strawberries and smoke~

~chapter 3~

After the strange interaction Fiorella just previously had in the bathroom, she took a moment to gather herself before heading back to her friends. The encounter had been oddly intimate, almost as if they had been friends this whole time, despite usually just passing each other by in the halls. Normally, Fiorella would have pulled the others aside to share the details, but something told her to keep this one to herself. 

The way her friends felt about Ludovica only added to the hesitation, not wanting to dig back up the video that everyone and their mother knew about. Even though whenever the dark-haired girl was in close range, they never failed to let her forget it. As she rejoined her group, she threw a smile onto her face, hoping it hid the deep thinking look she carried.

"Having a party without me?" She leaned on the wall in between Brando, who's attention was occupied by the skirts of the two other girls next to him, and Niccolo who's eyes were frantically searching for a way out of taking even more pointless pictures with Virginia who posted every single detail of her life to social media.

"We were partying because you were gone," He pokes her side with a stupid smile and she glares at him, silently letting him know that she can walk away at any moment so he can return to his photoshoot session. He quickly shakes his head and the corner of Fiorella's mouth turns up into a smug smile. 

"You can walk to school tomorrow,"

"It's not like you were a big help today," He squints, reminding the girl of this morning's phone call. She plays offended and clicks her tongue at his accusation, which she knows is true, but she can't help but laugh knowing he's right.

"You almost lit my car on fire last time," Fiorella's voice colored with mock exasperation. Niccolo calls to mind how she had hit a speed bump, causing him to drop his cigarette. He shakes his head slightly, still holding a grudge over it. "It wasn't a speed bump, I was trying to eject you," He pulls her into a headlock but before he can make her call a point, Virginia basically yanks him away to look at some filter she found. Niccolo turns to her for rescue, and she mouths him a small have fun, already having done her part. 

Brando finally decides to clock the girl standing next to him, shifting his focus to her and away from whatever he had been up to on his left. "There she is. The late and not so great Fio," He throws his arms out, a smirk playing on his lips.  She shakes her head at his lame attempt at humor, a half-amused smile creeping in.

"You really need to work on your timing, Brando," she replies, rolling her eyes but unable to hide her slight entertainment. "Trying out some more 'magic tricks'?" she says with air quotes and a tilt of her head. Her voice is light, but there's a touch of curiosity in it.

She can't quite tell if the real embarrassment belongs to him or to the poor people he's testing them on, and the idea makes her laugh to herself. The white glow of the school's lights catches her expression, making her wonder just how many more awkward stunts he has lined up. He was definitely one of the funnier of the three, but his jokes were a real shot in the dark with whether the outcome would be actually funny or borderline offensive. It was a surprise every time.

"It was an awesome trick. An appearing underwear trick," Brando boasts, grinning like he's just pulled off the greatest illusion in history.

"Can you do a disappearing Brando?" Fiorella requests, gasping slightly with pretend excitement.

Their friend Bianca chimes in about the stir he had caused, and Fiorella mumbles under her breath about how she bets no one was actually looking, but her words don't go unnoticed. "What was that?" She asks. 

"Three guesses," Fiorella bluntly replies, a fake smile on her face as she pretends to bring her mind elsewhere so she can end that small but boring conversation.