🎨/⛸️
🎨
It's been 3 weeks since me and Isaac got together, officially. We've been on cinema dates almost every day apart from Sundays.
I'm now technically good enough to apply for beginners comps in ice skating but I am definitely not ready for that yet.
My father wrote to me. Twice while I was in France, Landon got the same letter asking us to come visit.
We burned the letters together.
Unfortunately Lewis has decided to go back and live in Australia as soon as Luka's Easter break is over. I'm going to miss him being around although I knew we couldn't keep him home forever.
"Turn left here." I say to Issac driving us to pick up my little brother from boarding school.
It's finally his Easter break which means I get to have him all to myself for a full week.
These past 3 weeks have been incredible, skiing, dates, quality time but also the sad news about Lewis.
"I'll go park the car, if you want to jump out here and wait in reception? I'll meet you there darling." I nod at Issac after he gives me a kiss on the head.
This school is huge, I bet Luka loves it here.
A tall lady approaches me with a clipboard. Her name tag reads Sandra and the snobby look on her face gives me the creeps.
She looks me up and down then stops in front of me.
"Are you here for pickup?" Her P's pop as she speaks and it makes me cringe.
"Yeah I'm here to pick up my brother, Luka Quinn." I hold my waist wondering where the hell Issac is.
"Unfortunately only parents can pick up children it's a rule." Sandra has the most judgmental face ever, as if to say 'you don't belong here.' Well fuck her.
"Unfortunately." I exaggerate to make my voice sound like her, "Luka's parents aren't available to pick him up. I'm his guardian so can I please retrieve my brother."
"Hey baby." Issac steps behind me, replacing my hands with his around my waist. "Where's Luka?" He asks.
"Unfortunately sir, his biological parents need to retrieve Luka or I can't hand him over." Just as Sandra finishes her sentence my name gets shouted from across the room.
"LI LI, LI LI, YOU'RE HERE." Issac steps back allowing me to squeeze my brother tightly.
"Hey little man, how you been?" I ask not letting go, mostly because I've missed him so much and also to spite Sandra a little bit.
"Good, can we go home I wanna see Lew Lew and Landie?" Luka ha always called all three of us by the nicknames since he was just under and first started saying our names.
He hasn't even realised Issac is here yet, if he has he hasn't realised Issac is with me.
"Soon little man I just need to sort something first, will you do me a big favour?" I let go of him finally and step to the side so he can see Issac clearly. "Can you stand with Issac over there for a few moments while I speak to this lady?"
"He can't go anywhere with any of you unless you are his parents or have full proof you are allowed to take him." Sandra says all snotty and rude.
"My mum is dead. My Dad is in bad guy jail. They can't pick me up."
Fucking hell. Way to go Luka.
Sandra has a face of pure embarrassment. As she should. "Well I'm sorry. You can go on home now Luka dear."
I take his left hand and Issac goes to walk behind us but Luka's words take me by surprise.
"Can this man hold my hand too?"
⛸️
"Can this man hold my hand too?" My heart explodes for the 500th time of being with Lil and now her brother.
I look at Liliana for approval and she just nods softly at me. "Of course I can." I take Luka's hand, my heart pounding, leaving me with the biggest smile on my face.
Once we are in the car, Luka decides we are gonna play 50 questions and ask me every single bastard one.
"Are you dating?"
Yes
"Do you kiss?"
Yes
"Have you been dating short time?"
Yes
"Do you like each other?"
Yes
"Are you in love?"
I freeze. Liliana freezes. Luka asks again thinking we didn't hear him.
"Do you want McDonald's Luka?" Lil speaks up distracting him from his question.
"Duh."
So we pull into McDonald's and for the rest of the journey he doesn't ask anymore questions.
"I feel really sick, I need to lay down." Liliana is as white as a ghost. It's been a few hours since we arrived back to Warlock house.
All three have us have been waiting for Landon and Lewis to return home but there's been no sign yet.
Luka storms off into his play room leaving me to carry Liliana to bed before she passes out.
"I'm here darling, do you want some paracetamol?" Liliana nods. So I hand her the pills and a bottle of water.
"I think I'm getting a bug. I'm so hungry." She sniffles which confirms she must be getting a bug.
"Me and Luka will make you some grilled cheese and soup." The cutest little smile lights her face up as she closes her eyes.
