chapter 5

Analia Rayne ||

A man can't be this incredibly beautiful, right?

Impossible.

I can tell who's god favorite is.

He eventually lets go of my hand. He does his handshake with Gio and nods at Lincoln.

Gio makes his way to the couch and plops right down next to Ryder.

"Come on new girl," he says waving him to come towards him, "come and sit."

So I do exactly that. I make my way towards the couch and sit to the right of Gio. He moves closer to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. I look up to him. He winks.

I like Gio.

All the guys are scattered on the three couches doing their things. Lincoln sits on a singular one. The other three sit on the one across from us.

He leans back, causing me to lean back as well and he speaks,

"See that guy over there," he says pointing to the guy, who sits on the couch opposite of us, closest to the edge, "That's Anderson."

"He doesn't talk much. The only time he's really to us is when he was angry once. So don't be surprised if he doesn't speak to you," Gio says fluttering his eyes. I laugh at his stupidity.

"That one, Apollo. Yes like the god," I look at where he's pointing. He points at a guy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He would've been the guy I crushed on in the 8th grade.

"He doesn't let people in very easily. But once you get through his little friendship test, you're good," I nod.

"Elijah. He's quiet, not shy just very kept to himself. He's a big sweetheart and he makes the best food EVER! I mean seriously you have to try it," he says.

"You know Lincoln already," he says turning my head with his right hand, "he's the dad of the family. he always picks up after us, so we call him dad."

"No we don't," says Apollo sitting right across from us on the opposite couch. Giovanni throws his hands up.

"Last but not least, Ryder," he whispers the last part in my ear, guessing he doesn't want him to hear.

"It took me a while to get to know him but I did, after a couple of months. Very laid-back and chill person. Loves cuddles. The ladies man in the group, aside from me, of course," he says confidently.

I look at Ryder and see he's already looking at me. Hm. I look away and catch him from the corner of my eye and see him shake his head while smiling.

"You guys, let's all tell something about ourselves to Analia," he suggests.

"Thought you already told her everything is already?" asks Ryder sarcastically. Never mind. he heard us after all.

"I gave her the gist, now you guys can tell her everything else," he leans back and crosses his arms.

"You already know me," says Lincoln. Yeah, no shit.

He continues, "I'm the oldest out of all these guys though. Like Mr. Bigmouth said "I'm the dad". Picking up after these kids all the time," he gives a little smile at the end.

"They look like they need it," I say. Lincoln laughs nodding his head.

"They do."

I look over and stare at Anderson, waiting for him to say something. All he does is shake his head and everyone moves their eyes over to Apollo.

"Why do I have to say something about myself?" Apollo asks looking at Gio. Someone isn't very pleased about this.

"So she can know us better. If she's gonna be staying here with us," he emphasizes the last us, "then she needs to know she can trust us."

Giovanni doesn't need to worry about me trusting him. Lincoln on the other hand.

He's a traitor. But he's nice.

I guess.

"Alright, whatever. We're not doing this today," Gio says in a serious tone, "Elijah!"

Elijah's eyes shoot up from his hands. He looks at Gio with a concerned face.

"Oh um well, I'm Elijah. I don't know what else to say," he says looking at Gio.

"Forgot to mention the best part," Gio stands up and makes his way to Elijah. "You make killer food! Analia I'm telling you it's the best! You'll never go back to regular food," he says practically drooling.

"I'll see when I try it," I say. Elijah's eyes look at me and he smirks a little.

I like Elijah.

I turn to my left and see Ryder looking at Elijah. He then turns directly into my eyes. How many times is this guy going to catch me looking at him? He turns his attention to Gio who's making his way back and sitting down. Gio grabs Ryder's shoulder signaling it's his turn.

Let's see about you, Ryder.

"Ryder. Ryder Kingston," he waves at me, "21. Same as Mr.Bigmouth here," he also grabs onto Gio's shoulder.

These two must be best friends. No way they're not.

