Aria

Chapter 28

-Aria-

"Aria, you ready?"

I nod eagerly and pick a card from the Charades stack to act out. We were all split into two teams, and the groups were randomly selected. In my team, I had Leo and Alessandro. The second team consisted of Zeno, Gabe, and Matteo.

Food Fight

Alright, I can do this.

"And the time starts...NOW!"

I lift two fingers, "Two words!"

I nod eagerly at Leo's words and imitate eating, "Eat? Eating?." I point down at the 'bowl' I was holding, "Pasta? Sal-"

"Food," Alessandro says and leans forward to observe closer. I raise my hand and begin to act the second word. I throw a punch and Zeno, who was drinking lemonade, spits it out and begins laughing. "Fight! Food fight!" Leo jumps up when I give a thumbs up and runs to me. I blush fiercely but laugh as well, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"And that's right on time!" Gabe smiles.

The score was now 6 to 5, with our team in the lead. I was surprised by how competitive Alessandro was while playing. It was now the last turn, and if the other team doesn't guess correctly, we win!

Zeno was up and confidently went to pick up a card from the pile.

"The fuck, I'm not doin-"

He cuts himself off when he sees Matteo glare.

"You have to, it's part of the game." Leo inserts as he picks up a strawberry. Zeno rolls his eyes and brings his hand forward to pick up another card, Alessandro grabs the stack and moves it out of his way. Zeno huffs before lifting his middle finger.

"What? It's the number of words," he explains, I hurry to flip the tiny hourglass to start the round.

He shakes his head before going on the tips of his toes and begins to walk. Me and Leo watch wide-eyed as he places a hand on his hip. He tries to do what looks like a model walk but stumbles down.

"A girl?" Matteo guesses and Zeno nods, motioning for him to elaborate more. "Is she an actress? A model?" Gabe asks and Leo thinks for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Gabe yells and motions him to continue acting. Zeno rolls his eyes and tries to do a little twirl before falling to the ground. Leo bursts out laughing and I cough to cover mine.

Zeno peeks at us before getting up and dusting off his clothes.

"10 seconds." Alessandro inserts. I glanced down at the hourglass, and it truly was almost over. Zeno rushes to act out a motion related to his word but couldn't get it in time.

"We did it!" Leo and I both jump up and down, celebrating the victory. He hugs me before walking over to Alessandro and giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. Alessandro stares at him and gives me a glance. "Good job, both of you," my smile widens and I look away so he doesn't see my blush.

"What even was the word?" Matteo questions.

"Barbie."

Gabe and Matteo stare at him in silence for about 10 seconds before standing up.

"Hey, in my defense, that girl does everything."

Gabe walks towards me and moves me about 5 feet back; I watch in confusion as he walks to stand behind Zeno. Leo smirks at me and lifts his finger, "shh." I scrunch my eyebrows and look back at Gabe to see him grab Zeno, who started to fight back, "I told you I wanted to get a different card!"

Matteo walks to the side and picks up a bucket.

He pulls out a... water balloon!

I gasp and watch as Matteo strikes it right on Zeno's neck. He takes another one out, bright blue, and launches it at Zeno's uh... area.

I flinch, that definitely hurt.

He lets out a yell and hunches over, falling to the ground. Gabe let go of him and starts moving to join me at the side. Leo began laughing and was struck on the face, "THIS MEANS WAR."

He runs to the side of the house and brings out the hose, spraying it all over Matteo. Me and Gabe quickly walk over to sit on the picnic mat, watching as the others start a balloon fight. He placed his hand on mine and we started laughing as Leo was able to make the perfect shot, hitting the back of Matteo's head. I cut mine off when I saw the anger on his face and squeezed Gabe's hand tighter. Matteo snatched the hose from Leo and started spraying him. Alessandro joined us after a couple of minutes, sitting next to Gabe. He began whispering something in his ear.

Leo ran up to us and hid behind me, "Aria, help!" He squeezed the area around my shoulder lightly and lowered his face behind my back, peeking slightly to see where Zeno went. I squint a bit at the pressure yet focus on protecting Leo.

"Stop being a dic-" Zeno was cut off abruptly by the balloon Matteo threw. Some of the water splashed on Gabe and I.

"Alright, that's enough," Alessandro says as he stands from his spot. "Go change, or you'll catch a cold." Gabe pulls me up gently and looks over to see if I was alright.

"Well, it's getting dark, why don't we cut some cake and head inside?" Leo says as he steps out from behind me, grabbing a napkin and wiping at the water that was on me. Everyone nods, those who played with the balloons ran inside to change while the rest of us carried the plates and spoons to the table. Once all the siblings are together, we watch as Gabe opens the cake box.

"Who the hell wrote that?" Matteo questions as he reads the frosting at the center of the cake. "It's not terrible," Gabe says and places his phone on one end of the table, opening the camera app and angling it our way.

"Okay, everyone timers on, so smile!" He walks back and stands beside me, his arm wrapping around my shoulder. Leo pushes forward and grabs my hand, sitting on the bench in front of me. Matteo stands on my other side with his hands in his pocket and Alessandro moves to stand right behind me. Leo used his other hand to pull Zeno down on the bench and flash; the picture was taken.

Leo stands and places some candles on the cake, lighting them once we all settled around the table.

"On the count of three, we all blow," my heart felt as if it was about to explode from all of the emotions I was feeling. The smile on everyone's faces, to the countdown, to the message on the cake, was all overwhelming. I blinked my eyes quickly to push back the tears before Leo counted to three, and we all blew the candles.