Finding Sophie

Chapter 20

I rushed down to the kitchen quickly. I also mentally try and prepare a reply to the inevitable question which she will surely ask me when I get back upstairs. She's going to want to know why or how I know so much.

As I suspected the second I get back to the room she asks me, "So how do you know how to treat my wound? It's not a typical everyday thing for someone to know things about so you better tell me. Don't even try and lie or make something up because if I'm going to be in this with you then I need to know everything."

I proceed to tell her everything from my little sister to my father and how he left us. The reason I know how to deal with bruises from punches is from the many times I had to treat my mum as she sat on the floor of our living room sobbing. After about twenty minutes of me just talking to her I stop and pause to give myself a drink. Every time I tell someone else it makes it seem so much more normal. I know most of my past still haunts me in ways which I hope to rid as soon as I can but telling people has almost made it better.

"Wow, that wasn't what I was expecting. I could tell there was something but honestly, you've shocked me. I could never even imagine having gone through something like that."

"This might sound crazy but I feel like somehow Emilia is related to all of the things that have happened. It's probably crazy but I just have a gut feeling." Although it sounds weird to admit it's basically been there since I've met her and I really need to stop ignoring all the signs.

Being proactive about things Stella says, "we need to start some sort of planning. Just trying to find out info on someone randomly will never be successful. I guess the best place we can start by finding out information is on some form of social media. But, we need to be very careful so that she doesn't suspect us so maybe create a fake account."

"I guess all of that sounds really reasonable. Honestly, this scares me so much because who knows what we'll find. I know this might seem strange since I was the one who proposed the idea in the first place but, I really need some time to just figure everything out. A lot has happened to me in the past couple of weeks and it's hard to take it all on without it overwhelming me. I hope that's okay. I also think it would be better if you recovered a bit before we started doing anything."

She nods understandingly at me and without saying another word leaves the room. She must have this crazy trust in me or knows a little bit of how I feel. Either way, I am glad to be alone.

I pick up my phone planning to just sit and scroll through mind-numbing things on social media but pause when I spot Will's name. I suddenly realise that in all the crazy things that have happened to me I haven't had a chance to talk to him or ask him how he's been doing. Without thinking too much about it I hit call and listen to the dull ringing tone.

As usual, he doesn't pick up until it almost rung out, luckily I get greeted with a friendly tone.

"Fancy this, well how are you doing there Nat?" He replies being a joker as usual.

I try hard to suppress a giggle and reply with, "well funnily enough I miss you, honestly it's not great here but I don't think now is quite the right time to go into all that. I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to talk to you lately it's been crazy but don't worry I definitely missed you."

"Oh well, I hope it's all alright, and please don't get all soppy I can't deal with that right now." Unsurprisingly he also adds under his breath, "it's hard enough in person."

"I heard that."

"Maybe I intended for you to." He replied with a mocking tone. "Anyway, I miss you too."

"How's traveling the world going, where are you now?"

"It's better than I could ever have imagined. The greatest thing is I have made more money than I ever have in my life so I'm pretty comfortable at the moment. At the moment I'm in Italy. I decided to just travel Europe because it's beautiful and a bit closer to home. I can't begin to tell you about the amazing people I have met along the way. In a way, I'm glad I had no leading purpose for me because I would never have experienced all this and that would have been such a shame. I just wish you were here with me so we could do all this together." He says excitedly and I could almost imagine the way his eyes would light up as they did when he talked about something he was passionate about.

"I wish I could've come with you as well. At least one of us got to carry out our dream though. I'm sure one day I will experience it of a sort."

"I know you said not today but I want to hear about all this stuff that's been stressing you out—"

"—It has not been stressing me out." I cut in with.

"There's no point trying to lie to me I can always tell. Remember your secrets are always our secrets." He replies laughing at my attempt to stop him from prying.

"Okay but it's very long-winded and just a little crazy. If you're up for it I will tell you but you have to listen to all of what I'm going to say before you make any sort of judgment or reply." I say now with quite a serious tone behind my voice.

"I swear I will listen to every last detail before making my humble opinion known." He says teasing me.

"It's not a joke, I need to know you're going to be mature about this otherwise I just won't tell you." I scold.

"Okay, I am going to behave."

I proceed to tell him everything that has happened during my crazy couple of weeks here. Every so often he makes some weird sort of strangled gasping noise as if something shocks him. I shouldn't be surprised if all this is shocking him because it's almost fictional all these things that keep happening to me.