Chapter 12

MARCOS

I was sleeping perfectly until some screams woke me up. It was Carlos and honestly, I had no idea why he's doing it, I don't want him to wake up the whole house so I decided to go down and close the door to prevent the screams from reaching the upstairs floor so much. When I got downstairs, I saw my brother angry, like I had never seen him before in my life, and strangely he's yelling at Gabriela. I didn't understand anything about what's happening and I would like to know.

It had already been half an hour since Carlos had left, I have no idea where, I just hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid. Gabriela is too quiet and I could see that her eyes were glassy, I didn't like seeing her like that, and I wanted to understand what happened between them for Carlos to be screaming like that at six in the morning.

"Gabriela, can I know why Carlos has gotten so angry with you?" I asked when a while had passed since my brother had left. "You heard the conversation; you know why he's angry. I'm an asshole for telling him."

I saw how Gabriela is trying to be strong and not cry, I guess it's because she had my sister on her lap and didn't want to wake her, but she's terrible. I approached her and put my arm over her shoulder, moving my hand up and down her arm.

"You're not an asshole, the only asshole here is my brother. He shouldn't have talked to you like that just because he knew you were dating Alex." I assured, because it's the last thing Gabriela needed. It had already been difficult for her to have a relationship with Alex, she didn't need any more doubts in her mind "Marcos, things aren't as easy as that. People are starting to talk… about Alex and I being together."

"You're going to have to tell your family." I nodded, seeing where she's thinking "I know, but that's not the point. Right now, what matters to me is clarifying everything with Carlos." She assured, "Don't worry, he'll get over it soon, you're his little sister to him."

"It's not quite like that." My best friend sighed, closing her eyes and frowning, because right now I'm not understanding anything. "I don't understand." I responded "He loves me, that he loves me since we were children."

And at that moment everything fell into place. Now I understood the reason for his anger. I hadn't realized Carlos is in love with Gabriela, it isn't what I expected, I knew something wrong with him, but I didn't think he is in love with her.

"I told you it wasn't as easy as it seemed." He responded, "Yes, I realize that, but that doesn't mean he had to treat you the way he treated you." I insisted, because no matter how many feelings he has for her, that didn't mean he could behave as he had done. "I know Marcos, but he's hurt. He even told me I would rather give Alex a chance than him. I have to talk to him Marcos."

"I don't recommend it. Carlos won't listen to anything, the only thing he'll do now is hurt you." I assured Gabriela, because I knew my brother well when he's angry, "He won't do anything to me." She affirmed and I denied, because I'm not going to let Carlos hurt her more than he had. "Yeah, he's hurt and he'll do whatever it takes to make you leave him alone. Right now, he hates us both. Let's give him space, he will reconsider, I promise."

"I hope so, I just want to explain. He didn't even let me speak." My best friend protested and a small smile appeared on my face "He always does it when he gets angry. I've never seen him so angry." I said more for myself than for her, I didn't want her to feel worse than what she's feeling right now. "Do you think I don't know, Marcos? He's this angry because of me. I'm a shitty person."

"You're not, you don't love my brother, you love Alex and Carlos will have to understand that. Not because he loves you're you going to leave Alex. If that were the case, you shouldn't even have been with him again, half the university wants to be with you."

"I know Marcos, but it hurts me to see him like this. He's the older brother I never had. I learned a lot of things from him." She responded, "I understand, it hurts me too to see him like this, but I promise I will talk to him as soon as he lets me." I said honestly, "You're not going to do it, I'll take care of that."

"I can help." I insisted, "It won't be necessary, it's something I have to face alone." She stated and I nodded, because I knew there's no way to change her mind. "Ok, but if you need any help, don't hesitate to call me or ask for help, I'll be happy to do it."

"I won't need it." After that, we stayed silent until I don't know what time. I could see Gabriela is hurt by everything that happened with Carlos, I have to help her somehow. After two hours or so María and Mario came downstairs, which makes me look at the time and I see it's half past nine.

Gabriela is still sitting with my sister in her arms, she's sleeping peacefully and her siblings sat on the sofa opposite us. "Gabriela, is everything ok?" María asked, focusing her gaze on her sister. "Sure, why do you ask?"

"Because your face says otherwise." She stated and Gabriela denied "It's nothing, I just haven't slept much." He answered and the twins rolled their eyes. "Well, you should get more sleep, you need it." They protested, "It's the same, have you slept well?" He asked and they both nodded.

It could be she's sleepy, but I know very well that her face right now has nothing to do with sleep. I was going to give her some time to calm down and for that I had to distract her siblings, so I decided it's time to make breakfast.

"Guys, do you want breakfast?" I asked, to divert Gabriela's attention. "Of course, I'm starving." Mario said, "Well, let's go." They got up and went to the kitchen and I did the same, but before leaving I squatted in front of Gabriela so she could look me directly in the eyes and I put my hand on her knee.

"Calm down Gabriela, everything will be fine. Try not to think about it, your siblings may realize your sleep thing is just an excuse." I tried, but she denied "I can't Marcos, I can't." She whispered, "Try, I only ask that."

She nodded and with that, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast. It's clear to me Carlos isn't going to appear, at least until later, so I had to play big brother to my sister, like most of the time in recent years.