Pulling down the driveway of the old frat house I found a spot beside the Carrera GT Lucian was currently test driving though I had a feeling he'd end up buying it when his 911 was ready to be repossessed.
Getting out of my car I locked it and headed towards the front door before knocking politely and awaiting it to open while cool night air brushed my skin.
By now Arilynn will have gotten into the air since I'd given her full permission to use my jet. She'd denied the offer and used a charter which I was equally as fine with. I just didn't want her to fly publicly where someone could easily get to her.
The door then opened and I was greeted by Zavier who wrapped me in a one arm hug, his free hand held a bottle and I instantly knew he was drinking heavy tonight.
"If you get plastered, don't throw up on my car" I warn giving him a narrow eyed look.
"No promises" he says and I give him a look before pointing to him.
"Don't think about throwing up on that car, or getting drunk enough to do so".
"I won't" Zavier says before leading me through the house to the mini bar and lounge area where we had put in a pool table.
"Look who the cat dragged in".
"That's a stupid fucking expression, why the hell would a cat drag me in. I also don't like cats" I say leaning against one of the shelves where picture of all of us during our Thornbrook days were.
"What why?" Michael asks.
"They remind me of mini serial killers, homicidal motherfuckers" I mutter and the boys laugh lightly.
"You're a homicidal motherfucker" Theo says, "you have almost beaten someone to death".
"No I have not, I've threatened to but that's different" I defend.
"That sounds like my brother" Izzy says.
"Abigail is the little dark one out of all of us. She'd probably help" Julian says pointing to his girlfriend with his pool stick before Abigail glared at him before hitting the ball and just missing the center left pocket.
"If my brother asked any of you to help him hide a body you would help" Abigail says as Lucian chalks the end of the cue.
"None of us would find out" Lucian muses and I just smirk.
"Hear that Ambrose better behave then" Amelia says and I watch Theo and Lucian remain tight-lipped while fighting laughter though a scoff escaped Lucian hiding the suppressed laugh from Theo.
"He's never going to. It's Zavier Ambrose" Yana says.
"I am being abused" Zavier says and we all just laugh at him as he sulked in the corner of the room before tipping back his bottle.
"So dramatic Zavier" Lea says before taking the bottle and sipping from it.
"He's always been dramatic, it's why he's best friends with Theo" Izzy says.
"They can be the dynamic duo of idiots" Lucian teases before striking the red ball into a corner pocket.
"Zavier, we're being bullied" Theo groans and I just smirk before walking into the kitchen to get something to drink.
Walking around and opening cupboards for a moment I eventually settled on whatever may have be in the fridge to pass as acceptable. Scanning the shelves I spotted a can of the San Pellegrino that I had bought in cases when we all had moved in, and took one of them before going back to find my friends in a debate even though the pool game had continued.
"What will the economic war going on effect what we see from Nathan and Scarlett. The two of them may not have talked recently but they are still on good terms if you ignore whatever is going on between their fathers" August says, "like Izzy you and Abigail know but you both have been kept out of the details".
"We've all been kept from the details" Abigail says looking at the Italian who was leaning against one of the walls with a brown glass bottle swinging between his fingers.
"That's because Adrian has always put people in their place, amongst the roster beneath him and Olivia, along with all of our parents" Lucian says getting what I could only presume was his fourth ball in a row in.
Stopping in the shadows of the doorway out of clear view of everyone I listened to the conversation.
"Nathan has never let anyone hurt any of us even if we want to pretend he's mean, and cold. Out of all of us he's still the one that would go to jail for anyone in this room. Besides you two lived with him, how far off is my analysis" Zavier says turning to both my sisters.
"My brother put's others before himself, and always will. I would like to see him do things for himself rather then devote himself solely to selflessness but in his own way it makes him happy" Izzy says watching Julian move to take his next shot as Lucian had missed by a small amount to get the brown ball in.
"I hold a large amount of respect for your brother. The quiet kid who knew more then any of us ever could, the one who always took the blame, who acted without thinking, just simply doing what needed to be done. Not something most people can do".
"You sound like you're talking about our dad" Izzy remarks as Julian knocks the yellow ball into the pocket.
