Me in a gang? No, I'm in a family

chapter 19: Sobriety

I don't know how I actually managed it but I got about 10 minutes sleep while I had some sort of episode last night, however I'm still very drunk from last night, which doesn't help when I go down stairs and I see everyone there, I think most of them passed out on the couch last night, others managed to climb up the stairs and sleep in their own beds, at least, I hope so.
My memory is fuzzy, and I can barely remember what happened the whole day and last night, but I shake them thoughts and I head into the kitchen and (I swear I'm not an alcoholic) I take out a beer.
Don't worry mom. It's only 4%, I think to myself and chuckle silently, I walk into the living room, and no joke everyone gives me a weird look, have I got something on my face? An odd pair of socks?
But then Jasper pipes up, helping me understand what they're looking at me funny for, "You shouldn't be drinking at this time. "Are you my mother now?"
Jasper : "No. She's been dead for a long time" he deadpans and then adds, "however you drinking beer for breakfast isn't healthy, go eat some avocado or something" I ignore his request and take a seat next to Ajax, "rough night?" He asks me and I nod slowly, "I got no sleep and I hate coffee" thanks to my taste buds I can use that excuse.
Ashley then looks towards me and leans on her knees with her elbows, "Clarify 'no sleep'?"
I laugh, "I've been awake for over 40 hours, with no sleep." Ashley looks taken a back with my explanation and she lets out a mumbled, "oh" I nod, "Yeah"
Ajax looks at Ashley and then they both look back at me, Ajax then goes up to the kitchen counter and grabs a bottle of water, throwing it at my face I catch it, just about anyway. "Here, drink this"
"this is water" I look at him, with a numb look in my eye and he nods, "I'm not giving you more alcohol, you don't need it" I look at him confused, "You want me to sober up? Why?"
Ajax gives me a small smirk, "Because someone is coming here today and I don't want someone fucking this business opportunity up" wow harsh much? And so with that I take off the bottle cap and start drinking the horrible flavourless water that was handed to me by a monster.
Ajax then turns to Jasper who laughs, "All you had to do was give her a reason and she would stop" Ajax then looks sad, "You couldn't of told me before?" Jasper smirks at him, "Its a fun party trick, although wouldn't work at an actual party" within a couple of minutes I'm mildly sober and ready for the day, its only 11am, shite. Long day ahead of us folks.
When life got tough, I just gradually forgot about it, it was easy, I basically was a ghost anyway so what was the harm of forgetting most of my life?
This time was different however, as I couldn't just leave the house and run away. I need to apparently stay here, until the threat is cleared.
An hour after I've sobered up, Alec comes up to me while I'm on my laptop, trying to figure some things out about this gang, while sitting in the middle of all of them. Alec starts asking me questions, "so, Dahlia..' he starts, I look up at him and cock my head to the side, 'Yes?" He smirks at me, "what music do you listen to?" And then it leads to a disaster of links.
Nathan then looks towards me and asks, "do you even listen to music?" Jace cuts off Nathan and asks me, "do you have spotify?" Ashley then also adds to the conversation, "Or apple music?"
The questions catch me slightly off my guard, but nevertheless I'm an assassin, I know these questions, "I listen to rock, indie, alternative, metal, I have spotify" Alec slightly cuts me off, "favourite rock band?" I add, I listen to pink Floyd, green day, iron maiden"
Ashley then walks up to me and gets on her knees, looking me dead in the eye and asks me, "indie?" My small gay heart is extremely nervous right now but I get my nerves under control as well as my heart beat, "Twenty one pilots, Panic! Some things like that" Alec then comes to the other side of me and asks me, "do you play any instruments?" I chuckle and nod, "I play the guitar and the piano"
I see Jasper walk through the kitchen and overhear this, I see the idiot smile as he understands why I still play.
"favourite song to play on the guitar?" This question makes me think but then I remembered the one song that first got me playing, "Hey there Dehlila"
Ashley fidgits with her fingers before she gains the courage to ask me "could you do it us?" I ponder and shrug, "I need to grab my guitar first" but Ajax stops me and runs upstairs, Jasper knows I am afraid of singing in front of people, but they want it and I haven't played in front of people for a while, maybe this will be easier.
Ajax runs back down and hands me my guitar gently, handing me the My Chemical Romance pick that was in the strings, "Here" I laugh, "You're lucky that I have been playing on it at night" Alec smirks, "We could hear some sounds come from your room, we just didn't know if it was you making them" then he looks towards Ajax and smirks more, Ajax looks at him with a glare and he immediately shuts up.
And with that I begin to sing and play, I've missed being able to play in front of people even though my stage fright is extremely high, but I would never want to give this up.
When I finish I look up to everyone and they stare at me, "Holy shit bags bro that was awesome!' Ashley shouts and smiles, raising her hands in the air as a sign of achievement, "I told you she could play really well!" Alec smiles at me and takes the guitar out of my hands and places it back on the stand that Ajax had also brought down.
Jasper then lights up like a Christmas tree, "Wait! Is that the guitar I got you?" I smile back, "Yeah, its still got all of the stickers we placed on it as kids" and then he grabs it from the stand and twizzles it around it is hands, I can feel him getting nostalgic as looks at every sticker, with every memory attached to them.
"Its still in very good condition, I can't believe you kept this"
Ajax pov:
The guitar, recognize it, I saw it in its case when when we were assassination, holy cow she still carried it around with her. That's some dedication. However she never got it out of the case when we were assassins. She never played it or got it out, it was just there. Accumulating dust over the years.
Dahlia pov:
Chase speaks up for the first time in quite a while, "Hey, did Jasper always look after you?"I spot Ajax gives Chase a look to say 'dont go there' but he does, Jasper glares at him, and I respond hesitatantly. "um, not exactly, when our parents died when I was young, but Jas couldn't look after me then, we went to a care home"
Chase keeps digging for more, slightly an invasion of privacy but the whole world already kinda knows, "how did they die?" I shrug at him, "some gang killed them, in a shooting that happened outside of our house" Chase obviously doesn't get the memo of "shut the fuck up' and keeps asking for more detail, "what gang?" I stare right back at him, "Yours."
I look away from Chase and moves up from the chair that I was sitting on and go over to the big window, where I find peace in such a weird place.
Chase gives out a grumpy, "what?" And so then I go into the detail he wants so badly, "The Hunters gang and the Scorpos gang had a shooting, 6 years ago, they were fighting and then shots were fired and my parents were unfortunately caught up in it"
"but we weren't officially together then" Nathan cuts him off, "Only some of you, remember Alec and Eli joined you first"
I nod, "I know, idiot" I shake my head, still looking out of the window, "it wasn't you. However it was The Scorpos, They have shoot outs with themselves, and then hurt people, innocent people, for fun"
"They are the ones that killed our parents" Jasper mumbles, still deeply effected by our parents' deaths.