Chapter Fourteen: House of Speculations

Giana's POV:

"You're gonna get in so much trouble for breaking curfew," I muttered to Nico as we all sat in the attic.

"And you'll get the rest of us in trouble with Victor for being out of bed," Patricia added bitterly.

I leaned against Fabian and stifled a yawn. "I still think it could've waited till morning or after school or something. What'll they do once they realize you're not in Isis when everyone wakes up?"

"I'm not worried about that," my brother answered. "What I'm worried about is the spirits crossing over to our world. If it's even possible. I mean, if the one who contacted me in my dream is the one who's possessed you and Nina, Giana, she could probably find the means and power to possess any of us. And, since I gave her an answer she didn't want to hear… you'll all probably be getting a visit from her."

"What did she look like?" Alfie asked. "Maybe that could help us avoid her or something. Maybe it would be easier to wake up from our dreams that way."

"It's hard to describe," Nina started. "When I saw her, she looked kind of smoky. I'm not sure what form she took in your dream, Nico, but she definitely wasn't friendly-looking, and I'm pretty sure she can shapeshift or something."

"Yeah," Nico answered. "She definitely looked different in my dream, from what I could tell. The lighting was really bad and there was a thunder storm going on outside that she basically created."

"This is way too creepy," Amber chimed in. "Maybe we should tell someone."

"What are we gonna do, tell a teacher we're having dreams about a ghost possessing us?" Jerome spat. "They'd call us crazy and probably send us all to therapy or something. Or give us sleeping pills that would cause us not to dream."

"Jerome, you're overreacting," Tori yawned. "Also, Nico, I love you dearly, but I'm really pissed at you for waking us all up."

"Well, I figured, if I can't sleep, then none of you can, either," he joked.

"Not funny."

"Anyway," Fabian started, "I say we have a buddy system while we're awake. That way, if any one of us are possessed by a spirit, the person with them can try to keep the possessed person under control until they're released."

"I think that's a great idea," Amber said. "But won't it also be kind of dangerous?"

"Yeah," Alfie agreed. "It's not like any one of us can fend off a powerful spirit, let alone someone who's possessed by one."

"Well, the least we can do is make this buddy system look normal to everyone else," Tori said. "I say we just alternate or something but we shouldn't be walking around campus or whatever alone."

"How's that gonna work, though? Nico's in a different house than all of us."

"We'll make it work," my brother responded.

We were all too exhausted to function in school that day. Luckily I kept myself from falling asleep in all my classes, but I couldn't say the same for everyone else.

"That's the fifth time Mrs. Andrews has yelled at me this term!" I heard Amber exclaim. She was in Tori, Mara and Patricia's room with the door ajar. I was considering going in and talking to them when what came next stopped me.

"So," Amber continued, "tell me about you and Nico. How was it? Was it romantic? Everything you expected it to be?"

"It was amazing," Tori replied. "I don't know why he was being such a jerk after Giana and Fabian did it. He was being really hypocritical."

No. They didn't. Did they?

"Maybe it's because he's her older brother?" Amber suggested.

"Yeah, that could be it."

They did.

Before I even knew what I was doing or where I was going, I barged through the front door of Isis and immediately sought out my asshole of a brother.

"You slept with her?" I shrieked as I slammed the door open and encountered him in his room, hanging out with his roommate and a couple other people who I assumed were their housemates.

"That's our cue to leave," someone said, and they all disbanded, the last person out closing the door behind them.

"Well—" Nico started.

"I can't believe this!" I shouted. "You two haven't been together nearly as long as Fabian and I, and you already freaking took her virginity! And, what's worse, I had to inadvertently find out about it from Amber! They were talking about it in Tori's room and no one bothered to inform me!"

"That bitch said she wouldn't say anything!" he said. "She promised!"

"You son of a—"

"We have the same mother!"

"I just – wait. Wait a minute. So when you and Tori have sex for the first time and I find out about it from Amber, that's okay. But when Fabian and I did it for the first time and you found out about it from that rat Jerome, you're allowed to get mad and almost kill my boyfriend?"

He stared at me in silence.

"You are the most sexist, big-headed… I'm embarrassed to even be related to you!"

"Pretty sure you just took that line from Avatar: The Last–"

"Shut up!"

He shut up.

"You were more or less slut-shaming me when you first found out about me and Fabian, so just let me be mad at you for doing it with my best friend, with neither of you even telling me about it—"

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I damn well do, Nico!"

"Tori and I did it because we love each other. You and Fabian probably only did it out of lust!"

That was it.

His statement made me do something I never would've thought I'd do in my life. Ever.

I stepped forward, slapped my brother very forcefully across the face and mumbled, "I hate you" in Italian, turned on my heel, and left.

The thing was, I did love Fabian. And he loved me. Could I explain that to Nico without him turning into a hypocrite? Probably not.

But he had no right, absolutely none, to make any assumptions about my love life.