Wildflower (Chapter 33)

Chapter 33

 

            It was peaceful here; she just stared up at the clouds. They were laying in the bed of the truck in silence. Being with him just made everything seem so perfect. Allie looked away from the sky to look at Tony; she was lying with his arms around her and her head on his chest. He was looking down at her. She smiled; it was such a perfect day. Even though when they dropped everybody else off at school Sammie had told her how stupid she was being. Of course good girls did not skip school, but if she was honest she still wasn’t much of a good girl. Good girls didn’t take showers with their boyfriends or have sex without using protection and they didn’t wish their brother would just disappear again. Maybe she would never be a good girl but she was somewhere in between because she wasn’t so bad.

            “I like this,” she told him.

            “I thought you might, just to have a peaceful day,” he said.

            “We both probably needed some quiet,” she said.

            “So um how much does your brother hate me?”

            “He can just get over himself; I’m not a little girl anymore. If I want to have sex with my hot boyfriend then I will,” she shrugged.

            “Hot boyfriend?” He asked and laughed.

            “Hell yeah, do you know how jealous the girls are of me? All of them want you.”

            “That’s fine but all I want is you,” he told her.

            “Um so when did you first start liking me?” She asked, from what everybody else was saying she should have known a long time ago.

            “I don’t know, why?”

            “Was it before the summer?” She was curious, because maybe if she would have paid attention then the summer could have been different.

            “Why are you asking this?” He asked obviously avoiding the question.

            “Because I want to know,” she said. To better look at his expression she rolled over on her stomach.

            “Maybe before the summer,” he admitted avoiding her eyes.

            “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

            “I thought you would laugh,” he sighed. “Weren’t you with Evan then?”

            “With is a strong word, I never liked Evan we just had sex. If I had known you liked me I so would have been with you, but I’m glad I didn’t know because it would have just been sex. Now I am at a better place in my life and I want more than just sex. Shame it took slitting my wrists for me to act normal,” she sighed. Of course he looked uncomfortable when she mentioned it, everybody always did.

            “You would tell me if you felt bad like that again, right?”

            “Sure, but it was a one time thing and I just felt desperate at the time. And after that I focused all my time on Ivan,” she sighed again.

            “Have you talked to him since you broke up?” He asked with a careful calm tone, of course he didn’t want to hear about that.

            “Nope,” she said.

            “Why are we together? Is it because you can’t be with him?”

            “No,” she said sitting up. “I was just really stupid and pathetic and confused like all summer. You and I have just always been good together, I like being with you. And this thing with us is uncomplicated and easy.”

            “But if you could be with him, you would, right?” He asked, there was a hurt look in his eyes.

            “Honestly no, I would choose you,” she told him. “I thought I was in love with him but really I have no idea what its like to love somebody like that. Ivan was just nice to me when I needed it and in my head I confused everything and got attached to him. And I was stuck in the house and I wanted to get out so bad but I couldn’t and he was willing to help me distract myself.”

            “This was a bad idea,” Tony said and he sat up.

            “You told me that you didn’t care about the past.”

            “I don’t, I just don’t think he’s really in your past.”

            “What can I do to prove it to you? I wouldn’t be here if I wanted to be with Ivan, I’m not using you to replace him or to make him jealous,” she sighed. “Tony, I’ve always liked spending time with you and we’ve always had fun together. When we kissed it wasn’t supposed to be serious but I felt something. Trust me I’ve never felt like that before and I’ve kissed a lot of guys. Everything before we kissed isn’t important.”

            “I don’t know I’ve just been wondering if you are sure this is what you want.”

            “Yes, I keep telling this, stop being insecure Antonio,” she said. She crawled over and straddled him. “So you know, you are the only one I’ve been thinking about.”

            “Sorry,” he said and he kissed her. “You’ve put up with my issues so I shouldn’t just jump to conclusions. Maybe I’m just a little jealous.”

            “Of what? Honey, I swear you are definitely the better lover and other things about you are a lot better,” she said.

            “Stop looking at me like that,” he said.

            “Like what? Am I looking at you like I could eat you up?” She asked, she knew they did not need to do anything sexual. This was supposed to be more than a sexual relationship but she was very sexually attracted to him.

            “We are very sexually attracted to each other, right?”

