eight,

episode four ~ emma

ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

Smoking weed to forget about Niccolo was not the right decision, because now he was the only thing Gia thought about.

It took a lot of strenght to not call him, or to stop by his house no matter that Camilla or Virginia could be there as she made her way home from Chiara's.

"Where were you?" She heard, looking up seeing her stepmother's face right in front of her when she unlocked the front door.

Looking at her weirdly, "I was hanging out with friends," she said, confusion in her tone as she bent down to take off her shoes.

"Who exactly?" Rosa asked, looking at her with strick expression.

"What do you care?" Gia asked, her eyebrowd furrowing in confusion.

"Don't speak to her like that," her father scolded her as he came to stand next to his wife.

Narrowing her eyes at both of them, "what has gotten into the two of you?" She asked. "You never cared where I spend my time," she gestured to Rosa.

"That's not true," Rosa denied, shaking her head, her gaze sliding to Marco on her right.

Gia catched that, scoffing to herself as she realized what was happening here, "of course not," she sarcastically said and rolled her eyes.

"Gianna," her father in a tone that made Gia look him in the eyes. "Respect my wife."

Looking at her dad, then her stepmother, she gritted her teeth together. "I'm going to my room," she said and tried to walk past them.

Her father's hand stopped her, "not before you tell us who you were with," he strictly said. Gia let out another scoff, sobering up when he kept his face ice cold.

"Really?" She said with blank face, tilting her head. "I was with Chiara and Ludovica," she said, throwing her arms out, "that enough for you two?"

"You can't hang out with the girl," her mom started. "Ludovica, I mean," she specified. "She's not a good influence on you. You've changed ever since you started hanging out with her," Rosa said, frown on her face.

Gia scoffed at her, rolling her eyes. "As if you would know."

"Gianna, stop talking to Rosa like that," her father tried again.

Gia looked at him with wide eyes, "like what? Should I not be honest with her?" She asked, starting to get pissed off.

"Go to your room. And think about what your Rosa said. Ludovica is not good influence on you," he told her with anger lacing his words.

Shaking her head, Gia made her way past them, this time without being stopped.

Walking into her room, she locked it behind her. Throwing her bag next to her bed on the ground. Sitting on her bed she sighed and then looked at her phone laying next to her.

Biting her lip she stared at Nicco's contact picture. It was the two of them together, picture that Gianna took in Nicco's car while they drove around town, talking about anything came to their mind.

It was Nicco's way to distract her, when Marco got arrested. Gia smiled at the memory, at the same time as her eyes watered.

She missed him, a lot. Sighing again, she shut her eyes and fell back on her bed, trying not to think about him.

But she failed, like she always did.

One last nice memory came to her mind. When he came over, sneaking in through her window and they messed around in here.

It was the last night they spent together.

Groaning, she turned around and put her face into her pillow. She silently screamed, no sound coming out. Tears were falling into her pillow. She fell asleep like that.

——

Gianna Alamanni has made quite few mistakes these past sixteen years she's been alive, and walking into the Rossi's household garden could be counted as one of them.

Walking to a party, where she had no one was a stupid idea and she knew it, yet she didn't turn around and walked back home.

Ignoring Virginia and her friend's looks, she made her way to the table with free drinks.

That was the only reason why she came here. Free alcohol. That and also a boy who threw this party, but she wouldn't admit the second reason out loud if someone asked her.

Pouring herself a cup of vodka, yes a cup, she stood around, watching people around her have fun and talk to their friends.

Trying to ignore the feeling in her chest, she took a sip out of her cup, grimacing at the taste, yet enjoying the burn in her throat from the alcohol.

"Gia," Niccolo said, coming up behind her. "What are you doing here?" He said in a tone that made her upset and defensive.

"What?" She looked at him. "Is this an invite only party?"

Nicco shook his head, and raised his hands up in defense, "I didn't mean it like that."

" 'kay," she simply said, averting her gaze from him. Making eye contact with Virginia, who watched them with deadly stare. "Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" She asked bitterly.

Nicco took his eyes off of her for a second, looking at Virginia, "we're just talking."

Gia nodded, "right." After few seconds of silence, she added, "I wouldn't like my boyfriend talking to a girl he's been cheating me on me with for months."

