Wildflower (Chapter 26)

Chapter 26

 

            Sugar felt antsy, she was antsy on the plain and in the car on the ride home. There was so much on her mind and she really wanted to talk to Ivan. He had called her again, a bunch of times, but she didn’t call him back. To keep him off of her mind she shopped and spent as much as she could on the credit cards Katrina had given her. It was a good thing her crazy mother didn’t cancel her cards. But after this she probably would, she spent a lot of money. Retail therapy was all she had to rely on to keep her out of trouble. Tony was being really good to her too and Marli, of course Christina had been sent to keep an eye on her and she did a good job. But nothing could make Sugar stop thinking of Ivan or of what Evan said.

            When they finally arrived at the house she was practically jumping out of her skin. She just needed to do something; maybe she would swim laps in the pool. Wildflower came to the when the cars pulled up, Sugar dashed out and up the stairs to her. How she wanted to tell her the truth but that would hurt her and she couldn’t do that. Being home with Wildflower made her feel a little better but she was still restless and the plane ride had driven her crazy.

            “Mommy, I missed you,” Sugar said.

            “I missed you too,” Wildflower replied. “Are you alright?”

            “Just a little restless, I might swim for awhile.”

            “First I need to show you something,” she said.

            “Is it adoption papers?” Sugar asked hopefully. Everybody was coming in dragging suitcases and bag with them and she didn’t feel like caring about her stuff. It would find its way in the house somehow.

            “No, but I think you will like this better,” she said leading her into the house.

            “What could possibly be better than that?”

            “You will see,” she said and pulled her through the house.

            They went through the kitchen and out the door where her uncle and two other men were sitting at a table talking. The strangers had their backs to her so she couldn’t see their faces. Were they maybe lawyers? Or maybe they were psychiatrists or something. What would be better than being adopted by the people she loved the most? Unless they bought her a horse, she loved horses and never had one that belonged to just her. Or were they from a special school for troubled girls like her? There were a million possibilities. When one of the men turned to look at her she froze and completely stopped walking. She could not be seeing what she thought she was.

            The man that she was starting at had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, like her natural hair color. His eyes were a warm coffee color and he smiled at her and came to her and he put his arms around her. This could not be real; there was no way that he could be here. But she knew his face and his smile and she’d been dreaming of seeing him for so long. What was he doing her after all this time? She must have fallen asleep on the plane and was dreaming because this just couldn’t be.

            “I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “I am so sorry.”

            “Markus,” she whispered and realized at some point she had started crying.

            “Allie, I’m sorry,” he whispered.

It took her a second to actually remember, but Allesandra was her real name but she hadn’t been called that since he left. After he was gone she went by Sugar because that was her middle name and refused to answer to her real name. Everybody complied with that because at the time she was young and hurt. So it was as if it had never been her name. She’d once asked her mother why her middle name was Sugar and she said it was because she was sweet and when Katrina had been pregnant she craved sweet things. She had thought it was cute but of course she never expected her to use it as a first name.

“That’s not my name anymore,” she said. It was kind of an automatic thing.

“I’m not going to call you Sugar,” he told her. “And I don’t know how you convinced the world to do so, but my little sister is Allie.”

“What are you doing here?” She asked him, he was still holding her and she didn’t want him to let go. If he did she was afraid he would be gone again.

“I um heard about what happened to you,” he said. “It’s my fault I should have come back for you.”

“No, it was Katrina,” she said. “Where have you been?”

“A lot of places, but I found someone that you need meet,” he said. He didn’t immediately let her go but he did eventually and he pulled her over to the table. The other man had been watching them, he looked vaguely familiar.

“Who is he?” She asked her brother, the man looked at her with sad tired eyes.

“I am your father Allesandra,” the man said.

“What?” She asked, this had to be a dream because there was no way her father and brother could be here. And she had no idea what her father looked like because he mother hid all the pictures of him when she chased him away. That had been when she was three, so she basically had no memory of him.

“Oh my God, Alvin? Markus?” Carmen was coming down from the house staring at them in obvious shock.