"As you heard I'm quite the lady's man. Women have attracted to me and-," Gio's hand slaps over Ryder's mouth and shakes his head aggressively. "No. No more sexual remarks. Leave your.. little guy out of this one." Ryder rolls his eyes and throws his hands up in surrender. Gio slowly removes his hand from his mouth.

"Good thing you shut him up. Don't think I wanted to hear that," I say.

"Feel bad for you. You're gonna have to hear him say his nasty remarks," Gio rolls his eyes.

"I feel bad for me too. And you, of course. Can't believe you have to go through this. Must be hard," I rub his back.

"So hard," Gio wipes his invisible tears sniffling, understanding what I was trying to do. "We're gonna be good friends," he says changing his mood.

He stands up once again. I think Gio might suffer from ADHD. He won't stay still.

He goes to their pretty alcohol cart and grabs a couple of shot cups and what's looks to me, tequila. He walks back with the bottle in his hand and places it down alongside the shots.

"Let's take some shots people! For Analia, of course. No other purposes," he quickly adds the last part in. Everyone starts grabbing a shot. I don't take one at first.

I drink but not that much. But being crossfaded is sometimes fun. I should take one. It'll stop this craving I'm starting to have.

I try to grab the last shot but Lincoln stops me.

"Wait. Aren't you 17?" he says.

They all stop what they're doing and look at me. Their eyes all widen.

"We should've asked about her," says Apollo laying back with the shot in his hand.

"YOU'RE 17?! You don't look 17! Oh my god. I was flirting with a 17-year-old. I'm a pedophile now. Oh my god," I laugh at what he's saying and so does Ryder.

"Dude, I think you've got other things to worry about than flirting with a 17-year-old," says Ryder.

"If it makes things any better I turn 18 in a month," I say looking at Ryder and then Gio.

Gio's shoulders relax, "Much. As long as you don't say anything. We're fine."

"You still shouldn't drink," says Lincoln.

He really does act like a dad. I thought he just had dad reflexes or something.

I grab the shot, "I've done worse things."

Lincoln shrugs and Gio raises his shot.

"To Analia. My future best friend," he says. He gets this sudden fear in his eyes and corrects himself, "Second future best friend."

I turn to Ryder and see him smiling at Gio with his shot in the air. Hm. That's weird.

"To Analia," he says raising his shot in the center and drinking it. Everyone follows along doing the same. Taking the shot. Don't tell me they take it straight up?

"Arriba, Abajo, al Centro, pa' dentro," I say to myself in my head and take the shot. The burning liquid slides down my throat and I squeeze my eyes a little.

(Translation: "Up, Down, to the center, inside")

I picked up on those words when my mom's friends use to come over and take shots at my house. I remember doing it as well with my coke cola in a shot glass.

Elijah stands up first and says, "I'm calling it a night. Nice to meet you, Analia. Goodnight yall," he waves at me and I wave back. He goes to the front door, grabs his keys from the hook where also other keys are also on it, and walk out.

Anderson gets up does the same but leaves without saying a word. Okay.

"Everyone's leaving guess it's my turn. Goodnight guys," Apollo stands up and does the same the other two did. But before he walks out he grabs a pack of Oreos, that we're set on the island of the kitchen and runs out.

"Not my Oreos!" groans Giovanni.

"I have a question," I say randomly and the three of them turn their eyes to me.

"How do you guys cope with everything? Do you guys take drugs? Like weed or everything?" I ask. Ryder laughs a little.

Did I say something funny?

"We don't do drugs here."

Huh?

"So you guys just don't take drugs?"

"Even if we wanted to we're not allowed to," Gio chimes in.

Not allowed to?

He notices the confusion on my face, "We have rules here. Taking drugs happens to be one of them. None of us are allowed to take any sort of drug. Unless they're prescribed."

No. This can't be. Tell me you're joking.

The air starts to become thicker and getting harder to breathe in.

No more white stuff.

This has got to be some kind of joke, right?

If I had their job-

I do have their job.

If I had their job for as long as they did, 100% be taking drugs. I mean I do already but you know what I mean.

"Analia?Hello?" Gio waves his hand in front of my face breaking me out of my trance.

"Huh?" I say shaking my head slightly.