The Protected One

S t i l l

"Honey I'm home! I called as I swung the door open to our house.

As usual, there was no response but just the boys turning their heads and turning it back to the tv.

Marco let out an audible sigh and threw his bags by the door.

I made my way upstairs to my room and i almost fell rushing to Sophia Alice's room to ask her the details about her date.

I entered her room and the familiar layout , where she was lied out across her bed

I plopped down on her bed.

"Spill." I simply said.

She smiled and clapped her hands as she couldn't contain her excitement.

"He took me to sky diving! She said.

My mouth formed an 'O' shape.

"After that we got something to eat, and he bought me this," Sophia says reaching under her bed to grab something.

She pulls out a Sephora shopping bag, but pulls out a bear made out of white roses.

My jaw was on the floor.

"Oh my gosh Soph, how'd you get this past the boys? I asked.

"Well me having a Sephora bag is nothing out of the ordinary so they weren't too worried about it." She shrugged.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you! I gushed reaching over to hug her.

I always thought there was something going on between Sophia Alice and Chris, but before today, nothing was ever confirmed.

I was excited that Soph was already being treated like the queen she is.

We pulled away and she put it back under her bed.

"So...are you ever going to tell Marco? I ask.

Sophia Alice visibly cringes.

"As if I'd ever. He'd kill Chris, and then he'd kill me. Then the rest of our brothers will kill me." She says.

I nod my head in understanding. Our brothers have been pretty strict and firm about the whole 'no boys and dating' rule.

Especially Xander and Felix.

Not only has Sophia Alice broken those 2 rules, but the guy is her brothers best friend.

A recipe for disaster.

"Don't think I didn't see Benji's comment on that selfie," She says.

I laugh and hide my face in my hands.

A strange feeling went through my body and I couldn't help but feel a little hot.

"He was just being nice." I say.

Sophia Alice rolls her eyes. "All right, sure. When he has his tongue down your throat, I guess he's being nice then too." She says.

I jokingly push her shoulder.

"Girl shut up." I say.

"What? I'm just saying." She says.

"Mmhm." I say getting up.

I close the door to Sophia Alice's room and make my way into mine.

My room was less decorated compared to Sophia Alice's.

I didn't like too much color in my room even though my favorite color was pink.

I thought having a pink room was kinda tacky.

I threw my backpack on my bed and changed into more comfortable clothes.

I opened my laptop to watch Netflix when my phone dinged.

Claude: aye short stackz, wanna eat lunch with me tomorrow? I'll take you somewhere!

Me: sounds good. :)

I shut off my phone not waiting for a reply.

I began browsing through Netflix when I settled for Sierra Burgess is a loser.

I was almost done with the movie when I heard a knock on my door.

"Dinner time." Felix said.

I nodded my head and put my laptop to the side.

I made my way downstairs to see that our cook Rosa made us some chicken breast with Mac and cheese and greens.

I took a seat next to Soph, and Tomas, whereas Xander was across from me and next to him was Dylan and Marco.

After thanking Rosa for the food and letting her make her own plate to take home, we began eating.

"So I thought since were all together now would be a good time to tell you guys this." Xander began.

We all stopped eating and looked at Xander.

"I'm going to be staying at the office a bit longer. I'll be working later into the night," he says.

"Interesting," I said lowly.

Xander staying late at work wasn't anything new. I just assumed that he'd be home more,  since he does mainly work from home.

"My boss says the case in Europe is getting bad, so we're going to have to be extra careful not to throw anything important away , and make sure our office is untouched." Xander says slowly looking at everyone but Sophia Alice and I.

What does that have to do with anything?

I just nod my head while the boys are staring intently at each other.

Weirdos.