Chapter 54

I was walking to my next class when I ran into Clara and Sara, quite serious for them. Before going to my next class I decided I'm going to go get a bottle of water and to do that I had to leave college, luckily there's a small business in front. My surprise when I left class was to see Sara and Clara with a blonde I really hate and couldn't see after what she did to Gabriela, but I decided to ignore them until I heard something I think I shouldn't have heard. I couldn't believe it... that's impossible... they're Gabriela's friends and they couldn't be doing this to her.

I decided not to buy the bottle of water and look for Gabriela urgently because she had to know who they really are, I swear right now I hate them with all my being, and Paula twice as much as I already did. I picked up my cell phone and dialed Gabriela, who took what seemed like years to answer.

"GABRIELA, WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHERE IT COME FROM. YOU'RE NOT SAFE." I shouted stressed, "Carlotta, calm down because I'm not understanding you at all."

I calmed down a little, but not too much, just to the level of not shouting at everyone. "Where are you?" I asked, deciding it's better to tell her directly instead of over the phone. "We're going to go to the park for a while, why?"

"I'm going there right now." I responded, starting to walk, "Ok, that's fine, but do me a favor and calm down so I can understand you." My best friend asked and I snorted, because that's precisely not something we could afford. "We just can't relax, now more than ever, but I'll try. Until now."

"Until now." With that, I headed to the park that's about a ten-minute walk away and when I arrived, I could see Gabriela with Ana around her and I'm going to start talking when Gabriela stopped me, but that didn't mean I'm going to stop telling her now. "Ana wants to play with you, right, honey?" Gabriela asked the girl, but without looking away from me, "Yessss." She responded excitedly, "But Gabriela…"

"Let's play with her and then talk, ok?" She asked and I sighed "Mommy, you can talk to her, it seems important." the little girl said and Gabriela denied, "Don't worry Ana, whatever can wait, right Carlota?"

Right now, I'm a little surprised to hear Ana call Gabriela mom, I didn't really understand what she's talking about and you can say that momentarily helped me forget about the problem we had. I still couldn't believe it, if Gabriela had a hard time trusting people, when she finds out it's going to be much worse.

The thing is, while playing with Ana I was able to forget about the problem a little, until Gabriela said we're going to see Marcos and the others, at that moment I got nervous and I would take the opportunity to tell her, I didn't care at all if they are there.

At that moment, we saw Marcos and the others leave. Gabriela crouched down to be at Ana's height, starting to talk to her. "Beautiful, go to your brother." Gabriela said to the girl, "Where are you going?" She asked curiously. "I'm going now, don't worry."

"Ok, see you now mommy." She said goodbye, giving my best friend a kiss on the cheek. "See you now, honey." With that Ana went to her brother and she took my hand and led us to the other side.

When she decided we were far enough away from them she stopped, turned around and looked at me worried, which is the most normal thing in the world. "What's going on?" Gabriela asked in a worried tone. "We have a problem I didn't expect at all and I don't think you did either." I assured, because that's for sure, "I'm not understanding you at all, Carlota, explain yourself."

"It's about Clara and Sara." I said and she frowned. "What's wrong with them?" She asked confused. "They are in cahoots with Paula." And she's paralyzed, I don't know if she understood what I told her or she understood it and now she is in shock, which is another possibility.

"That can't be Carlota, you're wrong." She said, denying, "I would like to be, but I heard they were talking about what happened to your siblings. Paula found out they're one of your weaknesses because of them."

"This can't be happening to me." She muttered, denying, "I know it's difficult to understand, but the rest has to know." I informed, because it's necessary, especially for Marcos. "Don't even think about telling the rest." She said quickly and I frowned. "But they have to know, especially Marcos."

"I'll tell Alex, but I won't tell Marcos a word about this, Carlota, not one." She insisted "But…" I started, but she denied "But nothing, he will have other problems to put more into it." She assured, and now it's my turn to frown. "What problems is he having?"

"It's with his mother, I'll tell you after telling him just so you know he's going to need support, more than ever." My best friend sighed "You're scaring me, Gabriela." I said, fearing the worst, "It's bad, but not that bad, so don't worry."

