Loving Marcello

Chapter Seventeen

Brimmy's POV

"Scooch over, Marie, you're such a bed hog." I mumble, half asleep and turning around, facing the opposite direction of Marie.

"Wasn't aware that was my name." Comes a grumble, causing me to sit up so quickly, my head spins a bit.

"You're not Marie." I muse groggily.

"I'd sure hope not." He states seriously.

Squinting my eyes at him, I decide to ignore his existence and flop back to a laying position to try and get more sleep in. I don't know what time it is, and I don't care, it feels way too early to be awake.

Marcello sighs, and I can feel the bed adjust to the absence of his weight as he stands, padding over in an unknown direction.

I turn away from the direction he was going, facing the wall. I guess that's why I didn't see him coming back with a cup full of water as he raised it over my head and released it's content all over my sleepy self.

I sit back up a little too quickly, but find the strength to glare at him.

"What the heck, dude?!" I exclaim through gritted teeth.

He shrugs nonchalantly, "You wouldn't get up."

"You didn't ask me to, jerk!" I say incredulously.

"I didn't have to. We both know that you wouldn't have listened to me, and it would have resulted like this in the end anyway." He says, sounding bored.

"Not true!" I lie.

"Then tell me, would you have gotten up if I'd asked?" He asks, actually seeming to be interested in my answer.

"....No." I finally admit, but regret it whenever he makes a sound of triumph.

"My point exactly." He says proudly.

"Why do I even need to get up? I ain't got crap to do today." I say distastfully.

"Well, since you've found it necessary to pounce around my house like you own the place, I've decided that you have to do something useful around here." He explains simply.

"And what will I be doing?" I ask stubbornly, at least wanting to know before hand.

"Oh, nothing too complicated. Just helping me organize my office a bit." He shrugs, but I catch the mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I'm not good with organization." I half lie. I can do it, I just don't want to do it.

"Then you'll have to figure it out." He snaps, suddenly looking irritated.

"Jeesh, chill, man." I put my hands up defensively, "I'll just call for Marie if I need help, then." I grin innocently.

"No." His reply comes quickly, "No one else is to step into my office."

"What? Why?" I ask, starting to feel anger of my own bubble up at his stuck-up attitude right now.

"Because, I don't trust anyone else." He says briefly.

"Does that mean you trust me? If you're letting me into your office?" I ask, grinning teasingly.

He scoffs, "No, it just means that I'm getting desperate for an office clean-up."

"Mmmhhmmm." I hum skeptically. "Suurre."

"Hurry up and get ready, make sure to be in my office in twenty minutes." He says strictly before exiting the room.

"Grumpy toad." I mutter at his retreating form.

"I heard that!" Comes his accusing voice.

"Good!" I shout back, hearing his chuckling echo, before silence surrounds the empty room.

"Ugh." I grunt as I climb out of his impossibly comfy bed that I'm actually pondering whether or not I should steal. Hmm.

I skip back to Marie's room, feeling more energetic than I've been in a while. That bed really does wonders, maybe I'll sneak into his room every night and be a bed hog, hopefully he'll take a hint and retreat to another room.

I snort at that thought, no, he'd be too stubborn to leave. He'd probably push me onto the floor if I'm being honest here.

I shake my head, smiling to myself as I slip into Marie's room, where four of my friends are huddled around, whispering worriedly.

"Guys?" I question, my brow furrowing as I glance around, "Where's Lucy?"

"Boss has her running some errands." Dante pipes up.

I nod my head understandingly, "Oh." Looking back to their huddled circle, I raise a brow, "What's up with the meeting in here? Did something happen?"

They all glance at eachother, and I suddenly feel left out as I watch them come to an agreement just by looking at eachother.

"It's nothing really, you shouldn't worry about it." Marie is the one to answer, causing my heart to sink.

Something has obviously happened, so I don't understand why they don't tell me. What's up with the secretive glances the keep throwing at eachother?

"Well, something is going on, that much is clear, but what I don't understand is why you don't wanna tell me?" I ask, giving them each a hard glare.

"It's nothing, Brimmy. Really." Antonio reasons.

"If it were nothing, then you guys wouldn't look like a bunch of deer caught in headlights when I walked in here, and you wouldn't look so guilty as you said that it was nothing." I bite out harshly, spinning around.

I stomp angrily to Marcello's office, not caring that I'm only wearing the oversized shirt that I slept in.

As soon as I slam the door open, Marcello's head shoots up. As soon as he catches my expression, he shoots up from his seat, "What happened, Brimmy?"

I look away, to the wall, cursing the angry tears that escape my eyes. I don't know why I'm getting so worked up, but it really hurt to see all my friends knowing something, but not sharing it with me.

"Nothing." I spit out, ignoring his approaching form.

Grabbing my shoulders, he forces me to look at him, "What's wrong?"

"I said nothing." I snap quickly.

He sighs, "Very well then." Stepping back, I watch as his eyes rake my attire and he lifts an eyebrow. "Why didn't you change?"

"I'm not even leaving the house, no one's gonna see me anyway, so might as well be comfortable." I dismiss to concern quickly, turning to study his office. "What do I do?"

"Start over there." He waves to a couple boxes full of paper off to the side.

"Well, you have to tell me what to do with them and where to put everything." I roll my eyes.

He sighs, proceeding to explain what I'm to do with the papers.

Oh goodness, this is gonna take forever.