"You're joking, right?" Tony stared at me, while the others sat in silence beside him.

"No..." I shook my head, then looked down. "I don't even know why I like them."

"Exactly!" Vito got up. "If you don't have a reason for liking them, then why do you like them?!"

"Well obviously there are reasons why I like them, but I don't know why I like them for those reasons." I sighed and rubbed my wrists. "I guess I can't help but like them because of the way they are, you know? I can't control these feelings."

"He's right." We turned to look at Frankie. "This was bound to happen at some point. It's not like all of us could just stay together and never get along with people. If you really think about it, we've really only stuck to each other. One of us was going to fall in love, or find someone they like at some point. This is the first time in a while that we've actually made friends. Dino is pretty cool and so is Romeo, but he just has a sad childhood and life right now, so I'm not surprised that Luci likes them."

I didn't ask what he meant about that last sentence, but I looked over at my brother and cousins, just waiting for their responses.

"Frankie's right...but it just sucks that it's already happening." Rocky sighed.

"But why Romeo? He's obviously watching us because of whoever told him to, so he's basically a spy." Tony asked.

"Because of the way he grew up, it obviously seems like...that's how he was raised. He wasn't raised in a 'regular' environment for a growing kid, and from what he's told us, it seems like all Romeo's known was his family before he came to this school, that's why he acts all awkward and innocent with us. He just doesn't know how to socialize like everyone else. He's taken orders all his life, so that's all he knows. He's just being used and it's sad that he doesn't even realize it." I explained, and was surprised to feel even more sad for Romeo. He just didn't deserve to be raised the way he was.

"But still, he's a spy and we should do something about it." Vito scowled. "We're just hanging out with him as if we're actually his friend or something. It can't just be me that is thinking like this. It should be common sense to ignore and stay away from him. We're acting like it's fine that he's spying on us. Our parents know it too, yet Lucio is still inviting him over."

I rolled my eyes. "Vito, shut up. I feel bad for him, ok? If it was any other person who was just trying to get closer with us and use us for business, then I would immediately stop hanging out with them."

He moved closer to me. "Then what about him makes him so special for us to allow him to continue spying on us?!"

"I feel bad for him, alright?! He didn't have a proper childhood growing up, and I'm his first friend. It's not his fault that he's doing as he's told because he doesn't know anything else. I like how innocent and awkward he is, the same way I like how blunt and weird Dino is. I like them both for different reasons, and I can't control it. If I could control my feelings, then obviously I would like them but just as friends."

"Whatever. Go fuck the spy. If something happens to our family, it won't be my fault for inviting the guy to our group. It'll be yours and I'll have no problem blaming it all on you." Vito walked away.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, shaking my head. "What do you think, Georgie? Am I in the wrong for being friends with Romeo because I feel bad that he never got to have a good childhood?"

"No, I understand why, but it's the fact that he's a spy that just..." he shook his head, then threw his arms up as he shrugged. "I don't know, ok?! I feel bad for him too, but it sucks that he's a spy. I wouldn't get too close to him if I were you, but it's your choice in the end. Vito is right, though. Romeo still is a spy."

"What about you, Rocky, hm? You think that I should stop talking to Romeo because he's a spy, even though he didn't choose to be one?" I raised a brow.

"That's the thing. We don't even know if he didn't choose to be one. It could all just be an act, and we wouldn't even know it. He could-"

"So you're on Vito's side, too. I guess I'm all alone, because I know Frankie doesn't like being included in arguments." I shook my head and chuckled dryly. "That's perfectly fine."

I got up.

"Where are you going?" Georgie asked.

"Up to my room. I think I'll be staying with our parents for a while because I know that Vito doesn't like being around the person he gets into arguments with. There's no way that I'm apologizing for being Romeo's friend, and I know that Vito won't even think about apologizing to me." I went up to my room and grabbed a small suitcase. I began packing some stuff up for a few days, then pulled a sweater on and grabbed my skateboard. I grabbed my backpack and closed my room door, then went downstairs. "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone for, but I'll still see you guys around school."

I went out the door before the others could respond and rode my way to school on my skateboard.

Once I reached the outside of school, I went to the gym and peeked my head in, spotting Richie talking with a few other trainers in a corner. "Richie?"

The middle-aged man turned to me and smiled as he made his way to me. "Hey, Lucio. You need something?"

I shook my head. "Is one of my uncles here?"

"Uh, I think Capo Manuel might be in the office. Capo Gio sent him to pick up a few documents in his office, but I'm not too sure." He shrugged, then looked down at my stuff. "Why?"