“Hello, Carmen,” Alvin said.

From what Sugar knew of Alvin Marcelino, he was Italian and a businessman. Her mother had met him when she was in college studying abroad in Italy. He was older and had money and she fell in love. Katrina quit school and got married and she supposedly was so happy back then. Markus was born a year after they were married. Five years later Allesandra was born and they were happy family, so she heard. Then three years later something happened between the happy couple. Nobody knew for sure what happened but there was speculation of cheating or that he hit her or something. All she knew was that he left and Katrina made it impossible for him to ever see his children again. Sugar wasn’t Allesandra, that little girl had died a long time ago.

“Why are you both here?” Sugar asked, she was starting to feel dizzy this was too much for her.

“Because of you,” Markus answered. He was staring at her like she was crazy. Like it was obvious why they were suddenly there, but it wasn’t obvious to her at all. Her dizziness took over and everything was getting dark so she knew she was fainting. There just wasn’t anything she could do to stop it.

 

Sammie was unpacking and throwing dirty clothes in her basket. Tammy gave them all strict orders to bring their dirty clothes to the laundry room. They all had baskets with their names on them so clothes weren’t confused, Tammy did not do laundry she was mostly an overseer. Their were maids that cleaned the house and did everybody’s laundry, but it was Tammy that hired and managed maids and gardeners, pool cleaning staff and various other tasks that were needed to take care of the house and the grounds.

It was actually fun to shop and to explore Paris; Sammie never did things like that. Her mother was not a world traveler like some of her siblings’ mothers, so she basically never went anywhere. Unless of course her father decided they should take a summer trip. And those usually didn’t involve leaving the country. She’d been to New York and LA and they took a trip to Disney World once. Otherwise she never really went anywhere; Angel Memphis was a small town girl with expensive tastes. Once she’d left Sammie and Jordan on their own for a month to go off to Las Vegas with some guy. And Jordan had been the one to call their father, he was pissed and he took them to Katrina’s house and went to drag their mother home. Angel always insisted that Delanoz ruined her life and drove her insane with his constant cheating and keeping secrets. Now she had a constant stream of boyfriends who were no good and generally not nice people. After too many fights with the boyfriends Jordan couldn’t deal with it anymore so he was leaving.

Sammie had thought about leaving with her brother, but she couldn’t. Sugar was here and Wildflower was here and Evan was here. Her relationship with Evan wasn’t much different than being friends with him except for the kissing. Some times she wondered how long he was going to stick with her since all they did was kiss. He was not a virgin and she was, wouldn’t he want more? But she was definitely not ready to have sex with anybody. Part of her wished she could just go back to being friends with Evan; it was so much easier when she didn’t feel anything for him. Then again she had been crushing on him forever so there was no going back. Their relationship was weird since they lived in the same house and were apart of the same family. But Wildflower didn’t tell them they couldn’t be together; she didn’t say much of anything just looked at them.

When Sammie went to go see if Sugar had come up yet, she noticed that her cousin’s things were in her room but not her. She pulled out her phone to call Sugar but the phone rang from somewhere in the room, she found it in the bag with Sugar’s iPod. The background on the phone was what caught her eye; it was a picture of Sugar and Ivan. And upon further inspection there were a lot of missed calls from Ivan on her phone and a text message. Because she felt it was for Sugar’s own good she read the message. Ivan was asking to see Sugar, that night and it said he missed her. This explained why Sugar was acting so weird and why she locked her door most nights. And the whole way home she was acting so bizarre. Another message came though and he said he really needed to see her.

She went back into her room and took Sugar’s phone with her. There were a lot of text messages exchanged between Sugar and Ivan and she saw a very revealing picture too. But the odd thing was that most of the messages were more than a week old and the missed calls were from when they were away. Did they maybe have a falling out? Or was there a reason Sugar didn’t want to talk to him anymore? What if she was pregnant or something? That would explain so much about her odd behavior on the trip. So Sammie went downstairs to find Sugar so that she could talk to her. They never had secrets, Sugar told her everything, but of course she would have tried to talk her out of this thing with Ivan. Downstairs she heard a commotion in the sitting room. Sugar was on the couch with her eyes closed and kneeling beside her was Markus. At first she just stood there staring, she’d seen that picture of Sugar and Markus everyday because Sugar always had it. And that was him, there he was right there in the living room.