            “Yes, are you going to suggest we have sex? It sucked not to have finished yesterday,” she said. After her brother walked in on them the mood was gone and they just ended up cuddling and falling asleep.

            “Why don’t we just do everything and get out of the way?”

            “Excuse me? Everything?”

            “If we just did all the sexual things we wanted now then it’s out of the way. We could give it like a week that we have to do everything and then we can focus on other things besides sex,” Tony explained.

            “So what you want to have sex everyday for a week?” She asked staring at him still in shock, but she was not apposed to the idea.

            “We already started, so why not?”

            “Um we only really had sex once,” she said.

            “Our week can start today,” he said.

            “What happens after this week?”

            “After the week is up we won’t have sex anymore for awhile, then we can just be together,” he said.

            “Are you sure you won’t break up with me once we’ve done everything?” Allie asked, it was hard to trust anybody when she was just use to being used.

            “Why would I do that? Don’t you know me better than that? If you don’t want to we don’t have to it was just a suggestion,” he said looking offended.

            “Tony, every single guy I’ve ever been with has used me. I’m just afraid that you would get bored with me,” she admitted.

            “You are my Allie, I don’t think I could get bored with you and it is my stupid idea,” he said and pulled her closer. For a minute she just laid her head on his shoulder, his Allie, she liked that.

            “So how long would we not have sex for?”

            “Uh how about like two months?”

            “Ok then, I’m game,” she said. “So tell me boyfriend, when was your first time?”

            “Why do you want to know that?” He asked, of course he assumed she was going to hold it against him some how.

            “I’m curious,” she replied.

            “Um I was 14 and I went over her house while her parents were at their bible study group,” he said sounding amused. “How bout you?”

            “Oh um it was at a sleepover, with my friend’s brother, but of course she isn’t my friend anymore. It was when I was 14 too,” she told him.

That was when she realized she wasn’t afraid of sex and that she liked it, too much. Too bad she still went to the same school as both that friend and her brother. And she learned a lesson in not getting emotionally attached because he was the first guy to break her heart. After him she went on to another boy that lied and used her and eventually she felt nothing. She had convinced herself that it was ok to have sex with guys she didn’t know so well because then she wouldn’t get her heart broken. Thinking like that had led her to partying and drinking, you didn’t have to feel when you weren’t fully coherent.

After a summer of being completely sober, unless you counted her sex addiction, she was seeing things differently. Being with Tony was different, ever since that day he first kissed her, he was all she could think about. There was just something she felt when they kissed that she couldn’t explain but she felt it in her heart. It was never like that with anybody else, not even Ivan. When she told her therapist about her Ivan thing, naturally the woman was worried. But she explained that she never really loved Ivan, she was just vulnerable and she attached herself to him. Which made sense and Ivan had used her and told her what she wanted to hear because he wanted her for her body. Just because it made sense didn’t mean that it didn’t still hurt her. Tony was more than just one of her random obsessions and he wasn’t trying to use her. Especially not if he liked her before his whole boy drama, that meant this was real.

“Why did we come up here?” She asked, they were in a secluded area of a park where nobody probably ever went.

“Some people from my old school use to come here at night to be alone,” he said.

“You brought me up here to make out with you?” She asked feigning outrage.

“No, I brought you here because I knew we would be alone.”

“So back to sexual trivia, what all have you done?”

“Uh most things,” he shrugged looking a little embarrassed.

“Well I’ve done like everything,” she confessed and he stared at her. Maybe this was a bad idea, nobody needed to know her sexual misdeeds.

“Have you ever had a threesome?” He asked and she buried her face into his neck.

“Yes,” she whispered. “With two guys and with a girl and a guy.”

“Really?” He asked sounding a little too interested.

“Your girlfriend has been around the block a few too many times,” she told him and he laughed.

“I’m going to choose to believe that you’ve only ever been mine and that was just your split personality,” he said. That made her quit hiding her face and stare at him.

“Then I believe you have only ever been mine,” she replied and he smiled. His smile could literally make a girl go weak in the knees. “So there are no girls at school you find attractive?” That was her more insecure side asking the question.

“Why would I look at them when you are the most beautiful girl in the world?”

“You are good at knowing the right things to say,” she told him.