"I'm staying at my parents house for a while. I got into an argument with the guys, so I wanted to leave." I briefly explained, and Rainer nodded.

"Ah...well, Manuel should be in the office still. If not, then I can take you home?" He asked, so I nodded.

"Ok, I'll call you if I need a ride."

I walked away and went to the office. "Is Uncle Manuel here still?"

The lady looked up at me and nodded. "Yes, he's up in Capo's office."

I nodded and was about to turn around, but then stopped and faced the lady again. "Actually, can you tell me what dorm Dino Moretti and Romeo Dal Santo are staying in?"

"Sure, just give me a few moments." The nice lady typed into her computer and clicked on a few things, then looked up at me. "They're staying in room eight-thirteen."

"Thank you."

I walked out of the office and went to the dorms which were behind the school. There were twelve floors and twenty rooms on each floor. The first number was the floor, while the second number was the room number.

I walked in and went up to the eighth floor, then walked to the thirteenth door. I knocked on it and the door opened after a few moments, smiling when I saw Romeo.

"Hi, Romeo."

He furrowed his brows. "What are you doing here with your stuff? Are you moving in the dorms?"

I chuckled, softly shaking my head. "No. I just wanted to see you and Dino. Is he here?"

"Yeah, but he's up in his room."

"Who's at the door?" Philip came up behind Romeo and he smirked. "Oh, it's just Luci."

"It's Lucio." I glared at him, and he laughed.

"Did your boyfriends kick you out of the house? Or did you come here to cheat on them?" He wrapped an arm around Romeo's shoulders, making the latter look uncomfortable.

"No, I just wanted to see Dino and Romeo. And get your arm off him, he gets uncomfortable whenever he's around you." I smacked his arm off Romeo's shoulder, and easily put him on his stomach on the ground, adding pressure to his cast to hear him grunt. "Don't touch Romeo or Dino, alright? They don't want your nasty germs on them."

"F-Fuck you!" He yelled, then let out a small whimper when I didn't release any pressure.

"Alright?" I turned my head and glared down at him.

"Alright, alright! I won't touch them. Let me go!" He squeezed his eyes close, then sighed in relief once I let him go.

"Good. If they tell me that you touched them even on accident, you already know what'll happen to that other arm. Or would you prefer the same one in the cast?" I patted his arm with the dark-blue cast on and heard him sigh. I then helped him get up and flicked the back of his head. "Now you can leave. Have a nice day, Philip."

He ran to his room and Romeo looked at me with wide eyes. "Was that really necessary?"

"Eh, not really, but I don't want him bugging you or Dino even when I'm not around, so I did that as an extra precaution." I placed my hand on the handle of my suitcase, then smiled. "So where's Dino? Is he in his room?"

"Yeah," he then frowned and scrunched his brows together. "Did you come to see him?"

"Yeah, but I came to see you, too. So I'm here for the both of you."

Romeo blushed. "Oh, ok. Do you want to come in?"

"Yeah. I just want to talk with you and Dino for a few minutes, then I'll be out."

Romeo nodded and I stepped in, setting my bags on the floor. He closed the door and led me to Dino's room upstairs. He gently knocked on the door and we heard Dino's voice inside.

"Yes?"

"Uh, Lucio is here. He wanted to talk with us."

The door opened and Dino poked his head out, then looked at me. "About what?"

"Something that I want to confess and just get out of the way. Can we come in?" I asked.

"I guess..." he opened the door wider and let us in.

I looked around and saw that it was fairly clean. It was a bit messy, but not in a noticeable way. It just looked like he had more stuff than needed. His bed was pushed up against the right corner and the closet was to the left.

"So what did you want to say?" Dino sat on the bed while Romeo moved closer to the wall.

I clasped my hands together, then sighed. "Alright, I'm a pretty honest person, you guys already know that. I just want to get this out of the way even if it's embarrassing, but...I do like you both..."

I looked at both of them, and saw Romeo furrow his brows. "You didn't like us before?"

I stared at him, and just shook my head.

Dino scoffed from the bed. "He means that he likes us more than friends. He has a crush on the both of us, Romeo. How does that even work? You like the both of us? Do you like one of us more than the other?"

"I like the both of you the same for different reasons. That's all I came by to say, so I'll be leaving." I was about to open the door, but I heard Romeo's voice.

"Why do you like me?" He asked, so I turned around to face him. Romeo shook his head. "I don't even know why you're friends with me when you know that I'm spying on you. I don't even like to do it, because it's not fair to you guys since you and your family are my first friends and even accepted me knowing that I'm the b-bad guy. I don't understand why you like me...when I'm supposed to be your e-enemy..."

