Juliana's POV



Today was exhausting, to say the least. Not only did I have some weird sort of flashback, but then Justin never wanted to stop playing. How the fudge he has so much energy is beyond me.

Speaking of fudge, I should make some.

I was currently soaking in the peace that came with my bathroom as I desperately tried to do something cute with my hair.

Sometimes I hate my hair. It was so boring, and very mandane. Yep, ponytail it is.

Putting my freshly washed hair in a high ponytail, I put on a new t-shirt and shorts.

I was getting ready for dinner, and even though I wanted to wear a hoodie, I couldn't because apparently we were having a BBQ tonight.

Lucky me.

Speaking of which, I should probably be going.

Grabbing my phone and slipping it into my pocket, I made my way downstairs, through the living room and kitchen, sliding open the glass door that led to the patio.

The patio door that led to the rest of the backyard (because their patio has a little glass dome around it) was open, and I could see Justin and one of my other cousins playing near the in-ground pool.

Uncle Stefano, Grandpa, and Elijah were by the grill, while Grandma and Aunt Stephanie were sitting on the large couch that was shaped like a horseshoe, talking. I was pretty sure that I had five cousins, however I could only spot three of them out here.

I contemplated going and sitting on the couch, however I wasn't sure about talking to Grandma yet. I sure as hell wasn't going to willingly talk to Grandpa, even just looking at him was scary. I really didn't want to go play with Justin and whoever he was playing with. He had worn me out enough earlier.

I was still weighing my options when a voice cleared behind me. I flinched, turning around to give the person a dirty look.

What was it with people in this family loving to play: Sneak up on Julie?

He glared right back, not truly giving me a nasty look, more like matching my attitude.

"You're blocking the entry way." He grumbled.

"You could have just said excuse me." I said, and stepped to the side to let him through.

"Are you planning on standing there all night?" He asked, and instead of moving outside, he leaned in the doorway.

"Are you planning on wasting the AC all night?" He rolled his eyes, stepping out onto the patio and slamming the door shut rather loudly, gaining the attention of just about everyone outside, except for Justin and the one playing with him, as they were too far out of range.

"Better princess?" He asked in a mocking tone and I just smiled tightly at him.

"Juliana." I turned at my name being called, looking over to see Aunt Stephanie waving me over.

"Thanks." I said to Mr. Rude before I walked over to where Grandma and Aunt Stephanie were sitting.

"Julie, it's been so long." Aunt Stephanie said, standing up and embracing me tightly. I couldn't help but feel awkward, gently patting her back before she let go and smiled down at me.

"You've grown so much." she said, still looking at me with a wide smile that honestly should have been creepy.

"Let the poor girl breathe." Grandma said, now standing next to Aunt Stephanie.

"Hello dear." She said, gingerly hugging me, and quickly letting go before I had the chance to start feeling uncomfortable.

"Hi grandma." I said and she raised her eyebrow.

"Grandma huh? What happened to Nonna?" She asked, seeming disappointed.

"Oh. Uh, I mean- I can call you- I didn't mean to-" Suddenly I hear Elijah's voice from behind me, chuckling as he said,

"Nonna, be nice. She just got here."

"Don't you tell me what to do, boy." She said, pointing a finger in his direction.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Elijah put his hands up in defeat and then leave in the direction of Mr. Rude.

"Alright, sit down." Grandma, I mean Nonna, said, patting the seat next to her, her having apparently sat down while Elijah distracted me.

I sat down next to her, though I left enough space for almost an entire other person to sit down in between us.

She gave me a look but otherwise ignored it. Aunt Stephanie sat on her other side.

"So, happy that school is out?" She asked and I hesitated a little bit, sort of humming in an unsure way.

"Wow. The boys are normally jumping for joy when they no longer have to go to school." Grand- Nonna said, and I smiled lightly.

"I like to be busy. And I see a lot more of my friends during the school year. Most of them go off for camp, or go see relatives during the summer." I said and they nodded.

"The boys are definitely ready for their year to end." Aunt Stephanie said and I looked at her confused.

"Isn't the school year already over?" I asked and she shook her head.

"Technically yes, however Hunter is doing an excelled program, meaning that he's in school until the start of July, but he only has to go for about two months next year, and that's just for standardised testing. And then Justin got too many unattended Saturday school's and ended up with summer school instead." Aunt Stephanie explained and I nodded my head.

"Poor Justin." I said, and she shook her head.

"He knew there would be consequences to his actions, and he's grounded until summer school ends." She said, and I couldn't help but agree. I would've gotten the beating of my life had I ended up with summer school, so for him to only get grounded seemed more than fair.

"How was school for you? You seem to like it well enough." Nonna enquired and I took a moment to consider my words carefully.

"Well, there were certain things that interested me a lot, some others that I cared a little less for, but it's all important nonetheless." I said, coming up with as mature of an answer that I could without completely lying.

Truth was, school was my one escape from home.

"That's very true. Do you have any idea what you want to be when you grow up?" Nonna asked, seeming to look at me with an even more inquisitive gaze.

"Not really. There's so many options that I can't decide, however I am leaning more towards something in the medical field." I said, coming up with the most generic answer I could.

Right now, I'm just focused on making it to graduation. I would worry about the rest later.

"Following in your father's footsteps I see. I'm sure he would have been very proud." Aunt Stephanie said, smiling brightly at me while my own smile dimmed just a little thinking about it.

"Food's ready!" A voice shouted before anyone else could say anything.

I heard footsteps running, most likely Justin and the other dude who was by the pool, rushing to get their food.

Nonna stands up, extending her hand towards me and I take it gingerly, not wanting to be rude.