“Practice, I use to be better at saying the wrong thing,” he said. There was some look in his eyes that she could not read. Tony was not like in sister with her expressive eyes, he was more guarded with his expressions and his emotions. It made her wonder why, but she wasn’t going to ask, the Laiez family was too complex to figure out.

“Question, have you heard things about me from the other guys on the team?”

“You mean like a warning that I should probably stay away from you? Yeah, a few actually, some of them think I’m lucky to be living with my girlfriend,” he paused. “Did you date Aaron Contiez? He doesn’t seem to like you much.”

“Oh I bet he doesn’t,” she grumbled. “He was the one, the first.”

“I wish you hadn’t told me that,” he sighed. “Now I have to kill him.”

“Please do, I hate that he exists,” she said.

“He hurt you?”

“Maybe, but I was stupid.”

“It’s not stupid to fall for someone,” he told her. There was another expression she couldn’t read but she guessed someone had hurt him too.

“Uh oh,” she said when she heard her phone ring. She knew who it was from the ring tone and she knew they were going to be in trouble. “Your sister is calling me.”
            “Think Sammie told on us?”

“No,” she said to him then answered the phone. “Hey, Mommy,” she said into the phone.

“Where are you?” Wildflower asked sounding thoroughly unamused.

“I guess if I said school you would know that isn’t true?”

“Exactly, and Tony is with you?”

“Yes,” she said. This was going to be bad.

“I want both of you home right now,” Wildflower said. She hung up before Allie could reply, this was really really bad.

“She wants us to come home,” Allie told Tony.

“If she asks, just tell her I made you skip school with me. I can leave and go back home, you have nowhere to go,” he said. He helped her down out of the truck bed and they both got inside.

“I can’t let you take the blame, I agreed to this too,” she said trying to be responsible. “It wouldn’t be fair for you to have to leave.”

“Allie, if I leave I have somewhere to go, Van’s at the house it’s not that big of a deal. Or I could stay with Ricky or Isaiah and Christina, where would you go? Besides Nick is your guardian you have to stay with him,” Tony told her. He was staring straight ahead while he drove looking angry. Most likely he was angry at himself, she reached over and squeezed his thigh.

“I’m sorry,” she said. If she didn’t get involved with him in the first place then none of this would have ever happened. And if she had insisted they go to school instead of thinking of spending a day with him. That was what the weekend was for.

She felt antsy and nervous so she dug around in her bag for her stash of cigarette. School was stressful so she kept them with her. When she lit one she got a look from Tony, that didn’t stop her though. It surprised her that he took it from her and smoked it. A lot of things about Tony surprised her.

 

 

“I quit,” Wildflower said. She was cuddled up to Ricky on the couch feeling pathetic; she did not need to be anybody’s mother.

“It’s not your fault your horny brother skipped school with his girlfriend,” Ricky told her. He smoothed her hair back like when she was little and he made monsters go away. “Are you sure you still want to keep the boys? I can take them off your hands.”

“No, I’m just being bratty I will deal with them,” she sighed. “How do I even punish them for skipping school? And having sex in the garage?”

“Do they not know there is a camera in there?” Brooke asked, she was curled up in a chair reading a Cosmopolitan magazine.

“Probably not,” she replied.

“You know this is only going to get worse, right? That girl is trouble,” Ricky said.

“I know, but she has been trying,” she said lamely.

“What happens when she gets pregnant? A DNA test would be hard considering she’s been with three brothers,” Ricky pointed out.

“She has a lot of condoms I doubt you have to worry about babies,” Brooke said without looking up.

“How do you know that?” Wildflower asked.

“She has a drawer full in her room,” Brooke replied.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” Ricky shook his head. “You can not keep all of them in this house, it will end badly.”

“And I’m supposed to tell somebody they can’t stay here? I can’t do that; both girls have nowhere to go for one thing. Katrina has no home right now even if she could take care of her.”

“Don’t forget her ex is trying to kill her,” Brooke added.

“Keep the girls then, the boys don’t need to stay. You think Evan isn’t going to have sex with your little virgin Sammie? He already had sex with her cousin in this house so you need to fix this now,” Ricky told her.

“It’s not fair, I can’t choose between my brothers or my nieces. But we do need some rules in this house,” Wildflower said.

