Letters to the Sea | Luca x Alberto and Giulia x OCs | Chaos and Free Advice

A Quiet Punching Bag

"Well Ercole's cousin goes here and those two are peas in a pod." Andrea nodded casually toward a girl who was cackling with her friends.

That witch!

"Thank-you, Andrea." Alberto started walking over to them.

"Wait! I didn't say it was her, just that it could be!" Andrea called after,

But the music was swelling and loud. Alberto could not hear him. But it's not like Andrea could stop him anyway.

"Hey." Alberto greeted Ercole's cousin casually, acting like nothing was wrong.

"Hi?" Was her response. She proceeded to ignore him and tried to go back to talking with her friends.

"Are you Ercole's cousin by any chance?" Alberto asked, making sure this was the right girl.

"Who's asking?" She asked, a tone of distaste evident.

"Alberto. Alberto Scorfano. You might have heard of me. I'm pretty famous at this school." He waved a hand through hair proudly, the other hand sitting on his waist.

"Oh, right. You're one of the fish boys. Now I still don't care."

Passive aggressive--

"You know," Alberto started, "I am sure there is some tragic back story as to why you treat others like dirt beneath your feet, but frankly I am not interested in hearing it, because I already pity you."

"Excuse me?" She asked, clearly confused.

"That's right. You picked on my friend and that is not cool. Now you have to deal with me."

"Giulia?" She asked, "Sure we didn't get along a few years back, but we're okay now. Well- I thought we were."

Alberto froze. Ercole's cousin barely knew a thing about Luca but now he was starting new beef between Giulia and this girl!

"No, no, no. I didn't mean to-" He tried to apologize,

"Don't apologize." She said, "Though it is kind of sad that a sea monster is able to be more frank and direct than a human. Tell Giulia I got the message."

"Uhh..." Alberto was lost and looked over his shoulder to see Luca at the punch bowl. Maybe he could get him to help resolve this. But Luca was not there.

Alberto started scanning the room and saw no sign of his friend. Alberto began to feel terrible. He had been invited but this was supposed to be Luca's night and it was so evident that Luca was miserable.

Alberto sighed in defeat. Who said there was a bully? There could be multiple. Alberto left the dance hall and proceeded to explore the school, looking for his friend. Every, now and then something would catch his eyes for a few seconds but he would mutter to himself to continue forward.

Alberto was able to clear upstairs, not seeing him.

Maybe he is with Giulia and Andrea- wherever those two were.

When Alberto got to the bottom of the east set of stairs, a glow on the ceiling caught his eye. It looked like there was a reflection of water and rippling lights. Alberto continued forward, confused but thrilled at the notion of a body of water being in this place.

He opened the double doors and he now stood on concrete. In the middle of the large room, a rectangular shape of water. It smelled a bit odd and Alberto didn't feel like jumping in.

That is until he saw what looked like a body in the bottom corner of the pool.

He's alone. No, no, no.