Aurelia Faris Black
I'm walking under the arch, entering the living room. There Daria sits. My feet lightly drag as I walk. My fingers hesitantly grip onto my thigh for comfort as I sit.
She sits diagonally to me. Her body turns to face me when she sees me. She looks like Lara but at the same time, she doesn't. Her eyebrows, her nose, and her lips are all the same but softer. Her eyes are kinder and restful while Lara's were mean and restless. She sits there, eyeing me the same way I have been eyeing her.
" I'm so glad to finally meet you." She says as she lets out a breath.
" Hello," I say, trying to be polite, trying to hide how weary I am of her. They look awfully similar.
She senses my hesitence, " Please don't associate me with her." She says, a small crease forms between her eyebrows. " I'm Daria."
I nod and out of etiquette, I introduce myself back.
She scans my face " You look just like her." she whispers and a small smile sweeps through her face.
I instinctively shrink a bit. Even though it is obvious I was practically a clone of Lara, I didn't appreciate her pointing it out.
Her smile vanishes when she sees my reaction. She sucks in a breath before apologizing. She briefly opens her mouth, as if to say something before closing it. An awkward tension shifts in the air, before she quickly dismisses it. " Tell me about yourself."
My eyebrows furrow as I think. To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't have much of a hobby since my childhood has been so restricted. " To start, I am 15," I say, stuck without anything else to say, another pause takes place. " Well, I do also really love fighting."
" Like martial arts?" She questions.
" Not exactly, just the definition of fighting, like throwing punches," I say mimicking effortless punches with my fists, making sure my injured arm isn't moving much . "and kicks!" I add I smile when I see her laugh. The tension is gone.
" So tell me about you," I say, trying to act serious, furrowing my eyebrows to give off an impression of an interrogation before we both start giggling at how silly I look.
" Okay!" She says, having to gasp for a breath from all the laughter. " Okay, well I have two kids. Which are also your cousins! I would say go ahead and be best friends with them especially Jules since she is a girl but they're grown now, and the age gap is pretty big. Which thank god!" She leans in. " They were absolutely devils when they were younger." She shivered as if just the thought of them horrified her. " All jokes aside, they would love you. Unfortunately, they couldnt make it here today, they're both out for business trips. Don't worry, they're not in the mafia!" Her face freezes " Yeah, Yeah, of course they aren't in the mafia. That is absurd!" she says plastering on a smile.
I burst out with laughter, hearing her slip up. " I'm assuming they didn't tell you. I already know all this mafia crap." Her face relaxes.
" Oh my god. I'm so glad. Your brothers would've been so upset with me."
I giggle.
Hera walks in with the rest of my brothers.
" Honestly, I still think she should be on bed rest!" Hera exclaims but oddly doesn't even spare me a glance.
" The doctor said it's healing well." Nathaniel says shrugging "It's about time for her to get some exercise in, she's been stuck in that bed for too long."
" Before she turns into a potato!" Alec cackles like it was the most hilarious joke ever and only Matteo laughs along with him.
Alessandro is texting, or emailing something on his phone as he sits. While Lucien looks stone-faced.
" A hello would be nice," Daria says jokingly before everyone goes to hug her. Some were less forced than others and by that I mean Alessandro looked very and I mean VERY stiff while Alec practically trampled her. " So how have you kiddos been?" She asks while everyone settles down.
" A plus is that we have our baby sister back," Matteo said.
" It can also be classified as a negative," Lucien mutters.
Daria raises an eyebrow at him.
"An example would be the time she made me and Alec learn some stupid code language with her for hours," Lucien says louder this time.
"Someones cranky." I tease him.
" Someone needs to shut up." He snaps back.
I narrow my eyes at him, and he returns the gesture.
" You're lucky your injured because if you weren't, I would've tackled you."
" And I would've beat your ass," I reply without missing a beat.
" Woah guys. Strong language there!" Daria says lightheartedly.
Lucien and I lock eye contact. We couldn't help but burst out in hysterical laughter. With tears in my eyes, I looked up at everyone else and everyone looking at us funny which only made us laugh harder.