Nicco was stunted for a while, not saying anything. "We.. Me and Virginia, we weren't.. like that," he defended himself.

"Her reaction to finding out about us didn't look like she knew that," Gia replied.

Nicco sighed, "you ended it," he reminded her.

"So?" She asked, annoyed.

"So don't be pissed off at me. I didn't want to end it," he said, anger rolling off of him.

"It was the right decision. If only you didn't have a big fucking mouth, none of the shit I've been called would've happened," she turned her head to look at him, sending him a glare.

"I didn't think that would happen!" He exclaimed.

"So that makes it better?" She narrowed her eyes.

"I was hurt, okay?" He told her. "I only told Camilla, I didn't think she would go and make a scene in front of the whole school!"

Taking a deep breath, Gia sighed, "whatever."

Seeing Chiara walk in, smile formed on her face and she started walking towards her.

"Gia!" She heard Nicco behind her call out to her, silently but loud enough that she would hear.

"Later," she said over her shoulder, leaving him standing by the drinks table on his own.

"Hey," Gia greeted Chiara.

Turning around, surprised, Chiara smiled at her friend. "Hey, I didn't know you'd be here."

"Likewise. I didn't plan on going, but what else was there to do. Spend the evening with my parents, who now decided to start parenting me? No thanks," she rolled her eyes. Chiara chuckled.

The girls chatted next to the pool, before Chiara glanced over Gia's shoulder, noticing Fabio on the other side of the pool.

Gia turned her head, making eye contact with him. Fabio looked like he planned on smiling in her direction, maybe even waving, but she ignored him and instead turned to Chiara.

"I'll go, so you guys can chat," she smiled at her.

"You can come with me, I'm sure he'd like to catch up," Chiara tried but Gia shook her head.

"That's alright," she gave her a tight smile.

Gia turned her back to Chiara and a second later, she heard Fabio calling out to Chiara, "watch out! Watch out!" Then a splash.

When she turned around, she could only see Chiara's body deep in the water and Virginia standing where Chiara stood a second ago.

"Chiara!" She shouted, coming closer to the pool edge.

"That was supposed to be you, bitch!" Virginia yelled at her, looking like she was going to push her into the pool too.

But before she could do anything like that, Niccolo took a hold of Gianna's arm. He pulled her away from the pool and blocked Virginia's view of her.

"What the fuck, Virginia?" He yelled at his girlfriend. He grabbed Virginia by her arm this time and tugged her to a side, away from Gianna.

As Chiara walked up the stairs out of the pool, everyone watched, some with a smile on her face, some just watched, with no reaction.

Gia made her way to her, but stopped in her tracks when she saw Damiano walking after her, talking to her.

She waited few feet away from the two of them, "Gianna," she heard Nicco say behind her. She didn't turn around, ignoring him.

This time not because he's done something wrong, but because she couldn't care about anything other that Chiara at the moment.

After seeing that Chiara walked away from Damiano and he didn't follow her, she ran after her, passing by Damiano, ignoring him completely.

She was sure Chiara needed someone right now, and even if she didn't, she would at least make sure she was safe.

Coming up to Chiara's car, she got into the passenger seat without a word. Chiara didn't look surprised, almost as if she knew Gia would go after her.

The girls sat quietly in the car, not saying a word, before Chiara picked up her phone and started texting someone.

"Who are you texting?" Gia asked, eyebrows furrowed, having a feeling she knew who she texted.

"Alessandro," Chiara simply said, not saying anything else.

"Chiara," Gia said, looking at her in concern. "Don't do that."

"Gianna," Chiara started, annoyance in her voice. "I'm not going to force you to go on the date with the guy Saverio talked about for you, so don't force me into not going on a date with this guy and just let me be," she angrily said, shutting Gia up.

Gia hopelessly sat there, next to her in silence.

"Do you want a ride home?" Chiara asked after sending the message, putting away her phone.

"If you don't mind," Gia said, furrowed eyebrows still on her face. "I'm sorry, Chiara," she started. "I'm just concerned about you. You and Ludo. I don't want you guys in danger."

"I know," Chiara looked at her with tight smile. "You're a good friend, Gia."

————

end of episode four

thank you for reading :)let me know your opinions