UNSPOKEN WORDS
1394 Words
🪝ADRIANA'S POV 🪝
"Okay, will someone please tell me what is going on?"
I stood between them with my hands on my hips, my eyes moving from Molly, who had her face buried in her phone, to Leticia, who was glaring at the wall like it had personally offended her.
Molly looked up. "What do you mean?"
"I heard you both had a falling out over Ryan," I said.
Molly's face scrunched immediately. "Eww. Where did you hear that?"
"Someone mentioned it," I replied, keeping it vague.
"And you just believed them?" She stared at me.
I held her gaze and said nothing.
She watched me for another second before clicking her tongue. "I would never fall out with any of my friends over a boy. Ever." She said, then dropped her attention back to her phone.
I frowned, turning it over in my head. Sean had confidently said they were arguing about Ryan. Molly was insisting it had nothing to do with a boy. One of them was lying and I wasn't sure which one yet.
"So then what actually happened between you two?" I asked.
Leticia leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Ask Molly."
"Don't start, Ticia," Molly muttered without looking up.
"She thinks we're both hiding something from her," Leticia said, directing the words at me. "Been on my neck about it since this morning."
"Because something is off," Molly snapped, before her tone softened around the edges. "I know when something is wrong with the people I love, and something has been wrong lately. Nobody's telling me what it is."
“While you both share weird looks."
The room settled into silence.
I looked at Leticia. Leticia looked at me. Then both of us looked at Molly, and suddenly every secret I'd been keeping felt unbearably heavy inside my chest.
"Did something happen between you and Klaus this morning?" I asked, steering us toward safer ground. "About picking me up?"
Molly's jaw flexed. "He showed up with Julia instead of coming for you like we always do. I wasn't exactly thrilled about it." She tried to sound casual, but her fingers were locked fist together on her lap. "We handled it."
"And you and Leticia?" I pressed.
"She thinks I'm hiding something about you and Klaus," Leticia said.
"What?" I muttered, turning to look at Molly. My mind reeling with the possibility of how and what she knew already.
For one split second, something vulnerable flickered across her face before disappearing.
Then she slipped her phone into her bag and fixed her eyes on me. "How did Klaus get your number, Ana?"
The air shifted instantly.
Beside me, Leticia went still, and my throat bobbed before I could stop it. Oh God. Was that what she had been pestering Leticia for all day?
I forced on a blank expression. "Honestly? I have no idea."
The lie slid out smoothly and tasted horrible.
I knew exactly how he'd gotten my number. We'd followed each other on i********: a year ago, arguing in comment sections whenever he wanted to annoy me, and we'd exchanged numbers one afternoon when I couldn't reach Molly and started panicking. But I couldn't say that. Not while looking at her face.
"Maybe someone at the party gave it to him," I said with a shrug.
"Really." Not a question.
"I didn't give it to him, Mol. I promise."
She studied me for a long moment before finally nodding, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "Okay. I believe you." Then her expression shifted again. "But Ana."
"Yeah?"
"You remember your promise." Her voice dropped lower, heavier somehow. "Right?"
I nodded.
"What promise?" Leticia asked, looking between us.
Molly ignored her completely. Her eyes stayed locked on mine, and something about the intensity of it made my chest tighten.
"You can never fall for my brother. Never." Her voice wavered slightly before steadying again. "Because if that ever happened, I would never forgive either of you. I can't lose you, Ana. You're the one person I can't lose."
The classroom suddenly felt too small.
I wanted to reassure her. I wanted to laugh it off and tell her she was overthinking everything and that nothing was happening.
But the words stuck in my throat because something had already changed.
"Why do you sound like someone marking her territory?" Leticia asked slowly, one brow lifting.
Molly finally looked away from me, and the pressure in the room eased just enough for me to breathe again.
"She's my best friend and I don't want her getting hurt," Molly replied, but there was still something strained underneath the explanation, something too sharp to ignore.
And I noticed it.
I noticed it and shoved it somewhere deep in my mind because I wasn't ready to examine what it might mean.
"I hope that's really all it is," Leticia muttered, grabbing her bag.
"Shut up, Ticia," Molly shot back, but a laugh broke through immediately after, cracking the tension wide open. Just like that, they slipped back into themselves again — shoulder bumps, eye rolls, familiar warmth.
I smiled at them, though the uneasy feeling stayed lodged in my chest.
"Okay, I actually have news though," Molly announced, warmth rushing into her cheeks.
Leticia straightened instantly. "Tell me everything."
Molly bit her lip before grinning fully. "Ryan asked me out on a date."
"What?" I grabbed both her hands. "Molly."
She laughed into her palms. "I know—"
"He's probably liked you for ages. I should have known—" I turned toward Leticia, already pulling her into the excitement because that's how we did things, all three of us together, but the words died in my throat.
She'd gone pale.
Not dramatically. Not enough for Molly to notice while she was still giggling to herself. But I knew Leticia's expressions too well not to catch it.
There was so much sadness in her eyes.
Small. Hidden and controlled.
But there.
Something in my chest twisted because I knew it so well. It was the same one I had whenever I saw Klaus with some other girl.
"That's amazing, Mol," Leticia said, her voice warm and sincere, and somehow that made it worse because she meant it.
"Thank you both," Molly sang as we grabbed our things, and I kept glancing at Leticia, wondering if she was ok or if Molly's announcement was the reason for the sad look in her eyes.
Out in the corridor, Molly was still glowing.
“When did Julia come back?” I asked, finally giving voice to the question that had been in my chest since I walked into class.
Molly glanced sideways at me. "Last night apparently. Dad mentioned something about a new neighbor and said their daughter stopped by asking for Klaus." She grimaced. "Turned out to be Julia. Just walked back into his life like she'd never left."
"And he just went straight back to her?"
"They were practically attached at the hip before she moved away." Molly shrugged, though it looked forced. "I can't stand her, but she's one of the only people who can calm Klaus down, so if they're back together then whatever. Good for them."
I pressed my tongue against the inside of my cheek and swallowed every ugly thought trying to rise.
Beside me, Leticia caught my eye, and the look she gave me said far too much.
"Let's go watch hockey practice," I blurted, trying to get my mind off what she had just said and to change the topic.
Both of them stopped walking.
"Sean invited me," I added quickly. "I thought you guys might want to come too."
Molly's smile turned slow and knowing. "Sean invited you."
"It's just practice—"
"Of course it is."
She was already laughing, and heat climbed into my face before I could stop it.
"Let's go support Sean," Leticia deadpanned, and I loved her for it.
Molly giggled. “Yeah. Let's go."
We turned toward the rink together — Molly still grinning, Leticia wearing that knowing expression she always got when she'd figured something out before everyone else, and me walking between them with Sean's jersey in my bag.
But deep down, I already knew I wasn't really going there for Sean.
I was going for the boy who had somehow ruined my ability to think straight.
- Writer
