THE CRYSTAL HOUSE

¶Dreams¶

October 24th

Chiara

Halfway through her cooking, Chiara removed the food from the gas and disposed it. She knew her lack of focus would affect the taste of the food, and right now she couldn't stomach anything that was less than perfect. She picked up a can of Springles and went upstairs to take a break, as well as gather her thoughts in silence and calm.

It seemed like Mareike's incident had opened up a path for other events, which the other girls had not hesitated to fill her in on and this gave her mixed feelings.

She wasn't surprised to learn from Priya that Femi had abilities of his own and he was using them to the fullest. The absurd willingness to please him made more sense but then, it couldn't be real. No one had that sort of ability and besides, if it were real he would have convinced them to leave the game earlier. Most likely, he just had a way with words.

However Ingrid's story made her sad and angry. Apparently, the sweet words and doe eyes from Marcello to her friend were for show, all he wanted was another conquest which meant he was just toying with Mareike. To think she was shipping for them, her friend seemed excited about it and their names suited so well. How didn't she see it coming?Her psychology lecturer would be disappointed in her if he knew.

However, the bigger problem was to convince Mareike that the guy wasn't what he seemed. Chiara could feel her face heat up as she glared at the guy flirting with her friend while she smiled at him, enamoured and swept away by the attention he was showering on her. She was still too innocent and sheltered for this, and the jerk took advantage.

The stupid jerk wasn't even that good looking. Leo had better looks and a body hotter than his, and she would make Mareike see the guy for what he truly was. Chiara walked over to them and forced herself to smile.

"Mareike can you come with me? I need to show you something."

Her friend hesitated, looking up at her face for any sort of answer. She gave none and continued to stare at both of them, till she finally nodded and stood up. As they walked away, Chiara couldn't resist turning back to give Marcello an evil eye.

She dragged Mareike to a corner. "How are you feeling today?" She needed an ice breaker for what she was about to do.

The girl smiled so widely Chiara couldn't believe it was the same person who cried so much yesterday, and had to be comforted with chocolate and sparkling water.

"I feel great, Chiara. Marcello was telling me a story about his trip with his parents. It was so funny."

Chiara didn't try to fake enthusiasm. "Oh, that's nice." She replied flatly.

Mareike frowned. "You said you wanted to tell me something. Is everything alright?"

Chiara opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. How would she tell her? It would break the girl's heart, and she would have to start consoling her again. Maybe Ingrid misunderstood his words, it was difficult to process that Marcello was playing with her friend's feelings as he was very caring and sweet to her friend. Even now, he stared at Mareike's back from where he sat and she clearly saw that from where she stood.

She shook her head. "It was nothing really. I just wanted to be sure you were doing okay."

"Are you sure?" Her friend sounded skeptical, the girl already knew her well in a matter of days.

"Yes I'm sure." She wasn't but for now, she would remain quiet and observe if Ingrid was right and if it turned out to be true, only God could help Marcello.

Femi

Femi tried again. "Don't you think it'll be nice if we had some games to play or movies to watch?"