Matteo

We were all waiting outside the principal's office. All we could hear we yelling, a lot of yelling.

The door opened and we all looked up.

"You can't just- are you running away from me?!" Lorenzo yelled out as Isabella stormed off.

"Actually, I'm walking away from you." She said. My little sassy koala.

"Isabella! Get back here! We're not done yet!" Lorenzo yelled.

"But I am! I'm done with this bullshit Lorenzo. You can't expect me to be fine in one hour. It will take a long damn ass time." Isabella cussed. "I'm a teenager, I cuss, live with it." She spat

She does have a point.

"Lorenzo, let's not make the situation worse then it's already is and let's talk about this at home like normal people." Emilio said as he placed his hand on Lorenzo's shoulder. He looked at Isabella and gave a reassuring smile, what made her relax a little.

I'm glad there were at least a few people that believed her.

But of course I had to be a idiot.

"Lorenzo, let's not make the situation worse then it's already is and let's talk about this at home like normal people." Emilio said as he placed his hand on Lorenzo's shoulder

"No." Lorenzo said.

"No?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

"Loren-" I started to say but Lorenzo raised his hand and I got the hint.

I'd like to survive the next five minutes, thank you.

"We're doing this now." Lorenzo said cold.

Brother, with all respect, this is not the time to work against our little sister.

"Speak for your own, I'm not doing this." Isabella said and she walked out of the doors, Emilio and Lorenzo following close behind.

I turned around and raised my eyebrows at my little brothers.

"Don't you have classes to go to?" I said and they all started complaining.

"Chop chop, I don't ant any excuses." I said as I turned around and ran after Isabella.

She was crossing the street by the time I was outside. I look at my right and saw a car starring. He was speeding up fast and then it hit me.

"Emilio, hit car!" I yelled. Emilio and Lorenzo both looked the way I was looking and their eyes widen.

"Isabella!" We yelled, all three of us now sprinting.

"Isabella!" Please, notice the car and run to a side.

"Isabella!" Please, please.

Suddenly she stopped walking. She slowly turned around and her eyes went big when she connected the dots.

Out of nowhere, a door opened and eleven boys walked out and started running towards Isabella.

I saw the look of pure fear in her eyes and I wished I'd never saw it. It was horrible, knowing that she thought she was on her own. That she knew she was going to die. That I was about to lose my sister, when I didn't even got her back yet.

One look into those beautiful blue eyes I onced recognised my mom in. But now, looking at my little sister. I didn't see my mom anymore. I saw Lorenzo's leadership, Emilio's silliness, the twins' playfulness, my concern about other and a real Castillo's courage.

But most of all, when I looked at my sister I saw my father. I can't even explain why but when I look at her, everything reminds me of my father, reminds me of what family actually means.

It reminds me of the huge mistake I made when I didn't believe her and let her swim away from is so far.

The question is, did she swim away or did we make waves to push her away?

The moment went so fast yet it was all in slow motion.

Isabella's look of pure fear, the car speeding up, Lorenzo and Emilio shouting at Isabella to move.

And then, it happened.

Somebody jumped in front of the car, right next to Isabella and pushed her away.

But this isn't a fairytail.

It's not some superhero story.

This is life. And life is a damn mother fucking bitch.

So when the girl get pushed away and everyone lives happy ever after in the stories, life decided to play a different script.

And today was the day life took that disicion.

Instead of one of them being saved, they both get hit.

Like I said, everything felt like is was going so fast but also in slow motion.

And at this exact time, it's like we all snapped out of our little day dream and we all started running faster.

Lorenzo runs to the car and takes the unconcious driver out. He takes his phone and started barking orders while the rest of us ran to Isabella and the second person.

When I come face to face to the people who ran out of the building, I saw it were my brothers and cousins and their friends.

I was so focused on Isabella I didn't even recognised them. Then I looked down and saw the other person lay on the ground.

No.

No no no no no.

"FUCKKK." I yelled out and dialed in 911.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"There has been a car crash, two people are badly wounded, Isabella Castillo and-"

"Sir, I'll need you to tell me where you are."

"In front of the High school in the qwarter street." I said, sitting on my knees and trying to stop them from bleeding even more. Emilio got the hint and did took Isabella's wounds.

"We'll be on our way, please hang on sir."

I ging up and put more pressure on the wounds. Emilio started to whisper stories into Isabella's ear as he was crying harder and harder with each second that passed.

Fuck it looks not good. It looks really bad.

