III *NOT EDITED*

Karma

"Stop being overdramatic" My brother yells as he grabs some stuff out of his car, we step in and he scans his card once more before putting in another code, "Ohh fancy," I say while rocking back and forth from the balls of my feet to the heels. The air in the elevator begins to get thick and the walls begin to feel like they are caving in, "I need to get out" I say as I being to hyperventilate, "We are nearly their Karma, just take a-" My brother begins as he puts his hand on my shoulder to try and calm me. "No I need to get out now," I say my voice coated in pure fear, sweat begins to bead over my body and my head begins to spin, this hasn't happened in months why now?

The elevator dings and the doors open, I practically sprint out and I stop dead in my tracks, i close my eyes before taking deep breaths in and out. "You good?" Stefano asks as he wraps an arm around my shoulder, "I'm sorry" he speaks again softly, I nod my head and take a few more deep breaths, "No-no its fine, im okay" I reassure him. I turn around and my face pales, this looks exactly like the place i snuck out of last night... Nah it couldn't be... Could it? I shake my head and see a young man looking at me standing in the background extremely confused, "Claustrophobic" I say, lie. "Does that mean youre afraid of Santa Claus?" He asks with a serious face.

I go to speak but my mind goes blank and I have nothing to reply to him with, "Yeah... it is..." I look to my brother who just shakes his head "This is Giovanni but he likes to go by Gio, he's one of the boys little brother, you will meet him soon" I nod my head to my brother and turn my attention back to Gio. "I'm Karma, nice to meet you" I shoot him a smile and he sends me a smirk which causes my smile to fades as quick as I put I there, "Boy I'm almost half your age you best be sending your smirk to some 14-year-olds instead," I say with a laugh, Gio laughs too but his face also turns beet red, "How freaking adorable," I say as I walk over to him and pinch his cheeks, he swats my hands away and straightens up his posture, "I'm not adorable and also I'm not a boy, I'm a man baby, a 21-year-old man," He says with a wink.

"Hmmm I've never been with a younger man," I say shooting him a wink, his face turns a bright shade of red and I have to suppress the giggle trying to come out. "So who's giving me the grand tour?", Stefano loops his arm with mine and begins to pull me towards what looks like the main foyer of the room, waaaaiiittt this place looks really fucking familiar. "I will, Gio has work to get back to!" He yells out, "Bye Gio, see you later handsome!" I yell out over my shoulder.

"So how many people live here?" I ask Stefano as we make our way towards the kitchen area, there's 5 of us here, well now six including you" He says while looking back at me and shooting me a small smile, "Steffy you don't have to do anything of this for me, I understand how much of a pain in the ass I am. I won't blame you if you want to send me away like mom did I won't hate you I promise" I say while looking at my hands while play with my fingers infront of me. "Karma, yes you're a pain in the ass but you're my baby sister, so your my pain in the ass. I will never do that to you, no matter how much you drive me crazy, I'm not mom and I will never be mom. I love you Karma I just want you to be safe, happy and healthy".

I turn my face to see Stefano looking down to me with pain on his face, "I don't want you to ever think that I see you as mom, I just worried one day you will of have had enough of my bullshit and ship me off back to Italy, I love you too Steffy, and thank you for all of this, really, I appreciate it even if I don't act like it" He smiles and pulls me in for one of his bone-crunching brother bear hugs before kissing my forehead, he pulls back and relinks his arm with mine before continuing with the tour "And this is the kitchen!" He says while opening his arms wide, god damn it this is place is perfect.

"Not bad, not bad at all," I say as i drag my nails against the marble countertops, double-doored fridge, 2 ovens, giant cooktop, maybe this won't be so bad after all.

"Now for your room," Stefano says as I follow him down another hallway, as we move through the apartment the layout becomes more and more memorable to me, what the fuck have I done. "Uhuh" I reply as we come to a T way, Stefano begins to speak, "left-wing has Lukas's room, my room and Iggys room, Right-wing has Ace's room, Gio's room and your room" I nod my head and almost throw up when I hear the name Ace, oh my god did I fuck my brothers friend?!

I follow Stefano to the right side "First from is Giovanni's the Last room is Aces, make sure you go in YOUR room, not anyone else's, your room number is 2B" Stefano says stopping infront of middle door, he pulls out a black marker and writes '2B' down on my hand. "Was that really necessary?" I ask him while looking down at my hand.

"Yes, you're clumsy and forgetful. If you need anything and cant find me in the penthouse my rooms the last one on the other side, I need to go have a quick shower and get ready for work, but I'll introduce you to the others before I leave, for now, enjoy your room and text me if your dying" my mind is drowning in over information so all I do is nod, Stefano says goodbye and leaves me at the front of my door. "New room huh" I say to myself as I push the door open.

The rooms decorated to suit me, i guess Steffy knows me better than i thought, black and white being the main colours in the room, i look to my right and see a bunch of boxes packed full of my stuff, no way in hell im doing that today. i dig through one of the boxes until i find underwear, a bra, a pair of leggings and a singlet, i walk into the bathroom and try my hardest to contain a squeal.

I'm never leaving this room, giant ass bath, giant ass shower, full-length mirror. I'm in fucking paradise. I strip down and jump in the shower to wash the smell of sweat sex and regret off of me, i look at all the containers in the shower and notice they're the ones from my house, thank you, Steffy.

