Alessandro
“Delete the f*****g group, Carlo!” I blurted out as I saw my lazy brother sitting in the kitchen, eating what looked like the whole delicatessen section of Walmart.
“What’s your problem? You don’t need to contribute to it anymore, and if you do, then I’ll do it for you. Ok?”
I shook my head, because he wasn’t listening. I headed to Adolfo’s room to get him in on this conversation. Enough was enough. We didn’t need to have anything more to do with them, neither Bianca nor her dad.
“Adolfo, come out so we can have this out.”
Adolfo shook his head. “Nope. I’m shooting hoops with the guys. You and Carlo figure it out. You know me, I’m easy. Whatever you decide, I’m down with it.”
Adolfo, the voice of no reason. He never took sides, always backing out whenever there was a confrontation between me and Carlo… which was most of the time.
“Fine, be a chicken!”
He ignored me as he sighed, rolled his eyes, and then stormed out of the door.
“Just leaves you and me,” Carlo said. “Can we talk like men, or are you going to keep acting like the big alpha who demands and f*****g deserves everything?”
I ignored him as I said, “Pass me a smoothie.”
He leaned over and opened the fridge from his seat at the table, then sighed when he couldn’t reach inside and had to stand up to get the smoothie. No one could hold a flame to Carlo when it came to his dedication to football, his studies, keeping his room spotless… but when it came to other things, like making the small effort to stand up and walk to the fridge, he acted as if he had no legs.
Sometimes I think he did it because of his middle-child syndrome, even though he was only a middle child by a matter of minutes. He had to wind me up every chance that he got, and it worked like magic.
“Green s**t or purple s**t?” he asked as he weighed them both in his hand, the fridge wide open.
Yep, he was trying to wind me up.
“Green.”
He put the blueberry smoothie back into the fridge and handed my spinach juice to me. He knew I drank one every morning, but I didn’t give in to his attempts to annoy me.
I grabbed a paper straw and closed my eyes as I took a sip, steeling myself to have it out with him.
“We agreed we would have one girl to share. One girl to be ours, and I think Bianca could be the one,” he said.
I choked. “When did we decide this? We decided that we wouldn’t get caught up in a relationship—that part I remember. But the last time we had s*x with one, it was a mess. I don’t want to go down that road again.”
I shook my head, wondering if seeing Bianca dressed up last night had made my brother go and lose his mind.
“Why do you think she’s worth the chance? Cause she looked hot at dinner? You do know what she looks like usually, right?”
“Yeah, and now that I’ve seen what she’s hiding under those sweats, it’s got me all kinds of crazy. Those breasts jumped up as soon as I touched her leg… f**k, I could rub and suck her n*****s all day long.”
I sipped my smoothie, which he took as an invitation to continue outlining his step-by-step plan of what he intended to do to Bianca.
“As for her butt, s**t, I could slap those cheeks and watch them bounce. And those—”
“Seriously,” I interrupted as soon as I could. “I don’t need or even want to listen to a guide on how to have s*x with Bianca. Breakfast was bad, real bad. Paul was drunk, Bianca called us over-privileged jocks, and Dad fell hook, line, and sinker for it all.”
“s**t, her dad was drunk this morning too? Poor thing. I wonder how she’s coping with it all.”
I shook my head, because he’d apparently only heard part of the conversation.
“Alessandro, Dad can handle himself,” he insisted. “If he wants to help Paul, then so be it. He’s a grown-ass man, he can do whatever he wants. As for Bianca—can’t you see she’s just saving face? She sees her dad in trouble, and she wants to help him. She’d do anything to keep him happy, you ever thought about that?”
“Like cheating our old man? No. There’s no f*****g excuse for defending her.”
“Are you serious? You know, she’s at least partly right about us. We’ve never worked a day in our lives. She works in Two Sheets, and sometimes at a diner in the city. We do act like privileged jocks at times.”
I did work hard. I was dedicated to baseball and my studies. I treated my body like a temple, and my mind too. Was I supposed to apologize that I didn’t work in a bar or a diner? Dad wanted us to enjoy life at Yale, which was exactly what we were doing, and I didn’t have to answer to anyone, especially the likes of Bianca.
I was opening my mouth to tell Carlo that when my phone chimed.
Dad: Don’t worry, I gave Paul the money. All’s good. He needs it for Bianca’s studies. Going home. Will see you in a couple of weeks.
“Hell no!” I shouted as I read the text.
“What?”
“Dad gave Paul money. If your precious Bianca has any ethics, then she will give the money back. I hate beggars, and even worse, I hate thieves.”
“Calm the f**k down, Alessandro. You’re acting crazy.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not.”
“I’ve seen you hot-headed, but never like this. You sure that Bianca hasn’t gotten to you?” he asked with a smirk on his face.
I ignored his question as I stood up to leave.
“Where you going?”
“For a run. Then I’m going to Two Sheets when Bianca starts her shift.”
“How do you know when she starts her shift?”
I left without saying a word, going to my room and changing into sweats. I didn’t want to admit that I knew more about Bianca than I’d let on. I didn’t want Carlo to have the pleasure of knowing that Bianca got to me too. The jog would calm me down, so I would have it out of my system and not go over the top when I saw her.
Or so I hoped.