Visible Ghosts

34

Sang POV

The sounds of the movie ending drift upstairs, my open door allowing me to hear muffled conversation begin. As soon as everyone's attention was captured by the movie and lunch I snuck to my room, the feeling of everyone peeking over at me after they viewed the minotaur video was too much. Too many eyes, too much attention. In my experience having attention directed towards me never led to anything pleasant. Footsteps thud up the steps and I wait for Zane to appear in my doorway.

"Buttercup?" My brother leans against the doorframe of my bedroom. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." I mutter, then roll my eyes when I see Zane cross his arms, he knows I'm lying to myself and to him. "I'm nervous." I amend.

"About?" He nudges, still stoically blocking my door. But I'm not sure if it's so I can't escape or if no one else can come in.

Running a hand down my face, I huff. "I don't know. The mission, the family meeting." I trail off, waiting for Zane to reply but all he does is raise an eyebrow at me. "Asshole." I snark but all that causes is a smirk. "I think I'm nervous that they won't want to work with us. That they'll see me differently because of what I've done in the past. That all they will see is the red and black that stains me inside and out." I drop my gaze, talking about my feelings makes me nauseous. Admitting my fears out loud makes them all the more real. Even to Zane, who knows more about me than any other person on the planet.

The smirk finally falls off of Zane's face and he takes three long strides and sits gently on the side of the bed. "Buttercup, Sang, light of my life." He starts taking both my hands into one of his, his midnight eyes staring right into mine full of love and understanding. "You shine so brightly that no stain will mark you. Everything you have ever done has been for the better of others, you'd rather take a knife to the chest than let someone else feel pain. You've dragged yourself through the pits of hell just so someone else doesn't have to experience darkness." He squeezes my hands and drags me into a hug. His warm embrace soothing the jitters that have been coursing through my veins the last two and a half hours. "And even if they want nothing to do with us afterwards, you'll still always have me. And I'm much better looking and funnier than any of those guys."

I scoff into his chest, but feel better. He's right. If the Blackbourne-Toma team decides to never talk to me again at least I still have Zane. With him by my side, there's nothing I can't do. "Thank you." I whisper into him, letting my arms tighten against him for a brief moment before pulling back. He drops his arms and swivels until he's laying on the bed next to my seated form.

He crosses his arms behind his head and tilts his head to look at me. "Kota called Axel and said the rest of them would be here for dinner. The meeting will have to wait until eleven because the doc doesn't get off until then." The clock on my nightstand reads ten after three.

"When will everyone be here?" Our house is large but we never had to accommodate so many people. Our table holds six and the island has four stools but that still leaves us six seats short. We could try to drag chairs over to the couch area but then there's only a small coffee table, unless everyone wants to eat in their laps. I shudder at the idea, if Zane is any indicator of how boys eat then I'll be cleaning drips and crumbs out of the living room for weeks.

"Not sure." He answers, "I let Brandon and Luke in when I came up to check on you. I'm hoping soon because I'm starving."

"Of course all you care about is the food. Only you could bring such levity to a situation like this." I giggled and lay down beside him. "How are you doing?" I ask softly. Zane never asked for any of this, he didn't want 14 people barging into our home and snooping through our computers. Not that I can blame Victor, Zane did tell him anything was fair game as long as it wasn't locked and my idiot brother didn't lock that gruesome video.

"You know, surprisingly, I'm okay. Pissed about this mission because the two of us were definitely in over our heads but I'm sort of glad that the other guys are here. We've never had any friendships with people our age before." He muses. "Plus I can tell they are already infatuated with you which means more people are watching after you.' Zane leans over to waggle his eyebrows at me. "You are always finding yourself in predicaments, buttercup." He pats his unruly blonde hair, "You see those gray hairs? They're all from worrying about you."

I bump my shoulder into his. "Be serious, they are not infatuated with me and you don't' have any gray hairs." I grumble.

"Says you." He argues back half heartedly. "In all seriousness though, I hope they do want to keep being around us though. I think it's time for the both of us to open up the outside world. We've been isolated for so long. We'll never be normal but we could try to have some friends."

"To making friends." I chorus back. For better or worse Zane and I were going to try and befriend the Blackbourne-Toma team.

We lay there in silence together both lost to our own thoughts and the voices downstairs getting progressively louder. The door opens and closes a handful of times while Zane and I hid away in our own house.

"How long until someone comes to find us?" Zane wonders sleepily, his eyes closed.

"Oi!" Someone yells, "Trouble, Zane, get your asses down here you're both shit at being hosts."

I laugh, "I think Gabriel has arrived." I slide off the bed and grab my phone from the rumpled duvet. "Come on, if I'm going into the shark infested waters so are you."

He grumbles something unintelligible under his breath but groans and drops off the bed. He lands on his stomach, his arms barely holding him off the ground so he didn't faceplant. In one swift movement he's to his feet and running both hands through his already disarrayed hair. "I'm coming down but I make no promises that I'll be a nice host." He quips then takes off.

I hear his voice mingle in with the cacophony of sound downstairs and mentally prepare myself to deal with the influx of butterflies in my stomach. Whether from nerves or excitement or both, I gather my courage and follow my brother down the stairs.