Juliana's POV

"Juliana, if you have something to say just say it." Massimo said in a bored tone from his seat next to me at the breakfast table.

Of course, his projected announcement immediately made all eyes train to me.

"I saw Hunter this morning. Why isn't he here?" All the adults all exchanged looks that I didn't quite understand.

"We weren't sure if you would be comfortable being around him yet." Nonna explained and I stared at them all for a second, making sure that they were for real.

"It's his home, and what happened that night technically wasn't his fault." I defended and Elliot let out an undignified huff.

"Hardly his fault. He's the one who initiated the entire thing." Elliot snapped at me, as though I didn't properly remember that night.

"Should he have made this place an impromptu crack house, no. But that's no reason that I should be uncomfortable around him."

"Have you forgotten what happened that night?" Elliot pondered at me like I was the insane one, voice raising as we both shifted to fully face each other.

"It's not like he knew his friends were going to try and rape me! One of them died that night, he probably feels bad enough without being practically shunned by his own family!" I said, my voice rising right back to match his.

I saw Elliot flinch slightly at that, fiery quickly replacing all other emotions in his eyes.

"Why the fuck did you even go down there!" He yelled at me, and this made me hesitate. I was about to shout something back when Elliot started up again.

"You had to know that-"

"Elliot Kryptonite Bianchi," Grandpa cut Elliot off, making us both look over to him. "Would you like to finish that sentence?" His voice was calm. Leathally so, in a way that sent a shiver down my spine.

Everything was silent for a good five seconds before Elliot shoved away from the table, making the dishes clatter before he stomped out of the room.

I turned back to sit correctly in my seat, resigned to once again picking at my otherwise uneaten breakfast.

That was something I struggled with a lot here. Picking at my food instead of eating it. I would eat a little bit out of each meal, but then be overpowered with the need to hurl.

"On that happy note," Aunt Stephanie started in a voice that was covered in false happiness and a fake smile. "We were planning on going ice skating today. Justin has been wanting to for a while now. Julie, do you know how?" She asked, turning the attention to me.

"You could say that." I mumbled, shoving a small piece of pancake in my mouth to give me a reason not to further explain.

"Amazing. We'll be leaving in half an hour." She said, before getting up and taking her plate to the kitchen.

Everyone else followed shortly after her, and I made an effort to make sure I was last, as I was the only one still with food on my plate.

Once in the kitchen I put my food in a bowl and stuck it in a corner of the fridge before pushing a bunch of things in front of it in hopes that no one would see the other numerous bowls that had collecting there over the course of my stay.

If I was being honest with myself, I knew I would never eat them, however I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. Plus Justin previously got a lecture for "eating all my food" and so I had to stop giving my plate to him.

I told myself that on the off chance I didn't get around to eating the food, then I would have to throw it out, and I would have a valid reason for it too.

I made sure everything was hidden before closing the fridge door, and screaming when I came face-to-face with Justin.

Justin, who went into little space after hearing that we were going ice skating, made a higher pitched scream than mine, jumped back comically, lost his footing, and went tumbling onto his ass.

I heard multiple pairs of heavy footsteps running towards us, and when they entered the room I saw most of the adults had barged into the kitchen, guns drawn, but I really couldn't give much care at the moment.

I was too busy laughing my ass off.

From the corner of my eye I saw Justin shaking with either laughter or tears, I couldn't tell at this point. I was too busy replaying how it looked when he was swimming through the air before he fell.

"Dad," Justin whined. "Make her stop laughing at me." I had somewhat calmed down, although it was obvious I was still trying to control my laughing.

"Julia, what happened?" Uncle Stefano asked.

By now, after seeing there was no true threat, everyone had put their guns away, and Uncle Stefano was now holding a pouting Justin in his arms.

"Justin tried to sneak up on me and ended up falling on his butt." I shrugged, silently laughing once before I could help it.

I saw Uncle Stefano roll his eyes, (so that's where Justin gets it), before telling us all to go get ready.

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

Somehow, I had gotten stuck in a car with Elliot and Massimo, which wasn't a good combination to begin with seeing as both of them seemed to have a lot of tension between them at the moment, and having me in the car only seemed to make it worse.

I'm starting to think that sitting in the car with a rambling Justin would have been the better option at this point.

I had opted to wear a black form fitting long sleeved shirt with black leggings, like I normally would when figure skating.

The moment we arrived at the rink you best believe I jumped out of that car the moment it stopped. I don't even think Massimo had it in park yet, the engine still running like I was over to Elijah.

Elijah stood slightly alienated to the rest of the group who had arrived before us. While Justin was busy playing on what I assumed to be his phone, next to Uncle Stefano who was busy talking with his wife.

Nonna and Grandpa seemed to be completely ignoring each other, Nonna being visibly upset. I wonder what grandpa did on the 20 minute ride over.

Massimo and Elliot were now making their way over to us, Massimo having this expressionless look on his face, though his eyes showed that he was less than pleased. Elliot had his usual scowl.

