Delia

18 Kitchen Duties and dirty secrets

Monday evening was when our punishment began. I'd been anxious about it all last week, and the tension in the kitchen could've been chopped in half, with an ax. Luckily the staff divided the work equally for us. But Thalia and Azriel were stuck washing the dishes together. The atmosphere they created was suffocating, even Neo was annoyed. He'd even forgotten to put on his rings today which I seldom saw him without.

I dusted down the cupboards by myself while Neo and Macy restocked the fridge. The head chef was very particular about the way he organized his food supplies so he gave them a list to use together.. Unfortunately they weren't really team players. So we were all struggling. We were stuck in the kitchen until five o'clock, but I wasn't necessarily the diligent cleaning type. If this was at any other school I'd probably have skipped by now.

I sat down for a while, observing my painfully awkward coworkers. "Does anyone have their watch, how much time do we have left?" Macy sounded absolutely exhausted. We were instructed not to wear our watches while cleaning the kitchen, the chef said he'd notify us when our time was up.

"I have my phone I'll check" I assured her before taking it out of my back pocket. My mother had opted for extra phone time for me on a Monday so she could check up on me easier. To make sure I wasn't ruining the family name again. "It's only four," I informed her. But I noticed there was a missed call.

It was from an unsaved number, however it looked familiar. I hesitated for a few seconds, what if it was who I thought it'd be? In the end I decided to call back. I put the phone up to my ear and bounced my leg nervously. Everyone stared at me curiously after hearing my phone ringing.

"I didn't think you'd call back Cordelia" and there it was. The poisonous voice that I knew all too well. But I still refused to believe it. "Who is this?" I asked, playing dumb. She scoffed before she began to laugh. "Come on Cordelia, stop playing, has it been that long since we talked best friend, because if I remember correctly-"

I cut her off almost immediately, "You know that stupid act you like to do is sickening, hurry up and tell me what you need" The other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds. "Wow, who's been wearing down your patience? And bold of you to assume I'm only calling to use you, what if I genuinely missed you or I could be worried about you? I heard about the little boarding school you're in, get into any fights yet?" She spoke in a fake caring tone, causing me to pull an annoyed face.

"Aaliyah I'm not in the mood for your bullshit okay. Why would you suddenly miss me bitch. If you're looking for someone to play your lil games with I'm not the one" I cursed at her while trying to keep my voice down. "As uptight as always, you'll see me soon anyways that's why I called, I hope all of your new friends are aware of the Cordelia that you left behind, see you soon" she became annoyed. "What are you talking about?" I asked but the call had already ended.

Thalia gave me a look, probably wanting to know about my phone call. I opened my mouth but the words weren't forming. How was I supposed to explain who Aaliyah was and that my past was finally coming back to bite me in the ass.

"It's nothing" I dismissed them but obviously that only heightened their curiosity. I rubbed my temples trying to avoid a headache. Why now? Why her? What does she mean by 'see you soon?' I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with this until after Lilian's case. It wasn't as though I didn't plan on telling them about the things I've done in my past, but now wasn't the right time. So I decided it was best to keep quiet about it for now. Whenever Aaliyah arrived, I'd deal with it.

The remainder of our cleaning carried on quietly. But I was obviously distracted. I didn't want to think anymore. All this stress that I had brought upon myself, I couldn't handle it. I trudged back to the dorm with Thalia before flopping onto my bed.

"You gonna talk about what that phone call was all about?" She enquired. "Just some... past endeavors that can't seem to let go" I groaned as I rolled over. I needed to tell her, especially her, my roommate, and my friend. But why couldn't I bring myself to do it?

"You can tell me, you know that right?" She half smiled at me. Thalia was right, she was more than trustworthy. "I will, eventually so don't worry, okay." But I still needed to figure it out myself. She nodded with a soft expression before heading to the bathroom. We both fell asleep soon after, all that manual labor got to us.

...

It was about three in the morning. I began shifting in my bed, and in my sleeping state I started to feel anxious. I slowly opened my eyes and took a deep shaky breath. I knew there was no way I was falling back asleep anytime soon, so I made my way to the common room.

I peeked over the couch and saw Macy, surprisingly. She was lying down on the three seater couch with her arm over her eyes. "Macy," I called quietly. She was a bit startled but she seemed too tired to have a large reaction.

"Why are you out here at this hour?" I asked as I sat on the seat next to her. "I could literally ask you the exact same question, it's 3 am" she looked at me up and down. "Whatever, I guess you can't get any sleep either" I sighed.

She sat up and leaned back, "No, all I can think about is Lilian. At first I didn't have this much trouble but now as we get closer to whatever the answer is I can't catch a wink of sleep" she sounded so fragile, a word I'd never thought I'd use to describe Macy.

"Maybe...it's that you're not sure that you'll like the answer we find, or you're worried it won't make you feel better after the culprit is caught" as I was tired I felt like I wasn't making any sense. "Do you really think it's Oliver?" She asked out of the blue.

I took a while before responding, the bluntness of it caught me off guard. "Well he's the one who all the clues lead to" I lowered my voice. She rubbed her face and sighed, "You're right."

"There's just so many kids in this school with their delinquent past, Lillian included you know. But she was one of those who turned it all around, you wouldn't have guessed she was a bad kid at some point. So why Oliver, why him? It doesn't make sense"

I listened to her ranting and I don't think it was the sleep deprivation, she was making sense. "Everyone has their secrets but hers just doesn't make sense, I mean hell, if this is what Lilian Jiang was hiding, who knows what other things there are that we don't know about" she grabbed her hair. It hit a nerve for me.

"I have something to tell you."