As days passed by, everything started to go back to how it was before. Akira wasn't the one training me anymore, instead there was a really careful Vanni, who would apologize every time he got too close to hit me or eventually did.
The day of the ball that they have talked about was getting closer. Akira had asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her and Yoru, since all three of us had to buy new clothes.
I agreed and today was the day that we were going out, the first time I see Yoru after the motivational speech in my garden.
Deciding to pick some clothes that aren't hard to take off since we're going to have to try new ones, I take a simple dress from the closet. Placing it over my body it looks like it's going to go great, also I take some black books to compliment the outfit.
When I was finally ready, I walked downstairs to find Akira and Yoru sitting on the couch, Akira sitting straight while Yoru was taking the rest of the space left, while they're eating M&Ms and chatting.
"Ready?" Akira asked as she was going to stand up but was pulled by Yoru before she could.
"Let me finish the M&ms first, we'll go next." Akira sighed and I simply nodded, taking in that food was a priority to Yoru.
I didn't even mind thinking about how they got in, at this point I just know that people who are trustworthy are able to come in whenever they want to. Making myself take away the thought that people who would want to kill me can also come in.
Papa walked in, greeting Akira and stopping for a second when he noticed Yoru laying down.
"Yoru Takahashi," Papà said as he stopped his tracks next to the couch.
"The one and only," she sat up straighter. "Francisco Salvatore."
Did they know each other?
"Long time no see." Father smirks softly as his eyes seem to get to a darker shade, the blue one looking almost as dark as his brown one. "You're making good friends, figlia." He turns to me with a soft smile before walking away once more.
Probably he's going to disappear into the house and I won't spot him for another week, actually I think he is making this on purpose...
"You know my father?" I ask Yoru as she goes back into her original position on the couch.
"Yeah we worked together once or twice." Yoru shrugged.
"With once or twice, you mean like five times or more." Akira points out with an amused expression on her face. "And all of those times you were as excited as the last time to work with a Salvatore."
"T-that is n-not true!" Yoru struggles to say as her mouth is filled with chocolate and her cheeks are now in a soft shade of pink.
"Why would you be so excited to work with my father?" I ask, tilting my head to the right.
Akira and Yoru stop and look at me, as if I had made the most stupid question in the world, which did feel like I did when the silence filled in for more than a couple of seconds.
"Well-" Akira starts, probably trying to put things in a smoother way but is interrupted by Yoru.
"You're father it's like- the best killer ever," She says excitedly. "And just like me, he smiles when he kills."
I didn't have words to say, since my throat looked like it had been closed by force and I almost wasn't able to breathe. Giovanni had already said somethings about my father but I simply chose to ignore them and don't believe anything that left his mouth.
Now it was also Yoru, complimenting his way of killing and smiling right after, the same thing that she did.
The conversation eventually gained another topic thanks to Akira, she must have noticed how unused I still was with all of these things and talking about it wasn't really the best thing to do.
Yoru finally finished her M&Ms and stood up quickly, walking to the door and after, to the car that was parked outside.
. . .
We finally reached the mall and Yoru was the first one to get out of the car. She was like an excited 5-year-old who was going to buy all the candy in the world, not even being sure how much it was but the sound of it made her jump in joy.
I wondered if they had to cover their faces when they came out but they didn't. Yoru wasn't trying to hide her presence as she spoke out loud and expressed some things through noises instead of words, making the people around us look at the scene. Akira was just walking carelessly with her hands on the pockets as she looked at Yoru, making sure she wasn't going to break anything or bump into anyone.
As we walked into the first store, Yoru couldn't look more like a child who wanted everything and Akira like their mother who was impatiently waiting for Yoru to decide something. It made me chuckle slightly, the scene in front of me showed that they had been friends for a while now and got along well.
After a couple of time, we reached the conclusion that this store didn't have anything that could be used for the ball.
"We could simply ask for dresses and they would make them," Akira points out, starting to realize that she is going to have to stay here for a while now.
"Yeah I know, that's what we did last year but this time I want to look for one that people can look at but can't buy, one that looks ravishing and so close to the touch but yet so far away." Yoru speaks, sometimes she sounds like she's high...
"Don't need to make a whole philosophy thing about it, it's just a dress." Akira chuckles.
"Doing this is my thing, so deal with it." She shrugs and walks into another store, me and Akira following behind, simply letting Yoru lead the way.
We wandered around the store for a while before suddenly Yoru started making a lot of noises, which caught our attention.
