Chapter Twenty-one: How to Kidnap your Primos.
Angelo let me sleep till it was time for dinner. It was dreamless and perfect, and I felt refreshed.
I slid the back of my hand against the dark sheets that covered Angelo's bed as I slowly woke up. The ceiling was really just fancy woodwork, and I spent about five minutes watching the ceiling fan slowly spin round and round above me before deciding it was best to get out of bed.
Angelo had left me a note saying he'd gone down for dinner but didn't want to wake me because he knew how had it was for me to get sleep the past few days. I still would have preferred to be woken up, but I didn't mind much.
It was dark outside and the windows at the head of the bed were shut to keep out the cold air. Favoring my arm, I slid down to the floor to walk around barefoot, the fireplace in the sitting area was the only source of light.
Angelo's bed was on an elevated platform on one side of the room, so I had to step down into the fancy living room and cross the entire space to get to the bathroom. There, I washed my face and brushed out my hair so I could pile up the curls in a high bun.
Or at least try. With only one arm, it was hard to do things like this, so I just ended up with a crappy updo. Anything but hair in my face was good right now.
The hallway was so quiet and I walked past the many doors hoping no one would suddenly pop out. The only door I could recognize (and that was Pedro's brown door), remained closed like the others. Everyone must have been at dinner already.
It was pretty easy to find the dining room and its huge double doors and I took a deep anxious breath as I stepped into the room.
The giant mahogany table had about six people or so around it but my attention immediately went to the only woman standing, placing a plate in front of a young girl with short, choppy black hair.
She was speaking in rapid spanish, trying to get the girl to eat from a plate piled high with food. Yep, that was definitely Tía Mónica.
"Mama, no" The girl groaned, "I'm not even that skinny, jeez."
"Elena, come tú..." Tía Mónica did a double take in my direction before gasping in delight and shifting all the attention on the table to me.
"¡Dios mío! Is that her!?"
Angelo raised his head from his plate with a mouthful. "Hmm?"
I shook my head, a little peeved that he didn't wake me up to join the dinner.
"Hola, Tía Mónica." I greeted, turning my attention back to the older woman, only to gasp in surprise when I realized she had stepped around the table and was barreling towards me with outstretched arms.
"Tía, wait-!" Angelo said but she'd already wrapped me up in her embrace.
"Welcome, querida!" Mónica squealed, careful not to cause my arm pain but still deliver a heart warming hug. "It is so great to have you here!"
I was stunned to say the least, at how openly affectionate she was and how her warmth made me feel so nostalgic that the breath was knocked out of me.
Angelo caught my gaze from across the room, and through my blurry eyes he almost looked panicked.
Tía Mónica released her arms and stepped back to look up at me, her being a head shorter than I was.
She looked a bit surprised to see me blinking back tears but she was probably used to having emotional wrecks around her all the time because she smiled warmly and held my cheeks in her hands.
"I will take very good care of you, Violet. You are welcome here." She said and this time I hugged her with my one good arm, surprising both of us.
"How cute," Someone drawled from the table in a voice too deep to be Angelo's. Jeez, there were other people in the room too. I released Angelo's "tía" and faced the rest of the family.
"You just ruined the moment, Camilo" Elena scolded someone who was obviously her older brother.
"What? All I said is that she was cute" Camilo said and turned to face Angelo who was seated right across him. "Right, primo?"
Angelo's dry expression returned.
"Ay, Camilo, cállate!" Tía Mónica shushed him and pulled me around the table to sit between Elena and Pedro. Much further from Angelo than I'd like.
"Si Madre" Camilo rolled his eyes and stabbed one of the rolls on his plate with a fork.
"Here, eat, you can get to know my children, do you want some more?" Tía dropped a full plate in front of me and I gave her an awkward look, I didn't know what half of these things were but they did smell nice.
"I can't actually finish this..." I started to say but her face dropped and I immediately changed my words. "...on time, I'm a slow eater."
"Take all the time you want, mi hija." She smiled and went on to the last guy who I assumed was Paul, her next target, and before he could put his phone away his mother reached out to swipe it from his grasp.
Elena snickered impishly and turned to look at me, she was probably in middle school. I returned her smile and leaned my seat backwards, holding the table and making my chair balance on the two back legs just so I could peek behind everyone else at Angelo.
Turns out he was doing the exact same thing.
I chuckled softly, "Hello." I mouthed at him from the other end of the table.
"You okay?" He mouthed back and I shrugged.
