Giulia

"I think I'm going to vomit.

Around me, four mouths emitted muxoxo sounds at the same time. Cadu and Pablo in the front seats grumbled, although they were laughing. Gina and Gabriella next to me just got angry.

"Oh, my God," cursed Gabriella.

"Again, damn it? "Eezed Gina, angry.

"I didn't even vomit," I grumbled back, exasperated. "By the way, you forced me to come on this trip from hell. I can vomit and complain as many times as I want. Giovanna is on a beautiful cruise at a time like this, while I am being dragged into the woods and without any right to ask for my freedom. You deserve my grumbling and I will continue until we arrive.

I said everything quickly, without a break, and everyone uttered profanity at the end of my revolt. But I was pissed. They had invented that trip to the countryside with the tattered excuse that Cadu and Pablo would like to visit their family, to kill the longing after years of living in the capital. And I was being dragged in tow just because I couldn't be alone at home, even though I was twenty-four years old. Everyone treated me like a child, and that irritated me even more.

"For God's sake, Giulia" grumbled Gabriella for the thousandth time. She leaned her elbow against the car window and uttered a bad word when Cadu accelerated too much to escape from a hole in the dirt road and this caused all of us to swing inside the vehicle. "You agreed to the trip. It's our vacation.

"Yes, yours and Gina's," I looked at each other, each sitting on one side of me, leaving little space for me to move my arms. We were too bulky to sit together, although the large pickup truck recently bought by Cadu was spacious enough. " Not to mention that you are dragging me to a couples meeting, since I'm single. I don't want to hold a candle.

"Too late," Gina replied, tinkling her gold bracelets as she ran one hand through her hair. She watched me with raised eyebrows and very well done. "You need to clear your mind, Giulia. You are spending too much time on your cell phone and it will ruin your youth.

“Hi? What's it like? "I asked, incredulous, my voice becoming squeaky. " Gina, we work with the internet. I need to go online. I'm a digital influencer. How am I going to influence people if I'm in the middle of the woods and taking care of cows? I need to work. You promised me that there were signal towers on the farm. If I run out of WIFI, I'll have a stroke!

Cadu giggled low, as he slowed down the car. Gina's boyfriend looked through the rearview mirror in the center of the car, finding me easily in the middle seat behind. On second thought, it was good that we had sat in the back, because Cadu and his brother were too big, and I would certainly be even more claustrophobic in the middle of them. The genetics of the Soares brothers were as good as my family's.

"How much exaggeration, Giulia," he said, although in a very gentle tone. It was one of the qualities I loved most about Gina's boyfriend; her patience and compassion. His brother was totally the opposite, and he was as angry as my sisters by my unflattering comments. I didn't care, through my WIFI, I would face any battle. Cadu added: "There is a cell phone tower in the place where we are going, but it is very far from the property, so you will have to walk a lot if you want to stay connected all day. And you can't come back after six o'clock in the afternoon, because it gets dark very fast there, we don't have light poles. And you won't want to be caught by a panther.

"Oh, how delicious, thank you for letting me know just now! "I grumbled in the most irritating and ironic tone I could force.

"W Why did we invite her? "Questioned Pablo.

I giggled.

"Oh, dear brother-in-law, I don't even know why I'm here.

But, in fact, I even knew. My family hid many secrets, was constantly tormented by many enemies, and spreading around the world was the idea we found to breathe a little. But I would much rather have gone on a sophisticated trip with my twin sister, than to be going deeper and deeper into what seemed to me to be the sertão.

The trees were dry and thin, scattered by not green grasses and embezzled by the cattle that fed behind the fences. The beaten dirt raised dust even with the low speed of the car, and the closed windows did not prevent us from almost dying suffocated with all the dust.

I had rhinitis, I was almost pulling my nose out of so much itching, but Gina just pushed me a saline every ten minutes so that I could refresh myself and ignored all my laments for having accepted that trip.

Gabriella, our sensible and lawyer sister, was humming the whole trip, happy to be going to meet her boyfriend's family. They could say whatever they wanted, but that was still a damn double date, and I would only pray to have some friendship with the parents of my brothers-in-law, or I would die of boredom for a whole month.

"Tell me that we have already arrived, for the love of Jesus Christ," I grumbled again.

"Oh, God, we arrived," Pablo replied, letting out a deep sigh. "I thought I would end up being arrested again for killing Giulia.

"Wow, I too," echoed Gabriella, relieved. "And look, I'm the most understanding person in the family.

"I couldn't take it anymore," Cadu said, receiving a sound of agreement from Gina.

The bastards allied against me.

"You guys are a panacas," I complained with a frown, but slightly happy to feel the car park. Gina opened the door and I pushed her hard to get out of the vehicle soon. "Pure air! Firm ground! No dust! Glory to God. Hallelujah.

" Why were our sisters born defective? " Gina asked Gabriella as they approached me.

"Our mother should have stopped on Monday," said Gabriella.

