Existence

18.

K I N S L E Y ' S P O V

The ride home was silent. And I mean absolutely silent. The radio was even turned off. I rode back with Roman because I personally had no choice. He pulled me towards his car and literally pushed me in.

As we pulled in the driveway, I felt my nerves erupt inside me. Roman parked the car and looked over at me. "You know this wouldn't happen if you wouldn't have interacted with those assholes." he spat, making me look out the window.

"I never talked to them. I don't know why you're making a big ass deal over it." I said, getting out of the car.

I was met at the door by Daniel, giving me a hopeful smile. I sighed, finally walking in the house. "Finally, did you drive the long way to avoid this or what?" Matteo said, leaning against the wall with his arm's crossed.

We shook our head and followed Matteo into the living room. The rest of my brothers were already waiting, sitting on their phones. As we entered, they put their phones down and situated themselves.

"What's going on?" Dad says as he entered. I looked at Roman as he was already glaring at me. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm not the one at fault here." I said, leaning against the couch.

"You're literally the whole reason were sitting here right now." He growled, throwing his arms in the air. I rolled my eyes, "Wha-" "Ok. Enough. Kinsley did you or did you not talk to that group of boys today at any point in school." Matteo asked.

I sighed, "No." yes. "Then why did they act like they knew who you were at lunch? And why did he come up to you at lunch?" Roman said, standing up. "Sit down boy." Dad said, glaring at Roman.

"I don't know. Like I told you, they were in my math class and sat around me and told me their names. I didn't talk to them." I said, leaning forward. "And who exactly were these boys." Andrea spoke, leaning against the door frame.

"I- there were six of them i'm not tell-" "Owen, Ty, Jhett, Luke, Tate, and Keaton." Roman said, a smirk already sat on his face. You would have thought my brother's saw a ghost when those name's got thrown out. "Didn't we tell you this morning not to even look at any boys." Luca said, sending a glare my way.

"Oh my gosh. I walk into my first class of the day. I sit down. I pay attention to the teacher and then bam. The door gets slammed open and this big group walked in. Why they sat around me? I wish I knew. There was a whole other corner with six empty seats. All I said to the was my name. That's it! You're acting like i'm going to sleep with every single one of them." I spat out.

"So you talked to them." I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "That's not the poi-" "That's why were all sitting here." I got up from the couch. "You know, we tell you not to talk to any of these guys from school because most of their parent's are involved in something illegal. Which mean's their child is also being brought into the illegal business." Matteo said, annoyance clear in his voice.

"And what's so bad about this group of boy's that I couldn't even tell them my name." I practically yelled. "They're doing bad thing's, Kins! They do part of our business which is illegal." He yelled back.

I turned to look at him. "So our families doing illegal thing's too." I yelled back. I usually wouldn't yell at any of my family members, especially Matteo. He scared me more than anyone else. I really don't understand how i'm not shaking from being yelled at right now.

Matteo scoffed. "We're in the fucking Mafia, Kinsley. I think that's far from illegal." He spat out. My eyes widened. Mafia. "You're lying." I whispered, tear's clouded my vision.

Matteo shook his head as he laughed, "Surprise." He said, anger laced his words. I picked up my school bag and walked out the room, not dropping eye contact with Matteo. For a second his eyes flashed something other than anger. Regret quickly took over him as he too stood up, walking after me.

"Kinsley, wait." He said. I squeezed past Andrea but Matteo wasn't so lucky. "Give her a minute." He said, pushing Matteo back.

T H I R D P E R S O N P O V

She ran up the stairs, not caring about the foot steps following closely behind her. As she reached her room, she hurriedly slammed it, locking it behind her. She threw her bag to the side, pacing the room.

A knock on the door made her pause, "Kins?" One of her brother's said from the other side. She was to far in her head to figure out who it was. She slid down the wall, her hand covered her mouth to stop the sobs from escaping.

"were in the fucking mafia, Kinsley. I think thats far from illegal." The words kept replaying, over and over in her head. "Kinsley, open the door." The voice said, a little more stern this time. She stayed where she was, only wanting space from everything.

But of course, her wish couldn't be met as her bedroom door was unlocked. In walked Andrea. Her only brother she felt safe around. "I- I can't breathe." She said, uncovering her mouth. "Shhh, it's ok listen to my breathing. Can you try to math it?" He said softly.

"It's ok, I promise yo-" "It's not ok, Andrea!" she yelled, jumping out of his arms. "It's not ok." she whispered this time.

"He shouldn't have told you like that. Or at all, for that matter. He could have found a better time to tell you that cause it surely wasn't right then." Andrea reassured her.

"So I can just tell you my problems and trust every single one of you but one argument gets thrown in the mix and now you're saying I shouldn't have been told any of your business?" She said, pacing the room again.

"That's not what-" "I don't care, Andrea! It's the fact that you're all just now telling me this. What else are you hiding?" She said, drying her tears. "Matter if fact. What exactly does that group of boy's do for this mafia group." she asked, sitting in front of Andrea.

He sat there for a moment. Wondering if he should really tell his little sister the truth about half of the guy's at school. "They were already troubled delinquents. Their parent's basically sold them but they got out of it. That's when they found us. We didn't want and still don't want anything to do with them. We hardly ever talk to any of them. Romans the only one that seems to get caught up with the group." he stopped talking, searching his sister for any sort of emotion.

"We sell drugs. And I dont mean us exactly. We have men that work that area and those boy's are part of the delivery group." He finished.

"So they sell drugs and are 'extremely dangerous'" She said, putting Andreas story in a shorter version. Andrea nodded. "Why it such a big deal if I talk to literally any guy?" She asked.

Andrea's eyes widened as he looked at his sister. "We just don't want you to grow up and get occupied with some guy that obviously won't be any good for you. Trust me, you deserve nothing other than the world." Andrea said. "And your to young to have a boyfriend. What are you talking about."

"I can't even be friends with them?" She pressed on. "No. They're dangerous. They could get you hurt." He answered quickly. Kinsley only shook her head, "And you guy's aren't dangerous?"

Andrea took a deep breath, sighing as he exhaled. "We can talk about this another time." He said, getting up from the floor and exiting the room.

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Nothing other than the world.