Allie Chapter 11

(Chapter 11) Thinking

Chapter 11

 

Dinner with her mother was not Allie’s idea of fun but here she was. Yesterday seemed so surreal, she agreed to marry Tony. For the first time in her life she was keeping something to herself, how could she tell anymore? Tony said he was going to start working again so that he could buy her a ring. What could she even say to that? The guy of her dreams wanted to marry her so why was she hesitant? Probably for the same reasons they should have broken up yesterday. They were 17 and they were going to spend most of a year apart. She had no idea what he would be doing at school just like he wouldn’t know what she was up to. Allie had no intentions of cheating but he did have a point when he said she had a problem because admittedly she did. This was something to talk about with her therapist tomorrow.

“Is Tony short for something?” Katrina asked.

“Yes, Antonio,” Tony said politely.

“So Antonio, are you and Allie in the same grade?” And so the interrogation began.

“No, I’m a senior,” he replied.

“How are your grades?”

“Tony is a straight A student,” Allie answered. It was funny considering her mother never asked her any of this that she would ask Tony like she cared.

“Do you plan on attending college?” Katrina carried on ask if Allie hadn’t given her a look.

“Yes ma’am,” he answered.

“You play football correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you intend to continue your relationship with Allie once you go to college?”

“That is my plan,’ he said squeezing Allie’s hand.

“Katrina, you are being a little hostile again,” Allie said and her mother glared at her. “You really need to work on that.”

“I am just making an effort to get to know your boyfriend. This is new for me because you’ve never had a boyfriend before have you, dear?”

“No can’t say that I have, Katrina.”

“Antonio, what are your intentions for my daughter?” Katrina asked playing the concerned parent very well, for the first time in her life.

“I love her,” Tony said without any hesitation.

Allie wished she could say that every memory she had of her childhood was horrible but that wasn’t true. She remembered being little and dressing up in her mother’s clothes and jewelry. One thing she could admit was that Katrina was a graceful beauty and she knew how to carry herself in public. Little Allie wanted to be just like her mother that would have her help when she was getting ready for a function. They use to go shopping together and have tea parties and do fun girlie things. Allie was into horseback riding and ballet and Katrina was at every competition and every recital. It was like that until Katrina married a man that demanded all of her time and attention. And that man killed the Allie she had been and the relationship she had with her mother. After that she couldn’t trust her mother anymore.

Maybe she could have gotten over it if her mother made an effort to act like she cared. She was self-centered and thought only of herself when Allie needed her the most. First she drove Markus away and then she wanted to put Allie in a hospital somewhere. Great-grandma America was the one that brought Allie to the mansion but for a very long time she couldn’t speak or eat or do anything. Katrina didn’t protect her and Katrina didn’t even seem to care after. Those were things that no amount of therapy could repair, even if she wanted it to. Truthfully deep down she wanted to forgive her and wanted a mother but it was too late.

Then there was Markus, her brother who she use to worship. He tried to save her and tried to get her away but in the end he just abandoned her. For years he was gone and then he appeared over the summer with the father she never knew. A father that apparently was abusive to her mother years ago and was currently trying to kill her. Allie didn’t care at all about that and she knew she should but she couldn’t. Katrina stopped being her mother before the incident happened. All these years later it still hurt, sitting at dinner with her felt wrong.

It was wrong for Katrina to pretend to care just because she had a break in men. Her most recent marriage mistake was a senator that had a thing for teen girls. Katrina refused to believe it when Allie told her that the creep was trying to spy on her. To avoid another situation she mostly didn’t go home. Home was supposed to be where you could feel safe; she never got to feel safe at home. Not until she moved into the mansion and her uncle became her guardian.

Katrina was a person that liked getting her way and lied to bully people. She was completely humiliated by the senator thing. Since it was her youngest brother that leaked the story she wanted revenge. Stupid Katrina had actually kidnapped her and it resulted in an act of desperation. Allie could remember the day she cut her wrists wishing for death because death was a lot better than staying with her mother. There was pain and then a horrible scream coming from Katrina and then it was dark. She woke up in the hospital the next day. Katrina was on the run and once again proved where her priorities were. Thinking of all this why Katrina interrogated Tony, made her just hate her mother even more.

