LXI ||| February 14th of 2024, (6)

Penellaphe Giordano Prada's pov

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10 years ago, five different kids younger than me in school, of the same age or not, pranked me. I was used to being pranked by the older cunts, but I had never been pranked by the younger kids, and I think they were ordered to do that to me by one of the bastards in my class, since it was in my last year in that hell.

I don't remember any of their names or how they looked, what I remember is that all of them did the same thing, they pretended to be in love with me, and cornered me when I was in front of everyone to mock-confess that love to me, giving me chocolate and fake love letters, and one of the kids, a ice-blue-eyed boy, even had the audacity to give me a big bouquet of red Chrysanthemums, flowers of death, of funerals.

That morning before school, I had fought with my parents and my nonna who was in town, because I was set into wanting to take over the part of the work in London, instead of taking over the whole thing in Milan, and they were furious at me, it was the first time I had such a serious fight with nonna, and it got me feeling horrible and angry.

Then those kids did that to me.

My anger was so blinding, especially when it came to the little cunt who had gotten me the funeral dam flowers, that I grabbed the huge bouquet and threw it on the ground, then I kept stepping on them until they were all destroyed. When I was done with the flowers, I grabbed the box of those chocolate truffles of unknown origins and threw on the ground and some on him, then I grabbed the strawberry milkshake he had gotten me, took the lid off and threw it on his… dark hair. Lastly, I ripped the stupid letter to pieces and threw on his then dirty head and on the ground, and I screamed at him something I can't remember, but I was so angry that my accent popped up.

He was the one who had it worse, the others only got me chocolate and the letters, that had the same fate, but he got me unknown truffles, the dam milkshake that could have been messed up with, and funeral flowers. I don't remember what happened exactly, only that I stormed out after yelling and offending the boy, his entire family, all of his ancestors, and some shite.

Swallowing, I stared at Apollo, my eyes going to his dark hair, and to his… ice blue eyes, "Oh, no," I groaned, feeling sick.

"Prank?" He frowned. "What prank, Penellaphe?"

I swallowed, "You played a prank on me, with the older cunts."

He blinked, "I did… what?"

"A prank," I snapped annoyed. "You all pranked me that dam day. With the fake letters, and the fake words, and the ill intentions. You did it on purpose, because the cunts from my class paid you or something."

His confusion thickening, "They did what?"

"They confessed it was dam prank," I said, angry with the memory.

"Who said that?" Apollo groaned in dismay.

"I don't remember their names, ugh. Four boys from my class, they confessed they had paid you all for that, to humiliate me and,"

"I have absolutely no idea what you're going on about, Penellaphe. If someone was paid, that someone was not me. In fact, I was not acquainted with any of the older kids from your year, they were a bunch of cunts who disrespected me and we're constantly trying to ridicule me, because I'm not born in the UK, and I had an accent that I had to struggle to get rid off. Even if it shows up when I'm really knackered or furious or freaking out. I don't know why they did that, but I was not paid, I didn't have ill intentions, I,"

"No. You're lying," I gasped in denial.

"I am not. In fact," he grabbed his phone and began to call someone on the speaker, but I couldn't see the name, "I can prove it to you."

"What? No, Apollo, I,"

"Are you calling me to wish me a happy Valentine, sweetheart?" A melodic sweet female voice spoke from the other side, a Manchester accent in her British voice, making me cover my lips, especially when he turned the phone screen to face him, as if he's in a video call.

"Are you dating somebody?" He asked the woman.

She clicked her tongue, "Absolutely not."

"Then why should I wish you a happy Valentine, mom?"

Oh, God. Oh, no. "Why are you calling her?" I whispered in shock.

But the bastard ignored me, "So, mom, do you remember 2014?"

"I remember many things of 2014," she chanted. "Why?"

"Do you remember what happened on the night of February 13th?"

After a second, she spoke again? "Of 2014?" He nodded. "That day before your tragically fatidic 2014 Valentine's Day?"

"Yes, that night," he exclaimed, side-eying me and back to her.

"Of course, I remember that dam night, sweetheart. You had spent hours baking the chocolate truffles for that evil cunt who broke your heart. You made me wake up extremely early to buy the flowers you liked the most for you to give her, and you made your grandma's special red smoothie recipe for her, and you also wrote her a three page letter she didn't even fucking read," her voice rose, nearly yelling, angry. "Hah, she is so dam lucky she is you fuckity cunty devilish bloody boss, or I would go there and beat her up to make her pay for what she did. I still remember how much you cried because of how she humiliated you. And even after she left and graduated, you kept crying, and kept being bullied in school because of what she did, and, ugh," she seemed to kick something. "Evil little cunt."

"See?" He looked at me. "Now you believe it?"

"Apollo," I whispered exasperated.

"Believe it?" His mom questioned. "Who are you talking to?" And the bloody wanker turned the phone screen to me, and his mom blinked in confusion, "Hello, honey. I don't know who you are, but I'm his mom. You are really gorgeous, have my son told you that?"

I cursed mentally, "I'm the evil little cunt, nice to meet you."

"What? Apollo, she," she cried exasperated, embarrassed.

"She's my boss, mom," he kept the phone on me. "Penellaphe. She only realized who I was now, and she had a totally different view of this story. Apparently, the boys in her class, who seemingly disliked her, told her they had paid me to do that, just to humiliate her in front of everyone."

"Apollo," I groaned.