"We forgot to tell her," She spoke, looking at Akira who looked quite confused until realization hit her a couple of seconds after.
"Tell me what?"
"You have to wear a black dress." She simply said, picking up the colorful dresses that were on my arm and only leaving one that was black.
"Okay..." I nod slowly, trying to understand why I couldn't wear other colors while they could. "But why?"
"Because you are a Salvatore, therefore you will also have a crown that I already picked up." She lifts the black and silver crown that had a lot of onyxes on its corners. "And also because you're going with Giovanni, so you have to wear a black dress." She continues.
"Wait-" I try to put my thoughts into words. "So you're telling me that because of my last name I have to wear a crown?" Yoru nods. "And because I'm going with Giovanni I have to wear a black dress?" She nods again. "So if I wasn't going with him, I could wear any other color?"
"Yes, but still had to wear the crown tho." She nods once more.
"What is the deal with dressing black if I'm going with him?" I ask, trying to burn the feeling of curiosity that was being built inside of me. What was the whole deal with wearing black just because of him?
"You'll find out on the day." She says before pushing me to the dressing room, where she takes the dress that I had picked and gives me a new one that of course was also black.
It had some silver details so it matched the crown, while the rest of the dress was made with different shades of black, some slightly lighter than others.
The dress was actually quite beautiful and I wasn't disappointed by it when I put it on my small figure, it made me look like I had curves that never existed in me and the skirt of the dress was gracefully sliding behind me.
I got out of the dressing room to show Yoru and Akira how the dress fit me, putting on the crown as well just for them to see it.
"OMG YOU LOOK AMAZING!" Yoru yelled, making some other people in the store look at her, also causing me to blush slightly, from the compliment but also from the attention that was brought to us.
"You truly do." Akira says camly, she had already picked her dress as well but didn't feel like trying it on, simply trusting that the fabric would fit her body.
"Giovanni is gonna faint just from seeing how gorgeous you are, and a lot of other men and women will too." Yoru smirks, winking at me as she speaks.
"I-"
"He'll probably get jealous of every other person that looks at you," Akira interrupts me, looking at Yoru while softly nodding. "Anna, you try to control the man so that he doesn't kill anyone in that ball."
"Yeah that's my job." Yoru whispers.
"But how? And why?-" A lot of questions were being built up in my head and none of them was truly making sense, I wasn't even sure if it was english that came out before Yoru answered.
"I don't know husky, just do your thing and calm the kid down, and I think you might already know why." She shrugs.
"I hate seeing these couples that like each other but won't do shit." Akira rolls her eyes. WHAT?! "Instead they'll just blush and be shy, all lovey-dovey, like Anna is right now."
My cheeks felt like they were burning, not only from talking about Giovanni but also for her mentioning us as a couple. I know that I'm having feelings for him but I had never imagined us as a couple, the image doesn't seem that bad though.
I was now trying to calm down so that the light shade of pink would abandon my cheeks but instead it kept getting worse, because the girls wouldn't stop making comments about it.
After a while they finally stopped and we were leaving the store with my dress and crown, Akira's dress and an impatient Yoru who just wanted to find a pretty dress that she could take to the ball.
We entered the third store and Yoru laid eyes on a red dress, blood red dress, she absolutely fell in love with it and took it the second her hands were able to touch it. She tried it on and it really complimented her curves, it had a slip on her right leg letting her light-skinned leg to be shown through the huge skirt.
"Now she is probably going all matchy-matchy with Stefano." Akira whispered to me before Yoru joined us again, her eyes focused on her phone as she walked with the bag where her dress was in.
"I'm going to send Stefano a picture of the dress so that he will match with me." She said, causing me and Akira to start laughing.
At this moment life felt normal once more, just shopping with girlfriends and having fun with each other. I wish that everyday could be like this again. But on the other side, if I never got to this side of the world, I wouldn't have met any of these people that I'm friends with today.
A part of me is slightly thankful for being here and meeting them, me, Yoru and Akira get along pretty well and I'm sure that our friendship is only going to grow more. And me and Giovanni might be something.
The other part is simply begging for a normal life, the normal life that I never really got since I've been in a softer train ever since I was little and never had a lot of friends since I was home-schooled, I think that my parents were scared to let me out without anyone to help me if shit went wrong.
Well I guess that this is how I'm going to live my life from now on, and I'm not sad about it.
last chapter in 2021...
happy new years babes <3