The knock comes again. “Isa? You’ve gotta get up.” Jordan’s voice floats through the door.
I roll over, turning my back to the door and pulling the blankets over my head.
“It’s been three days. We need some proof of life,” she tries again.
“I’m alive,” I call back, voice rough from disuse and the tears that still come in waves.
“That’s great, but you know it would be nice to actually see your face.”
“No, thank you.”
I hear her sigh from through the door before the sound of retreating footsteps.
I roll over, checking my phone and seeing the messages from my family that’ve been sitting unread for the last three days since the news broke.
Nico
Dude, how could you not tell me you were dating THE Ryan Fletcher??
Mamma
What is this your brother says about a boy?
Papà
Te voglio bene, tesoro.
Between Nico and my parents, I have several messages and missed calls waiting for me to return. My dad’s text cutting the deepest of all.I love you, treasure.
I want to avoid talking to all of them, but I know if I don’t at least speak to someone, they’ll all start blowing up my phone. Proof of life as Jordan said. I’m dreading the phone call I’ll have with my parents. To hear their disappointment in me. The pity and sympathy that I’ve screwed my life over so much.
With a sigh, I pick the lesser of two evils. The phone rings a few times before he answers and his deep voice flows over the line.
“Isabella.”
“Nicolas,” I mimic. This is the way we always greet each other. We have our preferred nicknames, but we always rile each other up by defaulting to our full government names.
“Good to know you’re alive in whatever love hole you’re in.”
I sigh. “I’m not in anylove hole.” My nose scrunches in disgust at the term. I pause, weighing how much I actually want to tell my brother. “We broke up.”
“What?” The word comes out several octaves higher than his normal voice, almost screechy. “Your relationship goes public and suddenly he drops you? Nope, fuck that.Sta minchia.” My brother spits out.
Even though he just called Ryan a prick, it makes me chuckle that we both have the same penchant to switch to Italian for curses. “No, I dumped him.” The silence on the other end of the line has me checking to make sure the call is still connected. It is. “Uh, Nico? You still there?”
“Still here. Just trying to wrap my brain around why the fuck you’d dump Ryan fucking Fletcher. Was he an asshole? Is he violent?Cazzo, he didn’t hurt you, did he?” Nico keeps riling himself up until he sounds violent enough to want to climb through the phone and murder Ryan himself.
“God, no, Nico. He was great, perfect really.”
“Okay, then I’m going to need some help filling in the blanks here.”
“My work contract had a clause. I wasn’t allowed to date him and we got caught.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. Wow, this really doesn’t get easier to talk about. “I got fired.”
I hear the air whoosh out of him through the line. “Fired?Fuck.” He hesitates a moment. “Do Mom and Dad know?”
I let out a humorless laugh. “What do you think?”
“So, that’s a no then.” I can almost see him nodding.
