A/N- Okay, since the city is fictional so school system here will be on my convenience. Happy Reading😊
I gulped taking a step back and tried to close the door when a hand reached out to stop me from doing so.
I looked afraid at the hand that was blocking the door and then with a shuddered breath, up at the man it belonged to.
Dante.
My third eldest brother. The one who had tried to kill me on the first night I had been here.
He stared back at me with dull blue eyes, that had featured in my nightmares, wearing a black faded hoodie and sweatpants. His hairs were military cut and there were bags under his eyes. He was tall, maybe Valentino's height and looked quite pale and skinny. A quite contrast to the pictures of him I had seen online (though those pictures were more than two years old I guess).
He looked frail. Like a wind could blow him over.
Yet he had more strength than me because I couldn't close the door that he was blocking with a single hand.
I needed to hit Jym.
"I am not here to hurt you." Dante stated. His voice was rough and hoarse.
I didn't say anything. He didn't look as scary as he did that night. Still, everything in me were frozen in fright at his sight.
What could I do? I couldn't close the door and there were no way to escape otherwise. I could scream but wouldn't it be a little extreme considering he was just standing there?
Be brave, Ellena. If you could handle creepy Cole then this is just Dante. He had only just choked you a little. Once.
Repeating the words in my head I took a breath, squared my shoulder, hid my shaking hands behind my back and then said, "I have been told to stay away from you." I mentally patted myself for not sounding as scared as I was feeling.
"I know." Dante said and then just stood there. I waited for him to either go or say something. When five minutes (yes, I counted) passed and he just stayed quiet, oozing an aura of innocence and guilty simultaneously (fucking weird combo, I know), I got fed up.
The dude came to my room after almost killing me once, scared the hell out of me (my breathing pattern was still irregular) and now had a gal to just be standing there looking like a fucking kicked puppy. How rude and insensitive!
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"You should not have been here." Dante said at last.
"This is my room." I stated the obvious.
"You shouldn't be in this house. In this city. Anywhere near us." Dante clarified.
Ouch! Direct hit.
"Father said I could stay." I answered instead of saying all the offending things my mind produced at his words. I was proud to state that I had some self- preservation still left.
Dante scoffed. He made a movement with his hand and I automatically flinched. Dante froze and so did I. So much for appearing unfazed.
Dante dropped his hand which now I thought was not raised to hurt me. It was embarassing but could anyone blame me? I still had scars on my neck.
As if hearing my thoughts, Dante's eyes shifted to my neck where the scars were visible. His dull eyes flashed with guilt.
"I never thought I would hurt Lia's daughter." Dante said with a miserable laugh. He looked at me, "If you stay away from me then I couldn't hurt you again."
He took a step back.
"You would have been safer away from us."
With those cryptic words, he turned and walked away.
For a second, I could only stared at his back before I startled remembering my fear and slammed the door shut after him, locking it. I took a breath, rubbing my face with shaking hands. Fuck! That was scary.
Even though Dante didn't do anything, the whole conversation was nerve-wracking leaving me drained.
I dragged myself to my bed and under the covers. The fear that had gripped me on seeing Dante at my doors had vanished but left behind an exhausted me.
Fuck!
Dante was scaring. Still in a weird way he kind of told me in his own words that he wouldn't hurt me if I am away from him. Others had told me similar too.
So that was what I would do.
I believed I could survive two years staying away, won't I?
How hard could it be?
*****
Family meals with this new family of mine ranked first on the list of 'Things that are awkward and so very uncomfortable since I came here that I wished I was a tiny bit invisible'. Right now, ridding in a car with the twins was a close second in that list.
Antonio was driving and Matteo sat on the passenger seat with headphones on. I was in the backseat.
Don't get me wrong, It would have been a bit awkward but a normal drive if I didn't know one hated me for some reason and the other was just aloof from whole world. Really, at first i thought it was just me that made Matteo so indifferent but then I realised he was same with everyone. I doubt Matteo would even notice if let's say, Antonio dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and drove off.
