Sylvie
I peel my eyes open and stretch my arms into the air. I notice I'm no longer on the couch and my brothers and nowhere nearby me anymore. The cold air creeps back in as I pull the cover off of me.
I look over at the little alarm clock placed on the night stand, and it's 2am. And there's no way I will actually be sleeping now, and I am kind of hungry.
So I move over to the edge of the bed and pull my wheelchair close enough for me to get onto it and wheel myself out of the room and towards the kitchen.
Halfway through I notice that the kitchen lights are still turned on, I wonder who's awake at this time. Moving towards the entrance of the kitchen I notice a very tired Francesco sitting on the kitchen table with multiple books and his laptop in front of him. His hands frustrated, covering his face.
"Hey" I whisper slowly trying not to startle him, he snaps his head up immediately after hearing my voice, "What are you doing up at-" He looks down at his wrist watch to check the time, "2am" He finishes.
"I just woke up and was hungry, so I came by to check if there was something in the fridge" I say.
"What are you working on?" I ask, "If you don't mind me knowing" I add, I don't want him to feel obligated to share something he doesn't want to share.
I don't really want them to feel like I'm intruding in their lives, I'm trying to keep my distance from them. They've known eachother their entire lives, and I feel like I'm destroying the equilibrium they've created among themselves.
"Just a medical case, one of my patient needs to be diagnosed but I can't figure out what is causing his symptoms" He says looking down at his notes.
"Let me make something for you to eat." he gets up from his seat and moves towards the drawers and pulls out a pan, "You don't have to, I'll just have some milk or something, you look tired, I don't want to bother you" I feel guilty for coming into the kitchen now, Frank already looks tired enough to drop dead right in the middle of the kitchen, I don't want to add onto that.
"It's barely a bother, and anyways, I have had 4 hours of sleep before starting my work, I'll be fine," I do feel guilty but the noise from my stomach shuts me up from saying anything else. "how does a grilled cheese sandwich sound?" He asks turning on the stove and grabbing some butter from the fridge.
"It sounds perfect," I smile, maybe they are good brothers and I'm just being paranoid. Maybe they actually won't hurt me. And maybe I'm not really intruding.
He moves over towards the table and moves a chair making space for me and my wheelchair. There's a comfortable silence between us as I watch him make us the sandwiches. He has soo much concentration on what he's doing and he makes sure it looks perfect even while serving it into the plates.
"You want me to cut it up into triangles, or just cut it along the middle?" He asks finally looking over at me, "Triangles please" I reply.
"Good choice" He goes back to cutting it up and I can't help but notice tiny features about him I haven't notices before
His features are sharp and his eyes, honey colored. He had dark brown hair, styled perfectly even in the middle of the night. This is the first I've seen him in anything other than formals, wearing just a plain white t-shirt and black sweatpants.
his eyebrows furrow and he lightly bits the corner of his lips while focusing on something, looking at his features, any girl would be lucky to have him.
I've also noticed his arms, not too built like Andrea, but looks like he could carry around some weight. He definitely works out, just like the others.
He places a plate in front of me and sits next to me with his plate in front of him. I thank him and take a bite of my sandwich.
This is the most perfect grilled cheese I have ever eaten, I close my eyes as I slowly savor all the flavors in this. "Did you like it?" He asks pulling me out of my trance, "Like it? I love it." I smile at him and take another bite, "This is the most perfect grilled cheese I've ever had, thank you soo much" I don't even look up at him and continue munching on my sandwich.
A wave of sadness hits me as I take the last bite, the awesomeness which was once in my hand is over. But I would kill to have a sandwich like that again.
"Thank you" I thank him once again, "Don't mention it, anything for you Bambina" He say picking up the plates and putting it in the sink before getting me a glass of water.
I put the glass of water to my mouth and the first sip makes me realize how thirst I actually am, I finish the entire glass in one go and hand it back to him. He chuckles looking at the was I drank the water and I look down embarrassed.
"So I'm going to assume you're not sleepy," He says leaning on the kitchen counter and looking at me, I nod my head, "Why don't we do something until the others are up?" He asks.
"What do you have in mind?" I ask knowing he already has something planned.
2 hours later
"Uno" I shout again.
We've been playing Uno for the past two hours, and I've won every single game till now. Frank looks at me wanting to bury me alive for this and looking back at his 10 cards in his hand.
Haha, I'm winning again. He pulls out a red 4 and puts it on the previous card.
I immediately throw down my green 4 on top of his card and throw my hands up in the air to celebrate, "I win" again.
He groans as he throws his remaining cards down, "I give up, I can't do this anymore" clearly frustrated. Ha ha sore looser.
"Wait what?" I hear a voice behind me, I turn around and find Matteo and Aurelio looking at us in amusement, "There's no way Frank lost, he always wins whenever we all play" Matteo speaks up.
Aurelio walks up to me and places his hands forward for a high five, I return his hi-five before turning towards Matteo, "Well, believe it, he lost every single game since we started playing" I say in excitement.
"How long have you guys been playing for?" Aurelio asks, "Since 2.30 or 3am i guess" Francesco replies. "Why did you wake up that early Sylvie, did anything happen?" Aurelio questions me, concern written all over his face.
"I'm fine, I had just had enough sleep during the day yesterday, probably woke up early because of that" I notice his concern turn into a smile after I tell him that.