I frowned when I saw Romeo's eyes redden.

"It's not fair to you guys at all, especially you because you were the first one to be nice to me." He rubbed his eyes, and my heart crumpled.

I walked to him and grabbed his hands. "Look, it's not your fault, Romeo, ok?"

"But it is because I-I agreed to do it."

"Romeo, I know that you don't like it, and I know that you don't have a choice. From what you've told me, you're only doing as you're told because you want to make your dad proud. He's just controlling you and you don't like it, but you're going along with it because you want to make him proud. I'm sorry if this sounds mean, Romeo, I really am, but to me, it sounds like you don't even have a family with the way you're being treated, and that isn't fair to you, Romeo."

The tall boy's lips trembled and he shook his head. He wiped his face, but more tears just kept rolling out of his eyes. Seeing him like that made me want to hold him. I felt horrible, but it was the truth. I think even he realized it now that he's finally been told from a different view.

"You're so...nice to me, and all you get in return from me is getting spied on."

"It doesn't matter. I just want you to be happy, Romeo." I squeezed his hands and gave him a small smile. "I promise that I'll do my best so that you can actually feel like you're in a family. I'm not sure how, but I promise that I will make it happen."

Romeo suddenly pulled me into a hug and he tucked his head down between my neck and shoulder. He quietly cried into my shoulder and I hugged him. I rubbed his back and kissed his head.

"I'm happy to be your friend, Romeo. I really am." I turned my head and saw Dino just staring at us. "What?"

"I'm not good at dealing with people who cry, so it's good that you're dealing with him..." He said awkwardly, and I chuckled.

Romeo pulled away after a few more minutes, and blushed. "I'm s-sorry for overreacting like that."

I shook my head and cupped his cheeks, gently wiping his tears away. "You weren't overreacting, Romeo. You don't need to apologize for anything, ok?"

"Ok..." he smiled, then blushed, quickly turning to look at Dino on the bed. "I'm sorry-"

"It's fine, don't worry." Dino shook his head, then got up and walked over to us. "So what now?"

"I don't know. I just came by to tell you guys this, that's it. I'm not expecting you guys to like me back, but yeah, that was all." I scratched my lower back, then sighed. "Well, I'll be leaving now. I'll see you guys at school tomorrow."

I gave them a small smile and Romeo stared at me with a small frown, but nodded. "We'll see you at school tomorrow."

Dino nodded, and I walked out of his room. I left their dorm after grabbing my stuff, then went down. I texted Richie that I was ok and not to let Uncle Manuel know that I came by, then put my phone away.

I picked up my suitcase and rode my board out of the campus, then went to the treehouse. I let myself in and closed the door, placing my stuff down and going to the bed. I was pretty tired even though it was the middle of the day. I rolled over the bed and faced up, staring up at the bottom of the bed above me. It was really quiet at the treehouse, but it was usually quiet even if it was daytime.

It was almost eight at night. Halloween was tomorrow and it was going to be really cold. It was going to be freezing tonight too, but I'm sure that I would be ok. I think I had enough blankets here, although we usually spent the night here during the summer or spring because it was too cold during the winter.

I changed into some pajamas, went to the bathroom to do my night routine, then put my phone to charge, seeing that I had a good amount of messages and missed calls from my parents and uncles. I had a few texts from Georgie and Frankie, but that was it. None from Rocky, Tony, or Vito which was expected. I didn't bother replying to the other messages and just checked to see if my alarm for tomorrow was set, then tucked myself in for bed.

I thought about earlier when I confessed to Dino and Romeo that I liked them. They didn't respond negatively to it. Even Dino since he was more aware of what I was saying, while poor Romeo thought that I hadn't liked him as a friend before.

I felt bad for Romeo. It was my first time seeing him cry since I've met him. I could remember the way he was wiping his eyes as if he were a little boy. It was sad what I was saying, but I knew that it was the truth. Romeo didn't deny it either, so he knew that I was just saying the hard truth to his face.

Now, I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. Both Dino and Romeo knew that I like them, so now I wondered how they would start to act around me. I hope they still wanted to be friends and that I didn't ruin anything.

I wonder if they liked me back.

I stared at the ceiling, then laughed to myself as I flipped onto my side and stared at the wall across from me. No way, but it's something I'd hope for.

I'm pretty sure Dino was straight, but I don't know about Romeo. Then again, I shouldn't be basing it off of the way they act, but it'd have to come from them. Maybe I'd ask them, maybe not.

Let's just see how things go tomorrow.

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Alright, let's see how things go for Lucio in the next chapter!

What do you guys think?

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed! See you all next time, BYE!!! :))

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