LII
All my worry disappears for a second when Amber's bright and happy face opens the door for us. "Hi! Oh, I'm so glad you could make it!" she says and hugs me. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too Ambie." I tell her, hugging her back.
"You've literally seen each other yesterday." Axel grumbles and Amber rolls her eyes.
"So? Stop being jealous of the fact that she loves me more, fat face."
"She doesn't love you more." Axel hisses and Amber goes to argue, but I put my hands over their mouths, capturing their attention.
"I love you both the same, now can you two please stop?" I frown at them and they frown back.
However, we manage to successfully enter the house, Axel refusing to hold my hand, probably because I said that I love them both the same. Goddamnit, they're both such children.
I've been in this house before, but I've never spoken anything more to their relatives except a "hello", which was basically not speaking at all. Now that I know slightly more about their connection with Axel, I notice the house in a different way than before.
It is obviously more expenisive and luxurious than Axel's and it makes me wonder what they do for living. Everything is in order, and clean which probably means they are very organized. Amber takes us to the living room, in the middle of which is a big mahogany table, and sitting behind it are Liam and the infamous relatives.
They all stand up when they see us enter, and Liam smiles at me. It calms me down a lot that he and Amber are here, making meeting Axel's closest thing to a family much easier for me.
They all come to greet us, Liam first. He hugs me and I feel Axel tense up, but thankfully he doesn't say anything.
"Hey." Liam says in my ear.
"Hey, I'm really glad you're here." I tell him and smile at him.
He smiles back. "You too." With that, he takes Amber's hand and they go to sit down, but first he just gives a little nod towards Axel, who doesn't even nod back. Obviously, he's still not over the fact that he's dating his sister. His aunt comes to me, and without a warning, her arms are tightly around me.
"Oh, you're such a beautiful girl." she squeals and puts her hands on my shoulders, squeezing them while inspecting me and grinning at me. "I can't say how happy I am that he found someone. Honestly, I expected some girl with tattoos all over her body, cigarette in her mouth and maybe with her hair dyed green, I don't know." she giggles.
I grin at her. "No green hair for me, ma'am. I don't really think it would go well with my eyes."
She laughs. "I already like you, Sophie right?"
I nod. "Yes, ma'am."
"Oh, don't call me that, it makes me feel old. Just call me Susan." she smiles and gives me one last squeeze, before looking up at Axel.
She gives him a tight smile. "Axel. How nice of you to come."
She doesn't go to hug him or anything, I think she got a hard lesson on not being allowed to do that. Axel doesn't say anything, just gives her a little nod with a serious expression, his piercing pulled into his mouth. Susan gives me one last glance, before going to sit down and leaving me to meet her husband.
When he comes into better view, not just from afar like usual, I can clearly see that he's very similar looking to Axel. He has dark brown hair which would probably turn to curls if he'd let them grow long enough. His figure is tall, just like Axel, except that he's a bit more rounded in the middle. Thankfully, he only outstretches his hand towards me.
"Hello Sophie, nice to meet you. My name is Michael Smith." he gives me a smile, which I return. I take his hand and politely shake it a bit. "Nice to meet you sir."
"It really came as a surprise when I heard that Axel has found someone more serious, and I'm glad he did." I can hear Axel huffing out at that, but Michael doesn't say anything. He just gives him a tight nod.
"Axel."
Axel purses his lips and nods, barely visible. They stare at each other for a few intense seconds before Michael moves away and sits down. Me and Axel follow, sitting opposite of Liam and Amber, Michael and Susan on the ends of the table. Up to now, it's gotten even more obvious that they don't get on well and it gives the air a bit of tension around us while Susan goes to get food on the table, refusing my help. They don't really seem that bad, but I know that there must be a reason behind Axel's act, so I can't bring myself to like them.
I trust him.
"So, Axel. Have you gotten yourself a job finally?"
I choke on the air, and they all give me a weird look, so I quickly look down at my plate.
"No." he curtly replies.
Michael frowns. "Then how do you get by? You're not still taking money from your mother's bank account, are you? You know that's not fair to her."
Axel's already tense body becomes even more tense and I see his palms clench into fists and his eyes quickly glance in my direction.
"Don't talk to me about what's fair and not. She was my mother." he says with a low voice.
"She was my sister." Michael says, much louder. "Was." he repeats, and Axel loses it.
I squeeze my eyes shut when I hear a loud noice of a plate shattering against a wall and a chair being knocked over.
"Why don't you just fucking let it go?!" Axel shouts and I can see Amber cringing from the corner of my eye. "Don't you fucking think that I feel worse than shit about what happened?!"
Michael stands up. "You will not speak like that to me and you'll pay for that plate! I have all the right to be pissed off!"
Axel leans over and grabs his uncle's collar, bringing him dangerously close. "You have all the fucking right to be pissed off but you have no fucking right to keep throwing that in my fucking face because it was an accident." he hisses, low, dangerous voice and in this moment, I'm afraid.
Michael rips Axel's hand from his collar and snorts. "A fucking accident. You can tell the judges that story, but I'm not an idiot."
The breathing begins to turn into a very difficut task when I think of all the possibilities that this converstion could be of. Susan is hugging Amber while Liam watches in horror.
Axel goes to hit his uncle, and this time, he's sober. This time, his goal is clear.
I can hear the hit, but I can't watch.
Susan begins to scream, Liam tries to come in between them, and Amber's crying while I'm sitting there, unable to do anything, like I'm glued to the chair. In all this madness, the only thing I can see is Axel turning away from Michael, and looking at me.
I swear that in that moment, I can see the worst fear possible flash in his forest green eyes. He's terrified of something, and I want to know of what, but I'm immobilized. He takes a few long strikes toward me and yanks me up, tries to make me walk, but he quickly realizes that it won't work, so he takes me in his hands, long, panicked steps away from the mess he's caused but can't undo.
His strong, tattooed arms are frantic as he puts me in his car and runs to the other side. He puts his key in ignition, starting the car. All this time, he's talking, telling me something, but I can't hear him.
Numb.
I don't know what this all was about, but a feeling tells me that I don't really want to know what it was about.