four,

episode four ~ no more secrets

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"They know about me," Ludo admitted to her friends, as they all met up the next day out on the bleachers at school.

"What?" Gia widened her eyes, her voice shaking.

"About all of it," she continued, not looking at either of the girl on either side of her. "Fedeli knows. The school does too."

"How the fuck is that possible?" Gia asked, picking on the skin on her lips.

"Have they told the police yet?" Chiara asked. "Ludo, have they told the police?" She asked again, when Ludo didn't answer the first time.

"I don't know," Ludo said. Chiara started breathing heavily, turning her face away from the girls.

"Shit," Gia cursed, putting both hands through her hair.

"And what about me?" Chiara turned to look at Ludo. "What about Gia? Did they say anything about her?"

"Why would they say anything about me?" Gianna asked, confused and scared, now at the posibility of also being under investigation.

"Because you hang out with us a lot," Chiara shrugged.

"They didn't say anything about Gia," Ludo said, calming Gia down a little, but she was still scared for her friends. "Emma. They think I'm her."

"They know about Emma?" Chiara exclaimed.

"The cops asked Fedeli about her in their list. It's just me."

"That's not possible," Chiara turned around in disbelief.

"Clearly it is," Ludo told her.

"No, it can't be."

"Why don't you just tell them it's you," Ludo looked at Chiara, making her freeze up.

They stared at each other for a while, Gia stood behind Ludo, looking at them, her eyebrows scrunched together. She breathed heavily, and racked her brain for a solution, but came up with nothing. It was too late.

Chiara sat down, "shit!" She cursed, putting her head in her hands.

"Can't we just tell them it's Fiore's fault?" Gia said, looking at them both. "I mean we wouldn't be lying, really. You guys were underage, he knew about it, that's illegal," Gia told them, but she wasn't sure it would solve anything.

Ludo shook her head, "just forget about it, okay?" She said. She quickly turned around and left Chiara and Gianna here alone.

"Ludovica, hold on," Chiara got up from the bleachers, looking after Ludo. "Fuck."

———

"She's right over there," the woman said to Chiara and Gianna, motioning to Sofia.

Upon hearing the news of their friend running away, Chiara decided to try and see if Sofia could help. As she was prepared to leave her house, Gianna had called her, insisting she goes with her.

Chiara didn't really have the time to argue about it, so she didn't protest.

"This is Gia," Chiara said as the girls sat down in front of Sofia.

"Hi, I hope you don't mind I'm here," Gia said, smiling at Sofia.

"That's fine. Sofia," she introduced herself.

"So?" Chiara started. "How is it here?" She asked, looking around.

"They turn off all the light at 10:30 and you're forced to go to bed. Even if you're not tired," Sofia started to say, looking down onto her hands on the table. "This girl I room with has constant nightmares," Sofia told them.

"Sounds like torture."

"It is."

"How are you?" Sofia asked Chiara.

"The school found out about our friend," Chiara said, giving a quick glance at Gia, the girls holding hands under the table for support.

"Shit," Sofia cursed, clossing her eyes for s moment.

"She ran away and no one knows where she is," Chiara said, leaning closer to Sofia. "I don't know what to do."

"You don't have to do anything," Sofia said. "If you want my advice don't say anything to anyone."

"We have to do something," Gia furrowed her eyebrows.

"You weren't involved in any of this, I'm guessing," Sofia looked at Gianna, who shook her head. "Right. Why are you here, then?"

Gia raised her eyebrows, shooting a quick glance at Chia next to her. "Ludo's my friend, so is Chiara. I care about them. I want to help them."

Sofia stared at her for a while, looking her up and down, before she changed the topic. "Do you know how often my parents come to see me?" Sofia looked at the girls in front of her. "Just the once. We didn't get along before this, so imagine now."

"I'm so sorry," Chiara said looking at her in empathy, the same look like Gia had on her face.

"You two and Niccolo are the only ones who have come to visit," Sofia admitted, making Gia lean forward with surprise.

"Niccolo?" Gia asked.

"Yeah, the cute guy from your school," she told her.

Chiara and Gia exchanged looks. Gia tried to not make a face at Sofia calling Nicco cute. There was no reason to be jealous, she told herself.

Yet she couldn't help but wonder if maybe Sofia and him had something going on.

"You know each other?" Chiara asked the exact question that Gia was wondering.

"He did some PR at Toy. And then Manuel dragged him into things."

Gia frowned, looking at Chiara who has a similar look on her face.

Saying goodbye to Sofia, the girls walked out of the facility. Gia turned to look at Chiara. "Do you think Niccolo could've been the one who wrote the notes?"

Chia shook her head, deep in thought. "I don't know," she sighed. "I have no idea what his handwriting looks like."

Gia stayed silent for a second, before she remembered something. "I think I could find out."

Chiara looked at her with confusion. "I should have his handwriting on some notes he used to write me. I'll text you once I find them," Gia quickly explained, before she hugged Chiara and hurried home.

