Va Fa Napoli

Cinque

Rachel's POV

There was a searing, almost unbearable pain in my head as soon as I'd woken up. It felt like my head had been hit a thousand times by a boulder.

The hot shower and thinking of the upcoming breakfast Sofia was getting us made the pain a thousand times better, but still I felt it.

Just a few hours ago I was still partying my night away with some guy named Angelo, acting like I was having the time of my fucking life. While in my head cursing my best friend the whole time for not joining me, again. I even started to ask myself why I agreed to spending my whole summer with Sofia.

Of course the cause of those thoughts was alcohol, mostly vodka, and a whole lot of anger caused by it. Now I couldn't wait for her to come back to the apartment.

She knew I would never be able to resist Starbucks, and thus her apology.

What she didn't know was that I forgave her the moment I spotted the note on my nightstand this morning. She always took care of me, no matter what. This morning reminded me of that, and I scolded myself for even thinking otherwise last night.

Especially since I knew something was going on with her. I wasn't so oblivious as she thought I was, but I knew not to start asking questions. Eventually she would always tell me everything, but some things just needed time.

I'm guessing her recent change of behavior had something to do with her parents tragic deaths. And if she wasn't ready to talk about it yet, I wouldn't go pressing for answers.

I walked outside, onto the balcony of my bedroom, and was greeted by the fresh air of the city. I tried to spot Sofie, but wasn't able to spot her walking down the street with a bag of delicious Frappuccinos.

I observed a few other people walking down the street and checked out a random hot Italian guy. When he noticed me standing on the balcony I winked and walked inside again, not waiting for his reaction.

Sofia probably ran into some hot guy too. Why else would she take over an hour to get some breakfast.

I laughed out loud at my thoughts. Sofia was not one to initiate a conversation with a guy or talk to guys she'd never met before.

After her parents death Sofia lost most of her interest in partying and hot guys. I had liked the change. Even when some of our 'friends' dumped us, because we never went out anymore. They were never real friends anyway, so I didn't mind. Instead she started spending all her time studying or hanging out with me.

My interest in guys and parties stayed, but Sofia was more important. She had just lost her father and her mother, so whenever she wanted to talk about it, I was there for her. I swapped parties for sleepovers with Sofia and not once regretted it.

I walked into my bathroom with a small smile on my face, thinking about our good times in high school and university made me happy.

I started packing toiletry I wouldn't need anymore, since we would be leaving tomorrow.

I'd dreaded going to Naples since the beginning of this trip and was glad we would be leaving the next day. Besides the fact that it was a dangerous city with a lot of criminal activity, it was also the city were Sofia's parents were shot.

I asked her over and over again if she really wanted to visit Naples, but Sofia insisted. She kept saying it didn't matter and wouldn't influence her, but it did. And I guess we both knew it would.

How could it not? The central square I happily paraded around last night, was the same one where her parents were shot a few years ago. In cold blood. The murderer never to be found again.