Tammy walked pass her and put a rag on Sugar’s head. So it seemed like she must have fainted. Which wasn’t surprising considering her missing brother was there and she was keeping a huge secret. In a few of the messages Sammie read they were talking about sex. She wanted to kill Ivan; he should have been a responsible adult and stayed away from Sugar. Yet he came over almost everyday and that explained why he would disappear some times. Maybe having Markus back would help Sugar and she wouldn’t go back into her old bad habits or continue to have a relationship with Ivan. Sammie really hoped so; she was starting to wonder if she should go to soccer camp next week. She just hoped that when she did Sugar would still be there when she got back. There was a chance that she could try to kill herself again, especially with this Ivan stuff.

 

 

Ivan hadn’t heard from Sugar even though he knew she was back. He told Ricky that he was going to stay away from her, and he wanted to. That just didn’t mean he actually would. But he had convinced Ricky to go to a gay bar and he was there with him. It definitely was not the type of place his brother would go. He was going to make Isaiah come with them but he couldn’t come because his wife and daughter were coming home, marriage had changed him. And Jay was waiting for Brooke, so it was just the two of them. Ivan did not have a woman coming home to him; he had a teenage girl that wouldn’t return his calls. Maybe it was for the best but he still wanted to see her.

“So see anybody you like?” Ivan asked his brother that glared at him.

“I need to go back to women,” Ricky shook his head.

“Could you really do that?”

“I could do anything I want,” he shrugged. “I’m still attracted to women, and I’ve thought of marrying a woman and having a family.”

“Really? Wouldn’t you still want men?”

“Doesn’t matter really I’m no good at finding men anyway. I just came here hoping somebody would hit on you and I’d be amused,” Ricky said.

“Thanks a lot,” Ivan replied. It was good to at least see his brother laugh and joke around, for awhile he was just too serious. “Don’t you want to go dance?”

“Hell no,” he said. “We could always leave and go find you an age appropriate woman so that you can stop molesting Sugar.”

“You really love to make someone feel guilty. Meanwhile you are a gay man who is pretty homophobic,” Ivan said.

“Maybe that is a little true but that’s not as bad as what you are doing. And I know you aren’t going to stop until you get catch and your a*s is in jail. I’m not bailing you out either,” Ricky told him.

“Can’t you at least try to talk to someone?” Ivan asked to avoid talking about Sugar and admitting his brother was right.

“Nah, but we could go somewhere else and I bet I could pick up more women than you,” he challenged.

“Oh I will be taking that bet,” Ivan said.

They finished their drinks and Ricky got his wish before they left because a guy definitely hit on Ivan. He had always assumed his brother didn’t bring guys around because he was embarrassed or thought their family would be weird about it. Never did it occur to him that the real reason was that Ricky had trouble accepting who he was. So he decided that he was going to help his brother meet someone even if he had to go online to find somebody. And if he was focused on being a good brother then maybe he wouldn’t be so focused on Sugar. He text her again, but he got no response. It worried him, the last time they spoke everything was fine and now he wasn’t so sure.

 

 

Sugar was still in shock about both her brother and father being there for real. After talking to them awhile, after she recovered from fainting, her father left. He was staying at a hotel nearby and Markus was staying there in the last guest room in the house. The room where she had started her relationship with Ivan, that didn’t exist anymore. But she didn’t feel like thinking about Ivan, or why he kept calling her when he didn’t really care about her. Could Evan have been wrong? It didn’t matter because she had her brother here and he came back like she had been wishing.

“Sugar, we need to talk,” Sammie said when she came in her room.

“Sure, is it about you and Evan?” She asked, they were an adorable couple.