 

 

Nicolas woke up to his phone ringing; he was alone in his bedroom. Apparently he was more tired than he thought because he slept through yesterday and most of today. He blindly reached around for his cell phone; he knew it was his brother. It was way too sunny in the room for him to actually open his eyes. His phone was on the nightstand and he somehow managed to grab it before it went to voicemail.

“What?” He groaned into the phone, he was still exhausted and wanted to sleep.

“You wanted the update,” Jose said.

“Yeah yesterday I did and you didn’t call.”

“Actually I called you three times and your wife said you were asleep.”

“Well what do you know?”

“Martha apparently decided that we were working too slowly for her so she went to the cops filed a missing person’s report. Then he was found this morning in his car that was really banged up. He’s alive it looked like to the police that he crashed and didn’t regain consciousness and nobody of course saw anything and the car was in a secluded area. Right now he’s in the hospital, hasn’t woken up at all,” Jose told him.

“Have you found D?” Nicolas asked, now he really had to get up.

“Not exactly, he’s gone underground,” Jose said.

“He’s such an idiot and he’s weak,” he grumbled.

“I’m at the hospital right now, come here I’ll show you what I’ve found out. Oh and Martha called your mother so she’s flying in and I think she called the aunts too.”

“Great, I’m on my way,” he said.

“See ya,” Jose said and hung up.

He laid in bed for a few more minutes he did not want to get up. And really did not want to deal with his family or finding his stupid brother. There weren’t enough coincidences in the world for the old man to go missing after Delanoz attacked him. Then to be found in a wrecked car? If Delanoz wasn’t in the situation he was now it might not have been a big deal but it was obvious. It was also obvious that his oldest brother had gone soft. If you’re going to go for revenge then you didn’t leave a witness. Once Delanoz wouldn’t have flinched his he killed someone, it shocked him that he didn’t go through with it this time.

“Are you awake?” His wife called to him from the door. He must have been tired because he didn’t hear her come in.

“Maybe,” he groaned. She crawled on to the bed and he pulled her into his arms.

“Stay in bed,” she told him.

“I would love to especially if you are in bed too, but I gotta leave.”

“Why? We just got home you need to rest.”

“Remember what I said about D and the old man? Well the old man was found and is in the hospital so I gotta go over there.”

“Want me to come?” She offered like he knew she would.

“No, you need to stay off your feet, remember that?”

“I know, I’ve been on the couch all day with Brooke, Jasmine and baby Joseph. She came over so we could talk about her wedding that’s just next week.”

“Perfect timing,” he said shaking his head.

“Her family is coming in so I invited them to dinner,” she informed.

“How is the hosting thing coming?”

“Most of the food is bought, my mom and aunts and Brooke’s Aunt Kim are going to cook. Carmen and the kids will be here Wednesday and she’s bringing Camden with her. Um I did invite Caroline over but yeah who knows about that. My family will all be over and all your siblings should be here and I think Jason might come. Our first big dinner party ever,” she said looking a little anxious.

“You aren’t over doing it are you?” He asked concerned.

“No, Brookey is being a fabulous assistant and her and Jay are moving into the house today,” she sighed. “We ordered pizza for dinner if you’re hungry before you leave.”

“I need to shower, you want to join me?” He asked watching her smile.

“Weren’t you the one that lectures me about being up on my feet?”

“Who said anything about being on your feet?”

“Well when you put it like that I can’t say no can I?”

“I was hoping you would say that,” he replied kissing her. First he would spend a moment with his wife then he would go deal with the mess his brother made. Tomorrow was time for him to return to work. Vacation time was definitely over.

 

 

Evan was finishing up his homework in the living room while the happy couple was in their bedroom. It was odd to see Ricky with Sydney, not that he’d ever seen him with a guy. Sydney was very much in love with Ricky it was very obvious. The funny thing was no matter how much Ricky complained about her clinginess or how annoying she was it was very obvious that he loved her. Staying here was very entertaining to say the least. He was surprised when Sydney came out the bedroom and came to sit down on the couch. The shower was going so it was obvious where Ricky was.

“Doing homework?” Sydney asked and he nodded.

“I’m finished now,” he said shuffling around his papers and notebooks.

