Lia
After yesterday's argument with Anna, I felt really bad. I honestly hoped she would understand me better, understand why I am the way I am. But no, she didn't care about my past. She just expected me to be the nice girl she wanted me to be. To fit the image her family has.
And I'm not like that.
I'm me.
I have issues. I've been through a lot. I have a dark past that made me who I am.
I sit in front of my computer, talking to Coach Jones about the team's training. Coach came back from LA yesterday, along with Vicky, but since I was so busy with my own issues, I didn't have a chance to talk to him.
It's been hectic here with the whole 'revealing my identity' thing and all, and the team was left in Dave's hands. He's doing a great job at getting the guys to train and workout, but there's another game coming soon and Blake needs to practice with the team too. He's been neglecting his practice for a week already.
"Kitten! – I hear Blake call out to me from the doorway as he peeks inside – I'm leaving with your dad and brothers to get our stuff to the house, so if you need anything, give me a call, yeah?"
"Sure." I smile, blowing him a kiss.
Blake only shakes his head with a grin then walks up to me and engulfs me in his arms from behind, having to bend considerably to do that. "That's it? Sure?" He teases, nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck, pressing small kisses all over it.
"What else am I supposed to say?" I chuckle, trying to focus on the workout regime for the team.
"I don't know. Maybe 'I love you Cakey, you're so thoughtful, I'll give you a reward when you come back' or something like that." He shrugs, making me laugh.
"I love you Cakey, you're so thoughtful. I will definitely give you a reward when you come back." I turn my head to smirk at him smugly, enjoying the hungry look in his eyes.
"You better. I can't wait to ravish you in our new home." He hoarsely says, biting onto my ear playfully. "I'll see you later, baby." He whispers, kissing my lobe, before slowly releasing me from his arms.
"Love you!" I call out after him as he leaves the room.
"Love you too!"
After I'm finished setting team's workouts for the whole week, I check my assignments for classes both at uni and my architecture academy. I have already finished my long-term project, but there's still a lot to catch up on.
It takes me a while to go over everything, but what could I expect... I skipped classes for the whole week.
Once I'm done with my work, I take my phone to see if I got any updates from Ivy. She texted me last week, saying that she's going to stay with Lorenzo from now on because her dad tried to force her to leave her apartment...
At first, I wanted to ask her to stay with me and Blake, but with this whole Patrick situation, I quickly changed my mind. She'll be safer with Lorenzo. I know him well enough to trust him with my friend's safety.
But Ivy hasn't texted me at all ever since she moved in with Lorenzo. And it worries me.
When my stomach starts demanding food, I go downstairs to the kitchen, intending to reheat dad's lasagna from yesterday. I open the fridge with a big grin on my face which turns to a scowl when I don't see the plate my dad left me. "WHO ATE MY LASAGNA?!" I storm into the common room, glaring at the guys with pure fury.
I notice Smokey fidget nervously as he smokes, avoiding my gaze. "Smokey?" I implore lowly.
"It wasn't me, it was Brute." He rushes out in panic, getting a smack on the head from the guy in question as he mutters 'liar'.
"Asshole." I sneer, flipping him a bird, before going to the kitchen to make myself some dinner. I don't miss the guys laughing at Smokey as they tell him he's in big trouble.
I quickly prepare myself some tortillas with chicken and veggies, ignoring the looks I get from Chopper as he watches me cook.
"What?" I chuckle when he keeps staring at me.
"You're going to eat all this or you gonna share?" He smirks teasingly.
"You can be goddamn sure I'll eat it myself. I'm not feeding you food thieves." I grumble, rolling the fourth tortilla.
"Hey, that was Smoke. Don't punish all of us for his mistakes." Chopper laughs, raising his hands in surrender.
"I will get him back for eating my lasagna, that's for sure." I mutter as I set the food on the plate. I quickly clean up the counter then take my full plate and a can of soda to the common room to eat. I catch the sight of Adrian on his computer at one of the tables, so I decide to join him.
"Hey Adi." I sit in front of him at the table, setting down my plate.
"Hey Lilli." He smirks over his laptop, making me scowl.
"Who told you about that?" I whine, taking a bite of my meal. Adrian, seeing I'm too busy eating, decides to steal one of my tortillas, taking a huge obnoxious bite of it.
"This is really good. – he mumbles with his mouth still full – I heard your dad's talk with one of his friends. He had the phone on speaker and I caught the guy ask something like 'how's Lilli'..." He explains shortly, chuckling at my annoyed expression.
