Her Mafia Brothers

Grumpy

Jack settled me on the couch in the living room and got another pack of ice for my knee. My peace was short-lived, though, because soon after he left to get me something to eat, Logan and his mates came in and extremely loudly gathered around the Xbox.

"Can't you go and play somewhere else? Like the games room?" I grumbled.

"Nope. Rocco's in there," Logan said.

"Your room, then?"

"No, this screen's bigger."

I sighed and poked my tongue out at him but he only smirked.

"You suck," I told him, before picking up my ice pack and hobbling out of the room to go and find Damon. Maybe I could convince him to give me back the power cord to my TV now that I was injured and had nothing to do.

But no such luck. I turned on my best puppy dog eyes and limped dramatically into his office, trying to make him feel sorry for me, but it didn't work.

"No Carrie," he scolded. "You earned the punishment, and you can take it. You're lucky I only banned you from your TV and not all of them in the house."

I stomped my foot, but all that did was make my knee hurt. Tears sprang into my eyes as pain shot through my leg and I nearly fell over from the sharp pain. Damon noticed, and reached out to steady me.

"One day, you might learn to control your temper," he said knowingly, smirking.

"It's not funny!" I yelled. "And it's not fair!"

"Lower your voice," Damon told me sternly. "You know how I feel about yelling."

I took a deep breath. "Okay. Sorry," I said a bit more quietly. "But Rocco is in the games room, Logan is hogging the TV in the living room, what am I supposed to do? I can't do anything with my stupid knee."

Damon was obviously proud of the way I quietened down so quickly, without arguing with him, because he stopped smirking at me and smiled instead.

"There's all sorts you can do. You can read a book, play on your phone or laptop, listen to music, draw.... I can put the hammock up outside for you if you want."

So he did, and I spent most of the rest of the day just lying in the hammock, alternating between messaging my friends and reading a book. It was bliss.

All I could think of when I woke up the next morning was that Jack was leaving me. I'd barely slept last night, thinking about it, and tonight was the last night he'd be home. I was dreading it, and secretly hoping, although I would never say it out loud, that he would change his mind and stay at home with me. What would happen if I had a nightmare, or a flashback when Jack was gone? Would my other brothers be able to help me? I guessed they probably would, but I was pretty worried about it.

I didn't even get Jack to myself last night because Anna stayed, and although I cuddled up to him on the couch for a bit, watching a movie, I had to share him with Anna. She was snuggled up to his other side, and while Jack was big, he wasn't big enough for both of us. Not really. Hopefully she would stay at her own house tonight and Jack would stay here with me, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. This whole girlfriend thing was turning out exactly as I'd feared it would.

Still, at least Anna had gone now. I had heard their voices in the hallway just before, then I'd heard her car drive off down the driveway.

I hobbled downstairs on my sore knee, glaring grumpily at the wall. I merely grunted when Logan greeted me, and when Jack greeted me I answered, but I was short with him.

I was waiting for my breakfast when Alex came into the kitchen, far too cheery for my liking.

"Good morning Carrie, Logan."