched for her amongst the crowds of students but not once did I spot her. A part of me wanted to ask Alex if he knew her, if she was in any of his classes since his grades were much better than mine so he was dumped with the smarter kids for some classes. But another part of me didn't want him knowing about her, didn't want him looking at her as anything other than one of the nerds in his class, if she was even in it all. I also knew he and the other guys would rip the shit out of me if I gave them the slightest hint that I was interested in her.

And God, I was interested.

"You okay?" my brother asked me as we made our way towards our lockers at the end of the day.

I nodded. "Just thinking about Jay," I lied smoothly, "do you think he's alright?"

He hadn't been in school today, which was unlike him, especially when he had practice. Like me, he lived and breathed for football and wouldn't miss a practice unless something serious had happened. And it wouldn't be the first time either. He spent most of his time at school or our house to avoid home and all the trouble that went with it. His mom was out of rehab at the moment and he always tried to spend as little time at the house as possible when she was there because he hated watching her spiral over and over again.

But if he'd missed school, my guess was that she had something to do with it.

I sorted through the books in my locker as slowly as possible, hoping to drag out the inevitable. Most people had already fled the school grounds, darting for the door the second the bell rang signalling the end of the day. I was usually amongst those first out the door but today, with my dad picking us up, I wanted to wait until the car park was as empty as possible.

Alex checked his watch before sighing. "Let's get this over with."

I trailed alongside him down the hallway and outside, spotting my dad's car immediately. He stood beside the vehicle, a smirk on his face as we approached him like a couple of pathetic kids. "Good day at school?" he mocked.

I rolled my eyes while Alex muttered "dickhead" under his breath, just loud enough that he could hear but our younger brother and sister, already in the back of the car, couldn't.

Dad's smirk only widened. "I think I'll walk you to the doors tomorrow morning, make sure you get to class okay."

I met his amused expression with a glare. "Come on, we've learnt our lesson, can't we just have our keys back?"

He scoffed. "Not a chance." I opened the door to the back seats and tossed my bag in. "Where's your sister?" Dad asked, his focus now back on the main entrance to the school.

I shrugged before moving to sit in the middle row of the car. I knew Vi would throw a tantrum if one of us went for the front seat and I didn't have the energy for another argument with her today.

It was another five or so minutes later when she leisurely strolled out of school with a couple of her friends. Dad remained outside the car, watching as she avoided looking in our direction for as long as possible while she said goodbye to her friends and then finally turned our way, a scowl on her face.

I heard her voice as she neared the car. "Why am I being punished because Matt and Alex were stupid?"

Dad shook his head and slid into the driver's seat. "Would you rather I let you walk home?" he turned to her and rose a brow. "Or you can have some change for the bus."

My sister visibly trembled at the thought and dad rolled his eyes but didn't bother to say more. "Everyone got their seat belts on?" he checked, his focus on the rear-view mirror where he could see into the back row where Em and Chris sat.

"Yep," Em confirmed, her voice soft, while Chris just rolled his eyes, apparently too old to need to be told to wear a seatbelt now. He'd started protesting a lot recently about being treated like a kid and I knew it wouldn't be long before he was going through his moody, teenage rebellion stage. Dad had already told us all about how he wasn't ready for that.

The ride home was silent, aside from Em quietly singing away to the song playing on the radio behind me. From the corner of my eye, I could see her resting her head against the window, her eyes watery. I didn't say anything, knowing she wouldn't want to hear it from me. If something was wrong, she'd pull dad to the side when we got home and say something.

"You haven't asked where Jay is," Alex pointed out from where he sat beside me, meeting my dad's gaze in the mirror. "I guess that means you already know."

He didn't say anything but he didn't need to, the expression on his face said enough. And when we got back, the bags in the hallway were further confirmation that Jay would be staying with us for the foreseeable future. My mom had gone as far as to redecorate one of the spare rooms a few years ago to suit his tastes, practically making it his bedroom in the house.

He grinned at us as we walked through the door, Em immediately tugging on my dad's hand and aiming for the stairs. I made a mental note to check on her later. "Miss me?" Jay teased, collecting the bags by the door and turning to carry them upstairs. We followed and I threw myself onto the bed, watching as he started to unpack his clothes into the wardrobe where some of his stuff was still here from the last time he had to stay.

"What happened?" I asked him, watching him frown when I got dirt from my shoes on his freshly washed bedding.

"She's gone back," he muttered with a shrug, always acting like he didn't care although I knew he did. The way he interacted with my parents was proof enough that he enjoyed having parental figures, especially a mother. My mom doted on him more than she did with her own kids and my dad made sure to treat him no differently than the rest of us, grounding him along with Alex and I when we pissed him off.

"You good?" Alex asked him, a sceptical look on his face.

Jay grinned although it was forced. "Of course, back where I get three meals a day and get to piss your dad off by making sex jokes about your mom," he said with a wink.

I scowled back at him. I knew he didn't mean it, unlike some of the other guys on the team that had outright expressed their interest in her, despite the fact she's nearly forty. He only said those things in front of my dad to get a rise out of him, especially because he knew my mom would defend him if dad got angry, which would only piss him off more. It was both entertaining and disturbing to watch.

He only laughed in response to my reaction. "How was tutoring this morning?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in my direction.

I rolled my eyes. "Boring. More importantly, how was practice without me?"

I tilted my head to face Alex. "Depressing," was all he said, "I hope that tutor of yours is good because we need you back on the team asap."

I smirked but kept quiet, my thoughts now back on the beautiful blonde.