#eclipsesl

“Because…” The idiot hesitated, and then let out a grunt. “Why would I care, anyway?” he snapped at his friend, and said guy seemed amused about that.

“I don’t know, you were the one who asked,” he replied, and Sol had to stop herself from laughing, because then they would realize she was overhearing.

She then kept walking towards her table, leaving the milkshakes she had gone to pick up at the counter on it, before sitting at the chair in front of her friend.

Lucas looked at her with curiosity.

“What took you so long?” He asked, and she shrugged.

“Nothing relevant, there were too many people in line.” She answered, and then looked around, finding her sister and the guy she had been hugging earlier talking animatedly to the girl Luna seemed to have become very good friends with. She looked back to her friend. “Anyway, what were you telling me before I went for our drinks?” She asked, getting her glass.

“I was telling you about this guy who approached and asked me if I was your friend,” he told her.  “It looks like he saw your art from the park, and-“

“The one next to the bathrooms, or the one I did on the wall between the park and the pizzeria?” she interrupted him, and he thought about it for a couple of second.

“The one in the pizzeria, I think.” He answered. “Anyway, don’t interrupt me, I’m trying to tell you something important. The thing is this guy loved your work, and when I told him you made this one.” He pointed at the wall behind of him where her mural was. “He went totally nuts, complete fanboy mode,” he continued.

“Oh, that’s flattering, but-“

“Did I told you that I had finished? Seriously, don’t interrupt me ever again,” his friend snapped, with fake annoyance. “This is the important part. The guy told me he is opening this huge bar in Palermo, and he asked me to tell you that he wanted one of your murals in it.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Stop your car over there, did he look like a bar owner?” She asked, because she didn’t want to end up working for a swindler, or something like that.

“I don’t know how a bar owner should look, but well… he was well dressed, and smelled good, he looked like the ‘I have money’ kind of people, so I think he wasn’t lying.” He replied. “Look, here is his card. He said he would pay the amount you would consider appropriate,” he extended the card at her and she took it, looking at the name on it, seriously considering the offer.

“Maybe I can call and ask him to show me the place?” she said, doubtfully. His friend nodded.

“You know I can accompany you, Sunshine. And I’m pretty sure we can make your aunt’s driver take us there, we just need to blackmail him with some of my aunt’s homemade Dulce de Leche, and he will be starting the car. He loves it!” his friend smiled, and she giggled. Yeah, her best friend was right, it was a great opportunity, and she really wanted her art to be shown.

Luna looked at her best friend, still not believing he was there, as he greeted the shy Nina with a big hug. How did he get to come to Buenos Aires? He hasn’t told her yet, he just said I’ll tell you later and then asked her to show him the amazing place she had talked about during all their phone calls, and she agreed to do so.

“Oh my God, this place is amazing!” her friend said, looking around after breaking the embrace with the other girl. “Is there some special event here today?” he had noticed the way the stage was decorated, and how everyone looked like they were rehearsing for something. She nodded, but it was Nina who replied.

“Today is the Open Music, it’s an open mic event here at the Jam & Roller where most of the people participates,” she explained, and Simon with his guitar at his back seemed amazed because of said event. That reminded Luna something.

“Oh, Nico and Pedro!” she had told them she was going to help them find a guitarist, and there was her best friend, with said instrument on his back. Both her friends looked at her with confusion. “Come with me, Simon. I have to introduce you some great guys,” she said, and grabbed her best friend’s wrist to drag him to the dressing room, where she was sure both guys were.

But then, before she could start running towards said place, she bumped into someone.

“Hey! Be careful, Chica Delivery,” she rolled her eyes when she recognized his voice, and looked up at Matteo. He had the most hypnotizing smile she had ever seen, and she tried to ignore the strange sensation it brought to her stomach. “I’m starting to think you love crashing into me,” he added, and she sighed.

“As much as I like going to the dentist, Chico Fresa,” she replied. “Could you please let us pass?” Luna still was holding her best friend’s wrist, and was looking at the snob with an annoyed expression. The guy held her sight for almost a minute, before looking up at her friend, with an amused grin.

“I see Luna forgot her good manners, so I guess it’s up to me to introduce myself,” he said. “I’m Matteo… Matteo Balsano. You are…?” he asked, and her best friend first looked at her with confusion in his eyes, before looking back at the other guy.

“Simon,” he simply answered.

“He is my best friend from Cancun,” she added.

“From Cancun? Aren’t you a little far away from home, champ?” Matteo asked, and she rolled her eyes again. Since she knows Matteo that has become in one of her more common gestures. “Did you come here, thousand miles away from your country, solely to see your friend?” Luna didn’t like the way Balsano had said that last word.