Picking favorites would be wrong, she couldn’t do it. If she asked Nicolas she knew what he would say, he would side with Ricky. Having teenage couples in the house was asking for trouble. Especially with the overly sexual Allie, who promised to change but was doing the same thing all over again. And Markus told her that he caught Allie and Tony together yesterday, he was concerned and maybe he should be. Maybe taking care of this girl was more than she could handle. Then there were her brothers who never got stability in their lives, she couldn’t mess things up. There had to be some way to have the five of them in the house without it being a huge problem. At least Nicolas wasn’t here; he wasn’t going to be happy about this.

“You can’t exactly tell them they can’t have sex either,” Brooke said. “All of them besides Sammie have been having sex for a long time; they aren’t going to stop because you say so.”

“What am I supposed to do? I can’t kick any of them out and I have to be the one to deal with this, I’m the one that said they could stay. And I imagine that Nick would be a little too strict.”

“The trouble you have is you are the sister and the friend, they aren’t afraid of you,” Ricky said.

“Oh and she’s too nice to them, they pout and she gives them what they want,” Brooke said.

“I was never afraid of you Ricky,” Wildflower said looking up at her brother.

“Because when I told you something you listened,” he said. “I will do you a favor and talk to Tony; he needs to know that his behavior is unacceptable. The girl is your problem; I couldn’t even begin to know what you should do with her.”

“Chastity belt?” Brooke suggested. “She must work magic to have three brothers want her like that.”

“Don’t say that too loud, big mouth, Nick can’t know Ivan was with her,” Wildflower said. She hated to keep secrets from anybody but especially Nicolas.

The only reason she told Brooke what Ivan had done was because the secret made her crazy, she hated secrets. And she just kept thinking that it was wrong to keep secrets. If she didn’t keep this secret it was going to cause a lot of problems. Last week Allie’s therapist had her come in alone to talk about the Ivan situation. Of course it was something to be concerned about; it was a miracle the woman didn’t report it to the police. Wildflower told her she handled it, as far as she knew Ivan and Allie hadn’t been near each other since she told them not to speak to each other. She’d even had to monitor Allie’s cell phone usage, looking into that just proved that Ivan was mostly pursuing her.

When she went to Ricky she found out that he already knew about the issue and he said he wanted to spare her. She could fault him for that he was always trying to protect her and she wished to God she didn’t know about this. Living in fear that her soon-to-be husband was going to murder her brother was driving her a little crazy. Didn’t she have enough to deal with? Every time she left the house she felt like she was being followed and seeing Cody earlier proved that she obviously was. And it might have proved that Cody was helping Owen. At this point she was never going to forgive Cody; she’d hoped it was a coincidence that she saw Brooke before she was attacked. But now it didn’t seem possible. This was all too much she was very stressed out. No wonder she wanted Nicolas and Ricky to make everything better.

“I think the problem is worse than we thought,” Ricky said. “While her therapist talked her down and reprogrammed her adolescent mind to forget her little crush, Ivan has real feeling for her. I don’t know how the hell that happened but it’s a fact and part of the reason I came over. It’s hard for him that she is with Tony and I wonder if that was intentional.”

“Tony liked her already,” Wildflower said. “She confessed it all to me and I don’t think she meant it to hurt him. In her mind she believes what she was told, she’s too vulnerable she would believe anything.”

“Drama,” Brooke said shaking her head. “Better not let Ivan talk to her, she’s already confused now she should just stick with Tony, since that at least isn’t a crime.”

“Just two years and I will have my life back,” she said.

“That is too much wishful thinking; none of you have ever left poor Ricky alone.”

“I’m your favorite right?” She asked her brother pouting at him.

“You’ve always been my favorite,” he said and kissed her forehead. “Everything will be fine; I will handle Ivan and the horny teenage boy.”

“How did you deal with all of us?” She asked him, she couldn’t handle 5 teenagers; Ricky took care of all 11 of them.

“Drinking at a young age?” Ricky shrugged, he held her tighter. “Thank God most of you are grown up now.”

“So I heard something about you, Ricky,” Brooke said suddenly giving him her full attention.

“Tell Jacob to mind his business,” he replied.

“Is it true?” Wildflower asked, of course Brooke couldn’t keep a secret from her.

