As the sun starting rising over the horizon, my senses starting coming to me. First I could hear everything going on around me. Which wasn't anything but the whir of the mini fridge that Dino insisted I have. Then, I could feel the weight and warmth of the blanket that was on top of me. Finally, I opened my eyes and saw the beautiful view of the garden.
I could get used to this.
I heard a soft knock the door. "Hey, Marls. Can I come in? It's Orlando."
I wasn't sure whether to go over and open the door or tell him that he could come in.
I chose the latter. This bed is really comfortable.
"Yeah." I answered. I wonder if there's an underground fighting ring nearby. Maybe a street race I could go to. I would only be able to watch, though. I used to steal Sebastián's car in the middle of the night and run away to the races. I'm sorry. Drive away.
I heard the door creak as it opened. I didn't hear anyone walk in yet. Weird. I looked up and saw Orlando standing there creepily.
Okay then, Disney, Pop off, I guess.
He smiled at me and walked in. "Good morning, capretto. How did you sleep?"
I shrugged. Other than the aching pain in my ribs that we aren't going to talk about, pretty good actually.
You're talking about it right now.
Shut up.
"So, Dino and Lorenzo were planning on taking you shopping. Is that okay or is that too much for you?" He started telling me the plans for the day.
Why is he treating me like cracked glass that will shatter if it's tapped too hard?
Also, I just want to say I called it. Dino is going to force me to go shopping.
"Yeah, that's fine. Is there anything else that we are doing today?" I asked, trying to sneakily plan a way out to go to a race.
"After you go shopping with those two, you're going to be so tired you aren't going to want to do anything else. They will drag you into every store. Literally." Orlando chucked.
"So excited." I said unenthusiastically.
"I'll leave you to get ready. The boys want to leave in about 45 minutes. Breakfast will be ready in about 30." He informed me.
As soon as he left, I put on an old t-shirt that I had in my bag and put the same pants on that I had on yesterday.
I never thought I would say this, but I need new clothes. Desperately.
After I was dressed, I pulled out a burner phone and looked at public police reports about illegal fighting rings in New York. I found a ring down the street from where the warehouse was that I was taken to by Vincenzo. By the sounds of it, it's still in operation and the police didn't do a good job at completely shutting it down.
Perfect.
After finding somewhere for after my ribs get better, I went out on the balcony and just stood for a minute, staring at the wondrous view that I had now.
I took a deep breathe of the fresh air and walked back into my room. I started walking to the kitchen.
Wait. Where's the kitchen? I knew that my room was on the 3rd floor and that everything important was on the 1st floor.
After weaving through countless hallways, I almost cried when I saw the staircase.
After getting to the 1st floor, I was greeted by the smell of bacon. Sweet.
I tried my best to follow the scent, but I'm not a fucking bloodhound, so I ended up back where I started.
I heard laughter, so I followed it and was finally led to the kitchen.
I saw all of the boys standing there, except for Alessio and Orlando.
"Ayyy, there she is!" Lorenzo smiled when he saw me. "Passarotta, I would like to give you a tour of our smorgasbord. Over here we have the eggs and over there we have the toast. And right in the middle is the best part. The bacon."
"Sorellina if you don't like bacon, I will disown you. No questions asked." Dino threatened.
I laughed. "Who doesn't like bacon.?"
Lorenzo and Dino smiled happily at the fact that I shared their love for strips of pig.
I noticed that Antonio and Vincenzo were rather quiet.
I looked over and saw that they wouldn't meet my eyes.
No. Not my own brothers. How dare they.
"I swear if you don't tell me you like bacon, I will not hesitate to throw you in that ridiculously large pool out there." I glared at them.
"Sorry Marlowe. We were always taught not to lie." Antonio said sheepishly.
This asshole.
"Dino. Lorenzo. I'm going to need your assistance." I spoke calmly.
They both nodded with serious faces.
Soon, there was a full on chase through the labyrinth of a house that I now knew as home.
"Come back here, you traitor!" I shouted as I ran after Antonio.
"No can do!" He shouted over his shoulder. While his head was still turned, Alessio stepped out in front of him.
Where did he come from?
Antonio ran into him and fell. He just stayed on the ground, so I walked closer. He started groaning as I inched closer and closer.
"No. Please. No. Alessio help me." I smiled as he begged for mercy.
Don't insult my bacon, bitch.
Alessio looked up at me, then back down at Antonio. He shrugged his shoulders and started walking back the way he came.
I starting yelling for Dino and Lorenzo.
"I got Ant! Where's Lizard?" I wasn't sure if they were going to answer me or not, but I still yelled.
Antonio looked up at me with confused eyes. "Wait, I understand that I am Ant, but who the hell is Lizard?"
"Well, his name is Vincenzo. Vinnie. That old show 'The Littlest Pet Shop' had a lizard who's name was Vinnie. Hence, Lizard." I explained.
