growth

11

C R U S H
• LORENZO •

"Hi baby." I say, walking into the kitchen where Amalia is sitting, drawing in her little sketchbook. I kiss her forehead as I round the counter, and she smiles.

"Hi." She replies, still dressed in her school uniform. Her phone dings, and I follow her gaze over to it, finding the screen lighting up with the letters:

OLLIE💗💗💖💖🙂🙂🥰🥰🤭🤭

My eyebrow arches a little. She's in year right now, and still friends with Oliver. While I'm grateful she has people to play with, I don't like that some of them are boys. And I especially don't like that those boys have hearts next to their names on her phone.

Her cheeks turn pink, and she picks up her phone quickly. She glances around the room, and when her green eyes land on me she pauses.

"You okay?" I ask her.

"Yep." She answers quickly. "Very much."

I'm about to respond when Grayson and Cole walk through the door, the latter with exhaustion etched into his features. They came back from football half an hour ago, and neither of them have bothered to change out of their muddy clothes.

     "What're you grinning at?" Grayson asks his baby sister.

     "None of your beeswax."

     I smirk.

     "What's that?" Grayson asks, pointing to the fridge.

Amalia follows his finger, and Grayson takes her moment of distraction to grab her phone from her hand. She squeals and steps off her chair, jumping up and down as she tries to get her phone back off her older brother.

"Dad!" Amalia exclaims.

"Grayson." I warn.

Grayson holds her phone high above his head as Cole grins. "Who's this?" He asks loudly, scrolling. "Why's my baby sister messaging a boy?"

Mason walks in the room, eyes glued to his phone, and Xander trials in behind him. "What's with all the shouting?" The latter asks.

"Amalia's messaging a boy." Cole says.

Both Mason and Xander snap their heads down to look at her at the same time. "What?" Mason asks.

"He's my friend." Amalia shouts. "You're just salty cos' you've got none!"

Cole laughs.

"Why's your friend got a bunch of hearts next to his name? Hm?" Grayson teases.

     Xander takes the phone, and I sigh. "Give her her phone back." I say.

     "Are you seeing this? She's putting x's to a boy!" Xander exclaims.

     "I do it to all my friends, you hippo!" Amalia shouts.

     "You're not allowed to do it to boys." Mason says.

     "Shut up." Amalia glares at him. "You're all boys."