Bautista
I slumped on the lounge room couch just like a deflated balloon. Dante and I had planned so much for Adrian and Janet, but everything went flat. Indel Gardens was a place, extremely close to Adrian's heart. It was a part of those few memories, that Aunt Nikki left for him.
Since, Adrian was hopelessly attracted to Janet, we had come up with the plan of leaving the both of them alone at the gardens. Janet would've learnt more about Adrian and vice versa. But, some random dude had to come into picture and spoil all those plans.
"So, what now?" Dante asked, looking at all of us one by one.
I just shrugged. I had racked my brain so much yesterday that I was stumped for ideas now.
"Hey, it's okay. We can go there, next week." Janet chirped, trying to lift our moods.
"Yeah, Dad mentioned some security issue. So, we'll steer clear off the Gardens for now." Adrian said. "But we still have a day to enjoy so let's come up with something else, yeah?"
"Hide and Seek."
A groan escaped me as I heard Dante's idea. Not again. I was sick of his favourite game. Dante was such a kid. He loved Mario over Fortnite, chocolate shakes over coffee, and Hide and Seek over other better things. No wonder people thought him to be the opposite of straight.
"Hide and Seek?" Sylvia repeated Dante's words, probably unsure of what she heard.
"Yeah." Dante said, cheerfully. He pushed his spectacles up on the bridge on his nose, something he did at least a hundred times a day. "Me and the guys play it all the time."
"More like you force us to play that with you all the time." I rolled my eyes at him. "I am not playing any of your shitty games."
"I like it." Sylvia said. "It's been a long time since I last played Hide and Seek."
Janet was quick to support her best friend and it was obvious that her puppy aka Adrian would follow her lead. So, I was the only one who was the outcast. All them looked at me with those weird facial expressions. With eyes wide and dilated, lower lips protruding out in a weird way.
"Okay..." I raised my hands in surrender. I hated that puppy kinda' face. It irritated the fu*k out of me. "Don't make those faces, please."
Sylvia burst into a fit of laughter, the corners of her eyes crinkling. It was obvious that shevwas laughing at me. Her laughter was like ripples in a still water body after a stone is thrown in it. It flowed and radiated outwards, taking all the others in. Within moments, the silent and dull room was resonating with the sounds of laughter. I couldn't help but stare at her.
She was amazing.
"Oh!" She took in short breaths. "He's..." She pointed at me and tried to form words amidst all that laughter. "He's so..."
She didn't get to complete her sentence as Dante interrupted her and got us all ready for the game.
"Basement, Grandma's and Uncle Sev's rooms are restricted areas. Apart from that, no one can go out sided the mansion doors." We had formed up on him and were listening keenly. "And for my signature, there is a dare for the one who loses."
This time, instead of laughter, the room resonated with groans. His signature inclusions were the reasons why I didn't like playing with him. All his dares were in relation with Severin Indelicato, the one person who scared me shitless. Dante was well aware that he was Sir's bias. I don't think Sir had ever scolded him, that man has never even glared at his nephew, let alone do something scary to him. All this gave Dante a leverage over us. Plus he never lost at games, so me and Adrian were the only people who were reprimanded with the dares.
"What dare?" Sylvia, who was standing beside me asked.
"The loser has to barge into Uncle's office and scream bloody murder."
I gulped painfully at the thought of me doing that and I saw similar reaction been given by Adrain and Janet. Sylvia amused us, though. She had actually accepted Dante's condition with a flat "Okay."
We knew arguing with Dante to change the dare to something less suicidal was like talking to a brick wall. That prick was so stubborn with his dares that he wouldn't settle with anything less than that itself. At the end, the game started with all of us accepting his condition. Everybody played solo.
Dante was the one who was supposed the seek. The first person he finds would be the one who's go and shout for his or her death, literally. Dante had left the lounge and proceeded down to the kitchen to play his part. Just as he was out of sight all of us scattered. I already had an amazing place in mind, so I made a dash towards my room. Just as I opened the door to my room, I felt a presence behind me.