"I DONT GIVE A DAMN, MY SISTER IS WOUNDED AND I WANT EVERY MEMBER PROTECTING THE HOSPITAL IS THAT CLEAR?" Lorenzo yelled.

He angry hung up and ran towards us.

"Mierda, is that-"

"Yes." I cried out.

"MIERDA!" He yelled out and started to try wake up Isabella.

"She not fucking responding-"

"M-matteo?" Lorenzo moved his gaze from Isabella to me and then to the person talking.

"Shhh, spare your energy." I whispered.

"T-tell her I love her. T-tell h-her it's not her f-fault."

Tears were streaming down everyone's face as we all looked at two of our loved onces.

"P-promise me she'll be f-fine."

"I can't." I cried out. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry-"

"Promise m-me."

"I promise." Lorenzo said with glossy eyes. "She will be fine, and so will you." He said more to himself.

"Hey! No, no, no don't close your eyes, stay with us." I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

"You will tell her yourself, you hear that? You will get through this." I cried out.

We heard ambulance sirenes coming closer.

"Hang on, fight for a little longer." I whispered to them both.

Just a little longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lorenzo

The white walls were laughing at me, saying it is what I deserved. People were crying screaming and walking all over the place.

The cool wind when someone walks through the doors hits my skin again as more doctors run down the hall to the left.

The cold wind reminds me of all the horrible memories with my sister.

All the horrible memories I created.

They could've been beautiful, happy. Even relaxing, but I chosed to be an asshole and this is what I got.

We've been waiting here for ages. Doctors and nurses running past us, sending sympathy towards us.

Riccardo felt asleep crying on Rodrigo and Rodrigo felt asleep crying on Matteo.

The cousins were also sleeping on each other, all with red tear marks over their cheek.

When I called grandpa and told him what happened, I felt for the very first time the need to break down and cry.

Hearing the words comming out of my mouth hits a different spot.

A spot that means that this was reality, and I had to face it one way or another.

I'm sick of this, I need to know if Isabella's okay, if-

The door opened and six people walked in.

"What happened?" Sofia asked, crying harder and harder.

"Where is she?" Romolo said with a concerned expression.

"Is she okay?" Grandma asked hurried.

"Please tell me she's fine." Luigi begged me.

"Do you have news?" Angelina asked with tears rolling down her cheek.

"Did you kill the mother fucking driver?" Grandpa said furious.

"He's alive and ready to be tortured." Emilio said without emotion. Almost like he was programmed to say that.

He kept staring in front of him, not saying a word of exressing an emotion.

I knew he was the closest to Isabella. He was the only brother who believed her and it made the two grow even more closer than possible.

Something we're all jealous of.

"Good. Any updates?" Romolo asked.

"No. They're still both in surgery." Matteo sighed as he looked at his sleeping brothers and cousins.

His hands and shirt weer covered in their blood.

The same goes for me, we probably looked like we killed somebody, hence why the weird and scared stares.

Or maybe they just know who we are.

"Both?" Grandma asked shocked.

"Someone tried to save her and pushed her away but they both got hit." I said while running my hands through my hair.

This is a fucking nightmare.

"That's why I can't reach-" Romolo said slowly.

"Yes." I said, looking down, not able to face reality.

There's no way I'm losing one of them.

I won't allow it.

You hear that Isabella? I'll come and push you out of hell myself.

Because we both know that you would fight the angels so much you'll be send to hell where you wait patiently for the time you get to torture us.

Mostly me.

"What if-"

"Don't." I said as I looked up. "If you let the what ifs take over your mind, it's game over and you can't turn back. It's better that we stay calm and wait until we have more news." I sighed and everyone nodded.

I let my head fall into my arms as I took a deep breath.

"Everything will be fine son, I trust you. If something happens to me I know you will take good care of my children."

That's what dad used to think of me. That's what I used to think of me.

But that thought changed the second I knew I lost Isabella. I lost my little sister because I was so damn stupid.

I mean, I said that there was a chance we were talking about different mothers.

Yet I saw my own mother in court.

I've never felt so stupid. I broke my little sisters trust for good and even if I could ever repare it, it won't be the same.

It will never be the same again.

Now I didn't even had the chance to prove to her how sorry and how much of an idiot I was.

I didn't even had to chance to prove to dad that his daughter was is better hands.

That's what I thought.

But sitting here, thinking about everything that we said to each other. Everything I've done, I realise what an asshole I am.

But worst of all, sitting here gives me déjà vu.

I remember sitting in the same situation I'm in now.

Six years ago.

