'I love my brothers...'
Click
I am woken up by a flash of light and someone softly laughing. "Shhh you'll wake them up."
"Turn your god damn flash off idiota." Smack.
"Hey!" I open my eyes to Nico and Aurelio standing near my bed arguing.
"Can you guys argue somewhere else." I say coughing as I do. "Great you woke her up. You happy now?!" Nico exclaims. "Weren't we supposed to wake them up?" Aurelio look at him weirdly.
"It's lunch time bamina. That doctor said you can't take your pills on an empty stomach." Nico clarifies. "But I'm not hungry." I say closing my eyes again.
Just when I think they have left I feel some one pick me up. Then Lukas' eyes snap open looking around to see what's going on. "Hey what are doing, let her rest." He looks to Nico who is holding me. "It's lunch time. She needs to take her medicine. Come one." Nico tells Lukas.
Nico carries me all the was to the dining room, where Romeo and Lorenzo are waiting. Nico sets me down in my seat giving my head a kiss before walking to his chair.
"I have spoken to Dante. He is going to leave school early and we are going to have a conversation. All of us." Romeo tells everyone at the table. Lunch was sandwiches and chips. I only ate a little before deciding I was done.
"You need to eat more love." Lukas leans over to tell me. I shake my head and lay my head on the table. "Only because you are sick. I have noticed since you have been back you have been eating lots more, I am very proud of you, you look really healthy and not so skinny." Lukas says in Russian.
"I think we should tell them." I say in Russian. Lukas eyes widen and he drops his sandwich back onto his plate. Turning his body in his chair to face me. "Are you sure. We don't have to tell them." He says grabbing my hand. "I think if I am giving you guys a chance and we are clearing the air that we should probably tell them." I give him a soft look, I know this will be hard for him.
"But only if we both agree." I tell him. "I have wanted to tell them for a while, but now that it's real...I'm scared. I just need to think. Is that okay with you?" He says deep in thought. I nod my head and say "Yes of course. We need to agree together and if you are not ready then we will wait."
Our conversation if interrupted by someone clearing their throat. We turn to see that everyone is looking at us. "Yes?" I says breaking the awkward silence. "You know it's annoying that we can't understand you." Nico says.
"What where you talking about?" Lorenzo looks at me and Lukas wanting an answer. Lukas starts to talk. "At our conversation later, we want to tell you all something." My head snaps to him. "Are you sure? We don't have to. We can do it at a different time if your not ready." Now everyone is invested in the conversation.
"No it's time. They should know." Lukas says looking around at everyone. "Is it something serious? Are you both okay?" Aurelio wants to know. "We will tell you all later today, Dante should be there too." I say.
I am now sitting in my room along with Lukas deciding on how we should tell them that not only was our mother a drug addicted , alcoholic, neglectful bitch but also used to beat the shit out of us almost every day and starve me because I was 'too fat'.
We where interrupted at the sound of a knock at the door. Soon the door opens and in walks all my brothers. I guess it's time...
Romeo takes a seat in the desk chair with Lorenzo leaning on the wall, Nico and Aurelio sitting the window space, Lukas and I are sitting in the bed and Dante slowly and nervously walking around the room.
"Okay so how this is going to work is, when someone is talking no one else interrupts until they are finished. No one will judge anyone as part of having a fresh start. Everyone is allowed to confess anything they want now and you won't get into trouble. Dante is going to start."
Romeo tells everyone, we all nod or mumble okays to him.
Everyone is now looking at Dante who is very nervous and playing with a ring he found on my table. "When you're ready you can start." I say encouragingly with a small smile.
"I-I just want you to know that I'm sorry before I start. I was being selfish and wasn't thinking about your feelings or anyones. W-when I first saw you, you reminded me of her, and with that everything you got to have with her that I never got. I was jealous because I only know what she looks like through photos, no one would speak of her so I don't even know what she was like. Every time I saw you I would get angry because it was like a constant reminder of what I never had. I'm sorry." Dante's says with tears going down his face.
I get off the bed and hug him, shocking everyone. I think they kind of expected me to stay mad at him. "Thank you for telling me the truth. If you want to know anything Lukas and I will tell you...but it may not be what you want to hear." I look at him wiping away his tears with my finger.
I take his hand and guid him to the bed. He take a seat next to me and starts to play with the ends of my hair. "Well now that this has been cleared up." Lorenzo turns to me. "I want to know all the shit you got up to the past year and a half because I can tell- well actually everyone can tell that you have changed." I look at him with a mischievous smirk.
"Oh no." I hear Romeo say after seeing my smirk. "Okay sooooo there is a lot to tell some good, some bed, some amazing. But I just want to remind you all you can't be upset with me in anyway so...keep control of your tempers." I look at all my brothers.
