Celeste's childhood wasn't something she loved talking about. It was filled with nothing but painful memories. Whether they were the ones from when her father, along with her brothers, left, or the ones from her mother's death and her stepfather's a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
FAINT CHATTERS hung upon the air and blended along with the deafening scraping of chairs across the polished tiles of the cafeteria. Laughter erupted from a table to my right. A loud shriek of excitement filled my ears from the table to my left.
Students walked in and out through the doors. Some were on their own; others were with whom I assumed to be their friends. Some would cast a glance in the direction of the table I had occupied along with my biological brothers, and others wouldn't even bother to do that.
Ever since we had walked in, around ten minutes earlier, I had noticed the evident change in Dante's demeanor. His entire body had tensed. His gaze would flicker to the doors every other moment, as though he were waiting for a specific person to walk through them. He twisted the loose string of his jacket around his finger, over and over again, just like he had done in the morning, and he barely paid attention to whatever Marco had told him.
My twin eventually stopped talking and fell into silence. His gaze dropped to his hands as he began to swirl his food around, not eating any of it. His leg bounced up and down beneath the table, and he repeatedly blinked, sighing deeply. Heavily. Like this had happened so many times in the past.
"Do you wanna go out?" I quietly asked, my voice gaining his attention.
Marco's gaze flickered to mine, and he blinked once more, seemingly snapping out of the thoughts his mind had gotten trapped within. He stopped swirling his food around as he smiled a little. "Yes, of course. I don't mind it."
A grin identical to his appeared on my face, and I swiftly let my eyes scan over the entire cafeteria in an attempt to find Enzo among the students scattered across its corners.
When I saw no traces of him, I sighed. I inhaled and exhaled. Sharply. I felt my lungs burn and my heart race against my ribcage. Dread flooded every vessel of mine, and I only hoped that Lorenzo wouldn't break his promises once more.
I scanned over the cafeteria for one last time, just to make sure that he wasn't here before I got to my feet and grabbed my bag from the table it had been resting on. My throat bobbed as I nervously gulped, and my stomach twisted in knots when I allowed a massive number of possibilities to bounce across my mind's surface.
"Where are you going?" I heard my oldest brother ask, just when I was about to walk away along with Marco. A tad of confusion was evident within his voice, indicating that he hadn't paid any attention to what Marco and I had said only a few moments earlier.
"We're going out," I informed him, my tone calm, a complete contrast to the panic growing within my chest and the waves crashing at the back of my mind.
"Scott came?" Something about Dante's tone told me that he already knew the answer, that he only spoke in order to start a conversation or to perhaps get rid of his thoughts.
I shook my head a no, failing to conceal my disappointment away from sight. I quickly looked away once my eyes began to burn and told myself that Enzo would be alright, that he wouldn't break his promises this time.