“I don’t mean to pry but is everything ok with you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well you’re here when you’ve been living in a mansion, I was just curious and Ricky wouldn’t tell me.”

“Oh, yeah its nothing really just needed some space,” he said. This was really awkward and he didn’t want to talk to her, at least not about his own life. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” she said smiling brightly. “I want to spend my life with him.”

“Yeah, but he’s gay,” Evan said that just made her smile bigger.

“More like bi-sexual,” she corrected. “There’s nothing wrong with that I don’t love him because of our sexual relationship. We are soul mates and I can live with it if he has other urges as long as he is honest with me. And well as long as he doesn’t fall in love with someone else. Do you love your girlfriend?”

“Yes, I do,” he said.

“Then you should understand that you may not always agree or always like the same things but you still love each other. I’m no fool I know when we met it wasn’t his intention to fall in love, we’ve talked about it. Labels like straight or gay don’t really matter,” she told him.

“I’ve never known him to fall in love,” he said.

“It’s because he never found the right person, love sneaks up on you sometimes.”

Sydney was really nice and she was actually beautiful. From what he heard she was from an Italian-American family, which sort of explained her love for cooking. She’d said that her family owned a restaurant, which was where she worked when she wasn’t following Ricky around. She had long wavy brown hair and she did have a nice body so he could see the appeal. Now that he was thinking about it he could really see a lot of a appeal to her even if she was a little ditzy and way too nice. The top she had on showed a little too much cleavage and Evan had to force himself not to look. What was wrong with him? This was his brother’s girlfriend and he was way too attracted to her.

“Syd,” Ricky called from down the hall. Obviously he was done with his shower.

“Just you wait and see Evan, I’m going to marry your brother,” she said. She got up and gave him a cute little wave and skipped down the hall. Ricky had leaned his head out the door he pulled her into a kiss and then into the room. The door closed and locked, it was obvious what they were going to be up to.

Evan couldn’t help but to think his brother was pretty lucky. This woman wanted to marry him and was ok if he got some on the side? He’d never heard something so crazy in his life. And Sydney was definitely a woman that could have any man she wanted. Part of him was jealous, but he loved Sammie. It would have been easier if he didn’t love her or if they didn’t end up in the same family or in the same house. His thoughts kept traveling back to Sydney with her long tan legs. He was definitely losing his mind.

Sammie was having problems and he was concerned about her. But there was a selfish part of himself that wanted to end things with her. He was 16 and he wanted to have sex. With her he couldn’t do anything and he understood why but that didn’t stop him for wanting more. This was why he never needed to get into this relationship in the first place. Stupid Allie minding his business instead of her own. Sixteen wasn’t an age where you were picking out your future wife; it was where you should have fun. So what was he going to do? He didn’t want to hurt Sammie, she didn’t deserve that or for him to pressure her into anything. Now he was more confused than he was before. And he had no idea what he was going to do now. Maybe he needed therapy too.

 

 

Nicolas arrived at the hospital and learned of his father’s critical condition. He’d always thought of the old man as sort of invincible. But the truth was that he was nearing 60 and he wasn’t doing so well. The doctors were suspicious of his condition and unsure that all of his injuries happened in the crash. Someone planted the idea that he could have been mugged or something and the car accident was just a cover up. Yes it was a cover up but not for the reasons they thought. Nobody would expect that Emilio was tortured by his oldest son. Well nobody except Nicolas and Jose who had to deal with this and possibly put their brother down for good.

Cleaning up Delanoz’s messes had gotten old a long time ago. After all the things his brother did including rape and murder and torture, he hadn’t thought Delanoz would go for revenge. Most of his crimes were towards women, not that it made that any better. Delanoz was always a lose cannon, but in recent years he’d calmed down his activities and acted like a human being. They should have known to keep an eye on him; you always had to keep an eye on him. But both Nicolas and Jose had been busy with family obligations and they both agreed to let their brother grow up and deal with his own messes. And here they were once again.

“Who keeps texting you?” Jose asked him.

“Wildflower, she wants me to go to the store,” he replied looking at her latest message. “Strawberry ice cream, peach yogurt, plain M&Ms and a banana smoothie, I guess she’s having cravings.”

“If she said she wanted the moon you would give that to her too,” Jose laughed.

