Climax King

•3.9•

As she leans in to kiss me, I immediately advert my head so her kiss lands on my cheek. Even the feeling of her lips against my skin was absolutely disgusting.

"Finny," she says in a childish whine, "Why didn't you tell me you came back to Italy?"

Her hands grasp delicately on my forearms, causing my gaze to travel to her touch. I move from her grasp and attempt to push her slightly out of my hotel room to no avail.

"How'd you find me, Chiara?" I hiss silently in hopes that Mena wouldn't hear the conversation I was about to have.

Chiara snorts and pushes her way past me, her heels clicking again the wooden floor so loudly that it made me shiver in pure disgust.

"Oh, am I interrupting something?"

"No."

"Yes," Mena and I say atthe same time although her answer was louder than my own.

"Chiara, Mena. Mena, Chiara," I sigh, introducing the two although the look of pure horror on Mena's face was clear enough that I'd fucked up.

Chiara turns to me, a fake smile decorated by her red painted lips. A Chiara signature.

"Well, Finny, I'm so glad we bumped into each other. We need to make some dinner plans," she says in the fakest voice any human could possibly have. Chiara turns to Mena and offers her the same fake smile she had to me, "All three of us, of course. Ciao, Finny, and Minnie."

As the door latches behind her, I run my hand through my hair in frustration.

"So," Mena says, finally breaking the silence, "Who was that?" She asks, letting her weight fall so her shins were flat against the bed.

"Her? Oh, an old friend," I attempt give her a reassuring smile although I'm sure I looked like an absolute fool in the process.

She raises an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. Not that I blame her in the slightest. She is rightfully so.

"Really? A friend? I'm going to need more than that, Finny."

I sigh, turning to the door in hopes that the higher power would physically drag me from this hotel room and throw me into the bottomless abyss.

"She's just an old friend, Philomena. There's nothing to worry about, okay?"

She seems taken aback by my sudden aggression, making my heart drop to my stomach.

I start my way towards her only for her to move from the bed and grab her shoes from beside her.

"I think I'll call it an early night, Finn," Mena says, not looking my way once as she walks to the door.

"Mena-" I attempt, only for her to disappear behind the wooden door.

There were so many things I wanted to tell her. So many things that I need to tell her. But there are things about me that no one needs to know. Things I'm ashamed of, things that if I could, I would change in an absolute heartbeat. But her not knowing is better for her. Better for both of us.

•———•

"I don't know, Orie. She was everything I'm not. She's cultured, probably a model of some sort, Jesus I don't know but they clearly have some history."

"Then let me give you a little history lesson, Mena," Orie says in a soft voice but so demanding that it almost gave me chills, "Once there was a girl,"

"I thought you were giving me a history lesson, not a fairytale," I point out, making her scoff loudly.

"Okay, do you want my fucking advice or not, Mena? Because it's my fairytale that has history. Don't test me," she replies. It's really only best friends who can talk to you like a real bitch at your low points, and it genuinely makes things feel better. Had anyone else put things in such an aggressive perspective, I'd have lost my actual shit.