"Don't steal my food!" I berate him lightly, making him laugh.
"Sharing is caring, sis." He smirks, reaching for a second wrap.
I literally have to slap his hand away. "Hey, it's mine." I pull my plate closer to me so he can't reach it. "So, what're you working on?"
"I'm checking the info we got on that fucker Patrick. We got a call that he was seen near your neighborhood in Berkeley, so I'm checking the surveillance footage to see if it's him."
"You get calls from Berkeley too?" I feel my brow raise in question.
"Sis, we're getting calls from all over the state." He scoffs.
"I can't wait to catch him. And his asshole of a nephew." I sneer.
"I know, sis. We're working on it. – Adrian smiles warmly then turns serious – Mom has left to Atlanta, you know..."
I only sigh at this. "Why couldn't she just accept me?" I implore curiously.
"Mom comes from a really... influential family. Old money, as some would call it. She was always so... pristine and lady-like and I think that's why it's so hard for her to accept that her daughter is nothing like her." He shrugs, looking at my sympathetically.
"It still doesn't explain why she was so harsh on me and my dad. Adrian, she called me a monster!"
"She was just upset, Lilli. She realized that she can never take the spot your dad has in your life. And it hit her hard."
"Yeah, it was hard on me too. You guys know how my life went, you made effort to get closer, but all she really did was try to make me feel bad about being... me." I sigh heavily, leaning back in my seat with my knees pulled up to my chest.
"I know, sis, I know. I read the file."
"File? What file?"
"The one Ashton compiled when we were searching for you. We've been trying to find you for years, but we only found you about few months ago. Of course, as soon as we confirmed it was actually you, we did our research and looked into your life as much as we could."
"I thought you were..."
"Watching you? No... Unfortunately. If we had found you sooner, we could've done something to help you. You have no idea how heartbroken we were when we learned about what you went through. No one should suffer like that." He frowns in despair, staring at me sadly.
"I had no idea... I just assumed you knew earlier..." I breathe out. It makes sense now. They couldn't do anything to help me and make it easier for me to endure what was going on because they didn't know. They only found out about my life months ago!
"It's fine, Lilli. How could you have possibly known?" Adrian trails off with a small sad smile.
"Why didn't Aiden tell me that, though? I pretty much accused you guys of abandoning me and ignoring me..."
"Aiden is really closed off. I guess he didn't want you to feel bad. None of us did." He sighs.
"I can see that. You have no idea how happy I am to have you guys in my life. You're a tremendous support to me." I smile warmly at him.
"I'm glad to hear it, lil sis."
I'm about to say more, but my phone pings with a new message. I take it out and almost groan when I see it's from James.
"Whazzup girl! You coming back anytime soon?" I can only sigh at this point.
"Yeah. We'll be back tomorrow." I respond, knowing that James would just keep texting me if I didn't.
"Bad news?" Adrian questions curiously, clearly noticing my annoyed look.
"Nah, just a bored friend asking when we'll be back at uni." I shrug, tossing my phone on the table.
"Someone's missing you..." My brother teases with a smirk.
"I guess... - I sigh - I really think Blake and I should probably go back to classes tomorrow. We skipped the whole week and I don't like being too far behind." I run my hand through my hair tiredly, already feeling the weight of all the impending work I'll have to catch up with.
"That's my sister. – Adrian grins – Smart cookie. Finally a sibling I can relate to." I laugh at his ridiculousness, shaking my head. "Don't laugh at me, you have no idea how hard it was growing up with those two meatheads. All they talked about was working out, picking up girls, playing ball and so on while I'd rather play on my computer or do math problems." He grumbles in annoyance.
"As if you don't work out yourself." I tease, pointing at his bulging muscles. He's almost as buff as the other two.
"Hey, don't judge. I'm working out to stay healthy, not for chicks."
"Of course you are." I smirk mockingly.
Just when Adrian is about to respond, my phone pings with a message. Geez, not again.
I smile when I see it's from Blake.
"You free?" I frown at the short message for a moment.
"Yeah. Something wrong?"
"Come here. There's an issue." I read the words again and again. Something seems off.
"Need me to bring anything?" I ask. Maybe something broke...
"No. Just come here." My frown deepens at the tone of the message.
"Sorry, I got to go. See you later, Adi." I get up and quickly take my dishes to the kitchen before pretty much running to Blake's car outside.
Something must be really wrong for Blake to be so... brusque.
He's never like this.