“No, it’s about you and Ivan,” Sammie said and she just stared at her.

“Did Evan tell you?”

“No, wait he knew you’ve been having sex with his brother?”

“Oh um he saw us or something,” she said hoping Sammie wouldn’t be made at him. “When he found out he told me I needed to end it because Ivan is a liar and he doesn’t really care about me.”

“What? Why did he say that?” Sammie asked coming to sit on the bed.

“Ivan called me and told me that he does feel something for me and that he wants us to be together. Evan said that he’s just lying so I’ll keep having sex with him. But we only had sex twice; we just messed around a lot. So anyway he keeps calling and texting me and I’ve been ignoring him. I don’t even know where my phone is,” she sighed. This whole thing was such a nightmare.

“I have your phone,” Sammie said pulling it out her pocket. “I was looking for you and I called you and saw your phone, with the picture of you two. Then I did snoop through it.”

“Oh well I guess I should be glad it was you,” Sugar shrugged she didn’t care.

“He’s been texting you, saying he misses you and wants to see you. There are a lot of texts,” Sammie told her.

“I don’t know what to do; I can’t see him because if I do I know I’ll go back to him. Every time I’m near him I want him and he gets jealous if I hang out with his brothers. Why can’t this mess just be over?” She asked while looking at the messages he sent her. If he didn’t care about her why did he kept texting her? Nothing made sense anymore and she hated trying to figure it out.

“Tomorrow is Evan’s birthday and we are all going out to dinner, pretty much you are going to see him. But I will stay with you all day to make sure nothing happens.”

“It’s your boyfriend’s birthday; I don’t want you to have to baby-sit me.”

“Obviously I’ve been doing a bad job of that if you have been seeing Ivan without me knowing it,” Sammie said. “Anyway when I’m gone Evan can make sure you stay out of trouble and his stupid brother stays out of you.”

“Do you know how funny it is that you just said that? I am so a bad influence,” Sugar laughed and so did Sammie.

“So how are you doing with Markus being here?”

“Um I’m still in shock, I’ve been dreaming about this forever and he’s here,” she said. Shocked was an understatement, she never expected to see her brother again. “Sam, I think he would like kill Ivan if he found out.”

“That is why we are not going to say anything and why you are going to stay away from Ivan,” Sammie told her.

“Yes, I am and last time I tried then he came over saying he couldn’t stop thinking about me. But Evan wouldn’t lie to me,” she said. Another text coming through made her wonder about that. “So girlfriend what are you giving Evy for his birthday?”

“Not my virginity,” Sammie said and they both laughed. “I have no idea what to give him; we all just went shopping so he has like everything.”

“I have an idea; you should have a romantic picnic. Take some of the horses out on the trail and pack a picnic. Then you can have alone time before you go to lame a*s soccer camp,” she suggested.

“Maybe playing a sport would keep you out of trouble.”

“You’re avoiding the romantic thing, I will help you don’t worry.”

“As long as you don’t make me wear a dress.”

“A dress would be cute, but a little impractical for riding so you can wear a skirt.”

“Skirts suck,” Sammie sighed. “But I like to thought of being alone with him.”

“So is it still just kissing still or is it more?” Sugar asked she’d been neglecting her sisterly duties with her Ivan obsession, Sammie was like her little sister. And she needed to focus on Sammie and Markus not Ivan.

“Yes, I know he must be bored but I not ready for all that.”

“It’s ok; he loves you so he will wait.”

“I’m sorry that he hurt you,” Sammie said and she hugged her.

“I’ll live, it’s going to be hard but I’d rather not be used again,” Sugar said.

They laid in bed side by side like always. This was the way it had been for a long time, the way she preferred life. If she could just hang out with Sammie and not deal with boys or men or anybody she would have liked it a lot better. Why couldn’t life be that simple? It was time for her to make it that simple and stay away from Ivan, even if she still loved him. What was the point when he just wanted to use her? She’d been used enough and she didn’t want to be that girl anymore. It was going to be hard to do this but she had to, for real this time. Having Markus back was going to make it easier, or she hoped it would.