“Probably,” he shrugged. “So anybody spot D yet?”

“No, he didn’t go home or call the airhead,” Jose replied.

“We’re running out of time, we have to decide if it’s better to keep him alive or put him out of our misery.”

“Did come in handy for it to be the three of us but we do have Jason and Markus now,” Jose pointed out.

“Yeah but neither of them could ever be unconscienced like him. Ok we will give him a chance to own up to this and try to wait to see if the old man wakes up.

“Sounds fair but I don’t get why he wouldn’t just kill him. There’s a chance the old man will wake up and he will spill everything, if he would turn him in once he would do it again. This is much worse than the Hannah thing.”

“We could give him to the end of the year because I’m sure neither of us wants to be dealing with this crap next year.”

“I sure don’t, I’m taking Jas to the Bahamas the week after the next.”

“Have you noticed that neither of us is ever in the office since the take over?”

“Yeah, we don’t have to work hard you’re the boss.”

“I know and tomorrow I’m going back,” Nicolas said.

Truthfully he needed to work to keep himself busy and so that he wasn’t bored. Not that spending time in bed with his wife was boring, it was anything but. If she wasn’t pregnant then he might have liked to get some use out of the stripper pole. But she was starting to show and she seemed to be more beautiful than ever now. She was what he needed to be focused on, her and his unborn child. And he needed to deal with their adopt-a-teens; they needed stricter rules and more boundaries. Family and work should have been his focus not this mess. He also had two women to hunt down and kill slowly. First it appeared he was going to the store and to McDonald’s for some nuggets and fries.

 

 

Wildflower was concerned when Allie’s therapist asked to speak to her in private before talking to either of the girls. Melissa Miller was pretty nice and she was good at what she did that was why she was so expensive. She was supposed to alert them if anything was wrong with Allie. Nicolas was the one that told Melissa that he wasn’t paying her for confidentiality. She mostly only called Wildflower if she was concerned about something with Allie so she knew this couldn’t be good. Anything could have happened in the last few weeks.

“Is there something going on with Allie?” Wildflower asked.

“I suppose she didn’t mention to you that she has become addicted to sex?”

“No, that was something she left out,” she said. It shouldn’t have been surprising.

“So she also didn’t tell you that she thought she was pregnant?” Melissa said going through her notes.

“When was this?”

“A week or two ago, she told me that her and her cousin went to buy some tests.”

“I am never leaving town again,” she sighed.

“This isn’t your fault; you deserve to have time to yourself.”

“I’m supposed to be taking care of them and this shouldn’t happen. I’ve been distracted and way too trusting.”

“Have you ever considered going into therapy?”

“What, no, why would I?”

“Because you were just in a terrible accident and you just got married and you are responsible for 5 teenagers when you are pregnant? You have high levels of stress in your life and you lost a sister, just to name a few.”

“Ok I see your point but I’m fine,” she said. Neither of them believed that but she did not want to go into therapy.

“It’s something to think about and you’re always here anyway with Allie and now you’re starting Samantha,” Melissa said. “I mostly work with adolescence but I would be happy to talk with you or I can set you up with a colleague.” She handed her a card of another therapist.

“Thank you,” Wildflower said accepting the card. “So what do we do about a sex addiction? I’m pretty sure my husband will be making a no sex rule by the end of the week and I don’t want them sneaking around but I don’t know what to do. If we tell then not to do it than they will want to do it even more.”

“Of course they will its human nature, mostly the problem is with Allie and Tony, correct?”

“Yes, they are always all over each other.”

“Well maybe you don’t have to make that a rule if we can get them to ease off having sex as often as they do. If she can get help for her problem then that should make things a little easier at home.”

“That would be nice,” Wildflower agreed. “So which one of them do you want to see first?”

“I’ll start with Samantha,” Melissa replied.

After Sammie went in to have a private session Wildflower came out to sit in the waiting area with Allie. There was always something with this girl; there was never a break in issues. Most of this she blamed Katrina for because if she ever acted like a mother maybe her daughter wouldn’t have become so wild. The whole sex addiction thing wasn’t really a surprise considering in three months Allie had sex with three brothers. Lately she was a lot tamer than she was previously but the girl still needed a lot of work. Especially if she had a pregnancy scare, that was very serious.

