CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“SPILL THE DAMN BEANS”

SCARLETT DEL GATO

There was laughing and talking around us in the cafeteria that day. Some students slammed their trays down onto their tables as they sat down their chairs scraping across the floors when they pulled it back to sit down.

Eden watches me thoroughly like I was going to disappear into thin air. She was seated across from me and not beside like we always sat during lunch times. I get why she kept her distance though. She wanted to hear my side of the story. She wanted to know why I was gone for so long without contacting her or even letting her know where I was this entire time.

I sigh, sitting back in my chair while I rummaged through my food with my fork. Today’s special: spaghetti and meatballs. Although it looked delicious today, I couldn’t stomach it right now, not with the way Eden was looking at me through her thick eyelashes, sipping on a straw in her diet Coke can, still watching me intently as if I was going to vanish into thin air.

She wasn’t angry at me, she was waiting for an explanation. And I was here trying to avoid that conversation as best I could while also knowing that there wasn’t a way out of this conversation, even if I tried.

“Spill the damn beans, Scarlett.” She finally says, playing with the straw between her fingers. “I’ve been thinking about all the possibilities of where you’ve been since this morning when you showed up out of the blue, but I can’t think straight so you’d have to tell me where you were this entire time before I lose my damn mind.”

I sigh, hearing another set of laughter a few tables down.

They were laughing at me.

I sink lower in my seat, trying to make myself as small as possible, but Vito’s words from this morning came to mind: “You are going to be looked at and talked about today, but it’s up to you to ignore them.”

He was right. Eden was here, she was talking to me and she wasn’t angry at all, so the other people can go screw themselves. If they want to talk to me behind my back, then so be it. Let them talk about me. That’s fine with me.

“You won’t believe me when I tell you.” I tell her, eyeing the apple on my tray beside the spaghetti and meatballs and bottle of sparkled water.

I decide to take a bite out of the apple to avoid this conversation as much as I can, but she only nods and leans onto the table with both of her elbows, eyeing me intently.

“I am your best friend and I’ll try my best to understand, okay?”

“I will tell you once you stop flipping everybody off.” I chuckle, seeing her ringed finger fly up again when she shot the girls who were giggling behind their hands a middle finger.

“They’re two faced bitches.” Eden scowls, sitting straight in her seat again.

 Her onyx-coloured painted nails still painted as if it was done yesterday tapping on the table every now and then to keep them from flipping everyone off around us.

“They grieved your, uh, death too but now they’re acting as if they don’t even care that you’re alive.” Eden continues, shaking her head in disbelief. “Anyways,” she sighs heavily, folding her arms behind her back, “are you going to tell me who drove you to school this morning in that fancy Maserati?”

Shit.

There was no way I could avoid this conversation any longer. I might as well just tell her what happened, leaving out a few details too, of course. She doesn’t need to know about what happened to my brother and what happened to him.

She doesn’t need to know everything.

“Here’s the part where you’re not going to believe me.” I bite my lip in between my teeth. “It was,” I pause, looking around the cafeteria to see if someone was listening to our conversation but when no one did, I looked at Eden again, “Giovanni Castiglione.”

I feel sick as I watch Eden, waiting for her to react to what I just told her.

The aromas of the spaghetti and meatballs as well as sweet ketchup fills my nostrils, making my stomach churn.

I didn’t eat anything except a bite out of my apple, but I still felt as if I could discard everything out onto the table in front of me, right now, in front of every single one in this cafeteria.

Eden blinks once, then twice and then a third time. Her mouth was agape before she closed it again.

She repeated those things a few times before she finally sputtered out a response. “What? You came to school with Giovanni Castig—”

I lean over the table, closing her mouth with the palm flat against her lips, preventing her from saying anything else.

I got a few funny stares all around me, but they eventually went back to eating their lunch and talking amongst themselves like I wasn’t just trying to suffocate my best friend with my hand flat against her mouth.

“Shush.” I tell her, taking my hand away from her mouth. “I don’t want the entire world to know that I’ve been with them this entire time.”

“Them?” She asks, her eyebrows rose in question. “You’re living with them? You’re living with the Castigliones?”

I nod, placing my half-eaten apple back on the tray beside the spaghetti and meatballs I didn’t dare to touch today, not while I felt so sick to the stomach. “Yes.” I tell her. “They took me in after my uh,” I swallow hard, feeling another wave of nausea washing over me, “brother died.”

She offers me a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Scarlett. I’ve been so caught up in where you’ve been this entire time, I didn’t even ask you about your brother, if he was okay or not…”

I shake my head, blinking away the tears. “It’s okay, Eden. The Castigliones… They’ve been taking good care of me while I was there.”

I didn’t tell her how Antonio died, at least until I’ve figured out why he betrayed the Castigliones in the first place.

“How are you living with them?” She asks. “I mean… How did you end up living with the Castigliones? Nothing makes sense. I am so confused.”