Was he already here? I thought to myself before turning around to see Sylvia close on my heel.
"I...hide me!" Her eyes were wide in alarm and she kept glancing back at the corridor from which Dante had left earlier. "I don't know of any place for hiding." She said, when her eyes looked back at me.
Sylvia hadn't been around the mansion long enough to actually find a place to hide. Plus her sad expressions sort of fucked me up, so I decided to share my scared place for hiding, with her. "Come on." I held her wrist and dragged her into my room.
"Where are we going to hide?" She asked.
Her question made me look up towards the ceiling. Just above it ran a small portion of the attic. It was separated from the whole with bare beams and since Dante didn't like dark and unexplored spaces, the attic would be the last place he'd look at.
Without answering Sylvia, I quickly climbed up on my bed and and tugged at a handle a few inches away from the ceiling fan. A thick wooden ladder came into view. With the same speed I pulled it down and gestured Sylvia to get on it.
"I..." She hesitated but climbed on my bed after a few seconds. "Is it clean up there?"
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. "You want to die at the hands of Adrian's father?" I questioned with all seriousness.
She violently shook her head at that.
"Then climb up quick."
I followed her up and soon realised about the space crunch. There wasn't enough space for the two of us to sit comfortably. Since my room was at the end of the corridor, the roof above it ended with an edge. Over my room, the roof sloped down not giving the attic enough space to accommodate a standing human so crouching was our only option.
I was in the slightly less sloped area of the attic while Sylvia couldn't even move her head. "Come here." I whispered to her. Light from a small hole for ventilation lighted the attic.
"Where?" She whispered back.
I separated my legs, making enough space for Sylvia to be able to sit between them. "Come here, quickly. I need to close the attic before Dante reaches this room."
At first she didn't even move an inch and when she did she came face front towards me. "Stop!" I hissed. "Turn your back towards me."
I couldn't imagine in what position we would've been if she sat facing me. It would've been extremely awkward and sexual. I finally sighed with relief when she turned her back to me and sat with her legs tightly closed in order to make for space that the open entrance of the attic room inches away from her. Noticing that we were finally sat properly, I gestured Sylvia to pull the handle and close the attic.
We were finally done when we adjusted ourselves beside the wooden ladder that had come up with the attic opening.
"It's suffocating." Sylvia said, fanning her face.
"I know." I agreed. "It'll be a short while and we'll be out of here and safe."
"I kind of feel bad for Adrian and Janet." She said, craning her neck to look at me.
I hummed in agreement. We sat there for a while just whispering to each other. We were in middle of a conversation about Adrian and Janet's relationship when my phone vibrated in my pocket. Thank god, I had put it on vibration.
"Mom?" I whispered as soon as I picked up. "What happened?"
"Honey." She had started with those cheesy nicknames so I knew she was cutting in for a favour. "How are you?"
"Mom" I whispered again. "Get to the point. I'm...kinda' busy." I was sure Sylvia could hear my mother through the phone.
"Diego and Camila are coming over." She couldn't hide her excitement. "In a few days."
Diego and Camila were my cousins. They were fraternal twins borne for nine months by my mother's sister and my aunt Alyce.
"I need you to go back to the house and stay there, while they are here." I knew she was going to ask me for this. I dreaded this very thing.
"Mom..." I started, trying to find words to describe why I didn't want to go back to that place.
"I know, honey. But you need to accept all of it, ¿Correcto?" I liked how soothing my mom's voice got when she spoke Spanish. My dad sounded scary whenever he spoke in Spanish. "Go back home in two days and pick the twins from airport then, ¿entendido?"
(Right?) (Understood?)
She hung up on me before listening to my excuse.
An exasperated sigh escaped my mouth.
Why was it so difficult for people to understand?
"You okay?" Sylvia asked, softly. Her face in front.
"No." I was honest with her.
"Why don't you stay at you place? Why do you stay with Adrian?" She asked.
"Because it hurts."
|°°°°°°°°|
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