1| Ophelia

22

-CHAPTER TWENTY TWO-
OPHELIA
•

Returning back to my room after my daily evening walk, I was surprised to see all my brothers (except Blake and Sebastian, both of whom I hadn’t seen since last Friday [it’s Monday now]) waiting for me in my room.

Lucas was lying upside down on my bed, his hands fumbling with his iPad while the twins had made themselves comfortable on the two bean bags (I only owned the brown one). Nico was sitting beside Lucas, characteristically not upside down, and was looking admiringly at what looked like a photo album. 

“Are we having a slumber party I didn’t know about,” I asked, which announced my presence and out of surprise, Lucas dropped the iPad on his face. Mike visibly brightened at my appearance, “Oh we can do that if you want. But Lu- We thought it would be a great idea if we looked through your photo albums.” 

“Albums. I have more than one,” I asked as I placed my phone and airpods on the desk. “Three. You have three photo albums. Which is two more than any of us have,” Nico answered and patted the space between him and Lucas, who rubbed his slightly bruised nose. 

I plopped down between them and the twins took their place on either side of Lucas and Nico, as my oldest brother (among the present ones) pulled out the second album from underneath the first one. “Now this,” he pointed the second album, “Is from ages 2 to 3, and the very first one we’ll look through.”

I took the album from him, not bothering to hide my excitement as I opened the very first page.

A picture of a very chubby baby dressed in a bright blue dress greeted me. Her smile brighter than lights and her hair as white as the snow. The blue baby was sitting comfortably in the lap of a ten year old boy who was cheekily smiling at the camera. I couldn’t recognize him at first, but I knew instantly from the unruly blond hair which one of my brothers it was. 

“Is that Blake,” I asked in shock and the twins snickered. “Yep. He looks very innocent, doesn’t he,” Daniel said and I noticed the date on the corner of the picture. 07.08.2006. I wasn’t even three years old yet. 

“That was taken two days after Blake’s 10th birthday.” When Nico informed me, I realized I didn’t even know of their birthdays. But I didn’t say anything, as I was much more interested in the pictures. My pictures.

I had baby pictures. 

The next picture was of me with a seven year old Nico. I was grinning at the camera with chocolate cake smeared across my face as small Nico had been giving me a sloppy kiss on the cheek. My outfit was the same baby blue dress, which told me the two pictures had been taken the same day. 

Lucas told me the story behind this one. How the always so smart Nico had managed to sneak me chocolate even though I wasn’t allowed any (apparently I had a bad case of sugar rush back then), and had fed it to me. Despite Nico’s (failed) discretion, Dad had caught us, but instead of scolding my brother for disobeying, he had simply laughed it off and clicked the picture. 

As we proceeded further with the album, my smile grew bigger and my bond with my brothers grew deeper. They told me stories behind each of the pictures, which were usually hilarious and sometimes nostalgic. Apparently my alliance with the ‘diaper gang’ and turned me into quite a troublemaker. My personal favorite though was when the boys had spilled oil (they didn’t share how they’d manage to get that) all over the foyer of our house while I had distracted Dad and our eldest two brothers with my puppy eyes, making an excuse about wanting a pink dragon as my next soft toy. 

Our prank had earned Blake two weeks in the hospital with a broken leg, while Sebastian was admitted for dislocating his left shoulder. And even though Blake and Sebastian hadn’t yet joined us, knowing this story made me feel a lot closer to them than I'd ever expected to be.

“Wait hang on a minute. How am I turning 17 if the twins turned 17 in April too,” I asked.

A look of panic took place on Lucas’ face, and the room felt silent for a moment before the answer came from my bedroom door. “A surrogate was hired for nurturing the twins.” I looked at Sebastian, who was leaning against the doorframe with his hands tucked in his pockets. He then walked into the room and sat on my desk chair as he continued. 

“After Nico, Mom and Dad had trouble conceiving and they saw a doctor for it, who told them to hire a surrogate.” I scrunched my nose, “But why a surrogate?” Sebastian paused, “That’s a talk for when you’re old enough to understand the meaning of conceive.” I frowned, “Hey, I’m as old as the twins. Almost.” 

“The twins are children,” Sebastian retorted. “Nuh uh. I saw Michael coming out of the janitor’s room behind a senior girl,” I snitched. Sebastian tilted his head toward Michael and gave him his infamous glare, while Mike turned red from embarrassment, scurrying out of my room before he could face our brother’s wrath. 

Lucas burst out laughing as Nico and Daniel tried to hide their laughs. I gave him Sebastian a smug smile. “Now tell me. Why did they have problem conceiving,” I pestered. “Ooh dear sister is learning Sex Ed. from Sebastian. Tsk, you couldn’t have chosen a worse teacher sweetheart,” Blake snickered from the door and Sebastian rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath.  

“What do you mean,” I asked and Sebastian glared at Blake, who blatantly ignored him. “Our oldest brother is a prude, sweetheart. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t slept with anyone in months, or maybe a year now,” he revealed. 

While Lucas was busy dying from laughter beside me, Nico looked both amused and shocked, “Seb, you do know having sex is a form of relief right? It’s actually unhealthy to go so long without it.” I hid my smile behind my palms, but didn’t miss it when Sebastian grumbled out of embarassment, “Oh shut up.” 

Blake snickered and turned to me, “The story is actually quite funny. They’d done it so many times that their sexual tendencies had worn out by the time they actually did it for conceiving. Hence, the surrogate. The doctor even said that they might not be able have more kids in the future. But, of course, they did it again and found out they were pregnant with you and voila! Their problem was solved.” 

My smile dropped. The problem wasn’t solved. It was wiped out of existence. 

The drop in my smile tensed the room as we all recalled what had happened next. 

I turned to Nico and gave him a hug, “Thank you for this. I really needed it.” He hugged me back, and I wished I hadn’t missed the ghost of a smile that had crossed Sebastian’s face when that had happened. 

-
i love it when blake snitches on sebastian.

who's your favorite brother? and why?

and yes, it's an early update, mostly because im bored and have absolutely no life.

also, someone added this book to 'sweet mafia stories' as the name of their reading list, and all i gotta say is that this aint gonna be sweet after we reach the end 🤭😉