 

 

“He so wants to win you back,” Brooke was saying.

“Doesn’t matter, I was never in love with him or anything, I just liked sex. Should I tell him that? I feel like it would be mean but he doesn’t seem to get the point,” Wildflower sighed.

It was Evan’s birthday so her and Brooke got up early to make everyone breakfast and she was having issues with Owen. When he said he was going to text her he wasn’t joking, the day before she had to turn her phone off because he kept sending her messages. She didn’t want to tell Nicolas about it because he would do something crazy. A few friendly messages was one thing but he kept asking her questions about everything. Including personal things because he heard things on the news or on the internet, she just wanted to be left alone.

“Let’s hope Mr. Penis doesn’t get stalkerish,” Brooke said.

“Stop saying that, it is not funny,” she said.

“I will if you tell me who is bigger?”

“Brooke I am so not going there,” she shook her head. Thankfully Sugar and Sammie came into the kitchen so she could focus on them. “Hello ladies, would you like something to eat?”

“Who cooked?” Sugar asked.

“We did,” she replied and both girls stared at her.

“All of its poisoned, we’re trying to collect insurance money so eat up,” Brooke said with a big smile.

“I’d believe it,” Sugar said. The girls sat at the Table with Brooke while Wildflower made their plates, she really did act like a mother.

“Did Evan come down yet?” Sammie asked while staring at her plate.

“Not yet,” Wildflower said. “Did you want to give him birthday kisses?”

“No,” Sammie said with flaming red cheeks.

“Don’t be embarrassed Sammie, there’s nothing wrong with kissing,” Brooke said. “Unless it’s you Wildflower, stay away from Mr. Penis’ lips.”

“What?” Sugar asked staring at her. “You saw him again?”

“No, Cody did and she gave him my number so he called me. Now he won’t stop texting me,” she admitted.

“He wants to take her on a date,” Brooke said.

“He’s hot I wish he could take me on a date,” Sugar said.

“Uh how bout hell no, he’s way too old for you,” Wildflower told her.

“Besides he only has eyes for Wildflower,” Brooke said laughing.

“It’s nice that this amuses you, but Nick is going to flip out when he finds out. I feel like a child, I’m always worrying what he’s going to do when I know its something that with piss him off.”

“He’s just protective,” Sammie said. “And if the guy is bothering you maybe you should tell him.”

“Maybe I should,” she sighed and sipped her orange juice.

“Oh so guess what happened when I got up to leave,” Brooke said. “I saw a woman leaving Ivan’s room, I never thought he would ever get any, guess not. Apparently him and Ricky went out last night.”

“Ricky? That’s a change,” Wildflower said. Then she noticed an odd look pass between Sugar and Sammie and Sugar got up.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Sugar said running out of the room and Sammie followed.

“What was that about? Do we really suck that bad at cooking?” Brooke asked. 

“No, its Ivan, Sugar had a crush on him,” Wildflower said.

“Oh right, sorry,” Brooke said. “I completely forgot, but um Ivan and Ricky went to a gay bar.”

“You continue to gossip when you upset one of my children,” Wildflower shook her head. “Sugar is still fragile and she did get the shock of her life yesterday. She didn’t even know who her father was and her brother just kept apologizing to her.”

“Why didn’t you warn her?”

“Because I didn’t know anything until they showed up and apparently neither did Nick. They just showed up because of what they were seeing in the news or something,” she sighed. “And you know I had no idea her name was really Allesandra, I always thought Katrina was crazy for naming her Sugar.”

“So why does everybody call her Sugar?”

“Because after what happened to her she didn’t want to be called by her name anymore she chose to use her middle name,” she explained.

“Why was her middle name even Sugar? So how old is the brother and is he cute?” Brooke asked and Wildflower rolled her eyes.

“He is 22, so that means I’m young enough to be Katrina’s kid.”

“How old was she when she had him?”