I rock onto my back but my laughter is cut off by my gasp when I added pressure to my healing arm. I let out a hiss and Lucien's laughter stops almost immediately. Concerned looks are being practically thrown at me.
Matteo who sat beside me, scooted closer to me. " You okay?" he asks.
" I'm fine, just having too much fun." I say, a grin gracing my face despite the small waves of pain from my arm.
" How bad is it?" Daria asks.
" It's not that bad now. I have pain medicines in me right now so you know, it's much more bearable"
Alessandro looks up with slight annoyance in his eyes. " Grandma and Grandpa are coming early. They're gonna be here by tonight." He turns to me. " Are you comfortable with all of this?" He asks.
My heart warms at his question. " Of course, I always wanted grandparents," I say jokingly. Everyone reacts differently to this. Some find my statement sweet while some seemly found it heartbreaking.
" Was Lara really that bad?" Daria asks, breaking the silence.
The first thing I feel is shock. Is she really asking this? I watch as my brothers rise up, quick to correct Daria. Hera stays seated with her gaze trained on me.
I don't give them the chance to talk. " Don't." I say " What makes you think differently?" I ask, looking at Daria, trying to keep my cool.
Daria looks confined with all the eyes zeroing in on her.
" She is my sister." She is barely audible.
We stay silent, waiting for her to elaborate.
" We came from a.. let's say an unfunctional family. There has been some tough things we had been through while growing up. I'm just shocked that she would do something like that again to her own daughter." She takes a deep breath. " I'm sorry for questioning you, Aurelia. I just feel like the realization is dawning on myself for the first time, all over again."
" Wow.." I mumble. I never knew much about my mom. Lara was always a mystery to me. I press my lips together. " I never knew that." I look up. No one looks too surprised. I guess it was only new information to me.
I'm assuming she doesn't know what I actually been through, now that I'm thinking about it. It is very personal. Alessandro probably only gave them the basics, maybe something among the lines of: Yeah she was mistreated but like we have her back!
I shouldn't be too angry with Aunt Daria.
The silence is thick and awkward before Matteo interrupts it. " Aurelia should get some rest. This was enough excitement for today. The wound is still in its healing stage after all."
" Wait, Aunt Daria?" I say " What was she like?"
" Lara?"
" Yes" I reply.
The corners of her lips curl up a tiny bit. " Where to start? Well, she wasn't your typical teenager. When she was younger she was popular with the boys. When she was dating your dad, did you know she had a stalker? It seems like that hooded figure was real jealous of your dad. His name was Felix, he dated Lara before she cheated. He stayed in the shadows for a long time before Lara became pregnant with your dad Artemis' baby and dissapeared. I think Artemis killed him or something."
My face stays stone still. " Okay thanks." I say. I hate that I still think of her now.
Matteo comes to help me up out of pure generosity. I smile at him until we are out of site.
" What about our grandparents?" I ask, careful to keep my voice low.
" Alessandro texted me to get you to bed." He whispers even quieter than me. " He's worried this is too much for you, especially because you are injured too."
I hum in acknowledgment. I am definitely not complaining. He takes me to my room and I do my normal nightly routine with some new additions thanks to the injury.
I tuck myself in my bed and try to sleep but I can't. Thoughts ravage my mind. I wonder what they are like? If they're kind or not and more importantly, If they would like me.
I feel as I lay there for hours. Long enough to hear everyone downstairs, greeting them. My grandparents are here. I try to listen to the atmosphere downstairs, they sound happy and excited. I smile, that's a good sign.
I'm going to meet them tomorrow, I should give them a good impression. I grab my phone from my nightstand to set an alarm. I don't want to sleep in too late.
I hear faint laughter from downstairs, and I smile. I think I'm worrying too much. Most of my bad habits are gone by now but worrying is very much still with me.
I take a deep breath but for some reason, I can't brush off the bad feeling that something is going to go wrong.
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A/N- If I made a mistake, feel free to tell me. ( So I could easily go back and fix it)
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