“That’s none of your business, Matteo,” she frowned at him. “Could you please let us pass? I need to go talk with Nico and Pedro before the open.”

He surrendered and raised his hands, stepping away to let them pass, and looking at them with an amused smile. He stared at Luna’s back until she disappeared from his field of vision, but she didn’t notice it.

Matteo stared at his girlfriend as soon as their lips parted away from their kiss, still heavily breathing from dancing and singing around, trying to understand her reasons for kissing him like that in front of everyone. But she just smiled at him and looked back to the audience, so he did the same, covering his shock with a huge grin. Somehow his sight went to Luna, she was looking at the floor instead of him, and he felt the urge to go and make sure she was fine. But he didn’t do it, and it was Simon guy who went to hug her thigh, telling her something he couldn’t heard that brought a smile to her face. He hated that guy already.

“Aren’t you glad we participated, love?” Ambar said suddenly, making him look back at her.

“Yeah, it was great,” he said, not so enthusiastic, and then took advantage that her friends went to talk to her to sneak from her side and meet his best friend. Gastón was still sitting on his place, looking at him with an amused smirk.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“Ambar wanted to sing,” his friend’s face told him he wasn’t talking about that, so he just put a cocky smile on his face, and then shrugged. “Who am I to deny a kiss to my girl?” Gastón rolled his eyes.

“Are you sure Ambar is still your girl?”

Matteo frowned at him. “What do you mean?” he asked, and his friend took a sip of his drink, taking his time on this task.

“I don’t know, it looks like lately you’re more dazzled by the moonlight, than you’ve ever been by the shine of certain jewel,” Gaston put his drink back to his table. “You didn’t even want to sing until you saw Luna singing with her guitarist friend, you couldn’t even take your eyes out of her during the whole song, leave it! You were even flirting with her, and I’m pretty sure Ambar noticed it… and that’s why she kissed you in front of everyone.” Now it was Matteo’s turn to roll his eyes.

“I wasn’t flirting with Luna.”

“Yes, you were.”

He looked way. His best friend couldn’t be right about him and Luna. He didn’t like her, or at least not in the way his friend was insinuating. He just liked to tease her a little, which was no crime. Maybe he felt something strange when he saw her with that other guy, but it wasn’t jealousy, it was just something about that guy that he couldn’t stand, it had nothing to do with her. She could do whatever she wanted with that friend of her and he wouldn’t care less. He had a girlfriend, and that was Ambar, and together they were the power couple of the school and the rink.

Luna stared at her sister as she walked towards her, Simon, and the guys from the band. There was a big smile on her face, something she has barely seen, so she felt kind of proud of being the reason why the other girl was smiling. Simon didn’t notice the other girl as she approached them, but as soon as he did it he got full mouth-opened.

“Oh my God! Wow! You really are twins!” his friend shouted, covering his own mouth. The other two guys, which were already used to seeing them both together just laughed, while Luna looked at her best friend with an amused smile.

“Are you calling me a liar?” she teased, and Simon shook his head.

“No, but… wow!” he blinked. “If it wasn’t for the hair I would never tell you apart.” Sol giggled in response, and with a look she asked her sister to make the appropriate presentations.

“Oh, right!” Luna reacted. “Simon, let me introduce you my sister… Sol Benson. Sol, this is Simon, my best friend from Cancun.” Both of them shook hands, and then Lucas approached them and the presentation were done as well. Then Pedro and Nico excused themselves to go work, and Simon started talking with Sol and Lucas about how he ended up traveling to Buenos Aires, and about their lives in Mexico.

In that moment Luna’s thoughts went to the Open Music, and Matteo kissing with Ambar at the stage. In that moment she felt something she shouldn’t have, and it made her feel guilty, because Matteo was Ambar’s boyfriend… not hers. Maybe it wasn’t jealousy, she convinced herself, maybe it was just discomfort to see two people kissing in front of everyone, as she is not very used to it.

Her sight wandered around the place until it met him. He was standing next to the door with his friend, Ambar was nowhere to be seen, as if she had already gone somewhere else with the two girls who were usually following her around. Then his gaze met hers, and for a couple of minutes they stared at each other, completely forgetting about the world surrounding them, and the people in it. She looked away when she couldn’t stand it anymore, the brown in his eyes was too deep to make her sink, and that was something she didn’t want to think about. Then she noticed Sol’s sight on her, a little tint of concern on her green eyes, that Luna tried to erase with a big smile.

“Are you ok?” her sister whispered, as she walked towards her, their friend’s conversation about Mexican food being so interesting for them to notice it. “You look distracted.”

Luna giggled.

“I’m always distracted, ask Simon,” she said. “I was just thinking about Blake’s level exam, I feel like I’m going to fail it, and put all of you on shame.” Luna didn’t know why she was lying to her sister, perhaps because she was afraid of what she would think if she told her that she was thinking about their cousin’s boyfriend.

