Chapter 11

~Antonio ~

Nothing smells better and more appetizing than pancakes. And this one was filled with chocolate chip goodness and a dash of Carmel syrup. It was a Saturday morning and the whole family was at home. It was the smell of pancakes that got me out of my bed and into the bathroom. I was brushing my tooth in a hurry so I could be downstairs in time for breakfast. I finished brushing my tooth just in time and as I descended the stairs, I heard my elder brother, Aaron yell.

"Breakfast is readyyy!! "

That was all it took for me to quicken my pace on the stairs because I had hungry nephews, nieces, cousins. In short, the whole family. We had played family games last night and that made them decide who was making breakfast and what meal it would be. Stepping into the dinning hall, I greeted everyone at once after I had greeted my mom and Dad first.

I took my sit between Liam and Lucas, they are identical twins and they are the first set of twins our family had. Also, they are the oldest and most reserved twins in the family. They are super smart, give them any equation to solve and they'll solve it in a minute. They are both studying Marine Biology in Oslo university.

"Okay, serious who ate my pancakes?" Violet's babish high pitched voice was heard. She is the youngest in our huge family, also the hardest to find when playing hide and seek. We don't play that game too often because of her. She is just too good at it. How she blends in with her surroundings is really astonishing. She clocked 10 about two weeks ago and ever since, it's all she ever talks about. She is always like..."Hey! I'm ten and I'm not an idiot, so y'all had better start looking for my two missing pancakes or no one is having breakfast!!!!"

Yeah all that in one breath and perhaps a chance of attitude too. We had grown ups at the table too. My uncles and aunties, grand parents, even her mother was at the table and yet she never minds her choice of words when talking to people. Especially me. Oh she hates my guts, you know why? Well that's because anytime she is having an outburst like this, I tease her.

"Hey violet, it's just pancakes. There is no need to be violent " I always tease her.

And her raging piercing scream followed. She tried to attack me jumping for my neck but was caught swiftly by her dad. Thank God he came just in time, if not my neck would have been disfigured with her sharp nails. Her father is the last, born out of four and all four of them lived with us in this mansion with their wives and kids. My dad is the second, born out of the four.

My gandpa was a famous celebrity. Before he passed on, he got this mansion specially for his four sons, Andrew, Jayden, Benjamin and Samuel, so all four of them with their wives and kids could live together and happily ever after in this mansion. That's one of the reasons why the dinning hall was filled up. Plus the four brothers didn't put a limit to the number of children they had.

My dad Jayden had nine of us, five boys and four girls. I'm the third boy. Andrew, my uncle, now our big daddy has twelve kids, six boys and girls with twin girls twice. How his wife bore all twelve of them I'll never know. What is still a mystery to us is when did she start giving birth, sixteen? Twenty? I don't know and I doubt its in my place to ask. Benjamin who was the third born didn't want to go all out stressing his wife with child bearing. He limited it to six children, instead and they were all twins.

The last born, Samuel, Violet's dad. Has two children Tyler and Violet with one on the way. While we were still trying to calm Violet down, I heard dad.

"Tell me, Brenda why did we ever decide to have a large family?" My dad, Jayden asked tiredly with his thumb and Index finger resting on his forehead. My mom, Brenda responded to dad's question with humour laced in her voice.

"Are you asking me? Sorry my dear, we'll soon eat alright?. But in my defense, I didn't slip and fall on your Dick nine times. "

That got the other grown ups at the table cracking with laughter. Even I and the twins, Liam and Lucas cracked with laughter as well. What made it funnier was the rest of my cousins, nephews and nieces joined in the laughter totally clueless as to why the grown ups were laughing. My dad was beyond embarrassed at mom's response.

"Really? Did you have to say that out loud? " My dad asked as his face tinted red, with embarrassment dripping from his voice. Mom just chuckled at the situation before saying in her obviously borrowed black Americans accent.

"Well I'm just saying "

"Oh you just saying? Really?" My dad responded feigning annoyance In his South African accent. Everyone at the table couldn't stop laughing at the drama mom and dad were unknowingly creating. My mom was totally oblivious to where my dad was heading, with the line of conversation.

"Hmm you heard me, it's what I said " Mom said.

"Fine, you didn't slip and fall on it but you did sleep on it, so how is that my fault?" My dad commented dropping the bomb on my mom. This caused another uproar of laughter especially among the grown up and teenagers that understood the joke. Mom was infuriated by our laugher especially because the little ones, who were absolutely oblivious as to what was going on were laughing as well.

