Insufficient

Chapter 23 - Gino

Juliana's POV 

"Jenson." I call down the stairs of my house in response.

I feel like time has truly just turned into a fabrication. I swear just last night I was sitting at the fireplace, surrounded by my cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents.

Like it was just last night that we were having a sleepover. Tackling Elliot at the ice rink. Making chalk drawings with Justin.

The plane ride was practically nonexistent with how short it felt. I left 14:00 Italy time, and arrived at 6pm, New York time. Tell me that isn't freaky. Especially since the commute takes much longer than 4 hours.

Jenson is my second oldest brother. He's a teacher, meaning out of all my working siblings, he is the one who is normally home the earliest.

It explains why he's in such casual clothing already. Why his dark brown hair still soggy from his shower. The overpowering scent of his body wash mixed with cologne isn't one I'd thought I'd miss.

Yet as I was enveloped in it when he pulled me into his arms, a strange feeling of nostalgia washed over me.

"It's nice to have you back." He said, pulling away from me just as quickly.

"Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna go unpack." I said awkwardly.

Unpacking took no time at all, since literally everything was already clean. I'm assuming one of the worker's took my stuff and washed it before I left. As sweet as that was of them, it was quite annoying in the sense that I wanted to stay preoccupied.

So now I get to bide my time in my room. Twiddling my thumbs as I wait anxiously for the next event to happen.

That next event just so happened to be Gino.

I was okay with that. Gino just so happened to be my favorite brother. He and I had always been "two peas in a pod." He was just slightly older than Jamie and I, coming in at a whopping 17 years old.

He and Hunter were the same age, born in the same month even. Kind of like Justin, Jamie, and I. From what I've heard, they did that on purpose. Not Justin and I, but Hunter and Gino.

Our mother and Hunter's mom planned to have the two of them close together. Sort of like our mom also planned having Jensen the same year as Mackayla and Micelio. Though Aunt Teresa didn't know she was having twins at the time.

Justin and Jamie were a fun little surprise. While the moms didn't plan it, they found out that they were both pregnant at the same time when they both made plans to announce their pregnancies at one of the many family diners they used to have back then.

But I was the true surprise. It was kind of funny. At least, in the eyes of everyone who ever relayed the story to me. Apparently my mom and dad went to every ultrasound appointment, did every screening, and blood work, and monogram test that they were supposed to do down to the T. Like they had with every other baby. And still, the only one who they saw was Jamie. I had apparently been playing peek-a-boo for nine months, hiding behind my much larger sister until it was time for me to come out. Imagine my mother's surprise when instead of expelling her placenta, she's popping out a second baby.

Gino hugs me tight, not wasting a single second. He had barged into my room, as he so usually did, though this time instead of annoying me, he was hugging me.

"I've missed you." I whisper, and he mumbles something of the same response into my shoulder.

"You're going to be okay. Remember that." He says, lifting his head up and meeting my eyes. I swear, my heart shattered at the look in his eyes.