Sol’s sight went to Matteo and his friend, and then back to her.

“I could help you to study for the exam, I’m not the best student as Nina, but I’m sure I can help you with some of the subjects,” she offered, and Luna nodded accepting her help. Truth be told, she wasn’t totally lying, she was indeed really afraid about that exam. “But, are you sure that’s what is bothering you?” her twin’s sight went back to the snob, and that made Luna thought that maybe the twin’s telepathy really existed, and Sol knew exactly what she was thinking. She quickly dismissed that thought.

“Yes, I am,” she smiled at her, and then took her hand. “We should be going to the mansion, I’m kind of tired.” She added, and Sol looked convinced by her.

“Yeah, we should call the driver, it’s late,” she looked at Simon. “Do you have somewhere to stay?”

Simon rubbed her nape. “I was thinking about looking for a hostal, or something like that, until I find a job and a place to stay that I can pay,” he said.

“No way!” both sisters shout in unison, and Lucas started laughing.

“Twin connection!” he shouted, and Simon laughed as well.

“Maybe you can stay at the mansion,” Luna looked shyly at her sister, “we could talk with Miss Benson, don’t you think so?”

Sol winced.

“I believe it might be hard to convince her, but we could give it a try,” she looked at Simon. “Maybe I can suggest you could work to pay your stay, so she let you use one of the service rooms, as Luna’s parents. I heard the gardener needed some extra help... it would be temporary.” Luna didn’t like the idea of her best friend working for Miss Benson, she wasn’t really nice with her employees, and seeing her parents dealing with it to stay next to her was enough. But also, because is strange to think on all those people that matters for her sleeping at the service rooms, while she had a huge bedroom at the principal part of the house, far away from them, as if they were from different worlds. 

But she nodded, Sol was right, it would be only temporary, she was sure Simon would soon find a different job, something he liked, and Sol’s idea sounded better than hers: telling him to stay at the shed.

She hasn’t had any chance to have a long chat with Sol since the one they had on the swing, they have talked, of course, but her twin was kind of uncommunicative, always focused on her drawings, and with her headphones on. Luna really tried to start conversations with her, she couldn’t help herself, she needed to talk, but even if the other girl wasn’t rude to stop her from doing it, wasn’t very enthusiastic either.

They were in the same classroom, but Sol seemed to prefer sitting on the back of the classroom, next to the guy who introduced himself to her as Lucas ‘the coolest guy you will ever meet on earth’ while shaking her hand and saying again and again how much she looks like Sol. “Except for the bubbly optimistic aura you have, of course” he had added, deserving a frown from his friend. The guy was really nice, she can easily see why he and her twin were such good friends, and she even felt kind of jealousy as she didn’t have her best friend there.

“Planet earth calling Luna” a female voice sounded besides her, and she jumped a little before looking at her classmate with an apologetic smirk.

“I’m sorry, I’ve no idea where is my head lately” she excused herself, with a soft smile.

“Don’t worry, I understand” answered Nina, who looked more comfortable talking with her than when they first met. “It must be hard for you, I mean… all this changes”. She added, biting her lower lip.

“Yeah, it’s too much to process in such a short time” she answered, looking at the back of the classroom, where her sister was reading a book, while Lucas was having a short nap.

“I know” the other girl followed her sight, and smiled. “Anyway, is good to know Sol has a sister like you now, I can’t imagine how it was for her to grow up having Ambar Smith in her home.” She put her hands over her mouth, as if she had said something really bad. “Please don’t tell Ambar I said that”.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t.” It looked like everyone was afraid of the self-titled queen of the ring. Well, everyone except Sol, who looked more tired of her than scared.

During the latest weeks she saw the blondie and her friend walking thru the school’s corridor as if they were in one of the most prestigious catwalks of Paris fashion week. They were royalty, the rest of the students turn away from their path without hesitating, and looked at them as if they were some kind of divine entity. And, most of the time, they weren’t alone. The preppy boy was also there most of the time, her arm over his girlfriend’s shoulder, with that cocky smile drawn on his lips.

She wanted to punch his stupid face.

She didn’t know where these violent impulses come from, she had never felt something like that before, but she can’t help it.

“So, what were you telling me?” she asked Nina, and the shy girl smiled.

“I was asking you if you were going to compete at the skating competition. You’re really good… I mean, you have improved so much in so little time.”

Luna shrugged.

“I want to, but-” she looked around, to make sure no one heard her. “I don’t think I’m in the level to compete. Besides, the competition is in pairs, and I don’t think I could find a partner so fast. Are you going to compete?”

