Declassified Part 54 Keep Your Friends Close

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      Thalia looked at her phone. Six more phone calls, twenty four more texts. She cleared them all and put the phone down, staring blankly at her laptop.
      Nothing. She thought, feeling empty. After hours of searching her name and the bits and pieces she remembered about her childhood, Thalia had come up empty handed.

      It didn't surprise her. She knew information about minors was hard to come by because it was confidential. It was disappointing though. A part of her wanted to know exactly what Alex and his brothers had found out, but another part of her just wasn't ready. She wanted to be able to pretend that they didn't know about her past. She wanted to pretend that she didn't know about her past.

      She typed the names of her social workers into the search engine and wasn't surprised when it had no search results.

      Alex didn't use a search engine. She reminded herself. He has resources and contacts. He probably had a detective work on this. She closed her eyes, wishing he didn't have contacts across the globe.

      Her phone rang and for a moment her heart jumped. Oh, it's Claire. She realized, clicking the phone on.
      "Hey Claire. How are you?" She asked, forcing herself to sound more upbeat than she felt.

      "I'm good. I just haven't seen you in a bit." Claire's soft voice made Thalia smile, despite her pain. "Too much rock climbing and sky diving I guess." She teased.

      Thalia laughed briefly. "No sky diving." She said honestly. She opened her mouth to tell Claire about Alex. To tell her things were over, but something stopped her. She couldn't say it. It would make things real and Thalia wasn't ready for that yet.

      "Ooh, just nice quiet nights at home, huh?" Claire teased, her voice suggestive. "Lucky you." When Thalia started to protest Claire laughed. "I'm not judging, Thalie. If I had a boyfriend half as hot as Alex I'd be staying home with him too."

      Thalia felt her cheeks heat up. "It's not like that." She said quietly.
      "I know, Thal." Claire laughed. "I'm teasing. I know Alex is more than just a pretty face."

      He is. Thalia thought sadly. He's so much more than that. He deserves so much more than some unloved orphan.
      "Do you want to grab dinner some time this week?" Claire asked. "Just the two of us?"

      "Sure." Thalia could hear the hesitation in her own voice. "That sounds good."
      "Great!" Claire said cheerfully. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

      As she and Claire made plans to meet the following evening, Thalia's stomach felt queasy. I'm going to have to tell her. She realized. I'm going to have to say it out loud.

      When Thalia clicked her phone off it immediately rang again.
     Lily. Thalia realized as she looked at the display. She closed her eyes, trying to decide whether to answer the call. Finally, she clicked the accept button.

      "Thalia?"
      She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Hi." She said quietly.
      "Thalia, how are you?" Lily asked, her voice sounding pained.

      "Lily, I can't talk." Thalia silently added to you.
      
"Thalia, please, wait." When Thalia didn't answer Lily spoke again. "Thalia, I don't know what happened between you and Alex, but it doesn't change our friendship."

      Thalia sighed. "Andy didn't tell you?"
      "No, of course not." Lily laughed, sounding relieved that Thalia hadn't hung up on her. "Come on, Thalie. He's not the most talkative person there is."

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