Beyond the lies

Chapter 10

Perhaps it was about her mother, in which case Sofia didn't care much.

"Go ahead."

He grinned, "well for starters, how comes nobody's ever heard of you before? I heard you were kept on a private island your whole life!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, "I lived somewhere else with my mother until she died from an accident and then I came to live here with my brothers."

It was definitely not the answer the boy had expected.

His eyes became wide and round as his jaw dropped, "shit, Sofia I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine."

He groaned as he pulled at his hair, "no it's not fine, I'm such a bad friend. I should've listened to Vera and waited until you felt comfortable to tell us."

At the same moment, Vera appeared with a bunch of coloured paper and stationery in one hand, and used to other to smack Martin in the head. It shocked Sofia, who hadn't expected the timid girl to do such a thing.

"And that Martin, is why you should try and take my advice every now and then."

Martin looked down glumly, and Vera dumped the stuff on the table and sat beside Sofia and started to apologise fervently to her.

"You guys...I really didn't mind talking about it."

The two glanced at her in confusion.

"In fact, I'd prefer it if you guys told the others at lunch too, since I have to leave early and won't be able to."

Vera was the first to speak, "you really don't need to force yourself."

"No, really. I...I want to.

The resolve in her voice made the two friends stop arguing with her.

"You mean...you don't regret telling us?"

Sofia looked at Martin, then Vera and blushed. She looked down and shook her head, "I don't want it to be public news exactly, but you guys are fine. Because you're my f-friends."

The next thing to happen was the two throwing their arms around the flustered girl and breaking into laughter, happy that their friend was warming up to them. Once that was over, doing the poster became no big deal and the three managed to finish in time.

Eventually lunch came and she went to reception, where she found a smiling Luca waiting for her. He took her to where he parked another one of the family's expensive cars and got in.

"Luca."

"Yes?"

She had been slightly disappointed that she could not sit with her friends for longer, so decided to ask about it. "How comes Mel can't come after school ends?"

Luca scrunched his nose, muddled, before he realised who she was talking about.

"Oh, you mean the officer? Apparently she's got more work in the evening so she'll leave once her work here's done."

"Right."

"Also, I called in today about you not doing any sort of exercise for a while..."

"Yeah, the teacher told me."

"Ok then."

Luca looked at his sister dejectedly, a tad bit disappointed that he couldn't have better conversations with her. Just what had Maria done to that cheerful girl?

His thoughts came and went and served as a good way to pass time until they reached home. 

"The officer's waiting in the lounge near the music room. She said she wanted to speak with you alone."