Gracious

Chapter 33

A/N - very much alive 🫡🫡

Some Marco crumbs for you all❤️

~~~

"That's your second bowl of cereal", I took a seat at the head of the table and looked to my right at Caleb, he was shovelling it down his throat like he hadn't eaten in days.

"And?", he shrugged, not even lifting his head, "I'm hungry". I grimaced at him speaking with his mouth full and focused on my coffee, internally happy that all six of us were sitting around the table without an argument in sight.

"Me too", Xavier agreed, lifting his bowl to his mouth and drinking the milk that remained in it, causing everyone to either groan or look at him in disgust, "what?".

"You're gross", Alexander told him with a shake of his head, eating his food at a much slower pace, "who's taking us to school?".

It'd been two weeks since what had happened with Alexander, and he was no longer suspended from school; I'd also managed to have a meeting with his teachers in school and come to a compromise- my brother was currently on half days at school to see if it would 'minimise his stress'. The fact that a fourteen year old had enough stress to take him out of school for fifty-percent of the week did nothing but hurt me.

"I'll take you and Xavier", I replied, cracking my knuckles, "I'll pick you up at lunch, Caleb can bring Xavier home".

"Taxi service", the eighteen year old grumbled, amusement clear in his tone.

"You're lucky you get a half day Xan", Xavier sighed wishfully, "I want a half day".

"I'm not lucky, it's shit", his twin muttered, chewing on his cereal harshly, "you're the lucky one, you're normal".

"None of that", Prescott took the words right out of my mouth, "we're all normal, that's not the right way to go about it". The table fell silent and I cleared my throat, going to speak up just as the front door knocked- nobody ever knocked at this hour of the morning.

All of my brothers looked at me expectantly, a hint of worry mixed into the twins' eyes.

"It's fine", I assured them, rising to my feet and approaching the door, frowning when I opened it, "what's wrong with you?".

"How on earth do you cope with five of them?", my cousin stepped past me, rubbing his temples with two fingers on each hand, "I am on the verge of insanity".

"I think you've passed the verge", I told him, closing the door and turning around, "what's happened now?".

"Nothing happened, they're just insufferable", he replied, rolling up the sleeves of his white button-down shirt and revealing the tattoos on his lower arms, "they talk and talk and fucking talk, if I have to listen to Milo talk about hair dye any longer-,".

"Vale, relax", I couldn't help but chuckle as I slapped a hand on his shoulder, leading him towards the kitchen, "although I can't promise it'll be less chaotic in here".

"I doubt that", he muttered, entering the room and stealing my place at the head of the table, "cousins".

Well then.

My brothers all replied in some form of greeting, and I watched as Xavier was the first to leave the table, disposing of his empty bowl and rushing out of the room, saying something about his school bag.

"Why are you here?", Alexander asked our cousin, his bluntness making my lips twitch up into a smirk. I stepped over to the table, taking my coffee from in front of Marco and sipping it, staying planted behind the twenty-two year old who was watching my youngest brother.