I place a kiss on her forehead and head downstairs to retrieve Luka.
"Hey little man, Li Li isn't feeling well, I need you to help me make her feel better. Can you do that?" This kids play room is bigger than his bedroom.
"Yes! Of course I can." He runs up to me so I tell him what I need him to do for me.
Now that Luka is hard at work I can focus on making the soup and grilled cheese.
Once the cheese has been grated I place a generous amount in the bread and begin toasting it while the soup is bubbling.
Tomato soup has been a secret recipe in my family for years, I've never shared it with anyone before Liliana.
"I finished my card." Luka shows me the card her drew for Liliana, it's the cutest.
(My little cousin actually drew this.)
"This is great, thank you both of you." Liliana places the card on her bed side table smiling before trying the soup and grilled cheese.
"Issac this tastes amazing." Lil blows on the soup then places another spoonful in her mouth. "How did you make this?"
"I'm a man of many talents." Luckily Luka left a few minutes before I blurted that sentence out.
"You sure are. I also have something for you. It's in the draw over there." She points towards the draw next to her bedroom door.
When I pull it out I realise exactly what it is. Our hands intertwined on a painting with mine sparkling, her pink nails clasping onto me.
"This is going up on my wall when I go home."
Which was supposed to happen 3 days ago but I love staying with Liliana, I can't get enough of her.
Before I can say anything else my phone starts ringing.
Grandma. What. The fuck.
"One sec darling I gotta take this." I dash out of the room accepting the phone call.
🔊 Finally Issac Dear, have you been avoiding us?
🗣️ No.
🔊 We are planning to visit New York and thought you and Anastasia would like to come visit.
🗣️ No I'm okay.
🔊 Issac? It's your grandfather. Come see me and your grandmother.
🗣️ No, no matter how many times you try and bond with me and my sister I'll never forgive you for trying to take me away from mum and dad.
The phone ends and I notice that Liliana is standing in the hallway staring at me with glassy eyes, holding a bowl of empty soup on her hands.
"I'm- I- sorry I really didn't mean to hear that I-" she stumbles over her words. "I- I don't expect you to tell me anything, I'll forget everything. I'm sorry."
"Hey, darling it's okay you deserve to know. Come on."
We sit back down on the bed and I wipe Liliana's eyes, reassuring her it's okay and it's not her fault.
"I've never told anyone this, apart from Elijah. You deserve to know because it's a part of who I am and who my parents are too. I trust you and plan on spending the rest of my days with you. Although pretend I didn't say that. That should have stayed in my brain."
I'm babbling.
"Okay, so my parents have been together since they were 13 and 14, my mother got pregnant 16 with me and Ana obviously... So... Erm anyway... yeah... My grandparents, mothers side... wanted to abort us, my parents said hell no basically." A tear escapes my eye and Liliana catches it wiping it away. She grabs my hand and nods for me to carry on.
"When we were born, our mother had a lot of... erm complications. She nearly didn't make it. My grandparents hated us for that—" I sniffle as Liliana squeezes my hand and it makes me feel a little better about this story.
"They tried to suffocate Ana by 'accidentally' cutting her wires. But Ana being the stubborn bitch she is—" Liliana laughs a little. "—Survived and my parents went to live with my other grandparents for a while. Then when me and Ana were 4 years old, they tried to file for custody which they failed 3 times. My Dad filed a restraining order against them both and so did my mother a few months later."
"Issac I'm so sorry. I wish I could help, you know I'm here for you whenever you want to rant or just shit talk people." Liliana's mouth forms into a little smile which makes my mouth tug a little.
"It's okay, essentially we didn't speak to them for 17 years until they sent money in the post for our 21st and they keep trying to bond with us."
Me and Liliana lay in bed talking about our shitty families, laughing, crying and sometimes screaming until Landon knocks on the door.
"Ready for the match tomorrow?" He asks once he steps through the door. Shit I totally forgot about that.
"Wait the match is tomorrow?" Liliana asks with a worried look on her face.
"Yep—" Landon nods, "—Jackson is back on the ice too."
Great.
•••
A 1800 word chapter? Excuse me who am I? I quickly wrote this and published because tomorrow is Friday and I'm very busy but hopefully I can post another tomorrow if not then enjoy this while you can.
Thank you for reading <3333