GABRIEL
“It’s just plastic; it’s not going to harm you.” She kept turning the prepaid Visa card over and over in her hand like she expected it to bite.
“I don’t understand why he gave it to me, though.”
“He already explained, it’s your allowance, same as the twins and I get.”
“But I’m not one of you.”
“As long as he says you are, then you are. Come on, let’s go to your room; you look dead on your feet.”
“My room? I’m not staying with you?” Don’t look so hopeful; it does strange things to me.
“Did you want to stay with me?” She hung her head shyly for an answer. If I wasn’t doing this for her sake, getting her a separate room, I would’ve caved. “You can stay with me whenever you want to, but you’ll have your own space all the same.”
Was that right? I’m not sure. In all my planning, I never gave much thought to the romance side of things, if there even is one. Since I’d never been in a relationship and had no plans of ever being in one, there are a few steps I’m not sure of. Whatever! I’m just going to go with my own gut instinct when it comes to doing what’s best for her.
“Here, you’re right across from me, see?” She looked back towards my door before stepping into the room Ma and Sheila had remade while I had her outside on the gazebo feeding the swans and ducks in the manmade pond down by the English garden.
“Oh, my.” She looked shellshocked as she looked around the room with the twelve-foot-high French doors that led out onto a balcony overlooking the garden we’d just left and the matching windows dressed in cream and gold hanging drapes with sheer curtains that let in the light from the night sky.
“I’m staying here?”
“Yeah, Ma and Sheila just changed some stuff around. I hope you like it.” The new bedding matched the cream and gold silk wallpaper on the walls and gave the room a fairytale look. “The bathroom is right through there.” I pointed out the door that was slightly ajar, and she walked forward and peeked inside, almost as if she was too afraid to step in.
I knew the room carried on with the same cream and gold marble with splashes of color to brighten it up. Ma had finally got to use her towels, and she’d changed out the bath stuff she usually kept in here for something softer like the twins use. Everything shone and sparkled, which means Sheila had shanghaied her staff into helping out.
“Are you going to be okay in here, or do you need me to stay for a little while?”
“You can go; I have Thor.”
“Thor? That’s what you named him?” My lips twitched, but I refused to laugh at her. Thor is about ten pounds soaking wet and about seven inches long. A white ball of fluff that can barely stand since he’s still a baby, but okay, Thor it is.
“What’s wrong with Thor?” Her pout was too cute, and I had to turn away before I did something stupid, like kiss her. If there’s going to be any of that, it’s not going to be now, not for a long while. Not until she learns her worth, at least. “I’ll leave you two to it then; see you in the morning.”
I left and headed to my sisters’ room. They were just getting into bed when I walked in. “Hi, Gabe, what’s up? Good move on the dog, but where’s his collar?”
“It’s not ready yet.”
“Did you get him a harness and vests for the winter?”
“What the…? I’ll let her choose those; that’s not what I came in here for.” I forgot how crazy these two are when it comes to their ankle-biters.
“Are you two ready for tomorrow?”
“Ready.” Rosa looked at Anna, who nodded.
“Now remember, Victoria is at some point going to play the victim. Do not give her a leg to stand on. Hit hard, fast, and without mercy. I’ll make sure Gianna is covered and doesn’t get involved. It’s the Russos who’ll be running this ship.”
“And Lance, he bullied us into letting him help.”
I’m sure Anna was lying. The truth is probably more along the lines of these two bullying my boy into helping them do their dirty work, but there was no way he wasn’t going to get involved anyway with his nosy self. “But Gabe, Rosa, and I have been thinking.”
“What’s the problem?”
“If we fight all of these battles for her, wouldn’t that harm her in the long run as well?”
“Yeah!” Rosa picked up the convo.
“You always make us fight our own.”
“No, right now, we’re teaching her that she has people behind her. You have me and the whole Russo family behind you. She had no one until us. She’s not strong enough to stand on her own yet. When she is, I’ll know.”
“Makes sense. Don’t worry; we know what to do.”
We did a final run-through before I left to go back to my room. There was still one thing left for me to do to prepare for tomorrow. I was looking over the outfit I’d chosen for her to wear when there was a knock at the door. “Come in.” Gianna walked in with my phone held out.
“It’s Lance; he wants to talk to you.”
I took the phone, wondering what could be up with him since he’d just left not that long ago. “You, okay? Uncle Marvin…”
“We’re fine. Have you seen the school forum online?”
“The what? You know I have no interest in that nonsense.”
“You’d better have a look.” He rattled off the website address and hung up.
“Here!” I handed her back the phone and waited until she left to go to my computer. What I found left me stunned. I didn’t know whether to strangle my sisters or thank them. It was a nice move, I could see why they’d done it, but I have a strong hate for social media.
As far as I’m concerned social media is for the disillusioned. Its only purpose seems to be to breed contempt and misunderstandings. It’s so destructive to the point that total strangers harbor hate and anger towards each other without having ever met. But in this case, the twins had set the groundwork for what was to come. Not bad!
I read some of the comments and made note of some names of the guys who I thought went too far in their commentary. The fuck are they looking at? The females, though, yeah, I could smell the green coming off some of them, while others, my sisters’ friends to be exact, were doing what they were no doubt told to do. Those two little girls down the hall are scary as shit.
VICTORIA
I heard the car pull into the driveway and ran back to the window only to see Felix exiting alone. Where is she? I met him at the door. “Where’s Gia?” Too rash, I forgot to tone it down a little, and no doubt what I was feeling showed in my eyes. “Oh, I just wanted to ask her about her weekend; I got a little too excited, I guess.” Mom came up behind me just then, and he looked at both of us.
“Gia will be staying with the Russos for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“They wanted her to, and I said it was okay. Why? What’s the problem?”
“Why does she need to be staying anywhere? This is her home, and you didn’t even ask me if it was okay.”