————

Coming home, Gianna went straight to her room, ignoring Rosa and Marco. Rosa who was in the living room and Marco who was locked in his office.

It was a quiet household.

Franticly looking through her drawers, she tried to find one specific item.

Gia knew there had to be at least one note from Niccolo.

The conversation with Sofia and finding out she and Nicco had actually known each other had made her probably connect the dots. At least she thought she was right. But she had to make sure, and the note would confirm or deny her suspicions.

Finally, after searching her whole desk, she pulled out his notes.

She kept all of them. She never knew why, probably because she thought it was cute, and she was super grateful she had decided to keep them now.

Unlocking her phone, she looked at the picture of the school bathroom's door, with the graffiti note on it.

Switching her gaze between the note in her hand and phone in the other, she knew she was right.

It was Niccolo who had written the notes.

She clicked onto her and Nicco's messages.

'We have to talk.' She texted. A few minutes later, Nicco responded with simple, 'Ok'.

Not wasting a second she shot a quick text to Chiara, saying 'it has to be him. i'm going to talk to him'.

Grabbing her purse, she got up from the spot on the ground and hurried to her car, making her way to the spot she agreed to meet up with Niccolo.

————

Walking to the place where she and Niccolo had agreed to meet up, Gia stared at the back of his head. Taking a deep breath, she took a seat next to him.

Both of them were quiet for a moment, Niccolo waited for her to start talking, Gia thought about what she was going to say.

"You know you're not allowed into the girl's bathroom, right?" Gianna finally broke the silence, small smile on her face as she turned her head to look at the boy next to her.

"So how did you figure it out?" Nicco asked, letting out a little chuckle.

"I kind of had a feeling ever since I saw the first note," she admitted, also looking at him now. "I thought I recognized the handwritting. Then Chiara and I talked to Sofia. She told us you visited her, so I kind of connected the dots. Then I found the notes you used to give me, and it just confirmed all my suspisions," she told him, soft smile on her face.

"I've kinda known for a while now," Nicco admitted.

"Why didn't you just talk to me about it?" Gia asked.

"I wanted to, there was just never the right moment," he started explaining, biting the inside of his cheek. "We would always fight and then when we didn't I didn't want to ruin it." He looked down on his hands. "I also wasn't sure if you would've trusted me."

"Why even try to help?"

"Because I care about you," Nicco said, keeping eye contact. "And I know you care about Chiara and Ludovica," he shrugged.

"I don't know what to do," Gia admitted. "I want to help them, I just don't know how," she sighed, looking down onto the ground. "I kind of feel guilty I didn't try to stop them more," she shook her head, letting out a scoff.

Nicco shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows, "hey, don't do that. Don't blame yourself, okay? They decided themselves. None of this is your fault. If you want to put the blame someone, then it's on Chiara's parents'."

Gia looked at him with confusion, her eyes glassy, "what?"

Nicco saw the confusion on the girl's face, "Chiara's mom sent the photos of Ludovica to the school," he explained. "You don't know that? Does Chiara even know?"

Gianna shook her head, "I had no idea. And I doubt Chia has any idea about this either. She wouldn't have let her mom do that."

————

"So, I talked to Niccolo, like I said I would," Gia started, walking with Chiara to school the next day.

"And?"

"It was him. He wrote the graffiti on the bathroom door. He knows about you and Ludo," she told her. "And he told me something else too," she carefully said, watching her reaction.

"What is it?"

"It's bad news, Chia. Really bad, you're not gonna like it," Gianna told her with a grimace on her face.

"I don't see how anything can be worse than what's happening right now, so shoot," Chiara said, not believing that the news are that bad.

Looking at her for a moment, carefully thinking about her words. "Your mom. She sent the photos of Ludovica to the school. I don't know how she got them," Gia shook her head, looking at her with sadness in her eyes. "But she is the reason why the school knows about Ludo. I'm so sorry," she said, seeing the look on her face, she took a hold of her hand gently.

Chiara shook her head and scoffed, "I can't believe it," she muttered, sounding broken.

"Ludo called me," Chiara said, changing the subject.

"What did she say? Did she tell you anything? Is she with Fiore?" Gianna questioned, eyes opened wide.

"She didn't say much," Chiara shook her head. "She saw the interview with me. Where I said that I didn't know her that much," she let out a sarcastic chuckle, shaking her head.

"Chiara, you did what you had to do," Gia tried to comfort her.

"So you think I did the right thing? By keeping quiet about all of this? Acting as if Ludo and I were never friends? Like I'm not Emma?" She said the last sentence more quietly than the rest, looking at Gia.

When she didn't answer, Chiara nodded. "Right. God, I'm a shitty person," Chiara sighed, closing her eyes.

"No, Chia, you're not. It's not your fault," Gia shook her head, placing a comforting hand on hers.

"Yeah, because it's my mom's," she opened her eyes, looking at Gia, before she started walking again, making her way to school.

——————

end of episode four

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