"What?" She screamed. "Who said that? I'll kill those cunts right now. I'll go back to England and murder them. Give me their names, girl. I'm going to reap them apart for what they caused and,"

"I don't… remember their names. I don't remember much about my time in the academy. Things were so bad to me that I think I may have unconsciously forced myself to forget, to shut down the memories so it would not haunt me. I'm sorry I caused harm to your son, Mrs. LaFontaine. There really was one of the worse days of my life, and then came of all that, I thought he was part of the mean prank, and then he got me funeral flowers, which got me madder, and everything escalated quickly. I didn't… I didn't really think anyone back then was honest about liking me, it went against what I lived there and against what people said to me, so, I was just angry. I'm nasty when I'm angry, and I hurt people not to hurt myself. Sorry."

They both stayed silent, both staring at me.

"Well, seems like I got you wrong, kid," she chuckled anxiously. "I may have cursed you and your entire bloodline in the past 10 years, a lot."

"Everyone does, I'm used to it," I rolled my shoulders. "Everybody needs a target to vent off their frustrations, misfortunes, misery, and anger on, not to go on rampage shooting at all directions. It's the way of life. If I'm an evil cunty bitch, a mean and vicious boss, an unbearable coworker, it'll be easy for people to target me, even if I have nothing to do with them and their misfortunes. That's what my nonna used to tell me, to be prepared to extreme nonsense criticism. But that's not your case, so, I get it. I was a bitch on doing what I did to Apollo 10 years ago, but I didn't knew any better then. It was a misunderstanding caused by lack of communication, something I've always lacked on. So, it's okay to curse me."

"Apollo, didn't you said she was psychotic narcissist?"

I gasped, glaring at him, "You said what?"

"Mom," he groaned, turning the phone to himself.

"What? I was thinking she was an evil robot or some shite, and then she proves all you told me about her to be wrong. This kid might be sick in the head, is she in a psychiatrist? She probably needs it. No one in their sanity would tell someone to curse them, and not care about being judged!"

He switched to French, "Mom, Jesus Christ, she can hear you. She is still the CEO of the company. And I didn't knew any better either, okay? Until this morning, I also thought she was an evil bitch, a hot one, but evil nonetheless. I thought she was heartless and cold. But it seems like I was wrong. Now it seems like she's in trouble with the higher up because of me, because she fought to prove to them that I deserved to be the COO when she rose to be the CEO, and here I was cursing her. She is probably sick in the head, but she's probably been criticized her entire life for stupid shite."

His mom switched to French too. "What?" She yelled. "You have been fighting to take the COO position from her, and she was fighting to give the position to you? Apollo, Jesus, what the hell is going on? And she's in trouble for you, even though she's the CEO? What's this plot twist? Did you tell Artemis? She'll go insane."

Artemis? Who's that?

"No, mom. I didn't have time, I'm still working. Even what I was going to do tonight, I won't be able to, because I really can't miss the dinner we'll be hosting. Especially not now, that I know what's on the line. If I screw up in any way, Penellaphe will take the burden that the shareholders will throw at her, because of me. I can't let that happen. So, it was postponed to the weekend. I'll call Artemis later, she's probably busy now, and if I call now, so early in the day, she'll say I'm trying to boycott her day out of jealousy. I don't want that, or we'll fight again."

Is he and this Artemis dating? Why was he hitting on me then?

"Still, she'll want to know, she is a huge hater of your boss, she'll probably freak out. And you have all the reasons to consider her a heartless evil cunt, because misunderstanding or not, she hurt you, humiliated you, and broke your heart. The pain you went through can't be undone simply because we cleared out the misunderstanding. It's been sinking in for 10 years, Apollo, that's not nothing. No one should play with someone else's heart like that, it was mean, and evil, and the damage is done."

Well, now I'm uncomfortable. I feel like running away. I feel sick.

"I won't pass a rubber over it, okay?" He said, still in French.

"Good. Now that it's cleared up, I'll go back."

"What are you doing?" He asked, frowning.

"I'm in a Capoeira class, it's a Brazilian thing," she brushed off.

"What? Two days ago you were in Toronto."

"I was actually in my jet, on the way to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. But I had no idea it would be so hot in here, sweetheart. God have mercy, the weather in here is hell-rising hot. But I'm in a cold room right now, I struggled to land this class, so, can I hang up now?" She groaned.

Apollo gasped, "Is this how you treat your son?"

"You didn't wish me a happy Valentine," she countered.

"Because it's a day for couples, you ain't part of one!"

"Yes, and?" She sang in English, mimicking Ariana Grande.

"Mother!" He groaned in annoyed French.

"It's starting. Talk later, sweetheart. Love you. Bye," then nothing.

I remained in silence, uncomfortable like I haven't felt in ages. He put his phone down, and looked at me, I looked back at him, and he pressed his lips together. "My mom is a bit… eccentric, sorry for what she said."

"I'm fluent in French," I blabbed, not really knowing what to say.

He blinked, "Oh? Sorry, it wasn't to cut you out, it was just a habit. I know you speak French fluently, it was just automatic. I'm sorry about all she said about you and,"

"Look, Apollo," I sighed heavily, feeling knackered, "I didn't know you before that day, and I couldn't have said anything then even if I hadn't done what I did, given how then our gap was a really bad things, since we were both underage, and you were really young. In my mind, I know you from the time of the interview and on, but that's not the case for you, since I hurt you really badly, and you suffered because of me."