“Just testing a theory,” he shrugged.

“That’s all you have to say?” Brooke asked staring at him.

“What should I say? She’s a nice person and we hang out, I do not have a girlfriend. And I would appreciate it if all of you would quit with your online dating schemes, I can handle my own life.”

“I heard you had sex with her,” Brooke said.

“Which one told you that?”

“Jay can’t keep his mouth shut if I do certain things,” she replied.

“I doubt my sister wants to hear this,” he said.

“Ricardo,” Wildflower whispered. “Did you have sex with her?”

“Like I said I was testing a theory,” he said as if it were nothing. “Nothing has changed really; I’m not dating her she is just a friend.”

“It’s so perfect these two crazy a*s families are going to becoming one. If I write a book about you people it would so be a bestseller,” Brooke said thoughtfully.

“We are all crazy yet you want to hang around,” he replied.

“That is because for all your mother’s crazy, she has hot sons,” she said.

“Kids are here,” Wildflower said when she heard the door. Tony came in first, he was holding Allie’s hand, just like the others he was protective.

“Outside,” Ricky said to Tony in that commanding voice he used when they were in trouble. While Tony hung his head in shame, Ricky got up from the couch and pushed him toward the back of the house.

“Sit,” Wildflower said to Allie.

“I’m really sorry, it was stupid,” she said.

“The reason I came to school to find you was because there was a fire at your mother’s house,” Wildflower told her. She didn’t expect the horrified look on her face, considering the relationship she had with Katrina.

“Is she alive?” Allie asked actually looking very worried.

“Both your mother and grandmother are fine,” she replied. “So why weren’t the two of you in school?” She tried her best to imitate Ricky’s tone when he was mad at them, even though he never really yelled at her growing up.

“It was stupid really, we didn’t do anything,” Allie said staring at the floor.

“I didn’t ask what you did I asked why you did it?”

“Today was two weeks since the first time we kissed,” she whispered.

Wildflower had no idea what to say now. She looked at Brooke who looked as stunned as she felt. How could she be mad at that? This was why she was the push over, because she thought things like that were cute. In all the time she’d known Allie, she was mostly a wild child doing whatever she wanted because nobody would stop her. Over the summer she changed a lot and here was a seventeen year old girl with her first boyfriend. Maybe falling in love herself made her have a soft spot for this little relationship. And it was because she saw so much of herself in this girl that it scared her.

“School is your priority; do you not remember the meeting at school? They weren’t all that happy to have you back, but you promised me and you promised your uncle that you would focus. Maybe you shouldn’t be doing cheerleading, it’s a distraction. And Tony doesn’t need to be distracted either,” Wildflower said. She really realized she couldn’t do this when she saw that Allie was crying.

“I know and I messed up,” she said.

“Come here,” Wildflower told her. She held her for a minute; it was just more proof that this girl needed a lot of love and attention.

“Please don’t make Tony leave because of me,” she whispered.

“Nobody is leaving; you both just need to focus on what’s important.”

“I swear I will never skip school again,” Allie promised.

“All I ask is that you all go to school and get good grades and nobody gets pregnant,” Wildflower said and Brooke laughed.

“You should be telling her that she shouldn’t be having sex with your brother,” Brooke said.

“Oh God, Markus told on me?” Allie asked looked embarrassed and angry.

“We talked about you and Tony; I thought you wanted to do things differently?”

“That was the plan but we are really sexually attracted to each other. But when I slept in his bed that was all we did.”

“Allie,” Brooke said. “What exactly made you start liking Tony?”

“Uh we’ve always liked hanging out with each other, we were just talking about school and stuff and we kissed,” Allie said. It was very obvious she was hiding something that had to do with how she and Tony came to be together.

“You kissed him?” Brooke asked.

“No, he kissed me and I don’t know it was different. Like I felt something when we kissed and we like hanging out.”

“There is something you aren’t saying.”

“Brooke, leave her alone,” Wildflower told her friend.

“I can’t tell you,” Allie said. “I promised Tony I wouldn’t tell anybody. Nothing to worry about, please don’t ask me to violate his trust.”

“We won’t,” Wildflower said. “Call your mother.”

“Ok,” Allie nodded wiping her eyes.

