Trusting My Brothers

Chapter 30

As I said before, the mansion was similar to ours, with it being three stories and having the an identical style. To be honest, the only main difference was that the color scheme consisted of more darker hues. 

We all stepped out of the car and Cole leads us into his home, which the colors are just as muted as the outside. On our way to the kitchen to get a snack before working, this guy greets us, having a cold expression planted on his face.

"Cole. What are these people doing here?" he said.

Cole straightens up from his laid back posture with a neutral face. "These are my friends, father. You obviously know Liam and Val. This is Lili, my partner for the English project."

His father turns to look at me with a curious look. "I'm Marcello, Cole's father. Have we met before? You look familiar."

"Umm, I don't think so. I just moved here a few weeks ago from the US." I said, face blank.

"Right, well how has your stay been so far? Hai già imparato l'italiano? (Learn any Italian, yet?)" he asked, not really trying to be polite, but intimidating.

Liam pretends to translate to me. I respond with, "I love Italy so far. As for knowing Italian, Molto poco. (Very little) I only know family names." I say politely as if I didn't notice the tone.

"You seem to be learning something, which is good I guess. What do your parents do?" Liam looks at me once he asked that question. He signals me to be careful and not to say too much. 

I nod my head slightly at him and fake a sad expression. "So my parents actually past away recently, hence the reason why I am here. I have some relatives here that are taking care of me."

"Oh, who are they? I know almost everybody in town."

"You don't know them. They rarely go out since they are always busy at work. Them working is the reason why I always hang out with my friends." I quickly said, lying right through my teeth.

He leans in to whisper. "A word of advice, never go out by yourself. You don't want to know what happens to girls like you who does." Who the hell does he think he is?

Straightening up, Marcello says, "Well, it's time for me to get going. It was nice to meet you, Lili." 

"You too, Mr. Rivera." When he walks away, I say under my breath, "Jackass."

"I didn't hear you. What did you say?" asked Val.

"Oh, nothing. I must have been thinking out loud. Anyways, can we just get something to eat and get started?"

"Yeah. Let's go." Cole resumes to take us to the kitchen and I just take a bowl of fruit to eat. Val and Cole question my choice but I just tell them that I wanted something that was healthy, seeing as how our school lunch has a lot of oil and fat in it. I'm pretty sure that they think that I should eat unhealthy to gain weight, but I can still gain pounds and eat healthy. Besides, I think working out more frequently is helping me build up muscle.

Once we finish up our snack, Cole leads us to his bedroom and talks to Liam about something, so I decide to take my time to observe it. He seems to have a lot of posters of professional fighter, which is to be expected. The newest generation of an Apple MacBook is sitting on his rather messy desk, along with a sketchbook.

Making sure that he wasn't looking in my direction, I pick the book up and flip through it. Stopping on a page that caught my eye, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. It was a drawing of me and the way he captured all the little details made my heart stop. He did not only draw me, but he made sure to add a hidden meaning. I run my fingers over the paper and feel the rough texture that the pencil left. The most important detail, which was most likely the meaning, that I saw right away was the dull look in the eyes. The eyes show how broken the girl in the drawing was and he was able to portray that by adding shadows and other artistic elements to it.