“Nick says she was 15 but Sugar doesn’t know that, big surprise Katrina’s always laid to her. Said she met him while studying abroad in college, when really it was on a family vacation. At the time Alvin was engaged and Katrina lied about her age they had a fling and she got pregnant. So Emilio blackmail him into ditching the fiancé and marrying Katrina. And they were married for eleven years before she divorced him. Supposedly he was abusive and she feared for her life and her children, so he’s not allowed near either of them. Of course that means he’s breaking the law by being here but he swears he never did any of the things she accused him of and Markus backs up his story. Whatever happened she was pissed enough to lie to keep him away for 14 years,” Wildflower told her.

Everyday the Capriani family seemed to get more dramatic. When Alvin and Markus just showed up Nicolas was suspicious of why they would come back. He had been trying to find Markus since the day he left but it appeared that his father was helping to hide him. None of it made any sense, why would he need to hide him? It wasn’t like Katrina ever really made an effort to find Markus, everybody knew that. Maybe being around Nicolas who was suspicious of everyone and from years of being friends with Cody, but she had a feeling that something was off about this whole situation. Of course she had enough problems so she wasn’t going to get involved.

“This family is so crazy,” Brooke said.

“Yeah it really is,” Wildflower agreed. “I’m going to go check on Sugar, try not to scare anymore of the kids away.”

“You didn’t tell me if your latest nephew is hot.”

“I’ll tell Jay and we’ll see if he wants to relay that information to you,” Wildflower said with a smile. Brooke glared at her and stuck up her middle finger. “Another thing for Jay to do,” she laughed as she headed down the hall.

 

 

Nicolas was happy to be back in his office after two weeks of being out of it again; today he was only there half the day. There were some things he needed to look into a few things that he couldn’t do at home. Something odd was going on in his family and he didn’t like when there were things that he didn’t know about. While he was doing a little research into his ex-brother-in-law and what he’d been up to the last fourteen years. Jose showed up, he hadn’t heard from him in over a week.

“Little brother we have a problem,” Jose said when he shut the door.

“What did you do now?”

“You know how I had that friend in Mexico that owed me a favor?”

“Yeah? If you say he wants money I will stab you.”

“No, more like he didn’t do what I asked him too, he was taking care of some family issues. What happened to Katrina was somebody else’s work,” Jose said sounding slightly concerned. “Somebody is after Katrina, with the enemies she has made I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Oh I bet I know what happened to her, at least we really had nothing to do with it,” Nicolas shook his head. “Alvin and Markus showed up at my house yesterday.”

“What? Why the hell didn’t you call me?”

“I did dumb a*s and you didn’t answer,” he said shaking his head.

“Sugar has seen them?”

“They showed up about an hour before they got back, perfect timing. She had no idea who he was, and she fainted.”

“So what are we doing and what did they say?”

“Nothing useful, Markus has been living with Alvin for a few years and he won’t say where he was before that. But once they found each other he was hiding Markus so something isn’t right about the whole thing. With Katrina in the media so much lately they brought up things about his disappearance so I’m thinking it’s hard to hide when so much attention is on Katrina. And there was no way he would stay away when he heard about Sugar. He’s staying in the house for now; he wants to spend time with Allie.”

“Nobody calls her that anymore,” Jose said. “I forgot her name use to be Allesandra; then again she did say that Allesandra was dead.”

“Yeah, well I can’t do much of anything today, its Evan’s birthday so we’re all going out to dinner. But tomorrow we are going to figure some things out and that might include one of us actually talking to Katrina. I’d be mad if she kept me from seeing my kids for 14 years and let my daughter get raped and slit her wrists, and my son run away. Nobody is more pissed at her than probably her kids,” he said.

“Well we know Sugar wasn’t the one that did it, though I bet she wishes it was her. Carmen is going to have to be the one to talk to Katrina because I don’t trust myself or you and she’s the only non-violent one of us.”

“Yeah but she might slap her after the thing with Sugar. But you are right that neither of us can do it because I still want to strangle her. I never trusted Alvin, I get why he has a grudge but he was the idiot that had sex with her.”