Since we had some silent agreement to only move as a pack, we waited until they reached us, took their places besides the people they wished to, and only then did we start moving towards the doors to the indoor ice rink.

Massimo ended up waiting for me to get near him before he grabbed my arm and separated me from Elijah.

He turned me to face him, and I looked up at him confused.

"Don't you ever do that again." He scolded me in a voice that had me recoiling on instinct.

"Do what?"

"You just jumped from a moving vehicle. Do you know how stupid and dangerous that is?" He said and I looked at him like he was crazy.

"Oh come on, it wasn't moving. Your foot was on the brake." I sassed, which was obviously the wrong answer because his gaze darkened.

"Okay then, you can sit in timeout for fifteen minutes instead of ten." He said and I gawffed.

"What am I, five?" I asked rhetorically.

"Well you're sure acting like it. Actually, I'm pretty sure even a five year old knows better than to jump out of a moving vehicle."

"It wasn't even moving!" I defended myself.

"That's twenty, want to go for thirty?" He asked and I opened my mouth to say something but he raised his eyebrow and I just huffed.

"I'm telling Uncle Stefano." I said, not caring if I was being immature by threatening to tattle to his dad.

"Go ahead, tell him what you did. You might just get your ass whipped along with the lecture you'd get about safety." He challenged me and I glared at him.

"Aww, what's that cute look for?" He cooed as he reached out to pinch my cheeks.

I swatted his hand away and stomped inside to meet up with the rest of the family.

Leave it to Massimo to ruin a perfectly good outing.





When we got inside I definitely snitched that Massimo was being completely unreasonable and was trying to make me sit out for an equally unreasonable amount of time.

Stupid Uncle Stefano decided to pull Massimo and I off to the side and make us tell our side of the story like we were two kids at recess that couldn't get along.

And of course, because Massimo over exaggerated, I ended up having to sit in a shortened time-out while Uncle Stefano indeed lectured me about the importance of safety.

On the bright side, Uncle Stefano only made me sit there for five minutes. Unlike Massimo who would have made me stay there for almost half an hour.

Remind me not to disobey him.

Since Uncle Stefano had lectured me for almost five minutes, and he didn't start my time until after he was done, I have been sitting here for almost ten minutes, which I think made Massimo happy, seeing as I had non-verbally rubbed it in that his judgement was being overlooked.

So here I was, arms crossed, slumped against the wall, sitting on one of the benches that were meant for when you changed into your skates. And I may or may not have been kicking the icepick on the tip of my blade against the carpet.

Was I pouting, yes. Did I care, no.

It wasn't long before Elijah came over and told me that I could come join them.

I mentally celebrated but kept my arms crossed in a pout like way, trying not to seem too excited about getting back on the ice.

Elijah smirked, letting me know that I wasn't fooling anybody, and backed up into the rink, holding his hands out to me as I perched on the edge of the rink, about to step on.

I stood motionless, watching him with cautious eyes. He kept yelling at me. He'd thrown something made of glass towards me, I had heard it shatter, seen it as the glass rained down along my skin, but I didn't feel it.

Even now I feel numb.

None of his words or actions were making the desired impact, and he seemed to notice that.

He stalked towards me, an evil glint in his eyes. I watched him pick up the slightly dull kitchen knife I had been using to cut up the apple. It still had a bit of the milk I had spilt when he had come up behind me and struck me.

I watched him numbly as he approached me, a sadistic grin etched onto his face.

The instinct to back away came too late, and before my foot could leave the ground he had already pushed me down to the hardwood floor.

"You are such a useless idiot." He said in a voice that you would congratulate someone in. Not at all matching our current situation.

"What did I tell you?" He asked, his voice starting to have a bit of an edge to it.

"I tried- I really did plea-"

"What. Did. I. Tell. You." He cut me off, his tone telling me that now was not the time to push it.

"That I needed to win." I whispered.

"And did you?"

"No." My voice cracked. I knew that nothing good was going to come from today, I knew the moment that I got onto the ice that something felt off.

"You disobeyed me. And you need to remember that there are consequences to your actions." He said in a reprimanding tone as he lifted the knife and lightly pressed the tip of it along the underside of my jaw, forcing my head back.

And then the knife was gone.

I hadn't felt a lot tonight, however I did feel the instant pain as the knife stabbed into my kneecap. It was stabbed at such an angle that it stabbed straight through my patella, and down into the tip of my tibia.

I screamed, trying to curl inward as though I could protect my knee from the damage that had already been done.

I heard him laughing. Laughing at my pain, laughing at me, laughing at what he just destroyed. Because he knew that by doing this he was destroying more than just my knee. He was destroying my one and only escape.

He grabbed me by the chin, forcing me to look him in the eye, though I couldn't see much through the tears that never seemed to end.

"Maybe you'll think twice next time before you try to pull one over on me. Don't think I don't know about that little interview with those scouts." He spat at me venomously before he shoved me away, ordering one of the guards who had been watching the whole ordeal to deal with me.

"It's okay Juliana, you don't have to skate if you don't want to." Elijah's voice snapped me out of the memory of what could have possibly been the worst night of my life.

