Caught in a Ly

Prologue

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5 years ago...

We had travelled to Italy together. Fresh out of high school, Ly and Lia ready to take on the world. We'd planned this trip for months. The first stop in Rome, second in Venice, a few more in between with the last being Tuscany.

I've always loved Italy, ever since I went when I was about ten years old, and have continuously dreamed of going back. Ly had never been though, which is why when he brought up a holiday to Italy to celebrate the end of high school, I was more than thrilled.

I still remember the day that we were at the airport, ready to start the trip.

"You got everything Lia?" Elijah asked, a massive grin on his face and eyes wide with excitement as we got ready to board the plane.

"Yup," I replied with a smile, holding up a plastic bag in front of his face, "I even got the peanut M&M's that we love so much".

"Awesome" he laughed as we moved to the front of the line, handing the attendants our tickets. "Although maybe we should try and not eat them all before the plane takes off".

"Haha, you read my mind".

Soon after, we had landed in Rome, ready to start the trip. Our days were filled with sightseeing, cheesy photos, long train rides, chilling by the beach and lots and lots of gelato. We also went to a few parties. Many were hosted by the kids of close family friends of mine – who had let us stay with them in Sicily – and their friends.

And all was great until she showed up to of those parties.

"Sal, these are my friends Alia and Elijah. They are visiting from Australia and staying with the family for a bit" said Luca, as he pointed towards Ly and me. "Alia and Elijah, this is my best friend Salvatore"

"Hi Salvatore," I said to the boy in front of me. "It's nice to meet you".

He had tan skin, black hair down to his shoulders, and his face framed with a neatly shaven beard. He was much taller than Luca, who looked completely different from him, with pale skin and light brown hair.

"Nice to meet you too, oh and please call me Sal. Please enjoy yourselves, there's plenty of food and drinks. Now if you'll excuse me, I should make sure that no one breaks anything, otherwise my mother will kill me" Sal said, before walking off to a rowdy corner of the room.

I turned to Ly with a smile on my face. "So, food first?"

"Yeah, sounds go –" he began, before his attention was pulled to the space behind me. I turned to see what had caused Ly to basically become a statue.

That's when I noticed she had come through the door, and was heading straight towards Ly and me. She stopped right next to us, and as soon as words started pouring from her mouth, I didn't like her. Not one bit.

"Hi, you must be Luca's Australian friends. Luca, Sal and I all go to school together, and Luca's told us all about you two. I'm Siena" she said, extending her hand.

"I'm Elijah, and this is my friend Alia" Ly said, stepping in front of me to return the hand shake.

"I've always wanted to visit Australia, but haven't been anywhere outside Europe" she said, smiling at Ly.

"Well I've been to many places, but this is my first time in Italy" Ly laughed and she joined in.

"Hey," I began, Ly and Siena's eyes both turning back towards me, "Do you –"

"Do you want to get a drink?" Siena said grabbing Ly's attention, cutting me off.

"Yeah sure" Ly replied before she dragged him across the floor to the drinks table.

I didn't see him for the rest of that night. He had showed up to the house at eleven the next morning, his hair all tousled and clothes from the night before all crinkled. It was obvious that he had slept with her. And it wasn't like I was jealous, but she became a thorn in my backside, because after that night she and Ly had spent some more time together before she decided she'd come along on our holiday as well.

And the more time she spent with us, the more I didn't trust her. It wasn't like she explicitly did anything, but there was just this aura about her, in which I didn't sense any good intentions where Ly was concerned.

They also spent days and nights together, just the two of them doing who knows what. Which often left me by myself some days.

"Ok. So, the bus to the markets leaves in half and hour so go get your stuff guys" I said, grabbing my phone, wallet and the house keys before shoving it all into my bag. I walked out into the lounge room, to see both Ly and Siena still lounging on the couch, his hand tracing circles on her thigh. "Guys, why aren't you ready?"

"Actually Lia, Si and I were talking, and were thinking that since it's such a nice day outside, and it's our last day here, that we should spend it at the beach" Ly said, looking over at me then back to Siena and smiled.

I frowned. We had planned this last night over dinner. "Can't we go to the beach in the afternoon when it won't be so busy?"

"Ly and I were thinking of checking out some of shops by the beach we missed yesterday, in the afternoon" Siena said, giving me a look with her big brown eyes, that basically told me to piss off and leave them two together.

"Fine," I began, my voice flat, "I'll go to the markets and leave you two to hang out at the beach".

"Sorry Lia" Ly said, trying to muster up some kind of smile on his face. "We'll see you at dinner then?"

I looked at him, turned on my heel and walked out through the door. "Don't count on it".

After that, I practically avoided all activities with those two. Mainly because whenever I was invited to 'hang out' with those two, it was always because Ly felt sorry for not spending time with me, or rearranging plans without telling me.

Well the least I could say was that I was frustrated. Hurt.

I was hurt that my best friend of eighteen years was not taking me into consideration. Fair enough he met a girl and they're in whatever phase, think they're in love and all that crap. I couldn't care less. He's had girlfriends before and has never acted like this towards me.

And the reason he was: Siena.

The part I was must upset and hurt by, was that he took the side of that conniving, lying bitch. Pretending that I had stolen some of her stuff and confronted me about it in front of Ly. We'd all walked into my room and I gave her a free pass to check my stuff. Lo and behold an assorted number of items were in there. Let's just say that she wasn't the only angry person in that room.

Later that night I'd heard her on the phone to one of her friends telling her how she planted her stuff in my room and bags, trying to get rid of me because she wanted Ly all to herself for the rest of our trip.

As payback, I'd confronted her about her lies to which she ran straight into Ly's arms with the excuse that I was jealous of their relationship and wanted to break them apart.

Insert sob story here.

Then the situation got heated. Words were said that night between Ly and I. Words that should have never come out of both of our mouths towards each other. But it was too late.

Our friendship fell apart that night. Eighteen years gone in an instant.

It wasn't Ly and Lia anymore.

No.

It was just Lia.