“You realize that Katrina was much worse than Sugar is now, in fact she’s still doing the same s**t.”

“Yeah I know, maybe if somebody pointed that out to Sugar she would be good just because she hates her mother.”

“That would be interesting.”

“I have a problem and you are partially to blame for it.”

“What did I do now?”

“Cody, she’s declared war against me, it amuses me but I did send her your little movie. And what did she do? She encourages some old boyfriend of Wildflower’s to start talking to her and the guy has been texting her a lot the last few days,” Nicolas said annoyed. He’d been monitoring Wildflower’s cell phone activity and he knew it was an invasion of privacy but he didn’t care. At least this way they weren’t fighting.

“Really? That’s actually hilarious, since when does the princess have exes?”

“She went to prom with him or something and they had a physical relationship over a summer but then her sister died and he was away at college. They bumped into each other at Starbucks while I was in New York, which was when I found out your mother was having her watched. Her P.I. only took shots of her alone with him of course but Sugar was there that day.”

“What are we doing about this guy?” Jose asked he was still laughing.

“I don’t know yet, but I have a feeling we are going to have an issue with him,” he sighed.

This wasn’t what he wanted to deal with two months before his wedding. In the back of his mind he believed that maybe there was a chance that she would want this guy. Owen, the med student had a less complicated life, he didn’t exactly have any money but she didn’t care about money. She had already told him plenty of times that she was tired of all this crap that she had to deal with. And he could see it in her eyes that she was tired and stressed out. That was why they needed that time alone but now they had to deal with her ex and his sister’s ex. At least in the next two weeks the kids were going home. His mother wasn’t speaking to him so she wasn’t coming around. Between Owen and Alvin he was going to be busy. It would have been easier to just shoot them both, that thought was really appealing.

 

 

Ivan had a hang over all day and going to work didn’t help it much. Now he was on his way to Evan’s birthday dinner. Last night he drank a lot, mostly because it annoyed him that Sugar wasn’t talking to him and it pissed him off that he cared that much. She was not his girlfriend; she was just a girl he needed to stay away from. And a few of those drinks were to forget the fact that his gay brother could pick up women better than him. There seriously was something wrong with the world. He suspected that one of the women had gone home with Ricky but maybe he was just drunk and hallucinated the whole thing. But he himself had unintentionally brought home a friend. As far as he could remember nothing happened but sleeping, or so he hoped. Not that if he was with someone else it mattered because he wasn’t attached. Especially not to a girl that couldn’t possibly take his calls.

All day he was annoyed about it so he tried not to talk to anybody. Of course Brooke saw him what that blonde who’s name he couldn’t remember. And she probably told the world, too bad there was nothing to tell. He did not want to go to this dinner at all. Ricky was going to be there watching him and looking at him disappointed and worse gloating. Some times he wished he was an only child or at least didn’t have so many nosey siblings. Maybe this was for the best; she didn’t want to talk to him so he was free.

When he got to the restaurant he still had a headache and his mood hadn’t improved at all. He needed to talk to her; she at least owed him and explanation. But with everybody there it was a bad idea to try. Since fate hated him she was standing outside alone when he got there and he was surprised to see her smoking. When had she started that? She saw him and attempted to get away from him but he caught her.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked her, he felt crazy.

“Leave me alone Ivan,” she said. Why wouldn’t she look him in the eyes?

“I thought we talked about things and we were ok? If I did something you could at least tell me.”

“Aren’t you having fun with you new w***e?” She asked and she looked him in the eyes that time, she was hurt.

“Brooke has big mouth,” he grumbled. “I was pissed yesterday and I went out but I swear I didn’t do anything.”

“Why should I care? We aren’t together and you only want me for sex,” she said.

“Did you forget what we talked about?”

“Evan said that you were just lying to me,” she said staring at the ground.

“That’s because Evan is an idiot and I’m going to hurt him later,” he said. Then she looked up into his eyes. “Didn’t you get my thousands of text messages? I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about you.”

“Then why did you have someone else in your bed?”

