IN LOVE WITH MY BROTHER'S MAFIA BEST FRIEND

"Was it one of the nightmares?". He asks hesitantly,after a while of complete silence. I nod against him,unable to form a word,it would rather be no sound coming out of my mouth at all or a sound that resembles a dying whale trying to speak. "Don't you want to talk about it?". I shook my head in disagreement. There I nothing new to say,he and all my brothers know what the nightmare is all about. They might not be the same all the time,but they are about the same event;the night my mum had a car accident. Even seven years later I still get them,not regularly,thanks to my therapist,but she said it was normal. I don't think I would be able to get rid of them completely,no matter how much I want to,but I can't get everything my heart desires,can I?. At least I was able to stop therapy session. She said I made progress and that my mental health got steady,I call bullshit . Sometimes. "Lay with me?" I asked,feeling sleepy once I have calmed down and he nods before pulling away. I lay in the middle of my king sized bed,Xavier grabs the covers,I now notice that are on the floor and motions for me to scoot over. Once I do,he grabs the fluffiest pillows and places it right under my head,he gets another one and makes himself comfortable. Soon enough,his snores fill the room. I sighed and smiled,then shakily turned my back to him,trying to get some sleep myself. .......... My seemingly loud alarm goes off,waking me up but I still lay under the covers,knowing that Xavier would probably turn it off. But when a good minute pass,with the loud alarm still going off,I turn to my side only to find the other side of the bed empty. I lazily got out of bed and let the cold air outside my bed covers hit my legs. My eyes widen as I realize that today's the first last day of school,I quickly ran into the bathroom,in need of a good shower to wake me up. And I needed to enter my first last day of high school with a freshly washed hair. I got out of the shower and headed to my closet to look for what to wear,but I'm disappointed that the only pants left for me to wear is a grey sweatpants that I stole from my brother's closet. I quickly and quietly went to Dave's closet, throwing on one of his sweatshirts,I skip downstairs with dread on my face. They're all going to throw a tantrum when they see what I'm wearing. Accepting defeat,I walk downstairs and into the kitchen. My eyebrows raised in surprise when the only people I see are my three younger siblings. All of them sitting by the kitchen island eating toasts in complete silence. Distant looks in their eyes. "Where are the others?". I questioned,making myself a toast by the counter across from them. "Work" Xavier answers,not once taking his eyes from the wall behind my head. I gave him a really hesitant nod,which he probably didn't even notice,and walked over to the wooden table by the window. With my headset in my ear and the music on the loudest and a book on my phone in front of me,I eat my caramel toast crunch, cutting the rest of the world around me out. That doesn't work in my grace though because I nearly had an heart attack when big arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders, pulling my back against a stone hard chest. "Excited for the first day?". Leo pulls one side of my headset and leans his head against my shoulders. His icy blue eyes that match mine,stare at me expectantly. "Stop creeping up on me like that you creep!" I slap his arms off, making him chuckle. "And I don't know if I should be excited or not. "And you need a hair cut." I mumble the last part, earning chuckles from Greg and Dave-two of my three older brothers-and unfortunately, Hunter, their best friend, aka the person who annoys me more than life itself. Sometimes. I've known the guy all my life and I even considered him a friend at one point. But that 'friendship' has turned into more of love-hate relationship-where the 'hate' overpowers the 'love'-over the past five, something years he's just gotten worst the past one. Always throwing his smart remarks and always having his own opinion-which most of the time is negative-on things I want to do or wear. He is the defenition of tall, dark and handsom-I won't even go there. Hunter annoys the poop out of me. He is almost as overprotective of me as my brothers are and since- Leo's dissapointed voice cuts my internal Hunter rant off. "I thought you liked my hair cut." He pouts his bottom lip. It's kind of weird seeing a twenty-two year old man, that always has a blank face towards everyone, doing that but that doesn't make it any less adorable. "I didn't say that, but your hair has grown way too much." I grip a fistful of his chastenut hair and give him a small smile in which he returns. "If you say so." He shrugs and takes a seat next to me, draping his arm around my shoulder as I continue to eat. "Don't you have to pick Leah up?" Hunter says, all of a sudden, his perfectly shaped, dark eyebrows scrunched up together. My eyes roam his well sculpted face. High cheekbones, jawline