The Mafia's Flower (ON HOLD)

Chapter Sixteen

Summers

"Oh. Must be nice." She answered me monotonously. I narrowed my eyes at her but she didn't even seem to notice. How would she? When she hadn't even looked up from the kitchen counter she'd been cleaning for the past 10 minutes.

"Yeah. It is." I replied anyway, not really convinced that she thought me going out with Abel today was as nice as she claimed it to be. "So since I'll be at the mall, want me to get anything for you?"

"No. Not really." There she goes with the monotone reply again.

"Really? Nothing at all?"

"Nope. I'm good."

"Not even the famous cracker biscuits you love?"

"Nope. I'm good."

"Linda?"

"Yes?"

"Is everything okay?" I finally asked, already getting tired of the silent treatment. "Are you angry at me or something? Did I do anything wrong?" I asked, honestly confused at her sassy attitude all morning.

Ever since I woke up, Belinda had been giving me the cold shoulder. And for some reason that I do not yet know, she won't even look me in the eye. I thought she probably woke up on the wrong side of bed, but when it had lasted all morning, I began to worry.

"Nothing's wrong." She shrugged, her eyes never for once leaving the already squeaky cleaned marble counter top.

"Really? Then, what did I do?"

She finally paused and looked up at me, her eyes almost narrowed into slits. "The real question is: what didn't you do?"

"Okay? What didn't I do then?"

"Really, Fiona?" Belinda hissed.

I blinked in absolute confusion. I was as lost as someone stuck in a desert sandstorm. "Am I missing something here? Because I feel like I am. You've been acting strange all morning, giving me the cold shoulder and frankly, it's beginning to get a bit annoying." I said with a frown etched on my brow.

"Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one getting annoyed." She said, her words laced with sarcasm.

"Belinda?" I'd never seen her get like this in a very long time.

"Look. It's okay Fiona. You can do whatever you want." She pulled off the yellow cleaning gloves before throwing them into the basket by the corner.

"Whatever I want? What does that mean?"

"It means, you can go paint the whole city of Chicago red with your new friend, for all I care." Then she smacked both hands on the counter and stared me dead in eye. "After all, you're going to get a new phone with him, right?"

And then, before I could utter a reply, the landline on the wall rang. We both whisked our heads to it at almost the same time.

"Speak of the devil." She hissed before picking up the call. "Yeah. Tell him she'll be out in a sec." She said icily, over the phone before hanging up rather forcefully, I feared the phone would break from the impact.

I furrowed my brows, trying to put two and two together. "Wait, is this about Abel?"

And then she smiled the most outrageous fake smile in existence, never even reaching her eyes halfway. "You should have fun with your new boyfriend."

"Wait.. I thought you liked Abel? What's this all about?" I asked but it seemed my question fell on deaf ears as she walked out on me mid sentence. I blinked to try and clear out the misunderstanding, as if it were a speck in my vision.