For now the situation was under control, but she was going to have to figure out a how they could all live in harmony without her having to worry too much. Allie needed her; she always needed her since the day they met. Maybe it was meant for her to help this girl. Wildflower just hoped that this girl wouldn’t come between her brothers. She could see that Allie and Tony liked each other, they were 17 and falling in love and that was fine. But that meant Ivan would get hurt, even though he should not be in love with a 17 year old girl. With the way things were lately Brooke could write a whole series about this family.

 

Tony hated to disappoint his brother; Ricky gave up so much for them. This year he was supposed to really focus in school and play the best he could at football so that he could get into college. They talked about this back in June when it was decided that him and the others should go to St. Ivy. He promised he was going to do whatever he needed to and work hard. It was the third day of school and he was skipping to spend time with his girlfriend. His brother didn’t have to say anything; he knew he probably shouldn’t be with her when there was so much at stake.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ricky asked after staring at him in silence a few minutes.

“It was just one day, you know I would never make a habit out of something like this,” Tony said.

“Why did you feel the need to skip school?”

“We just wanted to be alone,” he said. That was true but he could not tell Ricky it was because it was two weeks since he first kissed Allie, it sounded stupid.

“Did you at least use a condom when had your alone time?”

“Oh we didn’t do that today,” he said. At least that was an honest answer.

“What about yesterday?”

“Her brother walked in we didn’t get that far.”

“You are an idiot, what about the day before that?” Ricky asked and it took a few seconds for Tony to answer. How could he know? “There are cameras in the garage,” he said obviously reading his expression.

“S**t,” Tony said for some reason that never occurred to him.

“That’s all you have to say?”

“It was a spontaneous thing, I wasn’t thinking,” he said.

“And that’s the problem you don’t think. What happened to your plan?”

“Nothing has changed,” he assured his disbelieving brother.

“Hasn’t it? Are you sure you have time for a girlfriend? There are more important things in the world than having sex.”

“Allie isn’t a distraction, it was my idea to skip school,” he told him.

“What’s gotten into you? If it isn’t this girl, who by the way I don’t think you should be with, then what is it?”

            “She is different now,” he said avoiding the question.

            Originally he was going to talk to Ricky about his problem but ironically not being able to talk to him led him to Allie. She didn’t think it was that big of a deal and she didn’t hold it against him. But he wasn’t sure if telling Ricky now was a good idea, he was trying to forget it and Joe. Nobody else needed to know about this, that made it more real and he didn’t want it to be true. Then again of all his brothers he’d rather talk to Ricky, after all Ricky was a father to all of them. While his brother sat there watching him he just stared at the pool with its clear blue water. Maybe he should just tell him and get into out of the way and off his mind. Most of the day he didn’t think about it at all, he thought about Allie. But he also had to think about the fact that she had been having sex with his brothers. No matter what he did there was always something in his head that he didn’t want to think about.

            “I didn’t ask about her,” Ricky said after awhile.

            “I’ve just had a few things on my mind, its not important,” he said.

            “Obviously if it’s that much of a distraction then it is a problem.”

            “I’m not distracted anymore,” he said. Even he didn’t believe himself.

            “You know I don’t have all day to watch you pace around avoiding telling me what’s wrong with you.”

            “Then mind your own damn business,” he said annoyed. That was a mistake, he knew better than to talk back to his brother. “Sorry, he said staring at the ground. He couldn’t look him in the eyes.

            “Sure it’s not about her?” Ricky asked calmly.

            “Why do you think it has to be about her?”

            “I don’t know maybe because your girlfriend has been screwing around with your brothers? That might distract you a little, worrying what she’s doing when you aren’t around?”

            “How do you know about that?”

            “Unfortunately I know a lot of things I don’t want to,” Ricky shrugged.

            “It’s not that, I mean I don’t like that she’s been with them but she has no interest in either one of them,” he said slightly bitter. “Just some things happened that shouldn’t have and I don’t want to talk about it.”

            “Yeah but since I’m here you might as well just tell me.”

            “Don’t you work?” He asked trying to avoid it, but there was no way that Ricky was going to let it go.

            “When you’re the boss you do whatever you want,” Ricky replied.