“Mel the big mouth told you everything, huh?” Allie asked and she nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I don’t want you to hate me and because Sam was having her issues.”

“So if you thought you might be pregnant then that means you’ve been having unprotected sex, right?”

“Yes, but not all the time and you know I’m on birth control.”

“What would you have done if you were pregnant?”

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to ruin things for Tony.”

“Were you going to tell me?”

“Honestly I don’t know, I didn’t want to tell him at all and he was pissed at me when I did. I can’t take you being me,” Allie told her.

            “We have an honesty policy for a reason Allie and even if you think I’ll get mad you have to talk to me, ok? There’s nothing you could do to make me not love you,” she said calmly. “And I really don’t think you thought any of that through anyway, having an abortion could never be an easy decision.”

            “Was it easy for Daisy?” Allie asked surprising her.

            “Who told you about that?”

            “Well Ricky said something cryptic so I asked Tony and he told me.”

            “Daisy was selfish, that’s the truth she did for selfish reasons. Ricky did not want her to do it and even though you know we had nothing he said we would figure out a way to keep the baby. She told him that if her loser boyfriend found out he would break up with her. After she whined about it and wouldn’t shut up he gave her what she was so desperate for but he never forgave her for it,” she sighed. “Allie if you were pregnant we could deal with that, ok?”

            “Its so not going to happen again, but ok.”

            “What else aren’t you telling me?”

            “Tony and I had this big fight the other day, we nearly broke up. He thinks that I would cheat on him when he’s away at school. Then he told me he would stay here until I graduate and I told him he was crazy and that he can’t do that,” Allie paused and then looked her in the eyes. “He asked me to marry him.”

            “He asked you what?”

            “Yeah that’s kinda how I reacted too.”

            “What did you say?”

            “I said that getting married wouldn’t change the fact that he thinks I will cheat.”

            “You are both 17 you can’t get married.”

            “We will both be 18 next year.”

            “Yes, but he is going to college and you will be here in high school,” Wildflower said. This was the most shocking thing she’d heard since Christina told her about her family suddenly coming back into her life.

            “Yes I know that but I kind of agreed to it.”

            “Allie,” she said pinching the bridge of her nose because a headache was coming on. “Do you not plan on finishing high school?”

            “I do, we would just have a long distance marriage,” Allie said.

            “How would that work if he didn’t want a long distance relationship? Should I point out that he isn’t even leaving the state its not that long of a drive and you could go see him on the weekend?”

            “I’m not 100% behind the idea but I love him.”

            “Know what? If you are both serious about this and you feel the same way after Tony graduates I will let you get married.”

            “What? I don’t turn 18 till August.”

            “I know, so you would have to have permission from your guardians and that would be me.”

            “You would be ok with us getting married?”

            “I didn’t say that, I don’t think you will still want to in June but if you do I’ll make it happen. It’s a big thing Allie and if you both don’t intend for it to be forever then do not do it. And especially don’t marry him as a way to hold on. If you love each other that much then you should wait until after you are both out of college. Things change as you get older and people change, you might not want to be together once you grow up.”

            “I swear I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t sure and I’m not even sure I want to. But if I told him no it would just be weird and I want to be with him. And I hate that he thinks that I would cheat on him, if he wasn’t around I wouldn’t want to have sex.”

            “Be honest with him Allie and tell him how you feel.”

            “When I tried we had a fight,” Allie said. “Can you talk to him? He’ll listen to you and you can tell him I’m trying really hard not to be addicted to sex. Its mostly him that I’m addicted to not just sex.”

            “I will talk to him but you have to talk to him,” Wildflower told her.

            “Thank you,” Allie said and hugged her. “I love you Mommy.”

            “I love you too, so tell me about dinner,” Wildflower said. She needed a distraction so that she didn’t freak out about this marriage stuff. Maybe Melissa was right and she needed therapy. There was just always something.

 

 

            “Evan!” He heard a familiar voice yell, it was Sydney.  She was in her car waving at him out the window.

            “Hi,” he said when he got into her car.

