PARIAH

Sleeping

Chapter 13

"Vico," I plead. "Please, tell me you didn't know about this."

He avoids my gaze and that can only mean one thing. I turn to the other people around me standing in what I used to comfortably call my room.

"Please, tell me this isn't true and you all aren't as sick as I think you are."

They all ignore me and that can only mean one thing.

6 HOURS PRIOR

"So, how was China?"

I munch on my waffles across the table from Vico and Maria. She has been filled with questions since we've come back. I just think she might have been lonely these past few days especially with Sofia's void that I think she now feels more than ever.

"Really good," Vico starts after he's swallowed his bite of waffles. "It was a bumpy ride, but I think we patched it up pretty quickly."

I don't say anything, but I nod. The coldness between Vico and I is almost completely gone. After having seen Carl and Nathan, I am in a much better mood and I've basically forgotten about the whole James Arthur-David Parks situation.

"It was a lot of fun to see a new part of the world," I add.

"Yeah, cause we got to see so much of it, huh?"

I laugh and turn towards Maria. "Hmm, yeah, we didn't see much. Air pollution doesn't help either," I add with a sad and kind of cynical laugh. Climate change is real!

She laughs. "I'm glad to hear you didn't have a horrible time."

"Did you, Maria? Here?"

She shakes her head as she looks down at her egg sandwich. She decided to be the normal one out of the three of us and not eat breakfast for lunch.

"Ay, it wasn't great. I had to go to Sofia's funeral."

"I can't imagine how hard that must have been on you," Vico starts with a hand on Maria's shoulder. "Did you have anyone go with you?"

She shakes her head. "That was the hard part. I went all alone and I had to explain to the few people she had there for her that I was the one to spend the past few months with her. And I still had no idea what had happened to her."

The look they both share makes my mind go off on a tangent. Maria has recently felt a deeper void in her life and I get that she probably feels the need to fill it. Honestly, what I see unfolding in front of me seems more like a mother-son relationship, if anything. It's a mutualistic one too since Vico never had a mother figure in his life. I am all for it honestly.

As we continue eating, Fiona walks into the kitchen only wearing an over-sized T-shirt.

"Well, hello to you too," I taunt with a chuckle.

"Enjoying the view, I see," she says as she bends into the fridge. She turns around with some milk in hand and she ignores all the cooks' weirded out glances.

"Nathan's absence might be changing the direction of your love, if you know what I mean," she says making me almost choke on my food. This girl is too much.

Vico starts laughing. "Honey, your ego is bigger than this country."

"Yeah, cause if anyone is gonna change who I am attracted to, it's definitely going to be you, Fiona," I add.