Chapter Thirty – What the hell happened?

Chapter Thirty – What the hell happened?
MALIA 

No matter which class I intended to take, if Isabella was not in the same class, I would feel Sofia's or Marcos' eyes on me until I stepped into the next classroom. 
Lia, being her usual impatient self, keeps nagging that she finally wants some answers, but I keep pushing her off to lunch break.

I hate the bell for each time it chimes, bringing said lunch break closer. Instead of concentrating on class, I kept repeating the story I had to tell my friends in my head. During one of our talks, Marcello and I had worked out the details further, so our stories would match when I introduced him. 

Another thing I dreaded… Pretending to be romantically involved with Marcello. A shudder ran down my spine just thinking about it, but at the same time, I felt the heat rushing in my head and weirdly in the opposite direction as well. 

Bong. Bong. 

Time for lunch break. I sighed deeply, throwing my class materials in my bag and getting up. Isabella sat next to me, instead of her usual seat in the bag. She gave me a reassuring smile, already knowing what was going on in my head. I didn’t mind having her around, because her calm composure was infectious. 

We skipped the cafeteria and went into the backyard, where I sat on a short stone wall that surrounded a small green area with a view of the trees. Isabella went for the tree, sitting in the shadow. 

A moment later, Sofia and Marco appeared, sitting on the floor next to me, leaning on the wall like they had always been part of my inner circle. They chatted with each other, paying little mind to Isabella and me. I felt awkward but not necessarily uncomfortable. 

I opened my bag, taking out the lunchbox Claire packed, to do anything to keep myself busy till my actual friends arrived. How would I initiate a conversation with my mafia shadows?

“What do you think, Malia?” Sofia suddenly asked, looking up at me, like I had been part of their conversation all along. 

“About what?”

“What would be a more critical attack on someone, physical or cyber?”

Pretending she was asking a rhetorical question and not anything that could lead to a real attack on someone, I thought about it. 

“Depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to scare or punish someone, I would say physical. If you want to hurt their identity, you collect as much information as you can with a cyber attack.”

Marco and Sofia exchanged a look, nodding to themselves, then Sofia leaned closer to Marco and whispered, “See, this is why she is principessa material.”

Marcos’s eyes darted around cautiously, then he gave Sofia a knock on the head, glaring at her. “Just the fuck up, dude,” he whispered to himself. They kept arguing quietly but fell silent when my friends arrived.

Lia and Val moved in synch, stepping on the short wall with ease and dropping into a cross-legged seat on the grass, their trays on their lap. Mason sat down at the table close to the wall, facing us. 

“It’s lunch break. Now spill what the hell happened to you, bitch”, Lia demanded, biting into her muffin, always eating the sweets before the actual meal. 

I put my sandwich back in its box and took a big gulp of my water. 
She was right, I had no excuses anymore, not to tell them anything. 

Everyone stared at me expectantly, even Sofia and Marco, like they weren’t aware of the situation, which I was sure they were. But even though I had played through this conversation a million times, I didn’t know how to start and hesitated.

Lia raised an eyebrow at me. “Malia?”

“I have a boyfriend!” I randomly blurted out, causing Val and Sofia to simultaneously spit out the water they were drinking and fall into a coughing fit. 

Marco slapped Sofia’s back, while Lia did the same to Val, but her eyes stayed fixed on me in the shot. 

“You… what?” Lia said it in a soft tone, although it carried a cutting edge. 

Not the best way to start the conversation, it seems. 

“Ehm… I have a boyfriend and I have been kinda living with him since the weekend”, I mumbled, not even making sense to myself. “When I followed my father, I ended up at the Downside and learned that my father had some debt… To pay it off, he needs to work abroad for a while. Blaine, that’s my boyfriend, works for the company that made that possible. And I can’t stay on my own, because I am not 18 yet, so I am staying with Blaine.”

Nobody said a word; they were staring at me or into the air. Everyone was shocked—or pretended to be—by my sudden revelation. While the girls stared at me blankly, Mason looked everywhere but at me. His jaw and fists were clenched. Was he angry at me? But why?

“So, instead of coming to one of us, you get help from a boyfriend we never even heard about?” Mason asks through gritted teeth, still avoiding looking at me. “How long do you even know the guy? Because you failed to mention him before.”

“We… ehm. We’ve been seeing each other for a while now. At first I didn’t say anything, because it was so new, and then I just didn’t know how to bring it up anymore”, I said, staring down at my hands, cracking my fingers. 

“Who the heck cares! How old is he? How does he look? What kind of company does he work for? Does he have any hot bro…”, before Lia could finish her last question, Vals’ hand slapped on her mouth.

“Carter! Nice to see you,” Val greeted the guy who came closer to us, removing her hand from Lias' mouth.

“All good here, guys?” he asked, amused, looking between Lia and Val.

“All great, your girlfriend just won’t shut up about you, so I needed to quiet her down for a moment.” Val was good at coming up with stories quickly. I chuckled as I watched the silent conversation between Val and Lia, happy that Carter had diverted the attention.

Lia got up, jumped off the wall, and right into Carter’s arms. He caught her with ease. I sighed in relief, till Lia threw a glare back at me that clearly said, “We are not done here, bitch”.