AKARI
I stared at the raindrops that fell onto the window as I thought about how my life has changed since my mother's passing. It's been almost a month that I have been living with my brothers.
There was a bounty on my head but was easily terminated, figured because of the power and money my brothers had. Just in case, Domenico made sure I never left the house alone, either with a guard or one of my brothers, to which they weren't too happy about.
Speaking of my brothers, they haven't insulted me once after being told off by Domenico when Zachariah brought up me being a whore and that I have many STI's.
But as a result, none of them talked or even glanced at me. I was invisible to them.
Except for Zachary. I grew fond of the library and one day I walked in on him playing piano, I complemented him on his crazy talent to be able to perform such a masterpiece. It became a routine that we'd meet up in the library and whilst I read, he plays piano.
Though we never talked, you could hear what he wanted to say through his musical pieces. On most days it's a sullen and melancholic piece, on random days it's an aggressive and hostile piece and on more rarer days it's happy and uplifting.
Alexandros was right, Domenico did like me more than everyone else. He was more protective and was willing to do everything I asked. It was a weird feeling, a feeling of love. It was so foreign to me that when I started feeling it, I was so confused. I was grateful for him, I didn't even know what I would have done without him.
I was startled by the thunder that boomed outside. Growing up I was always afraid of bad weather. The thunder, the lightning. They always made me act different, I was angrier and easily irritated just to cover up the fact that I was scared.
Another boom hit and I started to draw circles around my palms to calm myself down and took deep breaths. I looked at the time, 6:34am, the clock read. I got up from my bed and went to the bathroom just to be ready for the session I had this morning with Giuseppe, my orthopedist.
Today they'll remove my cast and give me a boot because apparently my ankle was healing faster than expected. I hopped into the shower and a flash of lightning shone through the blinds. I pay it no mind to it and turned on the hot water.
After getting used to living here I asked for permission to use hot water and Domenico was shocked that I had been with cold water in the cold weather this whole time and immediately agreed. I finished showering and hopped out the shower, threw on a robe and went towards the sink.
I brushed my teeth and after, I rinsed my mouth, spit out and looked at my reflection. I looked different. I was a little bit skinnier than I was when I first got here. My hair was longer, easier to grab.
I run a hand through my hair as I thought back to the day I was raped yet again by that man, the last time I was raped. I always wondered how he knew about my brother, or how he knew I declined to go back with Domenico. I didn't think too much about it though.
I changed into my usual, a black turtleneck, black sweatpants with a black sweater and a coat. With that I wore black socks and Ugg boots, only on one foot though. After spraying some perfume and fixing my hair, which I decided needed a trim, I grabbed my crutches and made my way out of the room and went towards the kitchen.
Domenico was already in his suit drinking coffee on his laptop and Armano, who has never talked to me and who I barely see around, was cooking. "Good morning." I greeted but no one responded and I didn't try again.
I went towards the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and went to sit by the dining table and waited for Alexandros to come. He was assigned the job to take me to my sessions as punishment for insulting me.
As if magically, he appeared in the room and he said, "Good morning." And everyone responded including me but he rolled his eyes at me and went to grab a cup of coffee and a cookie and came towards to where I was sitting and sat in front of me and went on his phone.
I tried not to think too much about the lightning that shone again through the blinds as I noticed that no one else seemed to care. Minutes after thunder struck and I visibly flinched and Alexandros laughed, "The little princess is afraid of the storm," he said in a mocking tone.
"Alexandros." Domenico warned and Alexandros immediately went quiet. I noticed that everyone was afraid of and respected Domenico. He had the final say. Alexandros gets up, signaling it time to go so I get up as well.
He actually started to walk slower than he used to. We got into the elevator and went to the garage floor. I had noticed that there are more floors underground than there are above the ground and I always wondered what was down there as no one bothered to show me.
We got to the car and he unlocked it. I got in and he told me he was going to get an umbrella. Soon we were on the road and it was quiet as usual. "Did you ever go to school?" Alexandros breaks the silence. "No." I answer nonchalantly. "So you didn't have friends?" He asks again and I stayed with the same answer, "No."
