Aria

Chapter 18

-Gabe-

I watch as Munchkin doses off and move her gently to rest her head upon my shoulder. 

Poor girl has had a long day.

There were dark circles visible underneath her eyes and her skin looked pale. Any form of joy was removed from her sweet face. Her eyes scrunched in worry as she rested. 

None of us wanted her to become a part of this but we couldn't do anything to stop it.

The only option was not to burst her bubble of the world being good. 

Which meant that she could never KNOW about us.

Alessandro pulls the car into the driveway and I open the door to let us out. Instead of waking Aria, I pick her up gently. Matteo limps over with a serious expression on his face. After seeing Aria in my arms he sighs and heads inside.

I take a couple of steps and the bright lights in the hallway turn on, causing Aria to squint. She rubs her eyes before opening them, widening when she notices she's in my arms. As the realization sets in, she jumps out and whispers a quick sorry.

She continued to utter her apologies but accidentally trips a step, causing her back to slam to the wall, she gasps painfully and reaches for her shoulder before quickly letting her arm down.

"Aria, are you okay?" I ask worriedly freezing as I watch her eyes widen in terror.

Hearing this, Matteo rushes over and moves her hair aside, noticing blood on her shirt.

"Aria did you get hurt? Look at me." Matteo reaches for her t-shirt to take a closer look. When he gets ahold of it, Aria pulls back stumbling, she brings her hand up to cover the stain.

Shit, there's blood oozing out.

Aria's eyes fill with tears as looks between me and Matteo.

"It's n-nothing, I think I j-just scratched m-myself." She says in a trembling tone, walking backward towards Leo and Zeno.

"Let m-me bandage it up and you'll be good to go, my love," I try to say in a gentle tone, feeling fear building up inside of me at the thought of her feeling pain.

What if she got hurt during the encounter? Maybe the adrenaline didn't make her feel the wound. What if-

"Aria," Matteo says in an angry tone, interrupting my thoughts. His eyes darken as he looks at her, zoning in on her injury.

Aria freezes, standing still, not meeting mine or Matteo's eyes.

"Please l-et it g-go, it's not as b-bad as it s-seems," she whispers, stuttering, trying to reason.

Matteo walks up and reaches for her arm, Aria flinches and it seems as if Matteo lost his cool because the next thing you know, he slams his hand against the wall. Although Matteo wouldn't admit it, he's hurt by how scared Aria gets of him. However he needs to control himself. 

Aria jolts at the sound and squeezes her eyes shut.

Alessandro enters the house and looks between the three of us. There wasn't an ounce of anger expressed on his face but you could feel it, and it wasn't directed towards our sorellina. 

I walk up to Aria slowly and reach for her hand. She hesitates a bit before placing it in mine.

"Munchkin I just need to take a look at how bad the injury is, I can disinfect and bandage it, afterwards you can do whatever you like."

Aria in a desperate voice responds, "But I p-promise I can take care of it, please."

"Aria, you have to get it checked out," Sandro states and begins to walk up to her.