"Uh, no-no I want to. Sorry about that." I said, though I sounded detached, even to myself. Like my body was here but I wasn't.

I stepped my right foot tentatively onto the ice, keeping a death grip on the wall.

I pushed myself slightly, just enough for me to fit my left leg onto the ice also, and me being the idiot that I am, I tried to start skating towards the middle of the rink, where I found it was easier to skate. I seemed to have forgotten that I was still latched onto the wall, so while my feet went in one direction, my body stayed put.

Luckily Elijah was there, already having been anticipating catching me, or else I would have fallen right onto the little step that is between the rink and the carpet.

"Easy does it." Elijah said, lifting me up slightly so that I was dangling about a centimetre off the ice.

"I thought you said you knew how to skate?" Elliot laughed from behind us, and I turned my head to glare at him.

"I do butthead." He raised an eyebrow at me, obviously not believing me as he swung around so that he was standing behind Elijah.

"Oh really? You weren't even on the ice for two seconds and you already fell." He challenged me and because I didn't have any good comebacks for that, I decided to go the mature thing and stick my tongue out at him.

That'll show him.

"And who's not five?" He mocked and then skated away, off into the sunset, while I gasped at his nerve and wiggled around, trying to tell Elijah to let me down.

"I'll put you down but you need to stop moving or you'll fall again." He said and I immediately stilled.

The second Elijah let me go, I was off.

I skated as fast as I could after Elliot, which after going so long without skating I was surprised how well I did, and once I was close enough I pounced on him.

Using the momentum I had going and the very tip of the icepick on my skate, I launched myself through the air at rocket speed, which in all reality was just enough to make me give Elliot a good push as I collided with his upper back.

But because he wasn't expecting it, it sent both of us flying to the ground.

Elliot landed face first on the ice, after letting out a girly scream that I found hilarious; however that in turn sent me bouncing from him back, back up into the air where I was smart enough to flip over, letting myself summersault over the ice, landing in somewhat of a straddle position.

Silence.

That was all that was present in the rink. Granted there were only eight of us as they had rented out the place.

"Juliana. Rosalina. Bianchi." I heard Uncle Stefano grit out, and I looked to my right to see that I had just so happened to tackle Elliot right next to Uncle Stefano and Massimo.

"What did I just tel-"

"Whatever you're about to say," I cut him off, even though that was probably a bad idea, but I was already in trouble right? "Just know he deserved it." I stated proudly.

That's when the laughter started. It started with Justin letting out a few giggles, and then before you knew it, everyone had let out a few laughs of their own.

"You're dead." I heard Elliot mutter from behind me, just low enough that only I would hear.

I let out a snicker when I saw that his nose was bright red, that having been what collided with the ice first, making him look like Rudolf.

That was obviously not the right thing to do because he suddenly jolted up, and I knew what he was going to try and do.

So I jumped up and was in the process of trying to skate off when suddenly I was lifted off the ice.

My feet kept trying to skate for a second, completely confused, before I looked over my shoulder and saw Uncle Stefano.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh you know, just off to Neverland." I said conversationally while giving him my best innocent smile.

"Oh really? Well I think you just Neverlanded your butt back on the bench." He said as he continued to skate forward, me still being held out in an odd sort of air jail that you see happening with puppies.

"Oh come on!" I exclaimed. "I didn't even hurt him."

"I would like to testify against that. Have you seen my nose?" Elliot spoke up from his position on our left.

"Yeah, you should probably put some ice on that." I suggested, pointing my finger from his nose to the ground.

I heard someone behind us laugh, but I couldn't see who.

I was then set down, and of course I immediately tried to skate away while yelling 'freedom!' but Uncle Stefano caught me and picked me up like a freaking toddler.

"Hey," I whined. "What is it with you people and picking me up?" I kicked my feet, which did absolutely nothing.

"I can skate on my own ya know." I huffed, crossing my arms in defeat.

"Obviously you can't. The first thing you did was try to break Elliot's nose." I could tell he wasn't being too serious, but I was still mad at Elliot. I don't know why, but I am.

He's just got one of those faces, ya know?

"Please let me skate, this is boring." I complained after the second lap of Uncle Stefano just carrying me around the rink. And it was a big rink. There was this trail that let off into this long hallway lit up by blue LED lights which led to another rink that you looped through and then came back.

"Are you going to tackle anybody else?" He asked and I shook my head so quickly I almost gave myself whiplash.

"Nope."

"Say it to me." I sighed at his antics, but still said it back to him.

He nodded to himself and set me down, making me spin in excitement for being on my own two feet.

"You gotta admit though, it was a pretty good tackle." I said to him over my shoulder and skated away as fast as possible.

I still heard the laugh he let out behind me.

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There were literally so many different ways that I wrote this chapter, but I think this one will suffice.

Also, let me know if you ever have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

And sorry about the long wait (to anyone who's been keeping track)

With my new schedule, it's looking like Saturday is going to be the day that I update the most, however if I can sneak in a few other updates during the week I definitely will.

Let me know what you thought!