My life with a player

1. First impressions

Chapter nº1. First impressions

Good-bye party, airport, flight, landing, domestic flight, customs, picking up my suitcase, taxi journey… Everything seemed like it happened while I blinked. The thought ‘I’m alone’ accompanied me the whole trip. Suddenly, I wasn’t in my house with my mom and sister, but standing in front of a modern mansion in a private neighbourhood.

When I said I wasn’t ready to go in, that was an understatement. I hadn’t prepared myself to live a whole semester in a different country in the other side of the world. Why had I left my grandmother made me go on an exchange programme? I had left my mom and little sister alone.

Damn it, I wanted to cry! And believe me when I say, I never cry. It’s too much of a waste of time, and it won’t help you solve your problems.

I pulled myself together and knocked on the door. When the door was opened, I was kind of surprised.

“Good afternoon, how can I help you?” A maid, honestly? How loaded were these people? But I guessed that if my grandma had approved it, they would be. I don’t even know why I was surprised; after all, she had found a family friend that would take me, so that meant that they had to be wealthy to know my grandma.

“Hi, I’m Mia…” Great, I made it sound like a question. I felt really stupid specifying “The exchange girl that is going to live here for the next semester?” How come that not even the maid knew that I was coming?

Finally, a hint of recognition in her eyes. She apologised and let me in. I refused to let her take my suitcases, and when she gave me a puzzled look, I explained: “It’s just that if I chose to bring all these clothes, I should be responsible enough to carry them”. She didn’t seem to understand, but didn’t say anything, anyway. I think she even rolled her eyes while turning and leading me through the door.

Going in the house-mansion, I wouldn’t have been surprised if my mouth was hanging open. The place was absolutely stunning, with white marble floor and a beautiful golden chandelier.

I first heard, then saw, a man in his late 30s talking on the phone. He just went past me, without even looking at me. ‘Interesting conversation’

Mary, the maid, told me that was Mr. Donovan, but didn’t explain anything else as we went upstairs to my new room. For such a big mansion, the design wasn’t complicated, so I don’t think I would get lost. If you went straight from the staircases, you would find Mr. and Mrs. Donovan’s room, and a couple of guest rooms. If you went to the right, you would find the boys bedrooms and if you went to the left, you’d find my room, along another one in front of mine.

I have to admit, I couldn’t complain. I had a king’s size bedroom, a huge wardrobe, at least five mirrors and an on-suite bathroom. ‘Not bad…’

While I was unpacking, I heard some noises coming from the other room. The door was open and I could see a bright pink carpet matching the bed and purple curtains. Definitely a girl’s room. But Mary came running and slammed the door shut, grabbing a little kid by his arm and taking him to the right wing. When they went past my room, I hid behind my door and could listen to her, admonishing the little boy: “Mister Maximus, please, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t go inside your…” I was dying to listen to the rest, but I was too afraid Mary would notice me, so I just pretended that I hadn’t heard anything and finished unpacking.

After fifteen minutes, a knock on the door made me jump and run there. It was Mary, and hiding behind her, there was the little kid from earlier.

“Miss Mia, dinner will be served soon. And I have someone that wanted to meet you…” She blushed when she realised she had caught me going out of the shower, with one towel wrapped around my body tightly and the other one on my head, trying to get my waist long red hair dry.

“I’m so sorry, miss!” Maximus had his hand covering his eyes, but you could see his blue eyes through his fingers, looking at me.

“Please, call me Mia. Just give me five seconds…” I went inside my room and grabbed the thick white robe that the Donovans had left for me.

I couldn’t leave the kid waiting for me to get changed; after all, it was the first member of the family that had shown any interest in meeting me.

“Hi, little buddy. You must be Maximus” He looked just like in the picture I had received about two months ago. The information my organisation had given me about my host family said that he was the youngest of five brothers. He was tall for an eight-year-old, with big bright blue eyes and messy blond hair.

“Max” He corrected me, giving me his hand to shake. Instead I pulled him in a bear hug. I already felt really close with that little devil. He was the only one with whom I had talked on Skype and the only one that had sent a photo of him. He had told me everything about his brothers, but almost nothing about his parents. Everything that I knew about my new house, he had told me.

Someone cleared their throat, and I broke my hug, expecting to find Mr. Donovan. Instead, there was the hottest guy I had ever seen in my life. He had dark brown hair almost covering his eyes, which were the same colour as Max’s. He was leaning on the wall, wearing only a low pair of grey jeans. My eyes, traced his to-die-body until I met his gaze. He was raising one eyebrow, aware of the fact of me checking him out. He had pale lips, a strong jaw, small nose and high cheekbones. He could perfectly be an Abercrombie & Fitch model, with those strong arms and perfect abs. He wasn’t so exaggerated, which I liked.

“Once you are finished with your fantasy, can you please let me talk with my brother?”

How cliché. The sexy, rude badass boy. Why me?

I completely ignored what he had just said. “Hi, I am Mia” We shook hands and he smirked. No, there were no sparks, no electricity; just two normal teenagers in contact. “And you must be Nathaniel” The smile disappeared from his face.

“I’m Nick. Nate is at Uni, and if we are lucky, we won’t see him until Spring break” He just turned and went down the aisle. I wasn’t even sure about his last sentence. Was it hate in his voice? “Max, you are coming with me. Now”

Max gave me an apologetic look and ran after his big brother, screaming: “I swear it wasn’t me!”

Mary gave me another apologetic look and let me along so I could change. When I went in my room, I discovered an imessage in the Mac computer that was in a white wooden desk. I was intrigued.

Next time we meet, sis, don’t forget your underwear. N.

Fuck! Yes, I had just sweared, which I almost never did; but I had just realised that when I had hugged Max, my robe had move a little bit, leaving my whole leg to the sight.

Yeah, these six months will sure be interesting…