Another One (Book 3 of selection fanfics)

Chapter 30

"Liana, calm down," I tried and failed to reassure her as she paced frantically across my room.

"Don't tell me to calm down! Genevieve is going to murder me!" Liana shrieked and wrung her hands through her unbound hair. "Do you know how many times I've had to watch her flirt with him?"

"Um...a lot?" I stared at her as she waited for my answer.

"More than just 'a lot.' She was always with him and he flirted right back. And I just had to sit there and watch, pretending like I wasn't dying inside," Liana talked, mainly to herself, revealing what I could tell was probably still a sore spot in she and Sam's relationship. "And I couldn't tell her before because even Derek didn't know. And then we left and then Gen was in a coma and now..."

Liana trailed off, as if the true insanity of her situation had fully hit her. She slumped onto the floor in front of my bed. "Gen is in love with him. And I knew that and I didn't care. What kind of friend am I?"

Before I could attempt to answer her rhetorical question, the door to my room opened suddenly, shocking both Liana and I enough that we shrieked in fear and I jumped to my feet. I expected a murder to walk inside but instead I was met with two familiar, albeit confused, faces.

"Do neither of you know how to knock?" I exclaimed, my exasperation clear as I looked between Derek and Samuele's bewildered expressions. I turned to Derek in particular. "How many times have I told you that I could be showering or changing?"

"And how many times have I asked you why you would be showering or changing in the middle of the afternoon?" Derek retorted jokingly but after seeing the look on mine and Liana's face, he smiled apologetically. "Sorry."

"Wouldn't be the first time I've walked in on Liana," Sam only shrugged. "She's walked in on me at least as many or more times."

"Sam!" Liana shrieked in embarrassment, her cheeks flushed red as she picked herself up off the floor.

He only smirked, his eyes softening as she looked back at him. Unspoken words hung in the air between them, as if they were remembering some fond memory.

Derek cleared his throat, looking anywhere but our friends faces. "So, I see you two have caught up."

I exchanged a glance with Liana before she pulled me into a side hug and looked at the two of them. "We have. You as well?"

The two princes nodded, exchanging a glance of their own before Samuele took a step forward. Closer to me. His caramel colored eyes stared into mine and I could sense some sort of sorrow buried deep inside of him. He wrung his hands together and Liana stepped beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder in encouragement.

Sam placed a hand on top of hers before directing his focus back to me. "Lady Erika, I just wanted to apologize. For the way I've treated you, for what befell you and your family..."

"It's alright," I interrupted, not wanting a long winded apology that he didn't even need to give. Sure, Sam had never been overly nice to me. But I hadn't exactly given him a reason to be, either. "Really, it's fine."

He nodded, digesting what I said before taking a deep breath. "I just-I wanted to let you know that I understand what it feels like. To lose a sibling, to lose a little sister."

His words knocked my breath out of me and I struggled to find a response. I looked towards Derek, who only inclined his head to his best friend. As if to tell me that it was the Italian princes story to tell. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

"Most, like you, wouldn't know," he shrugged sadly, taking a seat on the couch, Liana's comforting hand still present on his shoulder. "When I was four, my mother gave birth to my little sister. Giulia. She was born with a genetic disorder, wasn't supposed to live past infancy. But, miraculously, she did."