All Chapters of CROOKED: In love with my cousin's boyfriend: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The Nikko family was gigantic, and they lived in the same housing complex. All of them. His grandparents had fought day and night to build an entire housing town development where the Saravias could live.When the story I've had such a hard time telling started, that explosion in someone else's mind, Nikko had convinced his parents that I could stay over there. We were happy and excited about the novelty.I met his parents, Adelaida and Nicolas; I also got to know his brother, Estefano, and some cousins, Eusebio and Harry (they are brothers and only one year younger than my boyfriend). I met Catalina too, a cousin of all of them contemporary with Nikko, and Marcelino, a sweet-faced but physically imposing boy, who was younger than all of us. My nerves were attacking me as the hours passed, and more so when they made me settle in Nikko's room. He was older not only in age but in... experience. I had only a few kisses from a few guys since then.So, without all the fuss, Nikko became m

(2018). I noticed the first hint of what happened two years later, at one of the children's gatherings organized by Nikko's family. I arrived at the beginning of June at a little party room that the Saravia grandparents had built for the family's enjoyment, and I noticed that Maël had arrived early to help with the setting up of the tables and tablecloths and all the preparations for that party. It was the fifth birthday of cousin Catalina's son. Wearing a simple and comfortable dress, I helped with the tasks. When everything was ready, I took advantage of the good Internet signal offered by the hall and sat at one of the first tables to check my emails and social networks while the guests arrived. There was Maël, and it didn't have to be like that, it was a children's party. Yes, I know, it was about his little cousin, but that was still unhinged. Or so I thought. Fuck, I didn't want to be near him. Maël was getting on my nerves! I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. God

On Tuesday, July 10, 2018, with my briefcase ready to go home, I heard a noise coming from the living room. I went out of Nikko's room and noticed the arrival of many young men, some with their girlfriends, all well-dressed with cans of Corales, Sagres and Super Bock under their arms.'What's going on out there?" I asked my boyfriend. "Shit, I forgot to inform you," Nikko said, putting his hands on his head in an exaggerated way.Then, he burst out laughing and I made my bored face. "Very funny. C'mon, tell me, what did you forget?" "Today is Maël's birthday and they're going to celebrate it here."I wrinkled my face. "And why here? Why not at his house?"He sighed and raised his body a little on the mattress of the bed. "Since his family is in Lisbon, Mom offered him the house for the celebration.""And why are they in Lisbon, isn't it their son's birthday? Shouldn't they be here with him, or he with them?""I don't know, Delu, you know my uncles live on the road. Dad told me a

I stared at her, hidden behind a bottle of cold beer. The suspicion that something was going on between that woman and my boyfriend even made me want to smoke.We were at another family party; this time, it was being held at Catalina's house and not in a living room. This was a celebration in style: Aunt Chia's birthday.Belinda, Catalina's friend and part-time employee was there, of course. She was the one I saw.An unhinged grimace furrows my face at the memory of her. A huge front yard, surrounded by pots hanging on the walls. At the end, a roof strategically covered the porch of the house. It was a structure similar to the home of my boyfriend's parents, with the difference that this space was located in the back of the house.After smoking, I sat a little away from the two of them, Nikko and Belinda, in chairs just behind theirs. They had been sharing a conversation for too long that, studying their body language, seemed to hold a halo of mystery that almost drove me crazy. Wha

Every time I recall the vicissitudes of my destiny, I feel pressure, and my abilities slow down. It was so stupid! I didn't know how to handle living so close to Maël and I regret the thousand foolish things I thought of telling him, or the catastrophic scenarios I imagined with him, so sure I would come up with something good or to his liking.Something bad was happening to me, I was caught between the enormous desire to leave and the strange desire to stay and see everything. To see, to see, to see... to be seen too, to be seen by "him". I wanted to study him, to channel his way of living and being. He was already old; he was a man who looked older than he was, and I was nervous about his proximity, although I was always hiding that nonsense. I think that the enormous curiosity to know the source of his energy was what kept me with anxiety inside Nikko's new house. I had to go back to Braga and lock myself away, to get away completely, giving the best excuse of the year. But when