New Sister

Bullied

Nivi's Point of View:

The next morning, I wake up around nine and my heart immediately starts beating faster. Just the thought of going downstairs to see my brothers makes me anxious.

I go into the bathroom attached to my new, enormous, room. I brush my teeth with the new brush and toothpaste in the little box near the sink.

I take a few minutes to breathe in and out and slowly walk down the stairs.

Immediately, I hear two voices yelling over each other and my heart skips a beat.

"I don't understand why you decided to bring home a girl that has our last name now, and all of this happened in two minutes at that fundraiser!" A voice yells.

I know he's talking about me but I swallow the bile piling in the back of my throat despite the water forming in my eyes.

I wipe the water away hastily on my shirt and continue walking down the stairs.

"I don't care what you say about me, but if you ever speak to her disrespectfully, you'll lose all of your privileges," another voice says, calmly.

I ignore the rest of the conversation and walk down the rest of the stairs.

All eyes fall on me when I enter the kitchen, which is where the conversation is happening, or at least, was happening.

"Good morning Nivi, did you sleep well?" Bishop's strong voice vibrates off the thick walls.

I nod and walk a little closer to all of them.

Noah smiles politely at me and continues looking at his expensive-looking phone while Phoenix doesn't even spare me a glance.

Ezra comes over to me and wraps me in a warm hug despite him being shirtless.

When Ezra backs away, something catches my eyes, black lettering on the left side of his chest.

I scrunch my eyes up in an attempt to understand the words but that doesn't help at all.

"What is that?" I whisper while pointing at Ezra's chest.

"Oh, this is a tattoo," Ezra responds to my question.

A tattoo? Never heard of that before.

"Does it go away?" I whisper again, afraid that I'll make him mad by asking too many questions.

"No, it doesn't," Ezra says while rubbing his chest as proof that it really doesn't go away.

I want to ask one more question but I fear that I'll step over the boundaries.

"I can tell you have another question," Ezra says while laughing quietly.

"What does it say?" I ask a little bit more confident this time.

"It says 'Ohana' which means family in Hawaiian," Ezra explains using his hands to express his sentence.

Out of all of the brothers, Ezra and Bishop would have to be the ones that I'm least nervous to speak to right now.

I nod, letting him know that I don't have any more questions.

*

After breakfast, Bishop tells me to take a shower and change into different clothes because Ezra and I are going to a couple of stores.

I tug my hair out of the ponytail and try controlling it but my thick and frizzy hair does not want to cooperate, so I end up putting it in a bun.

When I get downstairs, Ezra is dressed in a nice shirt and fancy pants, he has a nice watch on and his hair is pushed back. Everything about him just screams rich.