"Kind of..."
"Are you two dating?" Elena asked me out of the blue and I returned my seat to it's original position, she had her mother's big brown eyes.
"No, we're not," I shook my head.
"Do you believe that, Elena?" Pedro asked from my right, slyly and my head whipped to his direction. He had a book on the table in front of his plate.
"Mmm, actually yeah." Elena nodded, and I looked back at her, "It's possible, but that's going to change in a while."
"W-what?" I stammered, pausing my forkful of what I assumed was egg on the way to my mouth.
"Oh please, if you don't do anything about it, my primo definitely will." She added and watched my face as a huge blush spread across my cheeks.
"What, you didn't know?" Camilo asked from across the table. He had a constant smirk on his face and basically that whole appearance of a troublemaker.
Susan's type of man.
"Our dear Angelino is whipped in his own way." he added and blew the one streak of blue hair among the other black locks out of his face.
I wondered if Camilo liked nerdy girls with green hair and glasses.
"No one was talking to you, Senor Radioescucha!" Elena said, breaking the last word with each syllable.
I snickered, even though I had no idea what the word meant, it was funny.
Camilo rolled his eyes and lunged across the table to grab a piece of chicken from her plate, making her squeal and laugh.
Tía Monica paused what she was doing and sent a withering look to our side of the table, making all of us instantly go back to our meals, hiding our smiles.
Tío Damien showed up much later to join us for dinner. He was as friendly as the rest of the family but maybe a bit introverted. But so was I so I didn't mind that he barely said much to us only remaining in deep convo with Angelo.
After we'd all eaten to our fill, we were free to go to our rooms.
Elena stuck to me on our way up the stairs, my room was on the same floor as the dining room so I only had to go up to get my things.
"It's so good to have another girl around here, you have no clue how hard it is to be a girl when living with these pigs." Elena sighed only to get nudged as Camilo strutted past us just as we entered the corridor.
"Ugh! Especially this... Pavo!" She yelled and raised her foot so she could pull off her sandal even as we kept walking.
"Pavo?!" Camilo faked a gasp before turning to walk backwards so he could wink at me then suddenly dart into his room, closing the door just in time for Elena's sandal to hit it with a loud "thump!"
I laughed at their antics. "You seem close." I observed.
"We are all close but Camilo is my best friend," She explained with a shrug, bending to pick her footwear. "Do you have any siblings?"
"No...it's just me" I replied and instantly felt a bit jealous, I'd have loved to have at least one sibling, but my parents didn't even stay together long enough for that to happen.
"I envy you," Elena yawned before a look of excitement popped up on her face. "Oh! Do you want to see my room? I just redecorated!"
"Maybe tomorrow, Prima" Angelo's voice said from behind us before I could even reply.
His fingers brushed against mine for a second as he came up to my side before they disappeared like he remembered he wasn't supposed to touch me.
"Why do you get to decide?" Elena asked with a scowl before doing a double take in Moo's direction. My cat had literally been following Angelo all day.
"Aww! Kitty!" She squealed and bent down to play with Moo who simply began to lick herself clean with disinterest.
I looked up at Angelo and offered a shy smile. "They like cats, that's great."
"I know," Angelo nodded and led the way into his room which was actually more like a suite, once more.
"Good night, Violet!" Elena called from the corridor just before I closed the door.
"Your cousins are so nice" I sighed, going to run my hand along the leather of one of the couches. "I wish I had them as cousins."
"You can kidnap them, I'll give you tips on how to do it." Angelo suggested and I turned just to see him slide open a part of the wooden wall like a door and walk in.
"What?" I laughed, "I couldn't possibly pull that off though even if I wanted."
"Oh it's easy!" He called from the new room I didn't even know was there, "You just need a van with air conditioning, lots of rope, sedatives...and me."
"Of course, I need you" I strolled towards the sound of his voice, "as a getaway driver?"
"Exactly, so if you want to capture Camilo, just make sure the van's playing his favorite song for the week, he'll walk right in without a second thought and then.... then you can stab him in the neck with a syringe..."
"Angelo!" I gasped and giggled as I climbed the one step that put me on the same level as his bed, "that's so mean! Keep going."
"As for Pedro, just tell him you found a new library and would love to take him there, it's that easy. Paul would walk right into your van without even thinking about it because he never watches where he's going..."
I shook my head with a smile as I approached the door, "And Elena?"
"Elena might be a little tricker, but I know she really likes free things and kittens so... careful!" I wasn't expecting him to suddenly pop out of the room so I'd run right into him.