Hell, I was too in the beginning. I didn’t know a damn thing to what my brother was mixed up in and now that I think of it, it can’t be anything good.

She takes a sip of her diet Coke again.

I shrug. “Hell if I know…” I tell her, trying to hide the fact that I was lying to her face right now. “I guess they found me after everything that happened at my house.”

“What the hell are the odds here?” She continues. “We talked about them that same day and bam, they show up and now you’re living with them?”

It was one hell of a coincidence indeed.

“I told you it would be a lot to take in.” I tell her. “Giovanni was supposedly best friends with my brother, too.” I tell her.

She nearly spits out the sip of Coke she took just now but managed to swallow everything down without spraying it everywhere across our table.

 “I’m sorry. Did you just say that your brother was best friends with Giovanni? How the hell didn’t I know that?”

“I didn’t even know.” I tell her honestly.

“So Antonio was… He was… He was part of the Mafia?”

She was so confused right now and I didn’t even blame here.

I was confused too until everything came to light. But there are still a few puzzle pieces missing, like what my brother did to think that it was a good idea to betray Giovanni and the rest of the Castigliones.

“Wow,” she releases a big breath, “a lot has happened and it isn’t even the half of it yet, I assume.”

I shake my head. “Not even the half of it.”

“Can I ask what happened to your brother?” She asks, twirling a short strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. “When I asked the police for information, they said they couldn’t answer me because it’s confidential. I assumed you were dead because of the lack of information we all got.”

I swallow hard. “He was shot that same night.” I tell her. “And the next morning, I woke up in the Castiglione mansion.”

She didn’t need to know who shot him. I don’t want to portray Giovanni being the bad guy while I still didn’t know why my brother did what he did.

“I’m sorry, Scar.” She flashes me another sad smile. “That must’ve been so tough on you. I can’t even begin to imagine what you went through.” She says, taking my hand in hers and giving it a squeeze.

“The Castigliones are helping me piece together what happened.”

“How can you be so sure that Giovanni himself wasn’t involved in anything?” She asks. “I mean, if he was best friends with your brother and the Castigliones show up at your house randomly… The only thing I can think of is that Antonio might have done something to piss them off.”

Giovanni was involved. I wanted to tell her but kept my mouth shut instead.

“They were best friends, Eden.” I tell her. “I don’t think he would’ve done something to hurt Antonio.” I lie through my teeth.

Eden takes out her phone and checks the time. “The bell’s going to ring soon, but I definitely need to know more about what happened. Let’s grab a coffee after school?” She suggests.

“I have to check in first to see if it will be okay.”

She grins at me, wiggling her eyebrows. “Are they protective of you already?”

“I guess so.” I tell her before taking out my phone too.

There was already a message from Giovanni saying that I should be relaxed and that everything was going to be okay.

There was one from Vito too, wishing me a good day.

Seeing that Giovanni was the one to pick me up this afternoon, I message him instead of Vito.

Scarlett : Hey Asstiglione, Eden wants to grab a coffee after school.  Is it okay if I go?

Giovanni: It’s a no because you called me ‘Asstiglione’.

Scarlett: Please? *insert puppy dog eyes*

I can just see his eye roll through the phone and I bite back a laugh when I see his response.

Giovanni: That doesn’t work on me, maybe try it on Vito, see if it gets you anywhere.

Scarlett: Are you honestly going to make me beg to go?

Giovanni: Although that sounds like a very good idea…

Scarlett: Pretty please?

Giovanni: Fine. You can go only because I have some work to be done and I would’ve been a little late anyways, so yes, you can go. I will send a guard to school to follow the two of you after school. But after the little get-together, you drive home with the guard, got it?

Scarlett: Got it, thanks Asstiglione!

Giovanni: *sigh*

Eden grins at me the entire message exchange.

“I never saw you smile that widely before.” She says.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I tell her, propping my phone back into my pocket. “He’s just being his sarcastic self.”

“Sarcastic or not, if Giovanni out of all people can get you to smile like that, I have some hope for your love life after all.”

I swat her arm right when the bell for the next class rings.

The both of us get up from our seats and make our way towards the exit of the cafeteria, but Eden tugs on my arm and leans into me.

“I think Giovanni might not be the only one with a crush.” She says, pointing to Jeremiah walking all alone.

He briefly glances at me before he looks to the front of him.

“He’s been watching you the entire lunch period.”

“Who hasn’t been watching me, Eden?” I ask although I already knew why he was watching me.

He was just looking out for me, but she didn’t need to know about the three J’s yet either. I was a bad friend for keeping this many things from her, but until I can figure out why the things happened the way it did, the information stays with me for now.

• • •

The rest of the day passed strangely fast. I was walking with my tote bag over my shoulder to Eden’s father’s car. He might have lend it to her seeing that she didn’t have me and Antonio to drive her to school anymore.