With the way Antonio was clutching the steering wheel, I wondered if it could be a real possibility.
Though it remained a possibility thankfully as Antonio drove in through my new school gates. I sighed in relief. Soon, I would be free. It was a stressful thirty four hours drive. Why couldn't we go to a nearby school that didn't require long car rides, huh?
As soon as Antonio parked the car, I reached out to open the door except it wouldn't open. The fuck! I turned to my brothers.
"Open the door." I said in a perfectly calm voice.
"We have to talk." Antonio said in an opposite tone and raised his hand to knock harshly on Matteo's shoulder who rolled his eyes (an emotion from Mr. Aloof!) and removed the headphones. They both turned to me. Not wanting to look cowering, I straightened my shoulder and crossed my arm over my chest, looking back at them. Sure, Antonio had a menacing glare on his face directed at me but the dude wasn't even remotely as scary and intimidating as his older brothers. Poor him.
Antonio's glare reminded me of my mother a little. I blinked turning away from that bizzare thoughts. They weren't even related.
"What do we have to talk?" I asked.
"Firstly, the moment we exit the car we are strangers." Antonio declared, "Don't fucking talk to us here. Don't fucking come to us for anything. Don't cause unnecessary trouble for us. Understood?" He didn't wait for my answer and continued on, "Second, no snitching on us at home or we would have fucking problems."
Oooh! What do they do that they don't want me snitching? Now, I was curious.
Nevertheless, I nodded in consent. As if I wanted anywhere near them either. Antonio's conditions suited me just fine. Though, Valentino had told me my father had announced my existence to the whole city so I didn't know what acting as strangers would accomplish otherwise.
At last, Antonio unlocked the door and I wasted no time in climbing out of the car.
I grabbed my bag, closed the door just shy of slamming them. I turned and almost walked into someone.
Of course, how could I forget her?
Valentino had introduced her in the morning to me as my bodyguard. No, more accurately as one of my bodyguards who would accompany me in the classrooms and guard me. That was a little paranoid of him though I didn't protest. I was all in favour of compromising if it secure my staying.
"Hey!" I said to the girl. She didn't reply. The lower half of her face was covered in a black mask(the mask was there at the first introduction too) but her eyes were visible which stared blankly at me. I gulped. She was shorter than me, dressed in the black and white usual bodyguard's attire. Nowhere as close as the buffy muscular bodyguards I have seen till now. Yet, something about her screamed dangerous. Maybe it was the gun visibly tucked against her waist or the coldness in her posture, I didn't know. What I knew was that even looking petite no one would be sckeptical about her efficiency to guard me.
I wasn't sure if I should be feeling safe or scared.
Antonio and Matteo passed by me without a backward glance, diverging from each other as they walked away.
"Let's go, I guess." I said and started walking as my bodyguard followed me and I realised I didn't know her name.
"What's your name?" I asked turning to her. She tilted her head but remained quiet. Wow! One more weird person that I needed in my life. Thank you Universe.
I sighed turning to continue walking.
As I entered school building (nothing to describe here. It looked like a regular fancy school), everyone was already staring at me. To top it, I tripped on thin air and my bodyguard caught my arm stopping me from falling face-first and embarassing myself. More.
"Do you know the way to the office?" I whispered to my bodyguard. I didn't want to ask anyone else, who all were already gawking as if I was a piece in a museum. For a moment, I thought she hadn't heard but then she marched a step in front of me and then started leading me straight to the office. The dangerous vibe of hers kept people away from me. I smiled. Having a bodyguard was acceptable, I guess.
The receptionist at the office was a nice lady who gave me my time table and some forms for the school. She tried not to stare much. Tried being a key word here but I appreciated it. She also told me to wait for student she had called to be my guide.
I sat on the waiting bench filling the forms. My bodyguard stood beside me. I asked her to sit but she ignored me to continue standing. I wondered if she was really being good at her job or that she was a bit deaf. Who knew? I would ask Valentino.
