Rooted from Betrayal

Chapter 9: Geovanni

For a while there was nothing but the sound of forks and knives hitting plates as everyone enjoyed their supper—well except for me because I was barely succeeding in forcing it down.

Despite being hungry after not eating anything for more than 12 hours, I found myself unable to eat properly without having the urge to gag.

Like most humans the state of my mind had a great effect on my stomach and after Antonio’s display, my mind was a mess which is why I had to focus extra hard on my plate pretending to be engrossed in the food while simultaneously fighting my nausea; not an easy feat that.

I decided to check how far everyone else was with their meals and the sight of the almost-empty plates around the table made me cringe because my plate was only half empty.

While putting another piece of roasted chicken in my mouth, I started formulating possible answers just in case one of them asked why I was taking so long to finish.

“Sane.” The sound of my nickname—the one my ‘friends’ had called me—caused me to tense before looking up.

My eyes connected with the dark hazel eyes belonging to Geovanni—the only person who had managed to ignore my existence from the moment he saw me and also one of the triplets. He had a light and arrogant air about himself that I knew had I met him in different circumstances, I would have found him a nuisance and made it a point to ignore his very existence but I did not have that luxury.

“Yes?” I replied softly but he heard.

“I’m curious, why did you choose to study medicine?” His question caught me off guard which is why I asked the question before I could even think about it.

“What?” My confusion was clear in my voice.

“A doctor, why did you want to be one?”

Everyone’s attention was on me now, whether out of interest or some other feeling I could not know but my attention remained on the triplet as I thought about the answer.

I did not want to answer because they had no right to know something so personal so I decided to give the standard answer without looking him in the eye.

“I wanted to help people.” The light chuckle he released made me look up from my plate to find him looking at me with an amused look in his eyes.
“Really?” It was clear from that one word that he did not believe for one second that that was the real reason but he did not make any further comment.

I was grateful that for whatever reason, he decided to respect—if I could call it that—my privacy and did not ask any more questions. He returned his attention to his food but I could not get myself to do the same; my attention was on the expression on his face.

It was something I could not really place, looking somewhat like amusement that was so at odds with the kind I had seen on his older brother’s eye. The amusement that danced in his eyes was light and filled with mirth, the kind of amusement that was—as improbable as it may be—good natured.

A frown nestled on my lips and crises formed on my forehead as I tried and failed to make sense of his expression. Perhaps feeling my eyes on him, he looked at me and smiled, my frown deepened.

I returned my attention to my plate suddenly realizing that I no longer had the urge to vomit and then I realized what Geovanni had done; he had distracted me long enough that the building nausea had subsided and somehow my brain remembered that my stomach had asked for food.

I did not look up despite wanting to because as much as he helped me I know he did not do it from the goodness of his heart, truth be told I do not believe anyone of them has any good in their hearts.

I ate my meal with renewed vigor while, somehow, maintaining my manners and when I finally looked up from my empty plate I was glad to find I was not the last to finish, Geovanni’s plate still had some food along with Dante’s.

My eyes moved from Dante who looked annoyed and that was putting it lightly, to Geovanni who locked eyes with me, smiled a mischievous smile and winked before going back to his food. It was clear as day to me that he had helped me—if one could call it that—but I could not understand why.

My confusion about his actions that night was only the tip of the iceberg because he would continue to do similar things.

It was only later on that I understood why he did all he did.