After working in landscaping since he was 15, Ricky now had his own business. Which he periodically made them work for, he always said nothing was free so why should he give them money? Except of course he never made Wildflower work for anything because she was his favorite, Daisy not so much. And as far Tony could remember their mother never gave any of them anything, except a headache.

“You aren’t going to just leave me alone are you?” Tony asked just to make sure.

“Probably not,” Ricky shrugged.

“Fine,” he said going to sit down. “Remember Joe?”

“Yeah he was you best friend,” Ricky nodded.

“We um went to a party and we were both drinking,” he paused this was so embarrassing. “He uh kissed me and now he says he’s in love with me.”

“Really?” Ricky asked and when he nodded, he laughed. “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Thank you,” Tony said annoyed.

“I always suspected that kid had a thing for you.”

“Well I didn’t and he won’t leave me alone,” he sighed.

“Tell him to leave you alone.”

“I have and so did Allie, she stole my phone and called him,” he said and that just made his brother laugh harder. “Happy I can amuse you.”

“Maybe you should feel special; you have a girlfriend and boyfriend.”

“I hate you,” he replied.

“Good, not the first time I’ve heard that and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Stop stressing out about nothing; obviously you don’t want him, unless there’s more you’re keeping from me?” Ricky was staring at him, like he could see into his soul. Sometimes he suspected that he could, nobody could keep a secret from Ricky.

“Allie is my girlfriend,” he said simply. “But then again I heard you have a girlfriend, which makes no sense to me and I saw you with her.”

“You did?”

“And you aren’t denying it,” he said in shock.

“Friend, brother, she is a friend.”

“I saw you kissing her and it wasn’t friendly.”

“Funny how I thought I would get privacy by living on my own,” Ricky shook his head. “You know I did use to date women.”

“Yeah like Sammie’s mom?”

“Make me feel old, that was in high school and coincidently high school was when I had to drop everything to take care of my 11 siblings and three of you were babies. Let’s see when was I free from all of you? Right, never, so what I do with my life isn’t everybody’s business but what you do is my business.”

“If you hated it so much you could have just ran off like Iris,” he pointed out.

“No, I couldn’t,” Ricky said suddenly serious. “If I didn’t stick around who the hell knows were all of you would be, I did what was best for the people I love. I complain about it but I don’t regret most of it. Anyway, since everybody is in my business I only had sex with her to prove a point.”

“What was the point?”

“That I still could,” he shrugged like it was nothing.

“Does she know about you?”

“Yeah, we hang out it’s not a big deal, except she thinks she should set me up with her friend. I blame Ivan for all of this; I was fine being alone or dealing with you brats,” he paused. “Then again you don’t want to hear about Ivan do you?”

“Not really, but she doesn’t have feelings for him,” Tony said. But it was unclear to him which of them he was trying to convince.

“Of course not, she is a troubled girl and whatever her high priced therapist tells her she believes. I just think you don’t know what you are getting into and you need to focus on other things than a girl that could change her mind about you next week. I’m not trying to be a downer but I worry about you annoying children and you should be careful,” he paused. “And she doesn’t know it but Ivan is in love with her. Do you see why I’m trying to avoid all of you?”

“What do you mean he is in love with her?” Tony asked a bit shocked, Ivan did not fall in love.

“See that’s what I said, but I’m telling you this not because I want you to fight but because you should know. If you want to tell your girlfriend that you can, I sure the hell won’t, she’s not my problem. I thank God everyday that we didn’t have more sisters,” Ricky said.

“Why did you tell me that? I can’t tell her that, she’s confused about enough already and yeah I guess her therapist is reprogramming her but that was after we talked. She told me about her and Evan and Ivan and I told her about my problem,” Tony sighed.

“Maybe this is proof that you need to focus on things other than her.”

“Do you try to talk everybody out of relationships? Or is this just for my benefit?”

“Well after Christina’s father threatened Isaiah with his shotgun, I told him to leave her alone and he just got her pregnant. I told Iris not to get involved with Jeff and she didn’t listen, now look at her. At least one of the two worked out and I trust Wildflower’s decisions.”

“You know parents aren’t supposed to have favorites.”

“Good thing I don’t have any kids then.”

“Thank you so much Ricardo for ruining what was a good day before I stepped foot in this house,” Tony told his brother.