A boy of my age entered the office some minutes later. He was wearing a blue hoodie with ripped jeans. He was tall, slim with messy brown curls on his head. As his brown eyes found mine, he smiled and the corners of his eyes crinkled. I smiled back. He looked friendly.
I stood as he moved towards me.
"Hi! I am Ethan Davis and you must be Ellena King." He said in a cheery voice.
"Ellena Marino." I corrected.
"Not King?" He frowned, "but you are Domenico King's daughter, aren't you?"
"Yes I am." I said. It was complicated. Domenico hadn't offered me his surname and I wasn't interested in parting with my mother's. I was not looking forward for any conversation about this with my father in an uncertain future.
Ethan though, bless him, didn't choose to continue this conversation. Instead he turned to my bodyguard, "and you are?"
She just gave him her usual blank look that I was becaming familiar with.
"She is my bodyguard." I said.
"Bodyguard? Really?" Ethan said as his eyes flashed with something that I could indentify as interest though I didn't know him to guess correct. I wanted to point to the gun she was carrying but then thought nah...it was not my buisness.
"Come Ellena and her bodyguard, your guide will be at your service now." Ethan said with a bow. I smiled, depositing the form to the receptionist, as I followed him with my bodyguard.
I had a feeling this would be an intriguing term.
*****
Ethan took his job as my guide very seriously but I suspected it was related to his interest in my bodyguard. He spend a lot of time, from the lockers to the classroom, trying and failing to talk with her. It was amusing. She behaved as if he didn't exist and I was very much leaning towards my theory that she was deaf because Ethan was not a quiet guy. Neither he was smart considering my bodyguard had a gun strapped to her waist that was visible to all.
Ethan took me to my first class that was English and introduced me to a pretty girl with gentle smile- Emma, who was his friend. Ethan didn't had English with me, something he looked very dejected about. He promised to be there at the end of the period to take me to my next class. He smiled at me and waved at my bodyguard who ignored him and stoically walked to stand delligently by the door. Atleast, she did me a favour and not stood by my seat beside Emma.
Emma was as nice as she looked helping me to catch up with the class. She also assured to give me notes of all the classes we shared. She didn't even mention anything about my father and even discouraged the two girls, behind our seat who were gossiping about me as if I couldn't hear them. At first, I thought it was me that caused the hostility that was there between her and some other girls of the class. Emma denied it. I understood the reason later when I met Emma's boyfriend Enzo.
The guy was waiting for Emma outside the class, leaning against the wall and looked like a fucking god among mortals. He wore black leather pants that fitted his long legs and a biker jacket that dignified his muscular arms. His eyes were honey-coloured and his jaw was well-defined. His hairs were pulled up in a high ponytail. He smiled besottedly at Emma and no wonder girls didn't like her. I heard their jealous mutterings.
Though a hot boyfriend was too much a petty reason for me to dismiss Emma's niceness. She was my first friend in this school (Ethan was doubtful because I didn't know if he wanted to be my friend or my bodyguard's).
So, I behaved normally and friendly when Emma introduced me to Enzo. Ethan came to us, did a weird handshake thing with Enzo and then took me to next class (physics, ughh), which we shared.
Later, during lunch, Ethan introduced us to the last member of his friends group. (More like he introduced me to his friends while my bodyguard was just there. She sat on the bench beside us and refused my insistence of buying her lunch by staring blankly at me. Atleast she sat.)
Mark was a normal looking boy with glasses and short hair. He didn't smile but he looked friendly enough to me. They asked some questions about my life before here and didn't talk anything about my parentage. Ethan then went on telling some story about him and his two younger sisters. We all hummed and laughed at appropriate places.
I didn't see my brothers in the cafeteria though I didn't know if we shared same lunch period or not.
All in all, my first day of new school was going great. I made friends. No teacher told me to introduce myself in front of classes, something I was dreading. Obviously, everyone already knew me so that excercise, thankfully, was futile. I was stared a lot but my bodyguard's, Ethan's and Emma's presence kept the other students away from me.
So, of course something had to go wrong.