“Because I was really drunk and all we did was sleep, I never even kissed her.”

“I missed you,” she whispered playing with the hem of his t-shirt.

“I missed you too, and I obviously care about you a lot. But um Ricky knows about us and he is going to kick my a*s for not telling you that we can’t be together,” he told her. She was leaning against the wall still playing with his shirt.

“Together? You did say something about that before,” she said.

“Aren’t you adorable when you are shy,” he said. “I want to kiss you but I’m thinking that is a really bad idea.”

“Sammie and Evan know about us,” she told him.

“Evan told Ricky on me, if he ends up with broken bones it’s not my fault,” he shrugged and she smiled a little.

“Don’t do that, Sammie would kill me. But um I don’t think we can see each other for awhile, something happened yesterday.”

“What? Are you ok?”

“No I’m not, but remember when I told you that I dreamed about my dad and my brother coming to rescue me? And you say maybe it could happen?”

“Yeah,” he nodded watching her.

“It happened, when I got home yesterday they were there,” she said. Then she pulled him over to sit on a bench with her. “I kind of fainted when I saw my dad; I didn’t even know what he looked like.”

“Are you ok?”

“No, I’m like in shock still. But I’m thinking that if Markus found out about us he wouldn’t be happy,” she sighed. “Why is it so easy for me to tell you things?”

“Probably because you call my sister your mommy,” he said and she laughed.

“You know I was crazy and upset thinking about you when I was away. So I just made Katrina wish she’d put a limit on my credit cards.”

“How long are they staying?”

“I don’t know, it’s just so weird ya know?”

“I bet, so I want you to know that I’m still here for you, always. And if I do something to piss you off just tell me. I feel like a crazy person sending you all of those messages,” he told her. He took her hand in his and she smiled at him.

“Sammie stole my phone and she read most of those messages.”

“She’s going to hurt me isn’t she?”

“Yup, she looks small but she is dangerous.”

“So since when do you smoke?”

“Oh that, uh I’m really stressed out and Uncle Nick keeps all the good liquor locked up,” she said and the both laughed.

“Allie?” Someone called and she pulled her hand away and jumped up. A man was coming toward them, he didn’t look happy. “Allie, I was looking for you.”

“Stop calling me that,” Sugar said. “Um Markus, this is Ivan he’s Wildflower’s twin brother. Ivan this is my brother Markus.”

“Oh hey,” Ivan said sticking his hand out. Markus just stared at him.

“What are you doing out her Allie?” Markus asked.

“Um well Ivan and I talk about things sometimes,” she said staring at the ground. The Sugar he knew was never meek like this.

“Who is Allie?” Ivan asked.

“Her name isn’t Sugar, its Allesandra,” Markus answered.

“Oh,” Ivan said. It was pretty obvious that Markus did not want him near his little sister which was understandable. Wasn’t he the same about Wildflower when they were growing up?

“Come on Allie,” Markus said taking her hand and pulling her away.

Ivan stood there a moment watching them. It was obvious that Markus had not yet realized that his little sister wasn’t 10 years old anymore. And she was following him because she didn’t want to lose him again. This was definitely going to be interesting. Ricky chose that moment to arrive and he was happy that Sugar wasn’t with him now.

“Have a nice night?” Ricky asked looking at him amused.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the responsible one?”

“When you were little maybe but you’re grown. So did you talk to Sugar?”

“Yeah and you don’t even have to worry about anything happening between us. I can pretty much guarantee it’s not going to happen.”

“Why? Have you grown up enough to not like teenager girls?”

“One teenager girl does not make me a pedophile,” he said glaring at his brother. “But her long lost brother is here and let’s just say he isn’t going to be letting anyone near her any time soon.”

“Good, maybe that will keep you out of trouble,” Ricky said. Ivan followed him in and he wasn’t so sure he agreed.

 

Reviews

[Katie]

Long lost family, a stalker and so much drama!

[deeps]

Such emotion put into this chapter. Like it alot.
Intense and wonderful, full of drama, detail and imagery.
Well written!