(Authors note: if you don't know what that show or the little toys are, I'm very disappointed in you.)
"Ok then, kid." He starting to sit up when I heard thundering foot steps come from behind me. Before I could turn around to see who sounded like a fucking elephant, the footsteps screeched to a halt and I was gently moved to the side. I saw a blur of a man run past me and suddenly Antonio was screaming like he was getting murdered.
"D! Get the fuck off me!" Antonio pleaded.
"No!" Dino dragged Antonio across the floor because he couldn't pick him up. He stopped to the door that led to the pool.
Dino whistled loudly. Lorenzo came out of nowhere to help Dino throw Antonio in the pool. Dino took the arms and Lorenzo picked up his legs. I was just there for moral support.
And the entertainment of course.
"3! 2! 1! Now!" Dino and Lorenzo chanted together.
Within seconds, Antonio was in the pool.
Dino turned back to me with a satisfied smile on his face. "Ok, let's go shopping."
He swung his arm around my shoulders and led me back inside. We grabbed our things and Alessio's credit card.
We walked into the garage and I felt my jaw drop.
So.
Many.
Cars.
I almost fainted at the sight of a beautiful matte black Mercedes-Benz W196.
Yeah. Definitely copping that and using it for races.
Lorenzo chuckled. "Maybe Vincenzo will take you for a ride in it. I'm sure if you ask nicely, he'll say yes."
I lightly scoffed. "After I chased him around the house solely because he doesn't like bacon? That's probably not happening."
Dino laughed and stopped at a car near the end of the garage. He started to get into the drivers seat, but Lorenzo quickly stopped him.
"Yeah, no. You drive like an 80 year old grandma. You run into everything. Actually, I think you hit an 80 year old grandma last month." He said firmly.
"Welp, I tried." Dino pouted.
I hopped into the backseat and Lorenzo started the car. I was silent for mainly the whole ride. Lorenzo and Dino were bickering the entire time.
We pulled into the mall and we all got out. The parking lot was full. Holy shit, that's a lot of people.
I don't like thi-
"I don't like this, Chrissy! Wake up! Chrissy, wake up!"
Literally die.
We started walking towards the mall. As we got closer towards the entrance, I did what Sebastián told me to do when we were in a large crowd. I didn't even realize I was doing it until I saw my reflection in the doors of the mall.
I held a cold, expressionless look on my face and had my head held up high. I noticed that my brothers had the same look as they walked into the store.
When we walked in, I was greeted by the largest shopping center I have ever seen in my life. I take that back, the only shopping center I've ever seen in my life.
I was pulled into store after store. I tried to tell them that we had bought enough clothes, but the little fuckers didn't listen.
Finally, they agreed to take a break. We went to the food court and got pretzels. I was hungry because I never ended up getting to eat breakfast. I was too busy throwing Ant and Lizard in the pool.
The food court was in the middle of the mall. I sat there and watched as my brothers were throwing food in each others mouths.
Idio-
"I'm surrounded by idiots."
That's the second time today. Literally die. Again.
I was looking around the food court, people watching.
My favorite hobby. Other than threatening people of course.
I saw a new group a people walking into the food court. One face in the group of girls made everything stop.
Is that? No. It can't be.
Ha-
"Hey. Are you ok? You look like you've just seen a ghost." Lorenzo's voice broke through my daze, causing me to jump and look at him.
By the time I looked back over, the group was gone.
It was probably in my head.
I turned back to Lorenzo, who was looking at me with concern in his eyes. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. Just thought I saw something.
"Ok. Do you want to head home? I think we've got enough things." Lorenzo asked me carefully, as if I might break.
I've been through too much to break now.
I still wanted to get out of there now. Too many memories were flashing in my mind.
I nodded. The boys both stood up and Dino went to throw our trash away.
Lorenzo walked over and gently grabbed my chin. "You know that you can tell me if you're not okay, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."
He didn't believe me. "Why did you jump?"
I sighed. He's not going to leave me alone now. "Because I was staring off into space and you scared me. I'm fine."
He nodded, finally accepting my answer.
Dino came back with a huge smile on his face. "Guys, guess what. There's this new store that just opened and I think we should go check it out."
"No." Lorenzo and I said in unison.
"Another time, then." He said, still happy as could be.
"Okay, then Dino-saur." I laughed as we walked back to the front entrance.
"Dino-saur?" Lorenzo questioned my new nickname for Dino.
"Yes. Would you like a name, too? Okay, Lorie." I teased him as we walked to the car.
Dino started bursting into histerics.
"She just called you Lorie!" And there he goes. Doubling over into the parking lot.
"Sometimes I wonder." Lorenzo chuckled at his youngest brother.
We got into the car and started the drive home.
