Evangeline (Unedited)

31

D E T E N T I O N
(Sorry for no update last week. Life has been chaotic to say the least, and now Evie's is about to be! Happy reading!)

"Nice of you to join us." Wilbur ruffles my hair as I rush into Alessandro's office. I cringe when I see that I was in fact the last person. By the way everyone looked at me, I felt like I was about to get detention.

I pant, eyes immediately gravitating toward Alessandro, who chuckles when he sees how out of breath I am. He stands up, offering his chair to me. I shake my head, but he insists and tells me to, so I do. I inwardly (and outwardly) thank him for letting me sit, and giving my legs a break after sprinting up the stairs. Every day I am reminded how little skill I have in the athletic department.

"Can we finally start?" Noah says, before getting whacked on the head by Theo.

Tommy and Andreas were standing together, the latter zoned out staring at Alessandro. Tommy was looking at me. I smiled at him, awkward as usual. He laid a gentle hand on his younger brother's supper arm, before pushing off and coming to stand behind my chair. I turned back to look at him, and he smiled sadly, spinning the chair back around.

"Well, now that everyone's here I have a few ground rules I want to lay out. Lukas is back, as we can all see. Evie and him have already met," We make eye contact. I nod, Lukas bites the inside of his cheek, staring anywhere but at me or his family. "Evie is briefly aware of what you've dealt with in the past, Lukas."

Lukas jumps as if he wasn't expecting that. He looks at me, pupils swarming with rattled nerves that I hadn't seen yet. I try to send him a comforting glance. He visibly relaxes but looks away.

"I want to make it clear that even though this hasn't been a rule in the past, alcohol and any other substances are not allowed to be sitting around the house whether that's in the kitchen or your rooms. If you would like it supplied, please talk to me. I want to ensure all of you are safe, that goes for the adults too."

"You can't tell them what to do, they're adults." Noah rolls his eyes. Evie snaps her eyes to the face.

"I can when they're living under my roof. Are we clear?" He looks around the room, settling his attention on his sister. He smiles reassuringly at her, and she nods at him.

"There's no need for all of these rules." Lukas huffs. "I won't fuck it up."

"You've said that before," Tommy mutters under his breath.

Evie shrinks in her seat when both of the boys make eye contact, sizing each other up and quickly sparking up an argument. She disliked the insults and comments being thrown back and forth, yet she had no right to tell them to stop. The tension in the room was the kind that would be in a prison cell. Two inmates are forced to cooperate with each other and bear each other's presence as repentance. The feelings that were offered between each other were silent, though it deafened her ears more than she had prepared for.

"Boys enough!" She barely processed Alessandro attempting to speak over the noise, or Andreas rushing out of the room. "Can't you see that you are scaring your sister?" Thanks for the call-out, Sandro. I feel everybody's eyes float to me, yet somehow the only ones I looked back at were Lukas's. "If you are going to finally deal with your unresolved problems, deal with them with civility. Do not fight in front of the twins or Evie."

Tommy pipes down, and Lukas opens his mouth to speak. He closes it after one look from his eldest brother. I feel Tommy pat my head but for some weird reason, I feel frozen staring at the door. It was still ajar from Andreas' burst out. I was willing myself to stay put. I felt so uncomfortable.