"Jayden!?!" She called out his name in her high pitched voice shocked at his statement.

"Brenda!?!" Dad also called her name in the same manner feigning shock and embarrassment mimicking my mom. The Laugher never died down and in the mist of the laughter, Ayesha - Benjamin's European wife, asked one my nephews why he was laughing with them. All the little boy could say in his squeaky adorable African American seven year old voice was..."What? You guys were laughing, and I didn't want to feel left out."

This caused another round of laughter. Which my big daddy had to stop so we could all have breakfast before the little kids started complaining. We said our prayers over our food with Violet's missing pancakes long forgotten.

Breakfast went smoothly with no interruptions and seconds later, I was back in my room. I was going through my school study note ahead of time like I usually do. It was way past noon already and I had already fallen asleep from studying too hard. The ringing of the house bell woke me up with a jerk. I stirred and stretched on the king size bed I was lying on, blinking my eyes severally to adjust to my surroundings.

"Antonio!! Your girlfriend is here!!!!" I heard my elder sister, April Adebisi deep bass voice. She is the first born and she is happily married with a son. Her loud voice boomed in the whole house which immediately sent me flying out of my bed making me hit the floor in a loud thud.

''Ouch...do you always have to yell my name that loud?'' I complained in my sleep induced state, my words moving sluggishly from my mouth. I finally got up from the floor and yawned loudly before heading to the bathroom to wash the sleep off my face. Once I was done, I headed down stairs trying to trace where my sisters voice came from. I spotted her in our enormous kitchen preparing lunch with my mom and Ayesha. What time was it, I don't know, I really didn't bother to check my phone which was on my bed side table, I haven't touched it all day.

The minute they sensed my presence in the kitchen, they all turned to me. And like a responsible and well cultured  boy, I went flat on my chest, prostrating to greet them all at once. They acknowledged my greeting and my older sister April just nodded to the sitting room where my girlfriend waited for me. I stepped out of our kitchen and after a few turns I arrived at the sitting room and behold there she was, sitting on our couch with so much elegance and grace. She was dressed in white and a pitch coloured flowery gown that stopped just above her knees. Her hair was wrapped into a doughnut and her makeup was subtle.

''Hey Molls'' My voice came off more huskier than intended catching her attention. She smiled radiantly at me showing off her pearl white teeth. But I noticed her smile didn't reach her eyes as she mumbled her greetings.

''Hi''

''Molls whats wrong? Did something happen?''

''We need to talk'' She said sharply before I had the chance to say another word. I looked at her warily nodding expecting her to start the talk but she keep quiet. I sighed knowing what that meant. She didn't want to have the conversation in the sitting room with half my family listening to our conversation. I took her hand in mine, leading her out of the mansion and to our extremely large verrander. I headed for my younger brothers tree house; I made sure we were both comfortably sited there. After a while of awkward silence, she spoke up.

''I don't think I can continue hiding us, from Chole.''

'' Why not, we are doing just fine. We--''

''Yeah right you called me Molls in front of her, twice! and you know we don't use nicknames''

'' Yes, I know and I'm sorry, I just love calling you that and you know you love it to.'' I said lovingly to her. And her cheeks immediately turned bright red at my statement knowing I was right. She smiled at me lovingly as my hand rested on her cheeks, my thumb caressed her brows and she leaned into it taking in the scent of my hand. All of that faded away when she shifted away from me and my hand dropped back to my side painfully. She moved her head sideways slowly rejecting me, a pained and crestfallen expression on her face.

''We can't continue like this and you of all people know why.'' She said.

''Okay, let me guess, it Rule 9 ?''

''No its Rule 6 and yes 9 too ''

Rule 6: If you can't tell your best friend about something you're doing, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

''Its been bothering me ever since and I really don't know how Chloe is going to take us being a couple. That's what wanted to--''

I didn't let her finish. I hugged her close to me, closing the renaming gap between us by landing a steamy yet passionate kiss on her lip. That was all I've been dying to do since she got here. We can worry about Chloe finding out about our relationship later, what mattered now was her melting into my kiss right now. She tugged on the short hair at the nape of my neck and that got me moaning into the kiss. Just as we were about to take things too far I heard korra voice my youngest cousin, she pulled us apart from each other with her babyish voice.

'' Antonio and Molly sitting in a tree, K. I. S. S. I. N. G Ahhhhhh!!'' She screamed.