"They have their differences, the same similarities are going to him farther then any of us ever could. For some reason the Winters Men all do something exceptional in their time, and I think that for once the one we have now should know all of us are there to stand with him" he continues before getting the blue ball in.
"He knows that very well Vaughn, I've been standing here listening for about a minute" I say stepping into the light of the room.
"Of course you were" Zavier says.
"As long as we can all trust one another, I'm sure everything will be fine" I say watching Lucian get the last ball in before the 8 ball.
"But it may get rocky in the coming years, and all of you should know I will be here for all of you no matter what happens. What will happen between Scarlett and me in the coming years I have no idea, I just know it may not be good if Louviere Financial completely crashes" I add before returning my gaze to Lucian who corrected his glasses.
"Corner pocket closest to Nathan" he says and gives the cue ball a light tap which pushes the black ball into the pocket exactly where he called.
"Nice shot" I say, before a small smirk befell my features.
"Lucian care to have a one V one" I say cracking open my can and drinking from it while my friends watched for Lucian's response.
"I'll never turn down the opportunity to kick your ass" he says as he reset the table and I just give a short laugh while the others smile.
"This should be interesting" Theo mutters leaning back into Michael's chest since both of them were on one of the sofas.
"In your dreams Lucian" I say chalking the end of a particular cue that I had bought and left here since I did on occasion return to this house to catch up with the boys when Arilynn went out with the girls.
"You break then" he says and I line up my shot before cleanly breaking apart the neat triangle of balls with four already going into pockets.
"Solids" I say and he raises his eyebrows since I'd chosen the one with the least amount of balls in. "For a challenge".
I then knocked two more balls in and a third before tapping the cue ball gently into the middle of the table where it stopped next to the 8 ball.
"Whoops" I say stepping back to watch Lucian decide where to start.
"Nathan don't mess with him" Amelia says despite the fact she'd seen me and Lucian do this shit to one another fairly often.
"Imagine getting in shit from someone else's girlfriend" Zavier quips with a sly smirk from his relaxed position on the couch.
"Imagine having to get tested for an STD once a week for two years straight" I shoot back without removing my attention from the table where Lucian got two more balls into the side pockets, only missing when he started to laugh at my response to Zavier.
"Jesus Christ, that was ruthless" he remarks as I move to get in my next three balls while took only two separate shots.
"Well, it's one of two options to make him stop talking" I say dryly examining my shot as I did so.
"Saying something he can't get out of and?" Lea trails off.
"Threatening him with something I don't plan to follow through on" I respond before knocking in the last ball I needed before the 8 ball.
"Good to know" Zavier exhales.
"I do definitely think about it, you stopping Ambrose is what saves you from the result" I add in flat teasing, and he clamps his mouth shut much to my mild amusement.
"Center left pocket" I say lining up the shot before carefully taking it and having the cue ball roll back to the middle where it stopped.
"I had one ball left" Lucian says leaning back and sucking in a breath.
"It's like chess with my father, you think you're winning until you realize he still has all of his pieces and you have nothing useful" I smirk before setting the cue back where it belonged.
"You sure you're not just as much of a devil as your dad?" August asks.
"I'll have a polite conversation with you, and lay out exactly how it is, he'll pull strings for two months then take everything from under the nose of whoever is the victim of their own arrogance, and greed" I say plucking the polished balls out of the pockets and set them back in the middle.
"So you'll directly state how a business deal will go, and he'll manipulate. Sounds like how our dad's business deals have gone" Abigail says and I just smile.
"Yes it does" I muse before looking around at my friends, and mentally being grateful that we can both be casual but also have serious conversations with one another.
This is the family I choose to stick by.
I then move to sit in the lone chair in the lounge area of the room by the fireplace and listen to all of my friends talk about what was going on with school, and the upcoming take overs of each business that our families help control over. Mostly though we made jokes about little things we've done over time, with little blips of banter between the idiots and the rest of the room, just how things should, and likely always would be no matter what.
I'm getting excited for how this book will go, be prepared for curveballs, and some unexpected things to happen. Comment, vote, and share. Anyways
Peace✌