SINBOUND

V

I sighed and gave Ares a look. He shrugged and we took seats that were the furthest from everybody — a recliner chair. He cuddled into my side. Everybody was still staring at us intently.

"What? Alessandro told us we had to come downstairs. Just following orders," I grunted. Some looked at Alessandro with a disapproving glint in their eye, whilst others just shrugged and looked at the television. At least Armani tried to give us a strained smile.

Carlo picked up the television remote and put on Hocus Pocus. Thank god he's cultured.

Everybody sat and watched silently. It was horribly quiet except for the movie, and apparently that wasn't loud enough so Elio turned up the volume to mask the awkwardness in the room.

At some point, Enzo got up and sat at the foot of our chair. He brought the bowl of popcorn and sat it on our armrest. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he shrugged, leaning back into the chair and crossing his arms. I smiled appreciatively even if he couldn't see it as Ares happily snacked on the popcorn.

Elio sighed, dramatically and loudly out of nowhere. Carlo rolled his eyes. Elio looked around with a frown, sighed again even louder and slouching in his chair. I could hear Carlo let out an annoyed puff of air when Elio sighed a third time, slouching so much he was nearly sliding off of the chair.

"WHAT?! What do you want?" Carlo snapped.

Elio sat up with a smile. "Oh it's nothingggggg..." After a few seconds of silence, he sighed again...even louder.

Carlo grabbed the remote and paused the movie. He took a deep breath and snapped his head towards Elio. "The hell is wrong with you?"

"It's nothing, I'm just a bit bored," Elio groaned.

"Dramatic much," Carlo muttered, "Fine, what would you rather do?"

"Let's play...Never Have I Ever."

Just like that, we were all gathered in a large circle on the floor. Even me and Ares, and even our new father. Yeuck. A few boxes of pizza were in the middle that Amari ordered and it came within three minutes.

"If you've done it, then you get to eat a slice of pizza. Got it?" Elio said. "Okay, I'll start...Never have I ever...faked being sick to keep from school."

Everybody except me and Ares grabbed a slice. We never needed to fake, if we didn't want to go I'd call in for us and we'd stay home and watch movies or bake -- Mom was always too off her rocker to care.

Armani gaped at us. "Oh come on, you've had to have tried at least once."

I shrugged. Riccardo was next. He rolled his eyes and scoffed as if he didn't want to play, but Carlo gave him a warning look.

"Fine. Never have I ever chugged vodka."

Riccardo, Elio, Carlo, me, and Ares grabbed a slice.

"What the fuck? You're like, seven." Carlo snarled.

"It was on accident...I thought it was CapriSun so I just dumped it in my mouth," Ares said, his face going red from embarrassment of the memory. Pa had left the vodka in cups next to the CapriSun in cups for the kids...obviously, It didn't go well.

"And you?" Carlo asked with his arms crossed.

"There's no story behind mine, it wasn't an accident," I said with a raised eyebrow.

Alessandro, our father, scoffed. "Well, that won't be happening again under this roof, I hope you understand that."

I rolled my eyes but nodded my head. It was Enzo's turn.