"Okay so first things first. Dante Andrew says hi and that he prefers me over you." He looks shocked I hear Aurelio laugh. By the way it was his house spent the night at the other day." All the laughing stops and the room goes silent.
"Are you umm...like dating?" Nico asks. "Nooooo." I mean I'm not lying. "Tell the truth." Lorenzo says. "No we are just friends." 'With benefits.' They all look pissed.
Dante takes a calm breath. "Okay no judgment..." "Anyway...moving on....you all wanted to know why I learned Bulgarian and German. Well i was sent to a richie rich big ass money school. Which meant that people there had a lot of money to spend. Drew, Hayley and I sort of left school for like a few weeks and went to Germany. We partied, laughed did some other things. It was amazing. One of my best memories, even if I don't actually remember a lot of it."
"How did we not know this?" Romeo says looking bewildered. "Damn you are fucking wild." Aurelio says earning him a smack from Nico. "Stop doing that!" He yell at Nico. "I can make amazing cocktails. If you ever interested." I look at Aurelio with a smile. He eagerly nods his head earning him another slap to the back of the head. "Don't encourage he, dumbass. Did you forget she is out baby sister." Nico says. I roll my eyes.
"How much alcohol is in this room right now." Lukas asks with a smirk. I shrug my shoulders. "A lot."
"I got into a lot of stuff while I was away. Too much to tell all right now. But basically, I didn't go to class, I got into a lot of fights, I don't listen to teachers, I partied too much, yes I've smoked weed and got tattoo. It's whatever."
They all nod their heads trying not to lose the tempers. "All I want to know is that you where being safe...right?" Lukas asks in Greek. "Of course I was. I would never not be safe." I say with out thinking.
Then it hits me. Wait oh shit.
"We'll talk about this later." He gives me a stern look as he says it in Spanish.
Dante is shocked the others are curious about what the conversation was about. "Oh yeah Dante ya missed a lot." Nico says to him. He just nods not knowing what else to do.
"Okay now what were you you both talking about at lunch earlier?" Romeo asks. Lukas take the lead as he know I'm very sensitive to this subject. "Well we wanted you guys to know about our mom. Umm you already know about her addiction to drugs and alcohol but what you don't know is that she used to abuse us mentally and physically too." He starts.
This is enough for all our brothers eyes to darken and their fists to clench. Dante pull me into him holding me as I bury my face in his chest.
"She used to beat us almost every day, she would kick us, punch us and slap us. Sometimes she would use a knife and one time threw Lukas down the stairs for trying to help me as she beat me so bad I couldn't walk for a week." I tell.
The anger that they held in their eyes turned to guilt and sadness. "She also used to bring men home. Some where nicer than others and some were...well worse than her." Lukas finishes.
I remember one time about a year before we came here. Mom had brought some guy home. He had come over a few time, but this time in the middle of the night he came into my room and started to touch me. I screamed and Lukas came running in.
When he saw what was happening he tackled the guy to the ground and started to punch him but the guy was stronger and threw Lukas off him and whipped him with his belt before turning his attention back to me.
He grabbed my arm pulling me from the bed and down the stairs to the basement. He tied my hands and strung me up by the chains down there. Then he ripped my shirt off and left, only to return with a knife. He started to cut my back and them whipped me for so long everywhere, I lost my voice from screaming so much.
I was left like that. Alone, in the dark with no food or water for two days. I learned later on that he went back to Lukas and beat him some more before locking him in his room. Lukas finally broke down the door after two day and helped me.
He and mom had left for a week and when she returned we never saw him again.
"I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that. But i have to ask...did umm anyone ever...umm...hurt you any other way." It was Romeo. We kept silent knowing the answer was yes.
"Who? Do you know their name." I shook my head no but Lukas said something. "His name was Mason Woods, Mina. When he took you to the basement he dropped his wallet I saw his ID."
"Wait! He did what? Why didn't you help her?!" Lorenzo yelled at Lukas. I yelled back at him. "He tried. But..." I trailed off and looked at Lukas. "But he beat me unconscious. When I woke up I could hear her screaming in pain from the basement."
"What did he do?" Nico asked. We told them the whole story on what happened. But Lukas didn't really say what happened to him. He hasn't even really told me ever.
"I hope you both know that nothing like that will ever happened here. We will always be here to protect you always. No one will ever hurt you, never again." Romeo says again and everyone else agree with him.
I wipe away the stray tear form my face and say. "Well now that we have talked lets go eat dinner and maybe watch a movie?" We all agree but start to argue over what movie to watch as we exit the room.
'Maybe I can be happy...'
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Hi I hope you all are enjoying the story so far. I have a question. Is it better if I break the chapters up like this or would you prefer one long fat chapter. I just broke it up so I could put something out for you to read.
Let me know for the future.
Also please bear in mind this is my first book so it may not be perfect. I am going to go back through it and edit it, but I may wait until it's fully completed. Just a thought. Xx