            “Hey, I forgot to get your cell number from Ricky earlier, he’s busy so he asked me to pick you up.  And I’m on my way to work so I thought you could come with me. You can have something to eat and do your homework,” she told him. “Oh but if you don’t want to I can run you by the apartment. I sort of hoped that if Ricky has to come get you he could come meet my family.”

            “Its fine,” he shrugged. Really he shouldn’t have accepted her offer it was a bad idea and not because she wanted to trick his brother.

            “Thanks,” she said smiling and patted his leg.

            The time had come for him to go back home, he knew that last nigh when he had a dream about Sydney. To make it worse she was in the kitchen in a t-shirt and underwear this morning. She’d laughed and said she hadn’t been thinking and that it didn’t matter because she was practically family. Ricky didn’t seem to think any of it either. But Evan was turned on by her so it was kind of bad. So was being alone with her now, she had on a blue jean skirt on that was showing a little too much thigh. What was wrong with him? This was his brother’s girlfriend, he could not be thinking about her like that. While she drove she babbled on about her family and how much she wanted them to meet Ricky since he was the “love of her life”. All he could think about was sex. He’d thought the thing with Sammie put him off sex but maybe it just put him off sex with her. This was really bad.

            At the restaurant Lucia’s, he met Sydney’s family. They were curious about him but she explained he was her boyfriend’s brother. That just made them question Evan about Ricky. What could he even tell them? Their daughter was in love with a gay guy and wanted to marry him. At least he could admit that Ricky was definitely in love with her. That was exactly why he needed to go back home and stay away from Sydney. He sat at a table in the back in the corner watching her.

            Sydney was always happy and perky and smiling. She looked a lot like her mother, Angela and her sister Mary. As they told him she was middle child and had two sisters. Her father was there he did most of the cooking along with a few other family members, the whole staff was family. At least Evan could say the food was good, and he saw where Sydney got her cooking skills. She was a hostess and did her job happily with a big smile and chatted up everybody. Her smile was pretty and the way she just lit up all excited about everything was part of her appeal. He needed to get out of here and go see Sammie, she was his girlfriend and he loved her.
            “Hello,” Mary said when she sat down across from Evan.

            “Hi,” he replied.

            “My sister is never secretive about a guy she’s seeing but she is about your brother. Why is that?” She asked watching him a little too closely.

            “Ricky hasn’t done a lot of dating in his life,” Evan offered as an excuse. It was true his brother never had the time the last 16 years.

            “Why not? He a player or something?”

            “No,” Evan laughed at that. “He’s definitely not a player, his last girlfriend was when he was 15.”

            “How old is he now?” Mary asked looking stunned.

            “31, but he spent the last 16 years of his life taking care of our family. He gave up his life for us and don’t worry he loves your sister,” he told her.

Now he just felt guilty. Mary was ok looking; she wasn’t Sydney though maybe it was that happy annoying thing that made her so attractive. Her sister was in her mid-thirties and had two kids so he wasn’t really looking at her like that anyway. When he thought of what his brother had given up he just felt worse. Ricky deserved to be happy and if he loved Sydney then she was forever off limits. But he couldn’t help but to admire the view when she bent over or when she was bouncing happily around. The relationship between Ricky and Sydney made no sense to him but that wasn’t his business.

This thing with Sammie reminded him why he liked his privacy. Everybody knew he had sex with her and that she wouldn’t speak to him after. That was probably why he wanted to tell her they needed a break. But what was the point of that? It was mostly because he wanted to have sex and she didn’t. Maybe he needed to talk to her and be honest before he did something stupid. If she had been in school today he would have talked to her. Today she was having therapy or whatever.

After Mary and her cousin Pamela were done grilling him about Ricky, he text Sammie. She told him about her day and that they were still out. Allie had wanted to get her hair done so they were at a salon. And she told him that she missed him and wanted to see him. He did want to see her; she sent him a picture of her new hairstyle. That was when he decided that tonight he was going to go home. It was nice to spend time with his brother but this was for the best. And he was seriously thinking about asking his sister about this therapy stuff. Their whole family needed it. When Ricky arrived he came in to meet the Fabrizio family, it made Sydney very happy. If it was possible she looked even more in love with him.