She didn't let go like I thought she would, instead, she held my hand as she led me to the small line that had formed in front of the little "food station".

There were hot dogs and hamburgers, a variety of chips and toppings, and your basic condiments. Except that they also had a bottle of Chick-fil-A sauce? Didn't know that existed.

I got a hamburger and put it on a bun with some mayo, ketchup, pickles and a browned union. Don't judge. We like what we like.

I grabbed a single serve bag of hot fries and called it good.

I tried to sit down next to Nonna, but before I could sit down Justin popped up and pulled me to sit in between him and the dude who was playing with him earlier.

While this made me extremely uncomfortable, I was able to get a good look at the guy. He seemed to be in his teens, and I went ahead and assumed that this was Hunter. Which would make Mr. Rude either Elliot or Mason.

"Justin, we don't pull people around." Grandpa scolded Justin in a harsh tone, however Justin didn't really seem bothered by it, simply shrugging and muttering a half-assed apology.

Grandpa speaking made me all too aware of his eyes on me. He seemed to be scrutinising me, however it didn't make my skin crawl like it did with others. Instead, it simply made me feel a little awkward.

"Juliana." My eyes snapped up to mean Grandpa's waiting for him to say something further.

"I see your setting well?" He stated more than asked, but I nodded nonetheless.

"It's rude to not look at someone when you answer them. And I didn't hear any words come out of your mouth, did I?" He asked, and I fixed my gaze back to him. Though everything he did put my nerves on end, I had this weird feeling that he was testing me. Trying to make me uncomfortable to see how I would react.

And so I didn't.

"I'm settling in quite nicely, thank you for your concern." I said, taking a bit out of one of my hot fries. I kept eye contact as I chewed, not looking away until Hunter poked my side. However when I looked at him he simply looked back down at his plate, shaking his head.

I shrugged it off and went back to my own food, but out of the corner of my eye I could see Grandfather's gaze still lingering on me, however this time I decided to simply not give him the time of day. One thing about his gaze confused me. Because although his face remained impassive, I could still see the hint of an emotion in his eyes.

Pride.

....

Dinner was a little awkward to say the least. Conversations were few and far between, and whenever they did happen they seemed tense. The only one who seemed unbothered by the stiff atmosphere was Justin, as he happily munched on his third hot dog, and chatted away to whomever would listen when he wasn't busy stuffing his mouth.

"So, Julie." Uncle Stefano started, catching everyone's attention as almost everyone was done eating by this point. "I completely forgot to ask, is there anyone here you don't quite recognize?" He asked and I nodded, embarrassed.

"I think this is Hunter," I said, pointing to the guy sitting next to me after Uncle Stefano sent me an encouraging nod. "So that's either Elliot or Massimo." I said, gesturing towards Mr. Rude.

"Elliot." Mr. Rude grunted.

"So then where is Massimo?" I asked, unable to stop myself.

"He's in Alaska right now. He really wanted to be here when you got here, but there was a delay. He should be here late tomorrow night though." Aunt Stephanie explained and I nodded.

I can't deny that that was something I had been wondering since I got here. Some of my favourite memories from when I was younger included Massimo. I had always had a strong bond with him, which only made me more nervous.

I had no idea what he had been told about me, I had no idea how he would react to me being here. Would he still like me? Would he be like him? Was the only reason he liked me when I was younger was because he saw me as a cute little kid? Is he going to be disappointed that I'm no longer that same little kid?

'Shut. Up.' I mentally told myself. I couldn't do this. I couldn't send myself into a panic attack because of someone who wasn't even here.

"What was he doing in Alaska?" I asked, trying to distract myself.

I saw Uncle Stefano send an unsure side glance towards his father, and grandfather nodded in his direction, giving him some sort of unspoken permission.

"There was a Mafia down in Alaska that was giving our people we have stationed down there a hard time. We are working closely with the Russian mafia, and part of that alliance was to help them establish dominance in Alaskan territory. There was recently a large attack on one of our warehouses stationed down there, and the aftermath was so bad that we had to send Massimo and a large number of guards to help with damage control." Uncle Stefano gave me a much more detailed explanation than necessary.

I could feel and see everyone's eyes on me, again gauging my reaction.

"If it would be better for him to stay longer than I don't want him to feel like he has to come back just because I'm here." I said, not wanting to seem like a selfish bitch. Elliot snorted at that comment.

"We tried explaining that to him, but he wouldn't listen. He really wants to see you." Elijah said, elbowing his twin.

I simply nodded, handing my plate over to Justin who had been eyeing the last of my hot fries. He smiled widely at me before digging into them.

'The stomach on this boy...' I thought, laughing to myself.

We stayed on the patio for a long time, watching the sunset, comfortable conversations slowly starting to bounce around from person to person. It was about the fourth time in the past five minutes that Justin yawned when Uncle Stefano finally put his foot down and said that he needed to go to bed.

"Nooo, I don't want to sleep. I'm not even tired." He whined, grabbing onto my arm when Uncle Stefano tried to pull him up, making me tense in surprise.

Uncle Stefano simply let out an annoyed breath and went to sit back down. Not even five minutes later, I could hear light snores coming from Justin whose head now rested on my shoulder.

Uncle Stefano wasted no time picking him up, detaching his death grip from my arm, and promptly carried him inside.

The rest of us followed, having gotten more than enough outside time for now. The others went to watch a movie, but I declined, saying that jet-leg was hitting me hard. Which wasn't wrong because even though it was only around 9 pm here, it was around 3 in the morning in New York, meaning that I was absolutely exhausted.

I fell asleep pretty easily, thinking about how excited I was to see Massimo tomorrow.