All Around Us

Chapter Six

"Liss, you have a visitor!" Aunt Rosa called out as I was taking a bath. Assuming it was Clio, I responded, asking her to wait for me in my room. With soap in my eyes, I called for Clio to hand me a towel but got no response. I hopped out of the shower and went to get it myself.

I grabbed a towel from my shelf and started drying my face. When I lowered the towel, I froze. Christian was standing next to my desk, holding a snow globe, his eyes scanning my body. I let out a horrified shriek and quickly wrapped the towel around myself.

Aunt Rosa burst into the room, shouting, "What's going on here?!" Her eyes immediately landed on Christian, and she barked at him to get out. She reached for the phone to call the police, but I stopped her as she started dialing. She looked at me like I was crazy, expecting an explanation. I convinced her to leave the room so I could get dressed.

As I was going downstairs, I could hear Aunt Rosa's frantic voice and Christian's failed attempts to calm her down. I hurried downstairs and locked eyes with Christian, but I looked away, feeling shocked and embarrassed. Aunt Rosa noticed his lingering glance and followed it to me. "Oh, Liss! Come here and hear what this boy is saying," she said. I hesitantly walked over.

Aunt Rosa started repeating what Christian had said and asked me what I had to say. Christian and I looked at each other. I could see the helplessness in his eyes, so I turned back to Aunt Rosa and started explaining what had happened. As I spoke, Aunt Rosa visibly began to relax.

Feeling bad for shouting at Christian and blaming him, Aunt Rosa asked him to join us for brunch. As we sat together at the table, I could still sense tension between them, while Mell and I were the only ones talking.

To ease the tension, I asked Christian to join me for a stroll and made a deal with Mell to cover for me on the brunch dishes. As we walked, awkward silence settled between us, broken only by the sound of our footsteps.

As we were walking, it occurred to me that I hadn't told Christian I was staying at my aunt's. I asked, "How did you know I was here? In fact, who gave you the address?" I was sure no one besides Dad and Clio knew.

I assumed it was Clio at first, but I doubted it since I was sure they didn't know each other. Dad, on the other hand, despised Christian so much that he wouldn't want him to know where I was. As I waited for his response, I wondered what he was doing in the countryside in the first place.

Then it hit me. Remembering what Mell had said about him having a girlfriend he often visited, I knew what he was going to say. I interrupted him before he could answer.

We had broken the awkward silence, and conversations started flowing normally as we took another stroll around the farm. I started talking about my best friend Clio and how we had been reunited yesterday after being separated for about 5 years.

His face changed when I mentioned her last name. As he was about to say something else, I heard Clio's voice calling my name. I turned around and saw her jogging towards us. When Clio got to us, she gave me a hug. When she noticed Christian, something flashed between them, and for a moment, Christian looked scared. I was about to ask Clio something, but Christian interrupted and said he had to go. He gave a hasty goodbye and left quickly.

I started walking back to the house with Clio while we talked, but her responses were distracted. At some point, I asked her if she knew Christian or something. She immediately denied it, claiming she was just worried about missing curfew. I found it strange since it was only 3 pm, but I chose not to press her about it.

My curiosity soon turned to Clio's knowledge of my shoe size. She simply chuckled and softly murmured, "lucky guess." Again, I chose not to push her. When we finally got home, Clio and I decided to binge-watch movies until late evening.

Checking the time, my heart skipped a beat. It was way past Clio's normal curfew. Clio dismissed my panic, telling me she had texted her parents asking to sleep over. She also said she had already asked Aunt Rosa for approval.

Aunt Rosa called us for dinner, and afterward, when it was time to wash up, Mell gave me a look that reminded me of our deal. I sighed defeatedly and asked Clio to help me with the dishes. Later that night, as we hung out in my room, Mell received a call from her boyfriend and called it a night. After she left, I wondered what it was like to have found love at only 20.

The sound of Clio's ringtone interrupted my thoughts. She answered her phone. A voice that sounded a lot like Christian's spoke from the other end of the call. Clio suddenly got up, flustered, and excused herself to the bathroom, hugging her phone to her chest.

She stayed in there for about 2-3 hours. I eventually grew tired and started dozing off. She must have sensed my impatience and came back at the right moment, but she seemed low-spirited. I was surprised she had been on a call for that long with a boy and came out sad. I hadn't even had a boy call me for that long, and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be my reaction.

When I tried asking her about it, she gave me a fake smile and simply said, "I'm just tired." I fake smiled back and assumed she wasn't ready to tell me what had happened. We didn't talk much after that, as we were both pretty tired, so we called it a night.