SCARRED HEART

I rang the doorbell and the door opened to reveal Camile.

"Meggy!" She exclaimed. "I missed you!" She threw herself at me. I caught her, laughing as I hugged her. "I missed you too, my love." I replied.

I closed the door behind me and carried her into the house, chatting and giggling. "Not even a minute and Camile's become a parrot. How do you do it?" Mr Iginio asked.

"Because she's my lil'baby. Like mother like daughter, right Mili?" I said. She nodded in agreement.

"Ohh very good. Since she's your daughter, then what does that make me?" Stella asked, coming into the living room.

"The original mother. I'm the artificial mom." I replied.

"Wow, you look stunning, ma'am." I wiggled my eyebrows at her. Mr and Mrs Iginio are a good looking couple and they passed the genes to their kids, Camile and Carlos.

Speaking of Carlos, I haven't seen him around. "Where Cally?"

"He's with his brother upstairs." Mr Iginio replied.

"Brother, which brother?" I asked, confusion coating my face.

"Andy is back. Our big brother." Camile answered.

My confused self looked at both husband and wife. "You haven't met our eldest son because he was staying in Italy." Stella explained.

"Andrew! Come down, someone wants to meet you. Carlos! Meganer's here." She called out.

"So, we'll be back later by 11pm or so?" She turned to Mr Iginio for an affirmation.

"Yeah, sure." Mr Iginio answered.

"Okayyyy, so we're gonna have a blast then." I highfived Camile, grinning widely. Quick footsteps came down the steps.

"Megan!" Carlos shouted excitedly while running down the stairs. I put Camile down and turned to face him fully while spreading out my hands, with a full blown smile on my face. I hugged him.

" How's it going, young lad?" I asked. "All good. We haven't seen you around for a while." He said. Carlos is Camile's twin brother, the older of the two.

"Yeah, been a little busy." I answered.

"Oh, Andrew, meet Megan, our babysitter/ employee." Mr Iginio said. I looked up to see a boy looking like he's in his teens. I waved at him with a slight smile on my face.

"It's you." He said. "Me?" I pointed at myself.

"You don't remember my face, do you?"

"Uh, no, sorry. I have a weak signal for picking up facial records. Do you know me?" I asked.

"Yes and no. I was the one who talked to you about zoning out in class but you ignored me and walked out of class like I was invisible." He said.

I smiled sheepishly "Sorry. I'm not really keen on befriending people."

"You know each other?" Stella asked. "We are in the same literature class." He said.

"Oh good. There's no need for introductions then. We need to get going." Mr Iginio said.

We all said our byes and they left. "So how is it that you're just coming into the picture now?" I asked Andrew.

"I don't understand." He said. "I mean, what made you come back to stay now?"

"I decided that I've stayed in Italy enough and I need to come back to my family, bond with my siblings."

"That's good. So what's your major?" I asked.

"Studio art. Focusing more on painting and photography. You?"

"Cool! Well mine's kinda boring. Journalism. Nothing exciting to see here." I answered.

He laughed and said journalism will put me out there. I hummed in agreement.

"So what do you do for fun, dear Andy?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Uhh, alot but I don't think the kids will find as much fun as I would." He responded.

"We could watch movies." Camile suggested.

"No, I want to play games in the game room." Carlos objected.

"Alright, no worries my dear. We adults will just split ourselves to spend time with you two. How about I watch movies with Mili and you play games with Cally." I suggested, looking at Andrew.

"Milli and Cally?? What sorta nicknames are those?" Andrew asked in bewilderment.

"Cool nicknames wonderfully crafted by me." I declared with pride.

"Cool? Those nicknames are weird!" He exclaimed.

"No they're not! And besides, they like it. Don't you?" I turned to Carlos and Camile in question.

"Of course!" "I love it." They chorused their responses. I turned to Andrew and stuck out my tongue at him.

"What!! You can't actually like those ridiculous names." He said.

"We do like it." Camile replied. I stuck out my tongue at him and he laughed at my childish behavior.

I learnt that they've had dinner so Camile and I consumed a large tub of chocolate ice cream and popcorn while watching through movies in the movie room.

The movie room is like a mini living room with sofas in it and a table at the middle to place drinks or snacks on, with a very large flat screen to watch whatsoever movie you wanted.

At some point, Camile fell asleep and I cleaned up the mess we made in the movie room, carried her to her room and laid her to sleep. I went to go check on Carlos and Andrew in the game room.

The game room was also sized like a mini living room, with sofas for relaxing and then filled with various games. It's just like a mini arcade.

I couldn't find them there so I went to Carlo's room to see if he's there. I saw him sleeping in bed so I left to go to the living room and scrolled through my phone to keep me busy until Mr and Mrs Iginio came back home.

"Camile's asleep?" I looked away from my phone and saw Andrew coming towards me.

"Yeah," I put away my phone. He sat beside me. "How long have you known my parents?" He asked.

"Two years. I thought you'd be asleep." I said to him.

"If you've got a stranger in your house, would you fall asleep?" He retorted.

"Hmmm." I nodded in agreement. We started chatting and a while after, we heard his parents arrive.

"We're back." Stella announced in a sing-song manner.

"Mamma e papà" Andrew said.

"Benvenuti" I greeted. Andrew sharply looked at me, "you speak Italian?"

"Err, a little bit. I'm still learning though." I replied.

"Wow." "The kids are asleep in their room and now I'll be on my way." I said to them.

"La ringrazio." Mr Iginio said. I smiled in response, said my byes and left.