Watching Her

Chapter 3: a sandpit romance

"Oh, hi Luca." I stuttered, suddenly feeling out of breath. I had stopped walking, Adriana leaving and securing us the drinks to let me forget what had just happened. Even though I could never forget those eyes.

"A pleasure to see you once again, Selena." He learned to call me by my russian name, when he heard my mother call me that for the first time. He did it out fo respect towards me family, which I loved when I was younger, but now he seemed like all the rest. Wanting to please what was not able to be pleased.

His formal tone caught me off guard, remembering his swearing when we were in middle school and how he would never fail to make a reckless remark at one of the teachers. Only one of the things that had made me fall in love with one of the Bane brothers all those years ago.

"Of course, I should've know I'd see you here," I paused, looking into his eyes, suddenly seeming so familiar, "after all, he's your cousin."

There was no snarky comment from my side, no joke. We grew up, I had always known that, but reminders like this would always hurt. He nodded, I was glad that we had met again, a reminder that there wasn't only evil in the world.

"Poor guy, at least I can see that that's not what he wanted." He muttered, remembering the times when we would analyze the behavior of the big adults around us. I let out a giggle just for the sake of the conversation when he suddenly touched my elbow. A polite gesture that still meant so much more in our social circle.

"Are your parents here as well?" He asked, trying to get my mind away from the thing he had just done, wanting me to forget while he knew he went too far. I did not not like him, there would alway be a place in my heart for Luca Bane, but it wasn't more than a memory of what we could've been.

"Uh, yes! They are actually somewhere around here," As I overplayed my nervousness at the mentioning of my parents once more, I looked around the room, "Are all of the Bane's reunited for this wedding?" Asking solemnly out of polite purposes, I looked back at him, while I saw Adriana in the corner of my eye pulling a grimace because of her confusion.

I shook my head slowly at her, so he wouldn't notice, then turned back to him.

"Even Mateo and Roman, yes. Xander was close to us all when we were little, so we were planning to meet up together tomorrow, to talk about his future and everything." His voice got quieter the longer he talked as I tried to remember the first named brother.

I had known them all, growing up with them had been a great, joyful part of my life as our parents had always been close, coming from old, wealthy history, sharing the same morals over nearly everything, and insisting that their kids were each other's best influences.

Until they weren't anymore.

Until I had been causing too much trouble, Luca along my side, and being sent off to a catholic high school, far away from the brothers, from my childhood friends. The one part, the one piece that had made my life slightly less sad and blunt, had been pulled away from me.

"I'm sorry, I can't seem to remember Mateo." I interrupted his unfocused blabbering about his brothers being back in town and got him back on track with the conversation as Adriana violently pointed at our drinks, especially the one that was waiting for me.

This girl has no patience.

"Mateo? You must've seen him here somewhere, although he likes to keep away from crowds he did Mother a favor and made a few casual conversations with my father's partners."

"Hm, okay. It doesn't matter anyways." I stuttered, giving him a smile, wishing we could escape into another room and talk freely like we always did before. Wishing that he hadn't changed into another man, another young man that was nothing like the boy I had once known, laughed, played tricks with. But times changed and so had we.