~Something Sus~

It was the shrill tune of her phone's ringtone and the vibration on her bedside table that had Dolores waking with a groan. Rolling over, she grabbed the device. According to her, it was an ungodly and unsightly hour to call even though she was aware she was supposed to be dressed by now for her appointment.

"I guess I'd have to be late today again." She said aloud to herself before looking at the screen. It was an unknown number. She peered curiously at it for a while before shrugging. For all she knew, it could be one of those stupid pranksters. She was going to ignore the call and fall back to sleep when instincts told her to pick up the call.

With a swipe of a long slender finger, she put an end to the unwelcome noise then pressed the phone to her ear. A girl's voice filtered through with anxiety and tears coated in it.

"Hello."

"Hello, you're on to Dolores Huerta. May I know who I'm speaking with?"

She thought she heard the girl sniffle before replying. Had she been crying? Was she in trouble?

"I'm Aurora, Nicolas's sister." Apart from her voice being interwoven with fear, reluctancy and hesitation were also laced in her voice.

Dolores paused a beat. Two.

She was shocked that all these while she knew him, Nicolas had a sister no one else knew about and not even for once did he mention her when they were talking. She soon recovered from the sudden surprise. "Nice to meet you, Aurora. Is anything the matter?"

The girl's voice was small and shaky as she spoke and it heightened her fears. "It's Nicolas. He was brought in by some woman who rescued him from some thugs last night. He was bleeding profusely from his head and his body was bruised. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness and calling your name over and over. I think he needs you to come--"

Dolores shot up from her state of slumber. "What the hell? Listen to me. I'm going to need you to take a breather now, can you do that for me Aurora?"

When the caller's erratic breaths calmed, Dolores grabbed a pen and a jotter from her reading desk. "Now, if you'll just tell me your home address, I'll be right there in no time."

As Aurora spoke, she wrote it down as quick as she could. "Alright, give me some minutes. I'll be there." Then, she cut the call.

Nicolas had been hiding things from her and acting very fidgety whenever he got one of those infamous calls but the news she just got was the height of it all. Was he involved in something illegal?

If he was, it would be better for him to come clean about it, else, he would break his sister's heart. There might probably be a good reason why he kept her identity hidden away from the rest of the school. There was either something big he was onto or his sister wasn't just as popular as he was. Albeit, she found no reason to start acting like a detective.

Faster than a bunny under the influence of caffeine, she took her bath, had her hair down and threw on herself a blue hoodie with a pair of black baggy pants. Her dad, Damian, was already at the dining when she came bounding downstairs. It looked like he was on his way to call her.

"Oh, hey Dad. Good morning." Her voice came out more throaty than she intended.

Damian raised an eyebrow at how breathless she sounded. "Anything the matter? You look like you've been running marathon races in your room."

"Not really. I just wanna get to the clinic on time today."

She got down the stairs, two steps at a time, still trying to act like she wasn't eyeing the door some feet away from the dining and she didn't want to bolt out of the room in a nanosecond. Feigning calmness, she grabbed her car keys and was going to open the door when her dad said something she had been hoping for him not to.

"Come have breakfast, honey."

She huffed lightly. "But dad, I'm going to be late."

"Since when do you ever care about being early? I know it is wrong to be late but you've always loved breakfast time."

She brushed a stray hair with quick fingers. "I know. But now's not the time. I really need to be with Miss Evelyn, stat."

Damian inclined his head to have a closer look at his daughter and began to wonder what in the world was going on with her. "Are you sure? You look like you're going to drop any minute from now. Just have a few bites of omelette and a few sips of your chocolate drink."

"Okay." She didn't even bother to argue with him knowing how he never liked to lose an argument with her. She took a few bites and a few sips as he said, then she brushed past him, sending a few air kisses.

"Bye, Dad. Have a great day at work. That tie looks fantastic by the way." She hurriedly added before zooming off to her car. When she opened the door and got in, she paused to catch her breath.

Why exactly was she in such a hurry to meet Nicolas?

She brushed off the question the moment it rose in the back of her mind as the car's engine revved up to life. The obvious fact was that his sister, whom she had no knowledge of in all the short years of her life, called her to tell her what had happened to Nicolas. If Nicolas had her hidden from everybody but the girl suddenly placed a call to her, the issue had to be really critical.

A chilling thought that the call might also be a trap to lure her in, came up and she deeply contemplated it as she pulled her car out of the driveway.

She immediately typed in the address on her GPS. She sighed in relief when she saw that the location was actually a real place. The only thing left was to show up there and see what awaited her.

After series of turns, she finally arrived in front of a modest looking three bedroom flat. She didn't want to be impulsive and so paused for a while inside the car. As luck would have it, just then, the door opened and a girl who looked to be about the age of eighteen stepped outside to dispose the garbage. Before she could get back inside, Dolores decided to toughen up and approach her.

At the sound of the car door closing shut, the girl turned. Her almond shaped eyes rested with weariness upon Dolores, who was stunned to see that the girl looked like the exact replica of Nicolas.

Aurora stopped in her tracks, blinking hard. The face she was seeing was horribly familiar but she couldn't place it. Recognition soon hit her like a ton of brick and she hastily averted her eyes to prevent Dolores from recalling her face.

"Are you Dolores?" Her voice came out in a small murmur.

"Yes, I am." Dolores replied curtly. Her eyes narrowed down when the girl's face sparked a light of recognition. It was the girl from the Italian restaurant a couple of months ago who was drained with soup by her barbaric friends but she didn't hint at it.

"Come on in." The girl simply said and walked back the same way she had come while still pretending not to know her.

Dolores followed wondering how it was possible for this girl to be Nicolas' sister when he rarely even associated himself with her as most would do if they had siblings in their own school.

She let her gaze wander and saw that the living room was spacious enough for a family of five, if they even numbered up to that. Dolores found herself slowing her pace down and stopping in front of a framed photograph. It had Nicolas in it, his sister and an older man with auburn hair that could pass for his father. The dimple in his left cheek gave him away.

She turned to observe the girl walking in front and wondered why she wasn't in school yet. She voiced out her thoughts before she could think twice about them.

"Pardon me but you're that girl from the restaurant, right?"

She sighed and nodded. "Such tough luck I have to bump into you again. I'm sorry about that day." She paused, then continued. "I was blinded with anger and I snapped at you. I really shouldn't have."

Dolores nodded in understanding. "I think I get you and I don't blame you. I'm sorry for trying to intrude too. Why aren't you in school by the way?"

"For obvious  reasons. My brother isn't well enough to stay by himself and he would do the same if I was the one lying in my bed with sores all over my body." She replied without turning her head as she headed up the stairs, motioning for Dolores to follow her.

She realized than that Nicolas might have been a jerk to people but had the best interests of his family at heart.

"His room is right this way." Dolores' head snapped up to meet Aurora. She realized she had been caught staring at another photo of the trio in the hallway. Her face flushed with guilt and she murmured an awkward apology.

"Call me if anything happens that you have no control of." Aurora said, turning away to enter what seemed to be her room.

This was it, Dolores thought as she stared at the door feeling hesitant to knock. She hoped to God that his sister wasn't lying about him being beaten up. Finally, she raised a hand to the door knob, turning it and pushing the door open.

Her eyes widened at the sight that met her gaze. The moans that escaped his lips reached her ears and out of control, her eyes watered.

"Oh shit."

~~~{•}~~~

What do you think is happening with Nicolas? Is he lying or is he really saying the truth?
I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. And please give it a star. It's just at the bottom of your screen.

It means a lot to me.

~~Tequila~~