Dear Diary,

7

Dear Diary, I haven't been able to call my mom recently. Not Lydia I mean my real mom. I can't really talk to her when my step mom or dad are home because I always feel like they're listening, ever since that one time Lydia literally stood at my bedroom door and listened to my conversation with my mother. So I get scared to call her when I'm home. 9:32pm.

I visit my grandparents every other weekend. I love going to their house, it's like a huge relief after two weeks of not seeing them. They're my mom's parents and they took care of me a lot when my mom couldn't when I lived with her. But then whenever the weekend ends and I have to come back to my house, I feel so much dread.

I haven't heard from Antonio for a while now I think of it. To be specific, it's been exactly 13 days since we spoke last. We were discussing our next meet up which was supposed to be tomorrow.

I decide to shoot him a message, I really hope he responds because if I'm honest I miss him. 'Hey, I hope you're OK because I haven't heard from you for while and I guess I'm a little worried.' I stare at the message for a little while before pressing send.

I can't wait around all day waiting for a reply so I should probably find something to do. I let out a breath of air and look around my room, I don't have any homework to do so that's not an option.

I end up busying myself by watching a bunch of random YouTube videos. I find time flies by whenever I do that, all of a sudden my video stops playing as my phone pings with a message from Antonio. My breath catches in my throat when my thumb presses on the notification bar.

'Sì, conosco il capo. Laffare è sfuggito di mano, non accadrà più.' What is this? My brows furrow in confusion. Maybe he wanted me to translate it, I click onto the internet app on my phone when another text from Antonio comes through, 'Natalia ignore that, meant to send it to my boss.' Hm, now I'm curious. I don't even know what he works as, I decide to translate it anyway.

'Yes, I know boss. The deal got out of hand, it won't happen again.' I frown, what deal? Like a drug deal? Is he in trouble? Maybe I'm thinking too much into it. Maybe it's nothing to be concerned about. 'Are we still meeting tomorrow?' I text back.

It takes him at least 20 minutes to reply again, what has he been doing these past two weeks? 'Yes, I'll come pick you up at 2pm tomorrow.'

-

It's two forty-three in the afternoon and Antonio is late. He set a time himself to come and get me and he is late! I begin to grow agitated so I head back inside from where I've been waiting outside my house. "I thought you were supposed to be hanging out with Antonio today?" Lydia asks, walking over to me.

I groan, "yeah, I have no clue where he is. I haven't heard from him for two weeks except briefly last night when he said he'd come get me." Lydia frowns and glances behind me, out of the open door.

"He's here now, want me to talk to him?" I shake my head quickly. "No thank you, I'll talk to him later, bye." She nods and watches from the door as I climb into Antonio's car.

We have been driving in complete silence for half an hour, I am trying to stay calm and not blow up on him so I am deciding to keep my mouth shut. "Are you going to talk to me at all today Natalia?" Antonio asks quietly. I close my eyes and let out a deep breath.

"Where have you been?"

He releases a frustrated sigh, "I can't talk about it..." I scoff, "You can't fucking talk about it!? What is it something illegal Antonio?" My fists are clenched into tight balls, I can feel my nails digging into my palms but the pain is being replaced with anger. Red, blinding anger.