I had a mocking giggle, fixing my jeans and black pants that had slipped from my waist for so long that I spent sweating in that car. The air conditioning did not change at all the fact that Gina and Gabriella were squeezing my doubles during all three hours of travel. I was glad I put on a cropped, because I would die roasted with a conventional shirt, but the dresses my sisters wore still looked better and more appropriate.

"It was a long trip," Cadu said in a soothing tone, holding Gina by the waist, before kissing against her neck.

My sister screamed, shrinking in her boyfriend's arms. He whispered something in her ear, and Gina turned red. It should be a heavy whorehouse, because Gina was the least shameful woman I've ever met in my life. I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously, if you're cute, I'll go away walking," I said softly.

Gabriella laughed, docking to Pablo's neck at the same time. They kissed. In a second, I was put in the middle of two couples who purred like cats and licked each other equally. I grumbled to the skies, asking the fat and contrasting clouds of the wonderfully blue sky, what I had done to deserve to be in a retreat with recently assumed couples. It was penance, it could only be.

"Do you want to bet which one of us will try to gag Giulia first during these thirty days? " Gina asked.

"I bet fifty that it will be Pablo," said Gabriella.

"I bet a hundred on Gina," Cadu said, laughing.

"I bet two hundred that I'm going to beat up with all of you today," I said without any humor. A wind passed us, echoing the laughter of my four companions, and shaking my hair in front of my eyes. “ Panacas.

Cadu had parked in front of the property. A very old house, made of some material that I didn't even know existed in the masonry. The ceiling was reclined and a large "hose" tree made shadows on the left side of the house. Apart from us, there was only silence. I didn't see any animals, but the place was huge. Mountains bowed in the distance, with a tower so far away that I even felt desperate to think about having to walk so much to get online.

The grass there was very green, different from the road, and the smell was also completely different from what I was used to in the capital. I've never been to the countryside. I've never even stepped on a non-synthetic grass with bare feet. A life with a lot of money and luxury will not allow me to live the basics of every human. It was strange to think that it was only after twenty-four years of existence that I began to learn about simplicity. Bizarre.

"At least Bernardo already knows that we have arrived," said Pablo, as if the mention of his brother could mean something to me.

But as ironic as it is, it actually meant it.

In the distance, galloping on a black horse, without a saddle, a man approached. The horse's trot resounded throughout the property, as he got closer and closer. He wore a pawn hat, slightly curved on the sides and with also curved flaps. The shirt was plaid, but light in tone, and his jeans were very close to his body. The medallion on his belt shone the sunlight in every movement of his body against the horse, and the buckles of his boot also shone, although I knew that nothing there would be gold.

When the horse neighed, stopping softly in front of us, the man slightly raised his hat in a tone of greeting, opening a smile for all of us. It was beautiful. Worse than beautiful. Ridiculously beautiful.

The face was angular, like that of the brothers, but a little darker, by the days of work in the sun. The shirt tightened on his body, as well as the pants, highlighting the muscles that would probably have been gained from the work of years in that garden. As his brothers were still clinging to my sisters, he took it as let me greet you first. He jumped gracefully from the horse and stood in front of me, extending his big and wide hand.

"I'm Bernardo," he said, pulling the R by saying his own name. The accent made me smile, but I stretched out my hand to him, keeping the silence. The man barely shook my hand, too aware that he could bother me with the many calluses on his rough and hot skin. He turned to his brothers. "Mother and father want to talk to you. On your own.

Cadu and Pablo made sounds of lament, certainly preparing for a long-hour sermon. I giggled, crossing my arms as I threw looks of trial in the direction of my brothers-in-law. Gina approached to greet Bernardo, as well as Gabriella. The two stayed by my side, and although they didn't say anything, I knew they thought the same thing: The hottest brother had stayed in the countryside. Holy shit.

" Why were you so talkative during the trip and are silent now? " Pablo asked, in a suspicious tone.

"My mouth dried out of nowhere," said Gabriella, looking away to the skies. "It must be the heat.

"Huminity is my problem," said Gina, shaking herself.

"God multiply," I asked in a tone of supplication.

My sisters laughed and I also allowed myself to smile a little. The three Soares brothers watched us with expressions of suspicion and confusion, so they decided that we were not talking about anything and that the three-hour trip should have ended with the rest of our neurons. So, Pablo and Cadu greeted their brother with a brief hug and walked away to enter the house, my sisters and I looked at each other.

We laughed so much that we didn't even realize what had been agreed between them. Clearly we couldn't enter the house. And my charm for the beautiful man in front of me began to pass when I noticed that I would have nothing to do in that place. Nothing but complaining every day about the lack of internet.

Gina must have realized what I was thinking, because she poked me lightly with her elbow.

" Take the opportunity to learn how to ride without getting tired, Giulia.

"The secret is the knees," said Gabriella, getting into the provocative joke.

"I know how to do that very well," I said jokingly. "I can last for hours.

"Real really? "Bernard said, suddenly turning with a wide smile on his face. Unlike his brothers, he showed to be more grateful for receiving visitors, no matter how undesirable they were. He patted his horse on the flank. "So come on, let's ride.

I giggled blandly, turning slightly red. Didn't he understand that I was referring to riding men instead of horses?