A Lily Amongst Roses

Three

Slight Trigger Warning: Mild Violence

Tuesday

Knock knock.

I cuddled into the sheets of the bed. "5 more minutes."

Knock. Knock. "Rue?"

I sat upright. Taking in my surroundings. Oh... oh.

Memories of the last two days smacked me across the face. My mother and Nellie. Brothers. Italy. Oh god...

"Rue, come on, breakfast is ready."

Arlo.

I yelled out to him slightly panicked of leaving him waiting, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be down in just a second!" I quickly jumped out of bed, throwing on some new undergarments and leggings, and a baggy Primark shirt.

I slipped on some black socks and opened the door, revealing a smiling Arlo. He admired how fast I was at getting changed and guided me down to the staircase where we walked down together before heading into the dining room where all four brothers sat conversing between themselves and eating Ricotta Pancakes. Arlo carefully slid the glass door open, allowing me to enter before closing it behind him. Giovanni eyes Maximus, who seemed to be in a much happier mood than yesterday.

"Rue!" Maximus called out to her, patting the spare chair next to him, "Come sit."

I gazed up at Arlo who nodded, encouraging me to take the seat next to his brother.

Maximus had similar hazel eyes to me, he also resembled my dark hair, yet, he was much shorter than mine. He sat to the left of Giovanni, who again, was sat at the same spot as yesterday. "I apologize for yesterday, we had a minor work accident."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and made a face of bewilderment, "But, Arlo said you had a work meeting."

"That was related to work, anyway, Rue, did you sleep well?" Bruno interrupted Maximus as he began pouring orange juice down into a cup before handing it to me from across the table. Surprised by the sudden kindness, I rushed to grab the cup. I noticed that he had quite long hair which was tied up into a small bun, if you looked from afar you wouldn't notice he had long hair. When accepting the cup from his hands I noticed how tanned he was. They all have a nice tanned complexion. Whereas I looked like I was born in Britain with my pale-ish skin.

"I slept well, thank you. How about you?" I asked in return. He nodded, replying that it was good.

I sat awkwardly eating the pancakes, wondering what the day would bring.

Giovanni stood, earning the attention of all of his siblings, I looked up with a bit of pancake hanging from my mouth, before shoving the rest in chewing and swallowing the pancake as politely as I could. "Rue, Arlo had mentioned how you didn't have many clothes with you." I looked down at the orange juice, unsure of what to say.

"Bruno has taken the day off, he's going to order you whatever you'd like from whatever stores you like, and they should all come by tomorrow or two days' time. You're seventeen, you can buy anything you want that makes you feel comfortable. And if anyone does look at you in a pervy way, well, we know how to deal with them." He opened the draw from behind him pulling out two large gift bags, "If there is anything you'd like unrelated to clothes," he paused, passing me one of the two bags, "there is the latest macbook air and phone."