 

 

Tony wasn’t sure what to expect when his sister said they needed to talk. Since she’d spent the day with Allie it could have been anything. Especially when he asked Allie to marry him the other day. It was probably not the best decision he ever made but he didn’t regret it. Or more like he mostly didn’t regret it. Marriage was a huge step not to be taken lightly. But he could see himself loving her for the rest of his life, he’d already had been in love with her the last two years. That he hadn’t ever told anybody, it was his own secret. This marriage thing was not something he was going to be able to keep a secret. Allie told Wildflower everything so of course she told her. When he came to knock on her bedroom door she waved him in, she was on the phone with someone.

It had been awhile since he came into his sister’s bedroom, there was a stripper pole in the middle of the room. The room was very clean and tidy which actually amused him because his sister was once messy. Wildflower was pacing the room making faces at him while she listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone. Allie was right that Wildflower did seem to have a glow about her. And she was definitely showing now, it made him think about Allie. What if she had been pregnant? Would he have been happy like Nicolas was once the shock wore off? Would Allie have had a permanent smile on her face like Wildflower? Truthfully he knew that would never have been the case, no matter what he said or did he knew he would have always resented her. Isaiah had resented Christina, but he got over it. Tony was pretty sure he never would have. So that got him thinking about marriage. Was this really the best idea?

“Ok let’s talk,” Wildflower said tossing her cell phone on the bed.

“Who were you talking to?” Tony asked when she laid down on the bed.

“Your mother talking about Thanksgiving and such and getting on my nerves,” she shrugged.

“Why are you letting her cook dinner?”

“It was either her and the aunts or we hire people and it wasn’t going to get me out of inviting her. Aside from her usual annoyingness she’s not too bad and you can’t say you would rather eat catered food,” she said.

“No, guess that’s the one good thing about holidays with the family.”

“Yeah, so anything you want to tell me?”

“Allie told you that I asked her to marry me, right?”

“Oh yeah and everything else too,” she said watching him.

“I know it was dumb but it seemed like a good idea at the time and she said yes. It wouldn’t really change things, I’ll still go to school and everything. But I love her and have for a long time and I could see myself with her in the future,” he told her.

“I’ll tell you what I told her earlier, I do not think you should get married and I don’t think either of you realize how serious marriage is. I might not be the best example because I’m married and pregnant and Nick and I haven’t even known each other a year. We are adults and have lived grown up lives. With you and Allie you’re both 17 and I know you’ve been friends for a long time but you’ve only been together a few months. I don’t doubt that you love each other but I don’t think you will still want to get married next year. That being said, since you turn 18 first and you are graduating I will not object if you still want to after graduation,” she said.

“What?” He asked staring at her, he did not expect that response at all.

“You can get married if you still want to after graduation,” she repeated slowly. “Personally I think you would be making a huge mistake and that you need time apart to live and grow. There’s nothing wrong with waiting until you’re older.”

“I um never expected her to say yes,” he admitted. “I just don’t want to lose her, but I’m not sure I want to marry her either.”

“You should really both talk about this.”

            “What am I supposed to do? I can’t take it back.”

            “Talk to her Antonio and you might be surprised at what you hear.”

            “Do you trust Nick?”

            “Why wouldn’t I?”

            “He has gone away on business and works a lot; do you ever think that he could be cheating?”

            “No,” she answered but her eyes said something else.

            “How do you trust him?”

            “Why are you asking this?”

            “Because I think Allie would cheat on me if I wasn’t here.”

            “Then why would you want to marry her?”

            “She has a problem.”

            “Yeah I know and that’s what worries me. And she loves attention, if a guy gives her enough of it she gets lost I’ve seen it,” he told her.

            “Back in the beginning when Nick and I were first together, I wondered a lot about the time we were apart. Like you said he works a lot or he did until I became needy and he stayed home. Anyway if you really love her then you will find a way to trust her. She doesn’t do this on purpose and I know it can be hard but I think you are good for her,” Wildflower said.

            “This is such a mess,” he sighed. His sister rolled over and sat up and she hugged him.

            “That is life little brother and in the future think before you speak,” she said. She kissed his cheek and succeeded in changing his mind about everything.

 

Reviews

[deeps]

A most amazing read here and chapter. Alot of detail and wonderful imagery. I thought this was a very well written chapter. enjoyed this alot.