Page 5 of Heir of Fire
“He hasn’t even been here for a day.”
“Exactly. I can’t handle this for a week, or a month, or God forbid longer,” Gianna said, throwing her head into the pillow.
“He’s Luna’s brother,” Blair pointed out. “We have no choice but to be supportive. If she needs him here, then that’s where he needs to be.”
She shook her head, looking up again. “Something had to have happened. She was so excited for him to come home and then she just dumped him here. I bet she regrets sending Valerio to go get him.”
“Doubtful. She probably needs some space. It’s been five months since they last saw each other, and last time they did, it was over their father’s dead body and sending their mother away.”
She both hated and admired Blair’s ability to be logical. It was extremely annoying during the times when Gianna wanted to gossip and needed someone to indulge in it with.
“Well, since you’re so levelheaded, what do you recommend I do?”
“Ignore him. Go to class, work on your choreography, go to parties, and get ready for the end of the semester,” she said, opening her book again.
Gianna nodded her head. She could ignore him. It was a big house, and she had a busy schedule. She could avoid him easily considering he probably didn’t have much going on and would probably spend most of his time up in his room.
All she had to do was ignore him. Easy peasy.
FOUR
GIANNA
It turnedout that Gianna wasn’t so good at ignoring Finn the way she thought she could. For the past week, he was everywhere like a cockroach. When she was in the kitchen preparing her meals, he showed up and obnoxiously shifted through the fridge, and he did it for all three meals. She couldn’t enjoy her breakfast, lunch, or dinner anymore. In the living room, he sprawled out on the couch and scrolled through the channels, when everyone knew Thursday nights were reserved for her to watch her reality TV. It even went as far as messing up her workout routine. The day she finally tried getting up before the sun to go to the home gym, he was already there lifting weights. Finn was everywhere.
Enough was enough.
So, she was paying his sister a visit. She entered the bedroom, turning on the light to see they were still sleeping.
Luna and Valerio shot up from the bed, Valerio with a gun in his hand ready to use.
“Gianna? What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” he screamed, setting the gun down.
“Do you know what time it is?” Luna asked, sitting up in the oversized bed. “How did you even get in?”
She’d found the spare key months ago, but she wasn’t going to tell them about it. When she saw that Finn was in the gym again this morning, she couldn’t take it. She didn’t think; she just walked over to demand change.
Gianna huffed, throwing herself onto the end of the bed with them. “I can’t take it anymore. You need to take your brother back.”
“You did not do all this just to fucking talk about Finn,” Valerio muttered, running his hands down his face. He moved his feet and pulled the comforter up with him.
“What’s going on?” Luna asked.
“He’s annoying and he’s everywhere. Why isn’t he living here?” she asked. She caught the look Valerio and Luna shared with each other.
“Because he’s a fucking asshole,” he answered.
Luna looked down at the comforter, fidgeting with it. “He compared me to my father for bringing him home. Said I took away his choice.” She looked up, her eyes glossed over. “I did what I thought was right. He needs us, not to be out on his own getting drunk to forget about what happened. I went through it too, but he never checked in on me to see how I was. He never considered how I would feel not having him around.”
Gianna grabbed her hand, holding it tight. She felt the emotion in her throat, trying to think of something to say that could comfort her best friend. Allister, her brother, was a lifeline. Without him, she wouldn’t have been able to get through their mother walking out on them. She could only imagine how Luna felt having to grieve a father she hated, while simultaneously having to say goodbye to a mother she had just begun to really know without her only sibling around. The one person who was there to witness it, who could understand.
Valerio wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him. “You’re nothing like him. Not even close. Finn can’t see the good he has in front of him.”
That managed to get a small smile on her face. A twinge of jealousy swept through Gianna. It wasn’t a secret that they all admired the relationship between the newlyweds, but it made her wonder if she would ever find someone who cared enough about her to stay.
Luna turned towards her. “I can ask Finn to come here. I don’t want him to bother you.”
Gianna waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll suck it up.”
