-Alex's POV-
I sat on the old, springy mattress in the room we were given, waiting for Sophia to emerge from the bathroom. I mean, I could see her as she got ready, but she wasn't much of a conversationalist as she tried to make her hair look better than it already it.
I was surprised that she wasn't firing off any questions. I was also getting bored watching her do her hair, so I opened up the floor for any topic of conversation whether it was going to put me in the spotlight or not, "Really?" I started playing with one of the strings on my hoodie, "You don't have anything you want to say?"
She shrugged, a loose piece of her blonde hair escaping from the clamp she had on top of her head, "No. Not really."
"Really?" The surprise in my voice was way too evident and I quickly searched for ways to get her to think of something to say, "You don't want to know anything about them? Nothing at all?"
She turned to look at me, one eyebrow raised suspiciously, "Is there something you want me to know? If so, do tell."
I shook my head and fell backwards onto the bed, closing my eyes, fully anticipating to fall into a peaceful cat nap, "No, I just figured you'd be asking me questions or something. Ya know, new people and such...You're boring, Soph," I finally admitted.
It wasn't long before a shadow was cast over me and I opened one eye at a time to see Sophia standing above me. I laughed at her appearance. The bottom half of her hair was curled perfectly while the top part was as straight as a line. "Boring? What are you? Three?"
"Yes," I quickly shot into a sitting position and wrapped my arms around her waist before pulling her onto the bed next to me.
I was surprised that she didn't even try to fight my love this time, and instead nestled her way into my arms even further. "Body pillow," she said before draping one of her legs over mine.
I didn't say anything in response, just smiled and dwelled in this perfect moment.
"How many kids does your dad have?"
Jesus Christ! Really?!
"You're going to ruin this moment for me but you couldn't entertain me when I was bored? Nah, I don't play that game."
"But I'm curious."
I sighed really loud, making sure to do it right in her ear so she understand just how annoying this was, "Four."
"Boys and girls?"
"Just girls."
Soph didn't say anything else on the subject and instead moved on, "I didn't know they owned a hotel."
"Yeah, I didn't either."
-Sophia's POV-
The table was small.
When I had family dinners, I was used to big, full tables covered in an assortment of dishes. I was greeted here with one, but at least it looked good.
There was one very notable absence at the table, but no one really seemed to question it. We just waited. I didn't know how much longer I could wait though because I was starving and I had two other people to feed.
I looked at Alex's sisters to pass the time, studying their faces. They all looked very similar with their wildly curly dark hair and large brown eyes, a beautiful tan to each of their skins. The only noticeable differences between the four of them were their ages and clothing size.
The oldest looked like she could have been our age, maybe a year or so younger with the youngest one at the table being no older than five. They other two looked close in age somewhere in the middle.
The littlest couldn't even see over the table.
I noticed that they were all staring at Alex with the most puzzled looks on their faces. I wanted to know why they looked so confused but I didn't want to ask.
I'm just glad no one was staring at me like that.
My stomach betrayed me in that very moment, letting out one thunderous growl. I clutched it in hopes to silence the storm, but it didn't work, everyone was already staring at me with wide eyes.
"Maybe we should eat now," Dimitra said with a kind smile on her face. She seemed nice, so I didn't know why Alex seemed to have such a problem with her.
Dimitra stood up and started ladling out the creamy looking soup. "For you," she handed me the first bowl.
I smiled gratefully, "Thank you." I didn't want to eat until everyone else, or at least Alex had his too, but I didn't know if I would be able to wait that long.
My stomach was starting to eat itself.
"I don't even know their names," I whispered to Alex as soon as Dimitra started a conversation with the oldest daughter.
Alex shrugged, "I'm not the person to ask. I suck with names."
How do you not know your own sisters' names?
Well, I guess he wasn't close to them, but is that really a good excuse? No, it's not.
I turned back in my seat, only to see Dimitra staring at me with wide, curious eyes, "Problem, dear?" She asked.
Uhhh..."I just don't know any of their names," I motioned towards the four girls on the other side of the table.
"Eleni," the oldest one said.
