One Hundred Sleepless Nights

Chapter 8: The Painters

~Olivia's POV~

After we went shopping, Jaime, Tony, and Mike came back to the house to help paint my room.

Jaime and I had been painting the black chalk paint onto the smooth wall that we had just finished priming. I was really excited to be able to write with chalk on my wall, I mean, how awesome is that?

I turned around to see Vic and Tony painting the other walls blue.

"Hey, do you want the closet blue?" Mike asks looking at me as he walked out of the closet.

I smiled and nodded. "Yes, please."

He smiled and nodded. "Don't mind at all." He grabbed a can of paint and walked back into the closet. "You have a beautiful voice, by the way. It's nice to hear it."

I blushed. "Thanks."

"You know, your grandfather paints houses," Vic told me as he began helping to paint the wall with us. He painted the top, I painted the bottom. Well, he attempted to paint the top. I giggled and grabbed the ladder for him.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yup! I wrote the song 'Million Dollar Houses' about him and your grandma." He looked down at me and smiled. "He would have helped us paint, but he had to work."

"How does the song go?" I asked. Tony grabbed a wireless speaker and played the song through it.

I listened to the song, listening to the lyrics and Vic humming along. I could tell his vocals had improved since it was recorded. I smiled, proud to be his daughter. I finished the last of the bottom half of the walls, standing up on the plastic covering my carpet and looked at the room surrounding me.

"All done?" Jaime asked.

"Yup," I put my paintbrush down and sat in the middle of the room.

"It takes a few days for it to dry, so when it does you can start writing on it, and then we will take out this carpet for a carpet of your choice if you want," Vic says looking at me.

I sighed and nodded.

"I heard that sigh," Tony said, as he finished up painting his side of the wall.

"I don't like that sigh," Jaime said as he looked at Vic.

Vic looked at the boys then at me. "Is everything okay, hon?"

"I just," I stopped and looked around the room and thought of how grateful I was to these guys, my new family, and how I've never felt so loved, so safe, in all my life. I never wanted to lose this.

"Liv, you alright?" Vic asked, interrupting my thought.

"Yeah." I smiled, for once not faking it.

"You guys done painting the walls?" Vic asked the boys.

"Yeah," Jaime and Tony replied in sync.

"We're going to go get dinner," Jaime said, nodding at Tony. "Pizza okay?"

"I want tacos!" Mike yelled from the closet.

"Too bad! We're getting pizza!" Tony yelled from outside the room.

"I like the one with nacho cheese and the pretzel crust," I said.

"Little Caesars?" Jaime asked and I nodded. "I'll make sure to get that for you then." He waved bye and left the room.

"Get me some tacos!" Mike yelled. "Ah, he's not gonna get me tacos..." he sighed sadly.

Vic and I laughed at Mike. Then Vic looked at me and slowly his face began to get serious. He sat right next to me. Mike came out of the closet and sat next to us as well. "Family situation?" he asked. Vic nodded.

"You were saying something," Vic said, looking at me.

"I-I just feel so loved. It means a lot to me that you guys are buying me all this stuff and fixing up the room to my exact liking. It's just that I'm worried you guys will get tired of me asking for this and that, that you won't want me or you guys will stop caring," I looked down as I finished speaking.

I heard Mike sigh. He lifted my chin so I was looking at him. "Sweetie, you know that will never happen."

"Yeah, we never will stop wanting you or caring for you," Vic said as I looked at him.

"Thank you, Vic and Mike... It's just gonna take some time for me to get used to it I guess," I shrugged and smiled.

"Good, now let's go downstairs and play video-games or anything you want to do," Vic said as he stood up.

"And I'm gonna finish the closet up," Mike got up and walked back to the closet. I swear he's like in love with that closet.

Vic and I walked down the stairs. "You know you can call me dad," he blurted out as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

I looked at him and smiled. "Okay, dad," It gave me a weird yet good feeling to call him that. I had never thought I'd have someone to call dad. It's something I'll have to get used to, along with everything else.