The Forbidden One

Company |E|

EDITED

Albert

With Evangeline in Hawaii for vacation with her parents, I have little to nothing to do. I'm just glad Ev and I are on good terms right now. I haven't said anything about Jane anymore so that's helpful.

I lay in bed thinking of things I could possibly do. I could hang out with the guys since I haven't been around them much but they'd only tease me about the fact that Ev is a nerd.

Or they'd taunt me about the beating Brielle gave Ev for "flirting" with me and if I'm being honest, I really don't think I want to go through that.

"Fils, get down here!" Dad calls. "We have guests!" The only guest I want to see is Ev. "Now, fils! They want to see you!" I groan and get out of my bedroom.

Making my way downstairs, I catch a look at Dad hugging Sie - my cousin. When she pulls away, she sees me. "Is that little Albert Jourdan?!" My arms automatically stretch out to give her a welcoming hug but she chooses to squeeze the life out of me, "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Same could be said about you," I say between breaths. When we pull away from our embrace, I see two others with her. A tall man, I'm assuming is her current boyfriend and a girl around my age. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your new victims, Sie?"

Sie slaps my shoulder playfully, "Oh, stop it! You'll scare them away." Dad and I embark in laughter, "This is Frankie, my fiancé and his daughter Kilian."

"Step-mom, huh?" I tease, "Didn't think you'd me a mother of any sort." She narrows her eyes at me before I shake Frankie and Kilian's hand. Frankie automatically clicks with my dad but not with me, he doesn't have a good vibe penetrating off him.

Dad takes Frankie out to the yard for a beer while Kilian makes herself comfortable on the couch. Sie pushes me slightly to the kitchen, away from her future step-daughter. "Make friends with her," She pleads. "She's usually lonely, an outsider and I think she hates me."

I snort, "Why do I have to be friends with her? If she hates you and I dislike her father, there's no need to pretend to be friends."

"She's moody and I'm pretty sure she's the Queen Bitch of loners at her school," She changes the topic quickly, furrowing her eyebrows at my previous statement. "You dislike Frankie? Why?"

I offer her a cup of iced water, "He doesn't have a good vibe, is he an alcoholic or some shit?"

She turns around to see what Kilian is doing before focusing on me again. "He was a smoker, he calmed down after he murdered his wife."

My eyes pop out, "Sie, are you insane! You're going to marry a man who murdered someone?!"

She laughs uncontrollably, "Chill, dude. He didn't murder his wife, he divorced her. He did smoke, though. He's recovering from his addiction." I narrow my eyes at her.

"I'm not making friends with Kilian."

She pouts, pressing her palms together. "Please, she's going to stay there unless someone talks to her!"

"Fine!" I give in, "But you owe me!" I love my cousin but she can be a pain in my ass sometimes. She always pushes me to meet people, I already know people. Why meet more?

No, I'm not antisocial. I just hate meeting new people ever since Jane was murdered. "Fifty bucks," She digs in her purse and hands them to me instantly.

I take them. "Deal."

I walk out of the kitchen just as Sie goes to the yard with Frankie and Dad. I spot Kilian tapping away on her phone. Be nice, girls love nice. "Hey," I smirk. "Want to watch a movie?"

She eyes me from head to toe before a giant smirk is on her face. "Have Netflix?" I nod, turning on the plasma and clicking the Netflix app.

Sie said to be friendly, not talk to her. She didn't specify, "What genre you like?" Not once do I take my eyes off the screen.

"Anything," She says her smirk still evident on her face. Sie said she was a bitch, how does she seem like one? She doesn't stop smirking. "Neighbors 2?" She asks when she sees it, I nod as I click on the movie.

I rise from the couch, "I'll get the popcorn." Something about Kilian doesn't seem right, she seems like a creep not a bitch. I pull a bag of microwave popcorn out of the cabinets and toss them into the microwave.

"Juice or soda, water maybe?" I shout out to Kilian, she responds and I grab two cans of coke. Just as the popcorn is done, Kilian appears behind me.

"Kilian." I say her name, she gives me an odd look. "What are you - "

She smirks again, "Shh.."