"Valentino, what are you doing?" One of his friends asked as they were sitting in the school cafeteria.

"I'm giving my sister space" he explained to his friend. Valentino was not hiding the fact that Sofia was his sister. In fact, all his friends already knew about it. They also knew to keep their mouth shut about it.

"By staring holes in her boyfriend's back?" Domenico clarified.

"He's not her boyfriend" Valentino growled.

"Dude, I was just joking" Domenico said.

"What's so funny to you about my sister dating this loser? And who are you calling dude" Valentino with swift movement grabbed the boy by his shirt and pulled him towards himself. It was terrifying when he got mad, and he had quite a temper, which his friends knew very well about. When he was in an asked, he was in a bad mood like today, it was better not to push him unless you want to end up with a black eye or worse. Clearly a miscalculation on Domenico's part.

"N-nothing, I'm sorry" Domenico stumbled on his words as his friend was giving him the look that was saying shut up or else. But he let him go this time.

The truth was Valentino worried about Sofia.

"I was hoping she would find female friends not some weird nerdy dude to talk to I don't like him" Valentino said, very unhappy by the turn of events. "He clearly hits on her! What sort of name is this? Bruno?" Valentino continued venting, "I would call a dog like that, not a person. What if he drags her into drugs?!" Valentino asked

"Bruno and drugs? Like what? Asthma medication?" Paolo asked skeptically.

"Well if it's a name for a dog you can train him to behave around her" Domenico pointed out shyly.

He was right.

Valentino had to make sure Neri behaves around his sister. The only problem was that they were in the same class, and they spend every single minute together.

Well, one day. One day he will catch him alone, and they will have a chat.

🔆🔆🔆

After classes, Sofia was sitting in the car next to Valentino.

She didn't know how to start a conversation. The way he acted at the corridor hurt her, but she could never be mad for too long. It just wasn't in her nature.

Sofia also realized why she didn't want to tell him openly about bullying. She was constantly worried that Valentino will find out that she's... lame. What if he stops being so nice to her after he finds out? It was a childish and stupid way of thinking caused by her own insecurities, but she couldn't help it. Anxiety was a bitch.

But regardless, Bruno was right, she should tell him. She should tell him about bullying because that's how she can find out if her fears were true.

"Listen, I have a problem. There's a girl in my class, and she's jealous of you" Sofia said awkwardly.

"What do you mean jealous?" Valentino asked with confusion, his eyes focused on the road.

"She likes you. To the point she got mad at me because I came over to your table that day when we first met" Sofia explained awkwardly, playing with her hands.

"What is she jealous of? You're my sister" Valentino was very amused.

"I know that, and you know that, but she doesn't know that, and when you pretended that you don't know earlier this day she got the wrong idea that I'm lying"

Valentino started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. "Tell her I'm not interested in little girls. Only mature women can handle me" he grinned.

"Ew" Sofia started making a choking noise. She felt like throwing up, "I want to unhear it. And she's only one year younger than you, don't act mature all of a sudden"

"Aww you're embarrassed, so cute" he teased.

"And literally never tell me about your preferences" she added dryly, shaking her head.

"Listen, if you want everyone to know I'm your brother, fine, but I've planned to give you space in school because if people know you're Ianniello they will start sucking up to you. I don't know if you would like to be surrounded by a group of fake friends everywhere you go. I wanted to give you some time to adjust and learn how to properly tell people to fuck off because you're clearly too nice to do it right now"

"Um... thanks?" She said, touched by his assessment of her.

"You're welcome, but it wasn't a compliment. So, how it's going to be? Do you want to sit at my table tomorrow and be officially introduced as my sister in front of the whole school?" Valentino asked. He clearly didn't mind.

"Maybe... maybe not?"" Sofia decided.

She opted out of explaining to Valentino that she's being bullied. If he reacted in any way, it would draw attention to her. She decided to wait until Cynthia will get bored with her. Because she will, eventually. Right?

Right.

❤️❤️❤️

Another session today. Apparently, Alessandro asked for the full assessment of Sofia's mental health and this is why she ended up in his office the next day after the torturous first meeting was over.

To be fair, it wasn't that bad. And Sofia even started to like Felice a bit. Only a little bit of thought.

Apparently, the first meeting was for them to get to know each other. The second meeting, the day after, required Sofia to take a "test"' with open-ended questions. It took them the most of the session and when Felice said it's done she was exhausted.

"What symptoms did you come with to your previous therapist?" He asked, taking her out of her thoughts.

Sofia shrugged her shoulders, "um... I was sad? I couldn't sleep. I couldn't get out of the bed. I couldn't do anything" she said, it was difficult to say those words.

"So why were you diagnosed with bipolar disorder? Those are symptoms of depression" his brows furrowed.

"I tended to have moments of doing really spontaneous, irresponsible things" Sofia admitted reluctantly.

"Have your mood been elevated during that times?" He asked.

Sofia looked at him surprised, "No?"

He nodded. "How long did those episodes last?"

"Um, I don't know?"

"Can you tell me if they lasted for more than a week?"

"They were never that long," he nodded and scratched something in the notepad.

"What thoughts were taking place before the moment you've made a reckless decision?"

I wanted to die.

This was Sofia's first thought, but she kept quiet.

Because she wasn't responding, Felice asked, "Have you ever self-harmed?"

"What? No. Stop asking stupid questions" Sofia said angrily, unconsciously she rubbed her wrist. He noticed but didn't say anything.

"My apologies," he said, and wrote something down.

"One hour has passed, can I go?" She asked, looking at the watch she received from Francesco.

"You're not held hostage here, you can leave any time" Felice responded.

"Great. But are you done with diagnosis or whatever" she said standing up?

"To be honest, I don't think you're bipolar. Your reckless behavior has been assessed as manic episodes for some reason, I don't think that's correct. But then again you only had six sessions with your previous therapist and even less with me, so for now we will just focus on therapy"

"No meds for now?"

"Why, do you feel like you need some?"

Sofia looked at her therapist with mistrust. He was sitting on his armchair with his legs crossed. Notepad in his hands and pen ready. His eyes were focused on her, and she felt like her soul is being scanned, the same feeling that she had when Alessandro was asking her questions. It was so unnerving.

"No. I don't need any meds"

"Then I won't be prescribing you anything for now"

_____

Hi guys,

I have a request. If you see any grammar mistakes, please let me know in the comments, so I can correct them. It will be very helpful.