"The twins, Anastasia and Eirene," Dimitra said whilst scooping out some more soup and handing it to the youngest, "And the baby of the family: Sofia."
Ah, she's got the best name any little girl could ever have. "Hey, that's my name," I didn't mean for it to come out, but I also didn't really care because now they knew my name as well. They probably didn't even care. They didn't exactly look like the friendliest people.
"You're pregnant?" Eleni asked whilst taking a bite of the soup that had just been given to her. I then did the same.
I nodded, "Yeah, eight weeks."
"My best friend is expecting too. She's twenty weeks."
"Eleni," Dimitra said calmly, "I told you that I didn't want to hear about that anymore. Having company doesn't change that."
Eleni gave her an icy look before continuing to eat her soup.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable and just wanted to take the food back to my room. Alex never said anything, but I could sense that he hated every moment of being at this table.
I didn't know if I really blamed him anymore. This was awkward as hell.
I heard a door open and Sofia quickly jumped out of her chair, running towards the noise despite her mother's protest.
"Oh, god," Alex mumbled.
It wasn't long before the man of the hour came walking into the small dining room, with Sofia in his arms.
He wasn't what I was expecting. Not at all.
Italia was beautiful, I wouldn't deny that for one second, so I would have assumed that her standards would have been sky-fucking-high, but apparently not.
Maybe alcohol was involved in the conception of Alex...
Maybe Italia wasn't as shallow as she seemed....I strongly doubted that though.
He was tall, and rather round, with thick, slightly curly dark hair and a long beard to go with it. His eyes were the same wintry green Alex's were, but other than that I couldn't really find any major similarities.
I guess no one had informed him that we were here because his face had nothing but shock on it.
Oh, this was going to be interesting.
-Alex's POV-
I didn't really have the energy to be a defiant little prick tonight, so when I was asked if I could hang around downstairs to catch up, I had no choice but to say yes.
Soph, however, had the guts to say no and got out of here as quickly as possible.
She went to bed and I just wanted to go with her.
The other girls went to bed too, so it was just Dimitra, my dad and I, sitting in the worst of all awkward silences. I felt both of their eyes on me as I stared strongly at the tv spewing off Greek news in front of me.
"Did your mother ever feed you? You're so skinny."
I tried not to get offended. I wasn't fucking skinny by choice, it was the metabolism thank you very much. It wasn't even as bad as he was making it sound. I had muscle.
I also had nothing I wanted to say to him, so I stayed completely silent.
Dimitra stood up, "I'm going to leave you two alone. Goodnight, Alex."
"Night."
He waited until she was out of sight before speaking again, "Did your mother kick you out? Why are you here? Are you in trouble?"
Was I in trouble?
I scoffed, "I'm always in trouble with someone."
"Care to elaborate?"
I finally turned my head to look at him, only to see exactly what I feared the most.
Genuine concern.
"Mom started a family feud and now I'm homeless. It's a long story, I don't want to bore you."
I actually just didn't want to share my entire life with someone who never bothered to be in it.
But he seemed very interested and I had this odd feeling that I wouldn't be able to walk away without sharing the juicy details.
I sighed, "I don't know if you know anything about Angelo D'Amico, but to put it simply, he's probably the biggest asshole the world has ever known and also mom's worst enemy/past lover. He's my girlfriend's dad and now she's pregnant, so they're both kinda pissed and it's all coming down on me. I'm pretty sure any of these days could be my last, so...yeah. Mom wants my kids to be de Rossi's and Sophia's dad wants them to be D'Amico's. I don't want them to be either."
I watched as my dad sat back, speechless. I wasn't sure if he was just confused or what, but it didn't matter because I wasn't going to explain any further. "You should talk to your Uncle Evangelos...my brother."
"Why? What does he do? I'm not going to see a therapist."
I had been to several therapists in my life and I was completely done with that. I was beyond anyone's help.
"He's part of the Velentzas crime family. The boss actually."
My eyes shot open and whatever ounce of tiredness I may have had was totally gone. I was wide awake now.
I just can't get away from the mafia...