twisted » á. morata & p. dybala

diez // sick day

I had been sick for the past two days. My head hurt and I made it an excuse to take a sick leave from work. Paulo came over to 'take care' of me and to treat me like one should a sick person.

"How is it?" Paulo asked after I had the first bite of the cupcakes he brought me.

"This is really good. Makes me feel better already," I said with a mouthful, still chewing the chocolatey cupcake in my mouth.

"I'm really glad it does," he smiled and snuggled up next to me on the couch. His closeness to me brought a kind of warmth that I had never felt before. That's how lame I was.

"So, Half-Blood Prince or Order of The Phoenix?" He asked while picking which Harry Potter movie we were going to watch first.

"Sorcerer's Stone. I want to watch from the beginning," I flipped my legs onto the couch and finally laid down in a very comfortable position with my head on Paulo's chest.

"Fine by me," Paulo played the movie and draped an arm around me, which made me shiver a bit. I was still not used to his nerve-touching touch, but it was a comforting one.

"Where's Valerie anyway? Is she out with Álvaro?" He asked during the very beginning of the movie.

"No, she's still in college, and she has to go to work later," I replied, but my focus was solely on the movie.

"Well lucky you, getting to spend some time alone with me," he chuckled childishly.

"Suuuureee," I mocked him and we both laughed heartily. To be honest, I didn't really feel like we were in a romantic relationship at all. I felt like he was such a good brother to me, which was so weird.

After Prisoner of Azkaban, we decided that we couldn't handle anymore magic and also, our eyes hurt from staring at the TV for seven hours straight.

"So..." I pursed my lips. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Paulo wrinkled his forehead and looked at me straight in the eyes.

"About this," I paused. "About us."

He groaned lazily and took his eyes off of mine. "What's there to talk about anyway?"

"Everything basically."

"Alright, let's make this quick. I really really like you, Isabella. Like, a lot lot lot," he confessed, his fingers playing with my baby hairs.

"I know, you've told me. I really like you too," I rested my head on the couch sideways, and faced Paulo while his fingers were still twirling pieces of my hair.

"I know, you've told me," he grinned. We'd hung out a few times and kissed more than just a few times since our first kiss on the balcony, but we'd never actually made things official.

"My point is, I want to settle this right now. What exactly are we?" I finally mustered up enough courage to ask.

"Do you want to make things official? I don't really care for those stuffs anyway. It's just a status, it doesn't really matter," he shrugged while shaking his head slightly.

"Well, it kind of makes this feel more real, and to answer your question, I do if you do," I looked up at him, my head still on his chest.

"Then it's official," he placed a cheeky kiss on my forehead, which made me pull him closer to me and placed my lips on his. He tasted of a sweet and minty scent, and whenever we were kissing, I felt like a little girl in a theme park. Overly excited would be an appropriate description of my feelings back then. "I have to go now," he pulled away and sighed heavily, his hand toying even more with my hair. "I want to stay, but-"

"It's okay, just go," I said, hoping I finally convinced him. He had told me that he had to go see his mother, and I definitely didn't want to be in the way of that.

"I'm really sorry. Don't forget to take your medicine, okay?" He cupped my cheek with one hand and made little circles with his thumb.

"Okay, Dybi. Bye," I pecked his lips once again and took my hand off of the side of his face.

"Bye princesa," he got off the couch and disappeared, then I heard the heavy front door opening and slamming shut again.

I waited for Valerie to come home while lounging around the house. I tried calling her multiple times but she never answered. It turned out that we had no more cold medicine or aspirin left, and I needed them immediately. I had to go to a pharmacy to get them and the nearest one was in a grocery store nearby, and I decided to walk there to get some fresh air.

Being cooped up inside the house for two days straight made the cold air feel like heaven. The freshness that it gave me was very pleasing. The wind was calming, but it kept messing with my hair even though I had a baseball hat on. The streets of Turin were eerily empty, so I walked as fast as I could into the store, bought what I needed, and walked back out.

I noticed that the street lights weren't shining as bright as they usually would, and one of them was completely dead. Maybe that's why it's so scary, I thought. I walked a few steps away from the store, heading to my right, towards the big street leading back to my neighbourhood. I eyed a bookstore that wasn't there previously. It was a new bookstore. It was closed, so all I managed to do was look at the displays. There were a lot of different books that-

Thud.

I felt something hit me in the back of my head really hard, and it sent a series of pain throughout my whole body. I felt my body hit the ground before I could do anything, and I could only lay there helplessly, whilst the pain was still puncturing every nerve, especially the back of my head. I tried to scream, but all that came out was a weird croak. I saw a figure running away from me, and also a different figure running towards me from a different direction.

The person stopped and kneeled beside me. I saw who it was, but my mind was too damaged already to think any further.

I tried to talk, but my voice came out small, weak, and unclear. "Álvaro..."

Then everything went black.