Once out i dry myself and half-ass attempt to dry my hair, i get dressed and put some deodorant on before i begin to dig through the boxes until i find my airpods, I put a Spotify playlist on shuffle and turned it up as loud as it can go, maybe I can explore a little more. I walk out of my room and walk down the hallway Stefano took me, thankfully I manage to find the kitchen again. I continue to hum to Wow- By Post Malone while I dig through the cupboards to find a glass to drink out of, "Finally" I say out loud when I find the cupboard they're kept in, I turn around and find a grown-ass man standing behind the kitchen island, I scream and drop the glass onto the floor shattering it I rip out my airpods and hold my hand over my chest, "Oh my god you nearly killed me" I say while trying to slow my heart rate down, he laughs at me and walks around to where the glass has smashed, "I'm sorry I didn't realise you had headphones in im Lukas, and you are?" He holds out his hand for me to step over the broken glass.

"I'm karma Steffy's sister," I say as I clean up the glass, he bends down and begins to help me pick up the pieces, we stand up with the broken pieces when he replies, "Ohhh you're Karma our new roommate huh," He replies, "That would be me," I say with a small smile as I put the glass in the bin, the kitchen door opens and Stefano walks in, "Oh I see you have met Lukas, I've got to leave soon, come with me and I'll introduce you to the rest of them now".

Please be a different Ace, please be a different Ace i repeat in my head as I follow Stefano into the lounge room where I am brought face to face with the rest I am yet to meet. All 5 of them stand infront of me Gio being the youngest of them, the others easily in their later 20's, one by one I look over them, no sign of Ace thank god. "Is there no other girls?!" I yell/ask when I realise there's only one more person to come into the room. "Nope, Ace will be here later so, for now, it's just the pleasure of meeting Iggy" Stefano replies to me while smacking his hands down on the shoulders who I can only presume is 'Iggy', "Well. Im Karma, I'm 5ft 3 and I'm fucking fabulous" I say with one of my award-winning smiles, that's how you do a proper introduction.

Iggy speaks first "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" Oh, how cliche of you, "Not but I fucked my up knees when I crawled out of hell, next" Gio and Lukas looked at each other with shit-eating grins on their faces before turning their attention back to me, "Shit I've gotta go" My brother says while looking at his phone, he comes over to me and kisses me on the side of the head before turning around to the boys, "All of you, well... just Iggy. Keep your damn hands off and away from my sister or I'll throw you off the balcony. Karma message me if they piss you off, better yet why don't you give them a taste of what you gave to the bitch who hit you tonight".

As soon as the doors closed to the penthouse I turned around and looked at the 3 infront of me, "So.. What do you do for fun?" I ask trying to break the awkward silence, "Play video games" Lukas and Gio replied in unison, "Well Iggy, looks like it's just you and I", I say goodbye to the others as Iggy leads me to the kitchen. "What do you wanna do first?" He asks and I tap my finger on my chin while thinking.

"What's the time?" I ask looking over to Iggy, he looks down at his phone before answering, "12pm", "Why don't we get drunk and make lunch or something?" Iggy suggest, I jump up and down and hug him tightly, "Aw! You're my new drinking buddy".

He walks off down a hallway and comes back with a few bottles of wine, "Straight from the motherland" He says kissing the bottle. He grabs two glasses from the cupboard and fills both up, we cheers and clink the glasses together before skulling them, "Refill?" He asks shaking the bottle slightly, "Would be rude not to" I say with a wink as I dig through the fridge.

The more we drank we both decided it would be easier to order room service, Iggy wanted to go swimming later so i went and got changed into a bikini, i fucking love pools.

4 bottles of wine later and Iggy and I are dancing around the kitchen like complete idiots, by now I've been drinking most of the night and day with no sleep, but I'm happy, I don't have to act like someone im not, well at least around him and Stefano I don't have to act, I wonder if he told them about my issues... My train of thought is interrupted by a loud cough from behind me, I jump almost 5 ft in the air and jump on Iggy's back. I turn my gaze to be met by the same pair of silver/grey eyes I was staring into last night, ohhh shit.

His gaze sets on me as he slowly looks me up and down his jaw clenched shut and his shoulders and back tensed, I swallow the lump in my throat and slowly climb off of Iggy's back, once I'm off his jaw and glare returns to normal as well as his shoulders and back. "Ace this is Karma, Stefano's sister! Remember he said she was coming to live" Iggy gives him a knowing look as if to tell him something secretly, "Nice to meet you," I say holding out my hand to shake his, he looks at me confused before a small smirk flashed across his face, Just long enough for me to see. He takes my hand in his and kisses my knuckles, "Lovely to meet you, Karma".

I can feel the heat rising up to my face, his eyes travel down my body carefully once more before he licks his lips, I look down and realise im in the fucking bikini, good going Karma, you idiot. "Stefanos going to kill you if he finds out you touched her" Iggy laughs from behind me, Ace gives me an amused look before turning his attention to Iggy, "Not as much as he's going to kill you if he finds out about this little kitchen party" His gaze returns to mine once more, "Calm down boys, Iggy and I were just having a party before the pool, Steffy can deal with me if he has a problem," I say shrugging my shoulders, I need to get out of here.

"Yeah calm down Vincenzo," Iggy says with a smart arse look on his face, i turn my attention back to 'Vincenzo' and raise a brow at him before turning back it Iggy. "I need a smoke, we can go swimming after that," I say smacking Iggy's ass as I turn around to walk away, i grab the bottle of wine from the kitchen bench and make my way to the balcony and plop myself down on one of the sun chairs bathing in the Nevada sun. I take a cigarette out of my packet and light it up, I grab the bottle of wine and take a few mouthfuls before placing it down next to me, This can't be real.