Maths was my last class and it wouldn't have been so bad if none of my new friends shared the class with me. Worse, was the girl who sat beside me. At first, she was a good-looking brunette with perfect make-up and smoky eyes. Then, she started talking and I was irritated because all she did was ask me about my brothers. It was obvious that she had a crush on both of them, which bad taste but who am I to judge? She could gush all she want about them but somewhere where I couldn't hear her. Then, the girl in front of us, blonde with pink highlights, turned and joined her in being disgusting about the two King brothers. I tried to catch the professor's eye but he had the audacity to ignore us. Wow!
It wasn't enough and they asked me to introduce them to Antonio and Matteo. Huh!
"Sorry girls" I didn't sound sorry at all, "they hate me so you should try somewhere else." See, I was so considerate to not let them waste their efforts. Also, I didn't say anything untrue, did I?
Unfortunately, they didn't believe me and the brunet was becaming quite aggressive in her attempt to convince me. So instead of calling for my bodyguard to shoot both of them, I raised my hand to excuse myself from the class. As soon as the professor gave me his permission, I dashed away from the company of the two girls.
My bodyguard followed as I ran across the hallways until I was far away from the classroom.
"Fuck! They were irritating. I should be given a medal for tolerating them as long as I did." I said to my silent bodyguard as I started walking the unfamiliar corridor I had run to.
"Look like no classes happen here." I pointed to the locked classrooms as we strolled. I needed to calm my blood pressure.
The corridor wasn't that long and atlast we reached the dead end, with two classroom doors on opposite sides.
"Wait. This one is open." I said pointing to the last room of the room. I reached for the handle but my bodyguard was faster. She put a restricting hand on the handle and for the first time, instead of looking blank she looked disapproving. A miracle. I chuckled, "I doubt there would be any danger..." I trailed off when I heard the shrill annoying voice shouting my name.
What the fuck! Did the brunette followed me? Why did my brothers had such a psycho admirer?
Panicked, I shoved off my bodyguard's hand from the handle and opened the door ( unlocked, phew!). Though in that moment, the psycho brunette turned the entrance of corridor and our eyes met.
"I am hiding. Handle her but don't shoot her." I ordered my bodyguard who didn't ignore me this time. That was all I needed to enter the room and close the door behind me.
Though, I should have known my luck wasn't very strong today.
Because I wasn't alone in the classroom. There was a huge painting canvas with it back to me and standing in front of it, opposite me, with a paintbrush and headphones on his ear, was Matteo.
Our eyes met and I froze.
I remembered Antonio had more or less threatened me not talk to them, breathe near them and so on.
I automatically turned to get away but then heard the shrill voice of the fucking psycho and hesitated. Did she ran to get here so fast? Her obsession was admirable except that she should leave me alone.
"What are you doing here?" I turned at the voice. I didn't know if I should be elated that these were the first word Matteo said to me other than telling me his name the first time we met. Maybe I should be worried that he was acting ooc.
"Your psycho admirer is hounding me." I answered. Matteo tilted his head and it was the gesture I recognised. It was the same thing I always did when I was confused.
"Nevermind." I waved my hand dismissing it. If I had to stick the psycho brunette to one of them, it would be Antonio. Though I was not that bad of a sister to do so until they would give me a reason.
Since I already broke Antonio's agressive suggestions to not talk with his brother, I decided to stay. I was confident in my bodyguard ability to handle the brunette or well, I hoped so.
"What are you painting?" I asked. Matteo didn't answer and went back into his character by putting his headphones, which he had removed, back on and again being aloof to me. I watched as he covered the canvas with a white cloth, even though it was impossible for me to see, from my place against the door, what he was painting.
Matteo crossed the room towards me. I shifted as he went for the door handle. He opened the door. I moved behind him and then peaked a little around his tall frame. I relaxed when I just saw my bodyguard standing there alone. Before I could rejoice in it, Matteo turned, grabbed my arm and in one beat I was lifted and placed outside the classroom. Then, the door was closed on my face and I heard the click of lock. I blinked, gaping at the door.
Matteo just threw me out!