"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly, stepping back from his chest so I could peek behind him into the room. It was just a closet.
A huge one too with so many outfits!
"Wow," I said with raised brows. "All this fit into one suitcase?"
"They did a little shopping when I got here." Angelo shrugged and gently tugged on a lock of my hair that had curled around my cheek.
"A little?" I gave a playful scoff and turned around so I could go and sit heavily on his bed.
"Tía Monica showed you a room already?" He asked, opening a drawer and taking out his laptop.
"Yeah, downstairs..."
"Stay here."
I blinked at him. "Um..." Like, sleep here tonight?
"You don't want to?" Angelo asked, looking at me with those piercing eyes of his. "You can say no, I was just suggesting."
"I'm not saying no..." I murmured shyly, tracing dark patterns on the duvet. "Won't your aunt freak out?"
His lips twitched like he was actually going to smile. But he didn't.
"You really like her, don't you?"
"Why do you ask?" I asked, looking down at the names on my cast, Angelo never signed his name, and I never brought it up.
"You let her hug you," He said, coming to sit next to me, folding one leg under him so he could face me. He was so graceful and comfortable in his own body, unlike my stiff, awkward self. "You hugged her back."
I nodded, "I know, she just...I guess I got motherly vibes from her." I said. Angelo watched me in silence, his gaze full of warmth.
"I can't really explain it but she reminded me of a mom, not mine though, she's...she doesn't even care, but a true mother, I missed that feeling." I bit on my lip, struggling to hold back tears, gosh, when would this ever stop?
"You cried so much the past few days" Angelo murmured, his lashes lowering when he looked down. "I hate how much you're hurting. I can only make up scenarios and guess what happened to you to get you to this stage, but whatever happened, do you blame yourself for it?"
I frowned and realized I didn't have to think twice about my answer.
"Of course!" Hale may have been an abusive jerk but I was the only one to blame for putting myself in such a situation in the first place.
"I was just so dumb...a stupid little kid with her head so high in the clouds that she won't listen to anyone. I probably don't even deserve to be this lucky..."
"Hey, stop" Angelo said in a firm voice that made the words hang in my throat along with my tears. "You deserve the world, Violet Adams, if no one's told you that before, I'll gladly be the first to let you know. I will not sit here and watch you say such things to yourself. You probably think you're broken but I promise you, you're not. Stop punishing yourself."
I swallowed, "How am I-?"
His gase softened and he looked down at my hand on the bed before gently brushing a finger across four of mine. I immediately took my hand out of his reach.
"It's obvious," he said, looking back up at me, "you're denying yourself of something you really need. It's just like a person deciding not to eat anymore because they think they don't deserve it, but in your case it's not letting anyone else touch you. You think you don't deserve affection when that's literally what you need the most right now. I should know, I've been through something quite similar."
I shook my head sadly, "I can't take it. I want to, but it's hard."
"I understand, but if you really want to, then let me help you." His silver eyes darted between both of mine.
"Why is this so important to you?" I sighed, "Why did you even let me stay here? It's like you've made it a big deal to be in my life since you came to this town."
His eyes narrowed, "I thought it was obvious." He shrugged, "I like you a lot, Violet. Maybe a bit too much, but I care about you, I mean we're friends, correct?"
I blinked and nodded slowly, "Yeah we're friends, of course we are."
"How could I not want to help you then?" He asked, "I keep mentioning how I was in your shoes once, and for the most part, I went through it alone. I know how terrible this can get, I'd never stand by and watch you go though the same thing."
I could practically feel my fragile heart melting into a puddle under his kind words. I didn't even have a reply, except my lips moving to form words but never quite making it.
"You can trust me, you know?" He said, holding his hand out for mine.
I stared at his hand, struggling internally to let go. "More than I already do? I'm here, aren't I?"
"You are," He nodded, "and I'll never let you down, promise."
"I trust you," I whispered and placed my trembling hand in his.
He covered my hand with his other one, clasping it warmly in both of his big hands.
Then the corner of his lips pulled up in a small smile that transformed his entire face, making him even more beautiful than my heart could handle.
My lips parted in surprise when I spotted the dimple on his cheek. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall for him right there and then.
~UwU~
Thank you, Angelo and Violet, for reminding me of how hopelessly lovelife-less I am right now.
Made this chapter a bit longer this time.
Don't forget to vote 💫 thank you.
Rhodes.