Her Mafia Brothers

Learning

"Why would you ask that?" he asked.

"Are they?" I repeated, louder, getting angry that he wouldn't answer my question.

"Look, why don't we discuss this at home, later?"

"No! I want to know now!" I yelled. He was deliberately evading the question, and I didn't like it. "I'm a Bogiatto!" I reminded him. "I'm part of this family! I have the right to know!"

Logan stood up.

"Okay," he said, extending his hand to me. "Let's go home and we'll talk about it there. We're not causing a scene here in the cafeteria."

Logan's reply was all the answer I needed. My hand flew to my mouth and my heart plummeted. "Oh my god. They are!" I pushed him in the chest as hard as I could and he went stumbling backwards a couple of steps before he righted himself, glaring at me with the most thunderous expression I've ever seen him muster. For a few seconds, I was afraid of him. I thought he was going to hurt me.

"Think whatever you like, Carrie," he snapped at me, then turned on his heel and strode away.

I stood there in shock, unable to believe what had just happened. This morning, I'd been a normal teenage girl starting my first day at a new high school. Now, just a few hours later, my whole world had been turned upside down yet again.

"Logan, come back!" I yelled. "Answer my question!" But he ignored me, exiting the cafeteria out the rear doors and disappearing from sight.

I slumped back down in my chair, completely stunned. My friends crowded around me, but the girls who had caused all the problems in the first place were nowhere to be seen. They'd done their dirty work and disappeared. They obviously didn't want to stick around to see how it all panned out.

None of my friends spoke, at first. They all looked to be as shocked as I was.

"Wow," Kate breathed a few minutes later. "I'd heard the rumors but....." her voice trailed off as Petra glared at her.

"Not helping Kate," she said.

"So they really are in the Mafia then," I whispered, shocked, horrified, awed and terrified all at once.

"You don't know that," Lily said. "Those girls are bitches. They're just out to cause trouble. It's what they do."

"If they weren't, Logan would have said so," Frankie pointed out. "But he didn't deny it. He didn't even try to. He just avoided the question entirely."

"Yeah," Kate agreed.

Suddenly, my throat started constricting in the all-too-familiar signs of an impending panic attack, the world started closing in on me, and I knew I had to get out of there. I had to go home. I had to find out the truth.

I stood up so abruptly that my chair fell over backwards and I started running blindly, heading for the exit I'd seen Logan take previously. Just as I reached the doorway, someone grabbed me, stopping me in my tracks.

"Come on Carrie," Logan told me firmly, holding me steady, giving me a little shake. "Damon told me to bring you home."

I couldn't focus on anything, couldn't think, as Logan led me to the carpark. Frankie followed along behind with my bag, calling out to Logan to stop and take it, but he completely ignored her, intent on getting me into his car as quickly as he could, before I had a very public meltdown.

He opened the door, pushed me down into the seat, told me to put my seatbelt on, then took my bag off Frankie and threw it into the back. In a matter of seconds, we were peeling out of the parking lot at high speed, burning rubber as we went.