"I already am, I can't help it." I insisted, "It's better you come to Marcos and Carlos's house on Saturday, he will need all of us." She continued "And then you pretend not to worry?" I asked frustrated. "You come to their house." She insisted, "Ok, if you don't want to tell me, can you tell me why Ana calls you mom?"

"Because she asked me." Gabriela responded with a shrug, "And you accepted? out of nowhere? Every time Marcos or I said it to you in a joking way, you wanted to kill us." I responded, laughing softly, "Of course, because it's not the same thing for two people older than you to say it to you as for a six-year-old girl to say it and cry."

"Why? That girl is too happy for cry." I said confused. It's weird to see Ana cry. "I know, that's why I did it, and you know I hate seeing people cry, especially if it's a girl as good as her who deserves to be happy."

"And you're just making her happy, aren't you?" I asked, denying, but with a smile on my face. "Of course, just to see her smile…" she nodded, a smile forming on her face. "You will be a great mother Gabriela, I'm serious."

"And you are all determined to make me a mother." My best friend protested, "Because we will know you will be an exceptional mother, the best anyone in this world can have." I assured. It's something everyone is sure "You will also be a great mother, maybe a little crazy, but you will be."

"Oh sure, I will be a half-crazy mother, but I also know it will have some very good uncles, especially its aunt." I responded, laughing, "But you don't have any siblings." She replied confused, "Sometimes I think you're stupid."

"Oh, thank you for being so kind." She said laughing, "I'm referring to you and Marcos." I informed her, "Oh, ok, it all makes sense now." She nodded. "Yes, but getting back to the matter, what do you plan to do with these harpies?"

"Carlota!" Gabriela exclaimed and I rolled my eyes "What? It's true, I can't call them anything else." I assured, because it's true, "They have names as far as I know, and at the moment I'm not going to do anything." She informed and I took a deep breath, trying to decipher what she had just said. "Are you not going to do anything?"

"I won't." She confirmed, "So you're going to let them hear everything that has to do with you?" I asked in disbelief of what my best friend is saying, "No, we are going to keep things to ourselves, they will only know what we're going to make them believe." She reported with a small smile on her face "Uuhhh, that sounds good."

"Of course it sounds good, but you will control yourself." She said, focusing her gaze on me, "You can't ask me that, I won't be able to not tell them what's going on in my head, it will be too much if I can last without hitting them." I assured, "You're going to hold on, I won't let you do it, much less in front of Ana. Besides, we have to let them believe we don't know anything."

"Look, I'm not going to promise you I'll hold back the urge to hit them and insult them because I can't lie and I don't know what's going through your head, I just hope what you're doing is worth it." I said, "I hope so." She whispered to herself, I think, but luckily for me, I heard her, "Ah, even on top of that, you don't know if it's going to work."

"No, but I just know I have to prepare my siblings, I'm not going to let them go through the same thing as the last time." She said, "And what do you plan to do about it?" I asked, noticing that he had a plan in mind. "We will teach them self-defense; we could even teach Ana."

"When you say you mean us, right?" I asked to make sure. "Obviously, as far as I know, no one else knows self-defense, just you and me." Gabriela responded, rolling her eyes. "Oh, I love the idea, and can we show them some of those we like so much?"

"Of those that don't do too much harm, I don't want Ana to learn bad examples." She responded, "What I was telling you, I swear sometimes you seem more like her mother than her own." I responded seriously, "I don't want to take her mother's place, I just want her to be happy and have everything she needs, that's all I want."

"And that's why I tell you you'll do great, really Gabriela, trust me for once." I protested, "Thank you Carlota, but now let's go with the rest before they get more worried." my best friend said, starting to walk towards the others. "I would hit two of them in the face."

"But you're not going to do it, we don't want to give Ana a bad example." She emphasized at the end "She'll understand people can be very bad who will stab you in the back like they did with you, but they're missing out, they won't find a better friend than you."

"There are better people than me out there." Gabriela said, and I know she's being as serious as I could be right now, "No, there aren't." With that we started walking towards college. I hope by telling Gabriela what I discovered about the stupid sisters and all the bad things in this world, it won't bring back the stress and anxiety, I would have to talk to Alex seriously because I don't think she's going to tell him as not to worry him and I'm almost sure Alex will be able to help her, he keeps her calm and I hope that stays that way forever, I wouldn't want her to have to go to the hospital because of her anxiety.