The Loudest Silence

Mason

 Heaviness weighed on my mind as Isabella and I walked towards the dorms. It was nearing ten p.m, and we had just gotten back to campus. Despite it being relatively late, campus was still lively as students chatted among us. Isabella and I had been mostly silent since our exchange at the park earlier. Both our moods had shifted drastically after asking about her wounds, and we hadn't spoken much since leaving the park.

It was obvious Isabella had just fed me a random excuse, and although I brushed it off, I knew she was lying to me. I could see the fear in her eyes as she tried to blame the wounds on a cooking accident.  As an agent, I had witnessed too much to not be able to identify those wounds. From the looks of it, someone must have deliberately held something hot onto her flesh.

Glancing to my side, I studied Isabella, who was tightly gripping my jacket. It had gotten colder as the night progressed, and she was practically shivering, so I had decided to give her my jacket to warm up. It was nearly twice her size, and it engulfed her figure, yet she still managed to pull it off. 

Isabella was beautiful, there was no denying it, but it wasn't in an obvious way. She often bowed her head, and allowed her hair to curtain her face, concealing her face from the outside world.

I wonder if she did that deliberately to hide her real identity as Rick's daughter.

The sudden thought of Rick brought my mind back to our encounter at the park earlier. I had been itching to confront Isabella again about the wound, but considering the response she had given me earlier, I wasn't sure if bringing it up would do much besides push her away and cause her to shut me out even more. 

As we approached the doorway leading to the inside of the dorm building, Isabella and I both slowed to a stop. She slowly turned to face me, and gave me a soft smile as she slid my jacket off her shoulders. I could see the turmoil in her eyes as she held the jacket out towards me. She and I both knew that there was an elephant in the room, and it was clear that all she wanted to do was escape the awkwardness of the situation.

"Thank you for tonight. The food was great, and I had a great time." Isabella said, finally breaking the silence. She continued to hold out the jacket to me, but I simply shook my head and gently pushed it back towards her.

"You can keep the jacket, it suits you better anyways." I told her, as her eyes lit up with surprise.

"Oh no, I can't take it. It's too expensive." She sheepishly said as she held the jacket out to me once again. 

Why would a drug lord's daughter claim she couldn't afford a regular leather jacket? With the amount of money Rick had acquired according to our records, Isabella and her father were more than capable of affording these luxuries. 

After tonight, I couldn't help but think how confusing Isabella was. Everything that we knew about her on paper, was so different to how she was in real life. Something didn't feel right, and I couldn't pin point if we were mistaken, or whether she played her role really well. 

In that moment, I couldn't help myself as I decided to ask Isabella once again about the wounds. "Isabella, where did you get those wounds." I gently asked as I studied her reaction. I decided to ask her in a more calm manner than I had at the park, in hopes that maybe she'd tell me the truth. 

Isabella wore a poker face as she scrunched her eyebrows and titled her head to look at me. Despite the confused look she wore on her face, I could in her eyes she knew exactly what I was talking about.