as sharp a a knife. Perfectly sized nose, that's slightly crooked, I think he broke it a few months back, and among looking lips. His dark hair is swiped off to the side and back, leaving his amazing tattoos, on the side of his head exposed. Definitely the definition of tall, dark and handsome. "Yes, I do what's it to you?" I reply dryly, shooting him a glare. "No need to be so damn-" "Can the two of you please have a civil conversation?" Greg looks bored between us but we continue our glare competition. "And, Ava, Hunter's right you need to get going, the others already left." He nods towards the kitchen island. I turn my head and sure enough, the only one there is Paul, who's riding with me. "Yeah, fine." I roll my eyes and kiss Leo's cheek before standing up, totally forgetting what I'm wearing. "What kind of f*****g pants are these?" Greg's voice snaps. I can feel all of their eyes staring holes in the back of my head. I make eye contact with Paul who smriks at me. Crap. "Is that my lost sweatshirt?" Dave sounds shocked. Double crap. "Uhm, these are called sweatpants and I don't know what sweatshirt you're talking about. I bought this a few weeks ago." I turn around slowly, giving them an innocent smile. All of them glare at me, jaws clenched. Even Hunter. See this is one of the reasons as to why this guy irritates me so much, how is it any of his buisne- "You're changing out of these pants. Now." Greg speaks with finality in his deep voice. I sigh, "I don't have any other pants to wear. They're in the laundry." Without a word, he points at the chair I was sitting on as he stands up walking out of the kitchen. I sink back in the chair, all three pairs of eyes glaring at me. "Here,Greg hands me a pair of black sweatpants, which I assume are Paul's, considering he's more my size than any of my other brothers who are all at least 6'2, they might be even taller. "Why are you giving her my sweats!?" He exclaims from behind me, taking the unwanted glares away from me. "I mean yeah, she can have them." He mumbles. I grab the pants from Greg's hand and walk into the restroom in the hall, quickly changing into them after I see the time. I need to hurry. Having, my Grey sweatpants in hand-for probably the last time-I walk out and hand them to Greg, before biding all of them goodbye and walking out the door with Paul behind me. We enter my car, a white Range Rover-that I still have no idea how we have money for and I speed off. Ten minutes and a lot of Paul's terrible rapping in the background, my redhead best friend gets in the backseat. "Hi!" She smiles happily, giving Paul's cheek a pinch. "Hey," I smile at her through the rear view mirror. Leah Walker; My child hood best friend and probably the only friend I have. Basically a sister to my brothers and Hunter. Long story short; Her mom, Annie, is Hunter's godmother, his and my mom's best friend and basically my motherly figure since my mother died. "Are you excited for Freshman year, kiddo?" She asks Paul. "No," he scoffs, "nothing changed since you last asked me which was last night." He reminds her. "Whatever," she mumbles before turning her attention to me. "Are you excited for the last first day of high school?" She smiles widely. "Yes, and like he said nothing changed since you last asked me which was last night." I playfully roll my eyes at her. "It's not my problem that I'm the most talkative person in this car." "I am actually singing, so it's kind of obvious that I don't talk, don't you think?" Paul asks her rhetorically. "Well, you sing horribly for your information" She shrugs. "Why do you still keep her around?" Paul looks at me pleadingly. Leah gasps and holds a manicured hand on her chest right over her heart. "Enough, we're here" I park the car and get out, the other follow suit. I look amusedly at Paul who's looking around with an unreadable expression. High school kids stand everywhere, either alone or with their friends. Poor freshmans, they look scared. "I'm off," and he's gone before we get a chance to reply. "Babe!" Skye shouts. Thank god, Paul left. Neither he or my brothers or Hunter, know about him and I would like to keep it that way, but considering me and Skye have dated for a year, he wants to spend time with me, outside school, public places and his house. He wants to meet my family: my brothers. Little does he know that if he places a foot close to my house or me, he'll probably get beaten up, or killed or escorted by our guards. Yes, we have bodyguards. Extra protection when we're not home' Greg's words. "Hi," I smile gently, he pecks my lips. "Hey, Avaya. James, Leah's boyfriend greets me. They don't know she has a boyfriend either. For the same reasons. "Hi," I nod. "What are you wearing?" He looks me up and down. The others do too. "Paul's pants." I roll my eyes, they all chuckle at me. "I want to see you wearing my clothes." He whines playfully, scrunching his light brown eyebrows up in the middle. I smile gently, looking him up and down. Blue jeans and blue sweater that matches his blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. You wouldn't think he's a receiver in the football team. "You're wearing jeans" I swat his shoulder playfully. He does not look like a receiver from schools football team that's for sure. I thought he played lacrosse the first time I saw him. I meet eyes with Leah. She looks between us with a tight smile. She was never fond of Skye but when she and James got together, she started to somehow accepting him. Thanks James for being his best friend. "And they're comfortable" He shrugs just as the bell rings. The conversation about me wearing Skye's clothes, luckily comes to an end, and the guys lead us inside the school building. Skye tries holding my hand, but I let go of his as soon as we touch, not wanting to risk getting caught by one of my brothers. The rest of the day goes by like that. Me trying to get as far away from Skye as I can get, who's getting more than touchy. This dude just doesn't get that I can't tell them about him. He doesn't seem to love his pretty face that's for sure. He even got mad at me at lunch for not sitting by his table with him, which was the same table Xavier was sitting on. He's the quarterback. One of school's biggest players. It runs in the family. Back to Skye, he said he understood when I gave him the milionth explanation but he's still trying to convince me to tell my brothers right about now. "You just don't understand" I groan. "Avaya, I just want to meet them, we've been dating for almost a year now." I get the double meaning behind his words but I don't let my uneasiness show. "I'll think about it." I finally sigh. A wide grin stretches his face. "Thank you, babe, I gotta go now. Love you!"He calls behind him as he walks away, probably going to the football field. "Love you mumble. too." "f*****g finally! What were you two discussing about for-" Leah looks at her clock-"twelve minutes?" She gaps at me. I turn the car on and drive out of schools parking lot. "He wants to meet the guys." She nods her head knowingly. "Yeah," I sigh. I do a lot of that lately. "Wait Paul!" She gasps. "He's coming back with Xavier, wanted to try out for the lacrosse team." I explain, my eyes fixed on the road ahead. We sit in comfortable silence until she speaks again. "I've got an amazing idea!" She exclaims. I turn to her for a secondShe looks deep in thought but the smile on her face tells me what I already know. I probably won't like this. "Let's throw a party!" "Yeah! And then get high and go skydiving in California!" I match her excited tone, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Leah's always been the... extreme type of person. That'll show on her clothes, hair pretty much her whole personality and I am not the least surprised that suggested to throw a party for our birthdays. She's just a few days older than me, and she suggested the same thing when we turned sixteen. The girl wanted a party with the whole school invited. And surprise, surprise. The guys didn't let us. "Avanya, I'm serious" She deadpans. I pull up in front of the gate surrounding my house and lower my window when Jack knocks on it. He's our head bodyguard. Has worked for my parents since Greg was born and now works for my brother. "Hi. Jack." I smile. "Hello, Avanya do you want me to open the garage for you?" He uses my full name. I scrunch my eyebrows in confusionI always park outside. He seems to understand my confusion explains. "Hunter parked in your space." He nods toward where I usually park my car. I follow his gaze and my eyes land on the black lamborghini belonging to none other than him. Annoying butthole. I roll my eyes and nod for him to do so. Parking inside, Leah stops me from getting out. "We should tell them now" She smiles"So you were serious?" I dread for hear answer. "Yes! Come on Ava, we're turning eighteen. I think they'll let us. She shrugs. Annoyance bubbles inside me when I see Hunter sitting next to Greg. He whispers something harshly, his well defined jaw clenching when he does so. Greg gives him a nod before they both turn to look at us, standing by the doorway of the kitchen, waiting for them to finish. "Hey Leah." Greg smiles opening his arms wide for her. She hugs him, then Hunter, and stands back beside me when she's done. "So, we wanted to talk to you guys about something." She smiles brightly, twirling a strand of her red hair around her finger. A sign that she's nervous. "Yeah?" Hunter speaks up. I roll my eyes. "Actually, why don't you tell them, Ava?" She gives me a push and hides half her body behind me. As much as she can at least, being a good inch taller than me and all. My eyes meet Hunter's green ones it always feels as if he's looking right through my soul whenever we make eye contact it makes me uncomfortable. No one's need to know what's going on inside me. I avert my eyes to Greg's. "We wanted to talk to you about a party." I say slowly. Their expressions remain blank. "Let me guess, for your eighteenth birthday?" Dave's bored voice sounds from behind us. "Yeah." We confirm in unison, nodding our heads. "No."