I was waiting by her car when she rushes towards me, quickly unlocking the car for us. She hurriedly gets into the driver’s seat, and I into the passenger seat when she starts the ignition.

“What’s got you in such a hurry?” I ask when she drove out of the parking lot awfully fast, even faster than Giovanni with his Maserati.

She ignores me and focuses on the road in front of her.

“Eden…What’s going on?”

She snaps out of her stupor and looks behind her in the rear-view mirror.

I turn in my seat and see a black SUV following us, but it was the guard Giovanni sent to follow us to the coffee shop.

“Relax, Eden, it’s just the guard.” I set her mind at ease. “Giovanni couldn’t pick me up so he sent the guard to follow us. He’s taking me back to the house after the coffee.”

She physically relaxes in her seat and releases a relieved breath. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I was so worried someone was out to kill you now that you’re with the Castigliones.”

“You’re way too paranoid.” I tell her, shaking my head.

“I thought you were dead up until this morning.” She says. “Death tends to make one a little on the paranoid side, especially if your best friend returns from the dead and surprises you at school like nothing happened.”

“I’m sorry.” I smile apologetically at her. “I should’ve told you where I was, but everything was too much and I didn’t want to spring everything on you at once.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “It’s just… I already lost you once and I don’t want to lose you again.” She says and when she glances at me, her eyes were filled with unshed tears.

I felt so bad. I was missing for a few weeks and I didn’t even bother to call her to tell her where I was. I felt bad, but at least she was still here and I can tell her everything once things settle down a little bit.

“You won’t lose me, Eden.” I tell her. I squeeze her shoulder, seeing her lift her hand to dap away the tear rolling down her pink cheeks.

The entire drive to the coffee shop was comfortably silent.

We only started to talk again when we were sitting in a booth, after we ordered two coffees.

The smell of coffee beans and freshly baked goods filled my nostrils, making my stomach grumble. I should’ve eaten at the cafeteria, but I felt too sick to stomach anything, but now I regretted it.

“So, tell me more.” She says, grinning at me across the booth.

“What do you want to know?”

She grins slyly at me. “Did you sleep with one of them yet?”

I gasp, my eyes widening in shock at her words.

I just knew that the topic was going to pop up sooner than later. It always does with a friend like Eden. I knew she was going to ask it.

“No one.” I tell her, but even my own voice sounded so unconvincing.

“Liar.” She mutters under her breath. “It’s Giovanni, isn’t it?”

“No. It’s none of the brothers.”

“There’s someone else, isn’t there?”

“No.” I laugh. “There’s no one Eden. I just lost my brother; I don’t have time to lock lips with anyone at the moment.”

Although mentioning my brother made her smile sadly at me, she still looked at me with a gleam in her eyes like she didn’t believe me.

“At the moment, you say?” She asks, her eyebrows wiggling up and down.

“Well, there is this very particular Castiglione brother who is very much protective of me. So much that he would actually hit his own friend just because he thought he accidentally hurt me.”

“I can’t with the suspense!” She giggles behind her palm. “I just want some excitement. Even if it comes from my friend’s life and not my own.”

“Okay fine…” I cave, remembering how Giovanni looked at me when he threw me in the pool yesterday and how he said that he wouldn’t let his dad chase me away once he finds out that I have been living with his sons in his big ass mansion. “It’s Giovanni.”

“Giovanni?” She nearly squeals. “I knew it! I could’ve seen it on your face when you texted him in the cafeteria earlier.”

I frown at my best friend. “You saw the messages?”

“No,” she defends herself, “okay fine. I might’ve peeked a little but that’s only because you didn’t hear me when I spoke to you.” She moves out of the way so that the waiter could place our coffees onto the table in front of us.

She thanks the waiter before he disappears again.

“Did the two of you kiss yet?”

“No.”

“Do you want to?”

“No.”

Maybe.

“You’re thinking about him right now, aren’t you?”

“It’s kind of hard not to think about him seeing that we’re talking about him.” I chuckle. “But no. I’m not thinking of him in that way.”

“Liar.” She smirks.

I roll my eyes at her and take a sip of my coffee, but even just the taste of coffee made me think of him. The way he would run his fingers through his hair and the way he would smirk whenever I would challenge him.

“Like I said, we’re just trying to piece everything together.” I tell her, palming the cup of coffee in between my two hands. “I’m not going to live with them forever, Eden.”

“Why not? You literally live in luxury now and you still have doubts? Do you really want to go back to that small hell-hole of a—” She pauses mid-sentence when she realises what she said. “Scar, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s okay, Eden.”

It’s not there anymore anyways. I thought.

“Wait,” I start when something occurred to me, “did you just say go back to that small hell-hole of a place? It’s not burnt down?”

She shakes her head at me slowly. “They didn’t mention something about the house being burnt down.” She says. “The police couldn’t tell us anything, for that matter. We were being kept in the dark about everything.  Why?”

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “I’m sure.” I force a small smile.