Chiara Rose

quarantuno

tw - mention of eating disorders (quite graphic) and drug use. please be aware there will be no trigger warning right before the scenes, so please be careful <3

Chiara's POV

I was the first Bernardi to go back to school. I went back the Monday after Dad's funeral, and my family thinks I'm bonkers. Tino and Gi sat down and gave me a big chat how it was okay for me to stay home and take time for myself. Which is bizarre, considering neither of them having taken a single day off yet.

As of right now, I'm the only Bernardi at school, it's Tuesday and no one has came to join me. I came back for a few reasons though.

One is every second I stayed at home, in that house, the closer my mental health was to imploding. It's like I was waiting for Dad to walk in to the room I was in, or for him to say something random over the intercom. Every time I saw my brothers, they looked sad and I was reminded of how it was all my fault.

I was still getting over the fact we had an intercom as well.

Another reason is I was petrified of falling behind, and possibly having my grade drop. I thrived off of academic validation, so there was no way I was letting that happen. I mean yeah the teachers were giving me and the rest of my brothers time and extensions. But in case you didn't know, I don't like pity, and I saw those extensions as pity.

That is why I'm sitting in the library, like I do every free period I have. Most of the time Emilio or Carlo will join me, since they're the only two that have a free at this time. But Carlo isn't at school, and I don't know what Emilio is doing. I think I saw him today, but I'm not sure.

I'm working on a history assignment, we had to chose a country and look at their history. So naturally, I chose Australia considering I knew a fair amount of it. I couldn't be fucked making a hand made poster, so I was making a pretty Canva one. Most of the effort was going into the prettiness, not the actual information. I'll do the information later, I don't have that mental capacity right now, but I always have the capacity to make things pretty.

I was trying to decide on whether to change the suggested title font, or to be creative and do it my own way. That was until someone ripped my AirPod out of my ear, I was really getting into "The Last Time" By Taylor Swift and Gary Lightbody.

I was preparing myself to yell at whoever did it, but then I turned to find Emilio squinting down at my screen.

"Do the other one." He shrugs and takes the seat besides me, what if someone was sitting in that seat? I stare at him in astonishment, he pulled my AirPods out and told me that Canva's font choice was better than mine. How rude.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He says, scrunching his nose up and slouching back in his chair.

"Fuck off." I say, and snatch my AirPod out of his hand. I end up putting both of them back in their case, because I get the feeling he isn't going to be leaving anytime soon.

"That is inappropriate language." He says, and I let out a very loud snort.

"Says the one who wanted to grab my ass in church." I scoff, and then a sly smirk comes over his face.

"Do you want me to grab it now? Say the words and I'll happily do it." He says a big smile on his face and I pray that my cheeks aren't as red as they feel.

"Just friends Milo." I mutter, and try to turn my attention back to my assignment. Key word; try.

"Friends touch each others asses all the time." He says, this kid really want to touch my ass doesn't he?

"Not friends of the opposite gender." I sigh, and run a hand over my face, trying to tell him that he's getting on my nerves. But he's an oblivious idiot, so of course he doesn't get it.