“Me?” Nina looked surprised. “Oh no- no, I don’t skate” she answered looking down to her hands on the table.

“Why?” She asked, with sincere curiosity.

“Because skating is not my thing… I mean, sports are not my thing, in general” Nina answered, right before the teacher arrived, and the class started.

She was hurrying to get outside the school to get home as soon as possible, she had to go to the Jam & Roller to work that afternoon, but she forgot her wrist guards on her bedroom, so she had to go all the way to the mansion, and then go back to be on time at the ring.

That’s so her.

But she wasn’t looking forward, so she couldn’t avoid running into someone.

“Are we going to meet this way all the time, delivery girl?” a familiar voice asked, and she internally sighed. Why him? Of all the students in that school, why did it have to be him?

“It’s not my fault that you keep getting on my way” she answered, putting her hands on her hips, frowning at the thug smile on his face.

“Well, you should look where you’re walking, piccola.” He replied, amused.

Luna rolled her eyes.

“Can we continue this conversation in another moment? I really have to go.” She said, passing by him, trying to put an end point to that conversation.

He followed her.

“So, you want to meet later and talk about it?” he teased.

“As much as I want to go see the dentist” she continued walking. “Seriously, preppy boy. Don’t you have something better to do than following me around?”

“I’m not following you” he answered, and she raised her eyebrows. “It happens that I too must go in this direction, delivery girl. Not everything is about you.”

“You were going the other way a minute ago, remember? That’s why we crashed.” She reminded him.

“And then I remembered I had to do something on this way.” He smiled, and she felt her heart beating faster. Why on earth his stupid smile had to be so perfect? Serious question.

She didn’t believe him for a second.

“So… are you going to join the roller-skating competition?” He asked after a few minutes, and she frowned at him.

“I don’t think I have the necessary expertise, and… anyway, I don’t have a skating partner.” she answered, not looking at him.

“Oh, excuses. Are you afraid, delivery girl?” He mocked, with an amused smirk, and she stopped walking to stand in front of him.

“Can you stop following me?” she asked, putting her hand between them. “I don’t have time to have this conversation, I have to get home, and then to Jam & Roller, before my work schedule starts. And, anyway, don’t you have to meet your girlfriend or something? I’m pretty sure she won’t like to know you’re talking with me.”

“I can do as I please, and you didn’t answer my question.”

“Because there’s nothing to answer, I gave you my reasons to not compete already, I’m not afraid” She crossed her arms.

“Whatever you say” he answered sarcastically, with that stupid cocky smile of him. “It’s ok, Luna. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid, especially when you are going to compete against the king of the ring.”

She growled.

“Seriously, Matteo. Go bother someone else, I don’t have time for this.” She said, before turning around and walking away.

And this time he did as she asked.

“You look annoyed.” her friend pointed out, before taking a bite of his hamburger.

“No, I’m not.” She answered, with a grimace.

“Yes, you are.” There was something she could never do, and that’s successfully lying to her best friend. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, and she sighed.

“Ok… you win” she sighed. “Did you see what that guy did? He wasn’t even going that way, and when he saw Luna, he just ran to crash into her. What does he intend?”

“And that bothers you because…”

“Because she is my sister, and he is a player.” She growled. “Even worst, he is Ambar’s boyfriend, so he should stick to his own business, away from my sister.”

“Awe, who would have guessed you were the kind of overprotective sister?” Lucas mocked. “Luna will be fine, she’s a smart girl, and I’m pretty sure she can handle Matteo Balsano’s inflated ego.” He took a sip of his coke. “Are you going to finish your fries?”

Sol put them in front of him, and he thanked her with a bright smile.

“It’s just, I don’t want her to get hurt. Keeping her safe from my aunt and Ambar is enough, to sum another person to the list, I don’t want her to stop being the sunflower she is, and becoming like me.”

“And, what’s wrong with being like you?” he asked, with a potato on his mouth.

“You know what I mean” she complained.

“Yes, I know.” Lucas stopped eating to stare at her. “But also that you’re underestimating yourself, and I can’t stand it. You can’t protect her from everything that happens around her, you have enough with protecting yourself, and she is grown enough to know what’s good. And, anyway, I don’t think Balsano is as bad guy as he wants others to think.”

“He is.” She said, stubborn.

“Well, if so, it’s on Luna to keep him away. That’s not your responsibility” He took another potato to his mouth, and she sighed.

Maybe he was right, maybe the preppy boy (as she listened her sister calling him) wasn’t as bad as she thinks, but she needed to keep an eye on her sister, just to make sure no one breaks her spirit.

“I was thinking…” she started saying, thoughtful. “Milkshakes at Jam & Roller are pretty good, right? And happens that I’m craving one right now.”

Her friend smiled widely.