“That is my job, if I can make you all miserable to pay you back for my misery, then I’m happy,” Ricky said with satisfied grin. “Besides you should have been in school today learning something useful. And here comes your girlfriend.”

Tony turned to see Allie coming out the door and walking towards him. It would be wrong for him to not tell her that Ivan was in love with her. Part of him hoped it wouldn’t matter but he knew it probably would. Her therapist was the one to convince her that her feelings weren’t real, but he knew as much as she wanted to believe that, it wasn’t true. He did not want to have issues with his brother, but he hadn’t seen him in the last two weeks. Why couldn’t anything in his life ever be uncomplicated and easy?

“Hi,” she said. She leaned over the back of his chair and wrapped her arms around him. “Ricky I came to say I’m sorry that I am a bad influence.”

“How sweet she is takes the blame for you,” Ricky shook his head. “All I have to say to the two of you is stay in school and if you’re going to have sex use a condom. Mostly I say this to save my sister who loves you both stress and because if you get pregnant it becomes my problem. And I won’t deal with that again. Now I think I need to go steal the go liquor.” He stood up and with a wave he headed back in the house.

“Again?” Allie asked when they were alone and she came around to sit on his lap.

“Believe it or not since everybody acts like she was an angel but Daisy got pregnant. We weren’t supposed to know but secrets never stay secret for long, anyway she cried and cried to Ricky that she couldn’t possibly have a baby. So even though he was against it, he paid for her to have the problem fixed. Then nobody ever talked about it again, my mom has no idea, she thinks daisy was a saint,” Tony explained.

“Wow, well I’m on birth control so it’s really unlikely that I could get pregnant,” she said. “He doesn’t seem angry.”

“No, Ricky prefers to torment rather than punish,” he said bitterly. He was tormented knowing what he did now, even if his brother thought it was for his own good.

“My dad set my mom’s house on fire,” she told him.

“At this point I don’t know who’s family is crazier,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter, we’re all one family now,” she said. He wasn’t so sure that was even a good thing anymore.

 

Somebody was knocking on the door and that was odd because Tammy hadn’t picked the non-ditching kids up from school yet. So Wildflower got up from the couch, Brooke pointed out that this wasn’t her house so she didn’t have to get up. That was why she smacked her with a pillow on her way out. The kids had keys and Tammy of course had a key and Nicolas, Jose and Markus, so who else would come without calling? Only someone in the Capriani family would show up unannounced, it was in their DNA to drive her completely crazy. And to prove that fact she found Emilio at the door. Even though she did not want to open it, she did. Of course he was pissed at her.

“Why is this door locked?” He asked when he came in.

“Because the people that live her have keys,” she replied closing the door.

“You know I did my best to accept you with your past and the way you manipulated my son. But I will not have you ruin my family,” he said.

“Oh please spare me,” she rolled her eyes. “Nick doesn’t want to cover up crimes for his brother anymore, that isn’t my fault but I sure do support him in that. Maybe Delanoz should be in jail or no not maybe, he should.”

“Little girl you have no idea who you are messing with,” he said glaring at her.

“Neither do you,” she said. “Let’s see you need your precious Nicky and guess what he is mine and he would do anything to make me happy. You should think about that before you say anything that I will make sure you regret.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Nope, it’s just a suggestion,” she shrugged. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned to see Ricky standing there.

“I will not let you low-class trash into my family. I tried, but I will not let you marry my son,” Emilio said.

“Funny, Ricky he thinks he has a choice,” she said to her brother.

“It’s your house, maybe you should tell him to get out,” her brother said.

“This house belonged to my father and his father before him, just because you talked you way into this house, doesn’t make it yours. There will be no wedding and then you will be out on your a*s with nothing,” Emilio said. He turned and went out the door before she could respond.

“Why me? I’m tired of all this,” she sighed.

“Maybe I should have talked you out of this,” Ricky said.

“Like you talked Iris out of being with Jeff?”

“I’m the favorite, remember?”

“And I thought I needed a drink after talking to Tony,” he shook his head.

“I’ll join you,” she said following him back to the kitchen. Of course Brooke followed and eavesdropped, but she didn’t care. She was starting to believe this would just never end.

Reviews

[deeps]

Wow! Such a captivating chapter here.
A very enjoyable read. I like this full of detail and imagery.