I rested my head against the window and started thinking about who I saw today. I'm not entirely sure if it was her or not, but I really hope it was. I haven't seen her since her dad died in the car crash, which had to have been 2 or 3 years ago.
I zoned out for the rest of the ride, thinking about what I'll do if it turns out to be her.
What if we go to the same school?
What if she doesn't recognize me?
What if she's friends with other people and doesn't want to be my friend anymore?
What if she moved on?
What if? What if? What if?
I was snapped out of my haunting thoughts as we pulled into our private drive, the gate opening when Lorenzo typed in the password.
We pulled up to the house and we all got out. We split up the bags between the three of us and went into the house, heading up to my room to get them all sorted out.
During the walk to my room, I memorized each turn and every picture on the wall so I could find my way back next time. Not making that mistake again.
We walked into my room and set all the bags down on my bed. While we were hanging up the clothes, I started to see clothes that I didn't give to Lorenzo to buy. Some of the things were dresses that I picked up and thought they were too expensive and put them back.
I sighed and shook my head, slightly laughing.
After we were all done, I walked to the kitchen with the boys.
Just as Lorenzo was about to call Orlando and ask where they went, Antonio came in with an empty bowl.
"How was shopping?" He asked as he grabbed a thing of popcorn from the cupboard and threw it in the microwave.
I shook my head. "Never again."
He just laughed. "That bad?"
Lorenzo nodded. "We had to drag him out."
"Well, if you want to recover from shopping with Dino, we are all in the theatre watching Top Gun." He told us.
I gave him a thumbs up as the microwave beeped. He opened the door and grabbed the bag, pouring its contents into the empty bowl. I followed him as he left.
He led me into a dark room with a large screen at the front of it. There were fancy reclining chairs everywhere and in some of the chairs in the middle were sitting Orlando, Alessio and Vincenzo.
I sat down beside Orlando and stole some of his popcorn as a greeting.
As I sat there watching the movie, I started to fall asleep. I laid my head on Orlando's shoulder and I felt him move to look down at me. He brought his hand up and starting playing softly with my hair. I fell asleep with a smile.
After the movie was over, I stood up and went to turn it off. I looked at my siblings and saw Marlowe asleep on Orlando's shoulder. I smiled and walked over to her.
I gently put an arm under her legs and one supporting her back and lifted her up. I carried her bridal style to her room and laid her down in her bed. I covered her up and gave her a kiss on the head.
As I walked out of the room, I turned back admiring the young girl sleeping. I smiled again and closed the door. I went to my room and got into bed with the smile still on my face.
It's the first time I've smiled in a while.
"Marlowe, are you sure you don't want to spend the night?" Haidyn's dad asked me as we pulled out from McDonald's.
"Yeah, I have to go to school tomorrow." I gave him a smile.
"Marlie, you know that you can steal some of my clothes, right?" Haidyn, my best friend assured me.
"I know. I should probably just get home though. I don't want my uncle to worry." I explained.
I had snuck out of the house to be able to go with Haidyn and her father. They didn't need to know that, though.
"Ok. Maybe next weekend. Are you doing any- Dad look out!" Haidyn cut herself off, pointing ahead of her.
There was a truck headed right towards us.
Before I knew what was going on, I heard two things. Metal clashing against metal, and Haidyn's screams.
"Dad!"
I gasped and sat up fast. I fell back instantly as pain burst throughout my side. I laid there for a minute, catching my breath as memories came flooding in. One image burned in my mind.
The Spanish Mafia's best hitman sitting in the drivers seat of the truck, dead.
It was all my fault. Sebastián found out that I was gone and sent him after us.
I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep with the pain in my ribs, so I slowly got up and walked downstairs to the kitchen.
I was digging through the cupboards when I finally found the glasses. I put it under the water dispenser and walked over to the other cupboards trying to find Tylenol.
I heard someone walk in and curse under their breath. I whipped around and saw Vincenzo who was getting my overflowing water cup from the fridge. He set it on the counter and grabbed a towel to wipe up my mess.
After he was done, he looked up at me. "What are you doing up? It's 3 am."
I said the first thing that came to my mind. "I was getting some water. I woke up and I was thirsty."
Vincenzo looked at me suspiciously. "You know, I would believe you, but you were digging around the cupboards for something else."
"A straw." I answered without a beat.
"That's a lie, too." He pointed at a straw that I already had sitting out on the counter.
Screw me and my forgetful mind.
"And I know that you weren't 'just getting water' because Dino made sure that the mini fridge he put in your room was stocked full of water. And he pounded it into your head that you had water in your room so you didn't get lost on the way to the kitchen in the middle of the night. Now. The truth." He gave me the same look that he gave me when he was interrogating me before they knew who I was.
That fucking mini-fridge.
-
and there's chapter 7!
Alright question of the chapter.
What's your favorite ice cream flavor?