He just responded with an 'oh' and we were brought back into the previous silence. We got to the hospital, he got out first and went towards my side and opened the door for me and covered me with the umbrella. We got into the buildings and we were greeted by Giuseppe.
The cold air hit my bare ankle, it felt so good. The doctor gave me a few minutes to be free before putting on the boot. "She is aloud to walk without her crutches but when she feels pain she is advised to use them. She can remove her boot but only for an hour and during that hour, she can walk on her leg but she should not put too much pressure on her leg."
"She still needs to come for physiotherapy but once a week now on Thursdays. If she continues to heal at this rate, she'll have this boot off in no time." She finishes with a slight chuckle and Alexandros nods and we make our way out of the hospital with Alexandros carrying my crutches for me and holding the umbrella over our heads.
We were on the road but I realized this isn't the way back to the house, "Where are we going?" I voiced my curiosity. "The mall." He answered bluntly,
"Why?" I asked,
"To get you some gadgets."
"Why?"
"Stop asking so many questions." He said getting annoyed and with that, I stopped and stared out of the window like I usually did. I hated crowded places but I wasn't going to tell him that or he'd make fun of me again.
We got to the mall and he got out and did the same thing as we did back at the hospital as it was still raining heavily. We walked in and it was packed, there were people everywhere. I was scared, a lump grew in throat clogging it. I tried to swallow it down but it seemed to get bigger the more I tried.
I continued to follow Alexandros but I was really starting to struggle to breathe. I clutched my chest and began to gasp for air. Alexandros turned around with an annoyed expression that soon turned into concern but I wasn't sure because he'd never be concerned about me.
It felt as if the walls were closing in on me and a stone was placed above my chest forcing me to watch the walls slowly close in on me. I was too focused on trying to catch my breath that I didn't notice that we were now in the bathroom.
I was on my knees on the floor, "Akari," Alexandros calls out my name trying to help me focus on him and not the walls falling on me. "Can I touch your hands?" He asks and I didn't care at this point so I nodded and he slowly grabbed my hands.
He slowly starts to massage the inner part of my palms. "Focus on the feeling of my hands, listen to my voice and take deep breaths, okay?" He says and I do as he says.
"It's okay, no one is going to hurt you, I'm right here. Just breathe." He says softly as he continues to massage my palms and I slowly begin to regain my breath. "I'm going to hold your hand as we go to buy your stuff, is that okay?" He asks.
Surprisingly, I nod and he helps me stand up as I was finally calmed down, I took one last deep breath and we walked out. I squeezed his hand tighter at the sight of the people. I took a deep breath and I walked with Alexandros.
I was oddly comfortable holding his hand. I was holding a man's hand and I was comfortable. That was hard to believe, we bought the stuff and Alexandros led me to a food court and the air smelt so good but I had to control myself.
We went to order and sat down with our food. Alexandros was stuffing his face whilst I only ate a few ships, and by a few, I mean two. "Alex!" A high pitched voice called and I turned to see the prettiest girl ever.
She had long black hair and was wearing a long brown dress and a coat above it and she was latched to a man that looked like he didn't want to be here. She and the man walked over to us, "How have you been?" She asks.
Though she was really pretty, her voice was highly annoying. "Janae! I've been great, how have you been?" He says feigning enthusiasm. "Oh, you know, just getting married." She shows off her ring which looks heavy on her finger.
"This is my husband, Roman and who's this, your new side piece, she looks a bit young don't you think?" She says looking at me with disgust. I look down at my lap and I see Alexandros frown from the corner of my eye.
"That's my sister and congratulations, I would love to continue this conversation but we have somewhere to be." Alexandros says as he grabs my hand with one hand and grabs the bag and the umbrella with the other and we leave the table and out the mall.
Before we got out, he let go of my hand to open the umbrella and held my hand again. We got to the car and Alexandros climbs into the backseat with me. He opens up the phone first and helps me understand how to use it and he does it for the iPad and the MacBook, as he told me, too and we finally made our way back to the house.