It was a normal day, walking up, go to work, get a call that Emilio was being an irritating fourteen years old, go to Emilio, scold Emilio, get back to the office, get a call Rodrigo did something stupid for a twelve years old, go back to school, scold Rodrigo, see Rodrigo is Riccardo, search for the real Rodrigo, finding him, scold him, go back to work, question why the hell I am the oldest one.

But somehow I knew this day was different. The day before I got into a huge fight with father.

"You're late again." I said.

"I had to do something."

"You always have to do something! You can't expect me to take over your work, do mine and take over your roll as a father because 'you have to do something'!" I yelled.

"It's about your mother and your sister Lorenzo, I might be on to something."

"Dad it's been nine years. I think it's time to let go." I rolled my eyes.

"Lorenzo Castillo. What did I told you?" He said angry.

I let out a long sigh. "Never let go of family until family let's go of you."

"I will never ever let go of this, Lorenzo. You need to understand that." He said with pleading eyes.

"I don't understand how you still see that woman as family." I shrugged.

"Your mother made a lot of mistakes, but your sister didn't. And I will not stop until I find her and I can hug her like my life depends on it, the same goes for your mother. She was and still is the love of my life." He said.

That day we got into our second fight and the next day, I get a call he died, on his way to the hospital. He had ALS and it went so fast he didn't even got the time to tell us.

The last moments with my dad was fighting, arguing and fighting.

The last possible moments I have with Isabella are fighting, arguing, making her sad and fighting.

I can't do this again.

I stood up abruptly and walked out of the room. I need fresh air or I'll break in front of my whole family.

"Where are you going?" Emilio asked.

"Fresh air." I said cold and pushed open the doors.

I needed to get out of there, I needed time to think and breath.

Most people who give great advice don't follow their advise up themselves.

I never did that, but I guess there is a first time for everything right?

So that's what I did.

I took a deep breath, and let the what if's take over my mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went back inside after a while and sat back down without saying anything.

No one really knew what to say or how to start a conversation. We all werd exhausted yet didn't want to miss any updates.

But soon our long waiting stopped as three doctors walked up to us.

"The family Castillo?"

"That's us." Grandma said.

"We have news about your two family members Isabella and-"

"Are they both okay?" Emilio asked.

"That's the thing, sir. Isabella took the biggest part of the hit and her body shut down. To keep her alive we had to do multiple emergency operations and she's now in a artificiel coma. For the past hour she had been stable but her chances at surving without any problems are very very low."

Fuck.

That's not good.

She took the biggest blow and almost died, is now in a artificiel coma and the chances of her coming out normal is low.

FUCKKK

"What about-"

"I'm sorry. We did everything we could. His body couldn't take it and we were too late. I'm sorry for your loss."

No.

Nonono.

This can't be happening.

No.

Not him.

Please not him.

NO

Everything around me faded away as I let the words sink in.

We lost him.

There's a high chance we're going to lose Isabella.

If she makes up, she's never going to forgive herself.

I'm never going to forgive myself.

Everything was spinning as question after question popped up.

And then reality hit me hard in the face.

We lost our third member of the family.

We lost Santiago.

Out eighteen years old boy.

Romolo's middle child.

Angelina's little boy.

Grandma's hug toy.

Our cheerful boy who never stopped believing in Santa Klaus so we kept doing the tradition so he was happy.

The one who Emilio pushed at the waterfall and Isabella jumped after.

The one that always wants to trade his good with the good of someone else just because he can.

The boy who always convinced me to play just dance.

Who convinced Matteo he didn't had school so he could skip his french tests.

The little boy who would send death stares if you wake him one minute before his alarms goes.

He's gone.

He's dead and he's not coming back.

Romolo lost his son and Angelina lost her little baby boy.

Sergio and Vito lost their little brother.

Bruno and Luca lost their big brother.

And when reality sunk down to them, you could feel the pain radiating from them.

Not only you could see it on their faces of hear it in their cries and screams, but you could read it in their eyes.

Utterly filled with pure sadness.

And it will be like that for the rest of their lives, they only will learn allong the way to hide it behind a smile.

They would miss their brother and their son for the rest of their remaining days.

They would feel this ball of sadness for forever.

And it's no one's fault except mine.

Its my fault they're sad and broken

My fault their lost someone.

My fault Santiago is dead.

Hi

So this took me ten days and its so short.

Anyways I got big plans for next chapter so.

And fun facts? I wanna learn some shit :)

Hope you liked the smallest chapter ever :)

R.I.P. Santiago>>

Thank you so much for all the love and support and thank you for reading!

See you in next chapter <3

P.s. you look good today ;)