Sacred Silence | A Tom Riddle Story

44: Stories.

'You two are wrapped up in this torturous game of psychological warfare, and neither of you is willing to back down first,' Abraxas said as he took a bite of his sandwich.

Siobhan was sitting next to him on a few rocks that lay scattered under a big oak tree, overlooking the black lake. She sighed and glanced over at the giant squid, who's tentacles reached out of the water sporadically, throwing up rocks it had found at the bottom of the lake.
She had told Abraxas everything, except for what exactly happened at the end of the night. She just vaguely stated that they had kissed again.

'I'm forced into all of these mind games,' Shiv replied. 'I barely have time to study, O.W.L's are the last thing on my mind right now,' she groaned.

'Oh, you'll be fine,' Abraxas sighed sarcasticly. 'Don't embarrass yourself by acting like your grades aren't good enough.'

She chuckled slightly, relieved by their playful banter. She took one of the sandwiches out of the bag they had brought and took a bite.
'I suppose all that's left now is making Milo sorry for his actions,' she said, and she threw her head back in her neck and sighed in frustration, looking up at the fresh green leaves on the three's branches above.

'You have plenty of reason to want to hurt him now, Shiv,' Brax said as he shrugged. 'It's quite an easy task if you ask me. I'd love to do it for you, the fucking rat,' he almost spat the last words out.

Earlier on in their conversation, she had learned that her father had indeed reached out to most of the parents of Tom's little group. Abraxas, who had been questioned back and forth in dozens of letters with his mom, was eventually threatened with a lifelong quidditch ban. She knew how much Brax loved the sport, which made it more bearable that he told her dad about Milo and Flo's involvement.
Still, it left a little bitter taste in her mouth, reminding her that at the end of the day, she truly only had herself to rely on.

'I have no issues with hurting Milo,' she said flatly. She truly didn't, not anymore at least. He had snitched on her to her dad, when he very well knew her relationship with him was less than cold.

She had spoken to Flo, who told her that Dorian had written her a letter several weeks ago. She admitted she didn't want to alarm Shiv, so she just threw the letter away and didn't write back. She had no idea Milo had received the same letter nor that he had replied. Shiv had to trust Flo on this one, since there was no way to prove different.

'I just need to figure out how to do it without hurting Flo. But that's impossible, because she cares about him. I'm just, my head isn't properly working because there's so much going on, and I can't focus on 1 thing for too long or I go crazy and feel like I'm forgetting about all of the other things on my to do list,' Shiv started to ramble.

Abraxas put a hand on her shoulder. 'Slow down there, you're blurring your words,' he chuckled. 'I know it's a lot. I can't even imagine. My brain is exploding and I'm not even half as involved.'

She stared at the castle in the distance and sighed. 'I'll.. figure something out.' She always did.

'Where's the rest of the little gang?' She asked a little mockingly, trying to distract herself.

Brax fished his sandwich and clapped his hands together a few times to get rid of the crumbs.
'Tom is studying in the library, skipped lunch again, saw him carrying out some books in a language I don't understand. Anthony and Rome are in detention, again. They need to eat their lunch in the common room for two weeks because they kept starting food fights with each other. Rosalind and Anthony broke up again, so she's not talking to any of us right now, cause we still hang out with Tony.'

She was tempted to ask about the last pair, but she was more intrigued by the mentioning of the books Tom was carrying.
'How many languages does he know now?' Shiv asked, looking up at Abraxas sideways.