Sorellina | ✔️

Chapter Nineteen

Emilio walks into the school not even 10 minutes later, I'm still standing by the classroom door.

"Hey, Maddie, how are you feeling?"

I'm still shaking slightly, but I've tried every tactic to start to calm down. None of them seem to help much. "I'm okay," I lie. He pulls me into his side, "Are you ready to go?" He asks.

"My stuff is still in the classroom," I say.

"Stand here, I'll get it, okay?"

He walk down the hall and into the classroom Xander disappeared into. He re-emerges 5 minutes later with the bookbag and a warm smile. "Come on," He leads me out of the school and I climb into the back of his car and we drive back to the mansion.

"What about Carlo and Xander?" I say cautiously. Mostly I'm just scared of what Xander is gonna do to Mr. Jackson.

"Xander brought his car, remember?"

I suddenly wish it was illegal o get your license at 17. If he hurts Mr. Jackson, I'm gonna feel like it's my fault, and then what if something else happens to him? What if Mr. Jackson does something to me in his anger.

I sit at the kitchen table shaking as he prepares food. He lets me watch him prepare the hot chocolate so I can watch everything he puts in it before sliding it over to me.

I take a shaky sip from the mug and I can feel the warmth spreading and it slightly helps the small tremble. In that moment, he reminded me so much of Daniel, my mind wouldn't connect with my body, it went back to that old basement in Seattle.

"You heard me?" Emilio asks gently.

I snap back into reality, "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," He reassures, "Tomorrow is Saturday. Is there anything you want to do?"

I start to pull the flyer for the hockey team out of my bag but am interrupted when the front door opens and Xander walks into the house, he has his hand dug into his pocket, his other hand slams the front door shut. I watch him closely until he walks away and is out of sight.

"Well?" Emilio prods, clearly trying to take my attention away from Xander.

"Nothing," I say quietly. I realize how everything I get involved in ends up being a problem. It seems to be the universe telling me I don't deserve everything I'm being given.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I just...I need to recover, you know?" I say with a false note of surety.

Later, as I'm in bed, my phone rings with a call from Elijah, I pick it up. "Hey, Maddie, How're you feeling?" He asks.

"I'm okay," I lie.

"I know when you're lying," He says softly, "What's bothering you?"

For a small moment, just a second, I consider opening up to him. But immediately think better of it.

"Nothing, I'm just tired. Do you mind if I go to sleep?" I ask. I'm trying to end the call as fast as I can. I feel guilty, I just can't explain why. I don't want to talk to him like that, especially with Mr. Jackson's injuries on my hands, possibly his blood. It makes me sick even thinking about it.

"No, I don't mind. I'll talk to you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay," I say quietly, hanging up first.

I cry myself to sleep.

I stand at the marble counter, my hand trembles as I stare at the glass of water on the counter.

"Where is my water?!" Daniel's demanding voice reverberates through the house from the living room. I stand there, unable to pull my eyes away from the glass of water.

I hear Daniel's footsteps getting closer and closer, my heart slams against my chest. I panic, afraid he'll see the jersey I forgot to take off before I left practice. The panic paralyzes me, I know there's no way I can leave the kitchen before he sees it.

His footsteps are so close, I can hear him breathing now.

I snap out of the frozen state I was in and grab the glass quickly. In my rush, I hit Daniel's mug off the counter and onto the floor.

The shards scatter, I spin around toward the door and my eyes catch Daniel's and the pure unfiltered rage in his eyes. He bends down wordlessly and pick a huge shard of glass up off the floor, "You're gonna pay for that."

I wake up in a cold sweat. I swallow to try and take hold of my breath. I climb shakily out of my bed and walk out into the dark hallway. I stand there unsurely for a moment, shaking from the nightmare, the dark hallway not helping.

Carlo's door opens up and he spots me standing in the doorway of my room. I catch his eyes.

I'm grateful when he doesn't comment on the obvious state I'm in, shaking, sweating, and teary-eyed.

"Can't sleep?" He asks.

I shake my head warily. He steps aside, gesturing for me to come into his room.

I walk down the hall, and into his room. It's huge and the warm lamp and warm color palette eases me slightly, "Can I sit down?" I ask quietly.

He nods, walking back over to his desk.

I sit there, looking around. His room is tidy, the walls are a warm white color, kind of tan. There's an easel over to the side of the room, the painting is amazing. It's a hand holding a skull, there's flowers blooming out of the top of the skull with water running down the sides and pooling in the hand.

I find it hard to take my eyes off the painting.

"You like it?"

I look at Carlo and realize he's watching me watch the painting. "Yes," I say.

"It's for my project at school," He says, "Life and death."

I try to stay awake and watch the movie he has quietly playing on his flat screen TV, but I find that my guard is down enough for me to doze off and before I know it, I've fallen asleep.

I feel safe.

. . .

Hi, loves!

I've been really busy with revisions and exams lately, so I've been really behind on writing chapters, and next Sunday, I might not be able to update, so there's a possibility this may be a double update week so look out for a chapter later this week!

But if not, then the week after next, I'm hoping I'll have a chapter to release.

Thank you so much for 12k+ reads (!!!!) and all the love and support. Be sure to follow so you don't miss any announcements <333