Break of Dawn

11 | family ties

JUST AS ARIELLA HAD CALLED IT, it only took three of days for Rory to have thirty six new Instagram followers; all of them part of the Huskies roster.

The guys showed up to her office in streams, some of them had real issues they needed help with, some would just come up with a lame excuse, but most of them didn't even bother to pretend. They'd show up at her door, introduce themselves, and sometimes, they would sit down to chat with her for a few minutes.

Mr. Clay got back early from his trip and, after she'd spent two days organizing that endless mountain of documents, Rory was happy for a change of pace. The team would be playing in Texas on Saturday, and Quincy had entrusted her with the task to finalize the details for the trip.

"The fuck you're doing here?" Damien's voice diverted her attention from the spreadsheet on her computer.

"Hello to you too" She deadpanned while Damien took the seat across from her.

"So you're the hot chick working for Quins?" He pursed his lip, seemingly disappointed at the fact that he wouldn't have someone new to flirt with.

"I don't feel comfortable hearing you say that" She scrunched her nose.

"Yeah, that was fuckep up" Damien picked up the bag of peanuts - the one she had been saving for later - from her desk and opened it. Personal space had never been a big concept for him "You didn't tell me you were working here"

"I started on Monday" Rory outstretched her hand at him "I still want to eat that"

"It's Wednesday" He handed her one peanut, and kept the bag to himself. Rory rolled her eyes and kept her hand outstretched, he threw half the peanuts from the bag in his hand and gave her what was left "We texted earlier today, why didn't you mention it?"

She put the bag away on the drawer and shrugged "It must've slipped my mind."

It hadn't. She just didn't feel like informing Damien just yet about the job, because she knew that once he was in the know, it wouldn't be long until the rest of the family found out.

Including her dad.

Especially her dad.

"Yeah, right" He didn't even try to sound convinced while he chewed on her snack "So, you're not using your name huh?"

He pointed at her staff card that sat on the desk. The tag read 'Aurora Beatrice' not Scavo, like it was supposed to. Rory had insisted with Mr. Clay that she didn't want anyone to know about her real last name, and although he couldn't really understand it, he relented to her request.

"You know I never do" Even on social media, she was always Rory Beatrice, never Aurora Scavo.

There were no pictures of her with her brother or her dad on display, as a matter of fact, Damien was the only relative who made an appearance on her Instagram, and only because he also kept their family ties on the hiding.

She and Damien had this silent agreement that their life in college should be unrelated to their life outside of it. Inside campus they were Damien and Rory, Rory and Damien; not Cosimo Scavo's nephew and Alex Scavo's sister, or Cosimo Scavo's daughter and Alex Scavo's cousin.

Damien had an easier time hiding it. He didn't carry his mother's last name, so he just had to keep himself from mentioning his relatives in conversation and keep any pictures from his socials. His reasoning for hiding it was very similar to hers: he wanted to be his own person. He was afraid that if people found out he was a Scavo, they would compare him to his uncle and cousin - especially his cousin -, and he knew he'd fall short every time.

Damien Hughes was a good football player, but in no way he would ever come close to Alex Scavo.

Alex had played as first string quarterback since his freshman year in college, he'd led his team to the Rose Bowl his junior year and had actually won the National Championship during his senior. He had also been a contender for a Heisman Trophy and a first round draft pick. And that was all before his impressive ongoing career at the NFL.

Damien, on the other hand, was already on his junior year and wasn't even first string - there was no way he could even begin to compare.

"None of the guys know who you are, right?" Rory inquired. When Damien had introduced her to Patrick Ogbonna - the only guy on the team he was actually friends with - she hadn't bothered if he knew of their consanguinity, but it could be a real problem if he did now.

"Not even the coaches know, AB, you can chill."

Rory sighed in relief. It was always unpredictable how people would reacted to the news that she was related to not one, but two famous NFL employees.

Back home, everybody knew who she was from day one. She had transferred to Buffalo from Pittsburgh during sophomore year of high school, and her dad had been the biggest talk of the town - hell, of the whole state. He'd been the big hire for the team; after his three years of success as Assistant Head Coach in Pennsylvania, Cosimo Scavo was supposed to be Buffalo's saving grace.

At school, news of her identity traveled fast. Rory was The New Girl for the first couple of days, but the nickname that had stuck until graduation had been The NFL Kid. In the hallways, people were divided into three groups: the self-servers, the distance-keepers and the not carers.

The self-servers were mostly - but not entirely- football players; they were the ones who got close to her because they thought she could give them something.

The distance-keepers were the kids who saw her as too much of an outsider. These were the cruelest ones, in her opinion, because they had so much as bullied her just 'cause they were under the impression she thought she was above them - even if she never actually did.

The not-carers were the smallest group of the bunch, composed of people who couldn't care less who her dad was. These were the people who had made group projects and seminars less unbearable.

Suffice to say, high school hadn't been the best experience of her life.

And those would've been some lonely couple of years if hadn't been for the fact that Damien's parents had moved into town at the same time she and her father did.

Although she and Damien went to different schools, he had been her company during those three years in Buffalo.

"It's gonna be really weird if I move out next year" Rory marveled out loud "How are you gonna live without me?"

"The question, darling, is how you are gonna live without me" He teased back, stressing the words.

Apart from her freshman year in college - when Damien was still back in high school - there had always been the both of them. It was weird for her to think of a life without Damien around. He did get on her nerves most the time, and had no sense of boundaries, whatsoever, but at the end of the day he was her person, and she wouldn't have it any other way.