Chapter 3
Aliyana
12 years ago
Blank spaces in a tale are sometimes
Necessary when someone is lying
"Mero, Micky!" Gabriel yells as Ren, and we stand by the door of their tech-class with our backpacks, waiting. Bunking last period wasn't the best decision we were making today, with finals approaching soon. We were all accepted into UW about a week ago. Since receiving our acceptance letters, Gabriel had not lifted a book to study.
I informed my friend finals were still a big part of getting in. To say he didn't care was the understatement of the year. Neither of them has cared, well apart from Ren. He was always in the books. I knew he got accepted to Harvard. Why he turned it down to come here was beyond my understanding. He swore to me that he will do two years here, then fuck off to Harvard.
He was the better one, smart and funny. I wanted more for him.
"I am done with Matteo fucking Di Salvo, why couldn't he stay in England like a good fuck boy?" Gabriel states as he walks out with Mero and Michel joining us. His face is flushed, his eyes are small and promising death. This is the thing about having only male friends. There was too much testosterone, and though I knew for a fact that Matteo pushed his buttons, Matteo wasn't as bad as Gabriel made him out to be.
I wonder what the others would do if they knew Ren and Matteo were friends. It was a secret I was keeping since I found out 6 months ago. I stumbled into the music room one day after 2nd break and I saw the two of them sitting and chatting about Quantum Physics. It shocked me. Obviously, they both decided that their broody friendship needed to be kept a secret, and I agreed. Sometimes secrets were necessary for all our sakes.
"Because pussies don't know how to stay in one place," Michel responds, sliding his hand through his gelled brown hair. He is the shorter of the four boys and the most muscular now. He filled out these last 8 months.
"That pussy better be careful," Mero says as we all laugh. But my gaze goes to Ren, who didn't find it funny. And although he laughs, I know, like me, he is just laughing for no reason at all but to appease his friends.
"So where to? We should sneak Yana into the gentlemen's bar again. That was funny," Ren suggests, earning him a smack on his arm in response. The sneaking part wasn't much fun when I had to creep in through the men's bathroom window. It also wasn't fun when I walked in on my history teacher half-naked. I try to think of the name I said when he asked me who I was.
Gabriel puts his arm over my shoulders, reminding me of how short I am and how tall he is. A reminder that I was also a girl, a Made-Man's daughter, who was breaking a million rules by just allowing him to put his arm over my shoulders. Skipping school and the rest was a lot of frosting on a flat cake, even for me. I tried to hide it, but in the end, my sanity won and I slipped my Papa a text when I went to the bathroom. I was after all my father's daughter.
He responded with a thumbs up. Which was his way of saying, we will talk about it later and telling him was good. Yes, a thumbs-up said a lot when it came from my father.