"How about we take a trip to the park nearby, the weather is nice outside and maybe we can even catch the sunrise" Matteo suggests, it has been a long time since I've gone outside, I wouldn't really mind.
And if Matteo is accompanying me, atleast I won't be alone.
"We could even visit the beach on the way back" he adds, now I'm invested in this. "Let's go" I agree and even before anyone could stop me or say anything I'm already wheeling myself to the gate.
"Wait, the ramp outside the house is not yet installed, so someone will have to carry you down the entrance" Francesco stops me before I open the doors.
Francesco jogs up to me and looks at me for permission to carry me, I quickly give him a nod and he lifts me right up, once we're down the stairs, I look back to see Matteo running down the stairs with the Wheelchair in his arms.
He places the wheelchair on the ground and Francesco lowers me down and adjusts me until I feel comfortable.
"Be careful Matteo, make sure you don't go too far and always keep your phones with you" Francesco calls out. "Shit, my phone is on my nightstand" I remember.
"Wait I'll get it" Aurelio runs into the house, and suddenly I feel guilty for forgetting it inside and now he has to run all the way in and get it. Matteo notices my emotions, "Hey it's fine, this is better than you forgetting it completely at home" He reasons trying to make me feel better.
Aurelio runs back outside, handing me the phone, I quickly thank him and follow Matteo outside the gates.
He's wearing black shorts and a sky blue t-shirt, paired with black running shoes and a simple chain. I've seen the same chain around Luca and Francesco's necks as well, maybe it's a family thing.
Each chain has a different engraving in it, but I haven't payed that much of attention to each of them. It does look pretty though.
We fall into a comfortable silence while he walks beside me as I use the remote on my wheelchair to move forward matching his speed.
Francesco
Sylvie and Matteo just left from here and I sense an unsettling feeling at the pit of my stomach, I try to shake it away by thinking of the time I got to spend with her today.
I got a chance to finally cook just for her, and I'm sure that won't be the last time I do so. I know she'll ask for the same thing next time.
And I don't even know how she won against me in Uno, I'm the master at it, I always win.
I guess not this time, huh. She won every single time, and I didn't know it was possible to loose that many times in a row until today.
but I don't feel bad losing against her, it was all worth it to be able to see that smile on her face, yesterday she wasn't really in the mood for anything and looked soo dull, I obviously had to do something to cheer up my princess.
She doesn't deserve the sad look on her face.
I had almost forgotten how much strength is held in that one smile of hers. That one smile is enough to put anyone in this house in a good mood, she holds the power of changing our emotions to whatever she's feeling.
If she's sad, all of us are sad, if she's happy all of us are happy. She's the pillar of this house, holding it together. Or we all would've split up a long time ago.
The only reason this mafia is one of the strongest mafia's in the world is due to how Andrea has built it in the past few years, he is the motivation for all of us and the best mafia don anyone could ask for.
Aurelio is nothing less compared to Andrea, just that he does show more emotions on a day to day basis.
this family is the way it is all because of our little star.
When she was living with mom, all of us would go to her birthday parties, which were mainly pool parties since she was born in may. We'd just stand inside the house and watch her have fun, leave presents on our way out.
We'd also sneak in some Christmas presents every year when she was asleep. We'd see mom when we went there, but she would mostly ignore us and not speak to us until necessary.
Maybe that's where our resentment towards our mom started, we never hated her for leaving, we hated her for never acknowledging us whenever we met her.
Matteo and Luca were just little 9 year old's when we met our mom at Sylvie's party and all they wanted was to hug their mama and feel a bit of the comfort they were longing for. But Grace didn't even bother acknowledging their presence and just pushed them away when they went to hug her.
That night I slept with the twins crying into my shoulder and telling me about how much they missed their mama, that day I owed to become better, step up and give them that comfort that they were clearly missing.
I started learning mama's recipes so that I can cook for them, and started putting them to sleep every night, taking them to the park every evening.
I was only 14 when that responsibility fell on me, not that I minded. The only thing keeping me going was the hope that one day our little sister will be back home, she'll come back where she belongs. She'll be with us and we don't have to hide around anymore.
That's all we've wished for since she left, she was the light in our house and once she left, we had only darkness.
When dad died, we had almost lost all hopes, until we met her at the funeral. When Grace let her talk to us, when I heard that sweet little voice of hers, I knew we still had that hope living in all of us, and we'd all be fine.
"Frank" I hear Luca's voice as I snap out of my thoughts. "Yo, you ok there? you were just staring at a blank paper for like 10 minutes" He adds.
"yeah I'm fine, did you need anything?" I ask rubbing my face with my arms, clearly I need some coffee to function normally throughout the day.
"Nah just came to grab some milk" He says walking over to the fridge and taking out the milk carton before pouring some for himself in a glass.
"You want some?" He asks me, "Nah I'm good, I think I'll take some coffee" I say walking over to the coffee maker and pouring myself a cup a coffee.
"Cool" He replies and walks out of the kitchen and I'm once again left alone with my thoughts.
The unsettling feeling still lingering around, I have a bad feeling about this.
I've sensed it before and it's better to be careful than sorry. So I place my mug on the table and quickly make my way over to Andrea's room. I know he's wide awake and is probably doesn't want to be disturbed right now, but I remind myself that it is important.
I pull in a sharp breath and bring my fist up and knock on the door three times, exactly like I usually do so that he knows it's me.
I take a step back as Andrea swings the door open.
"What's wrong, fratello?"
~