Chapter 25

                                    

                                          
Talia Armani. 
A complete contrast to her picture perfect family, who do things like send out Christmas postcards and go on vacations that look like something straight out of a magazine. 
A complete contrast to Naya. 
I had only interacted with Talia once before, but I could tell that there was an unspoken rivalry between Naya and herself. 
I was blissfully unaware of their previous interactions. 
For the sake of peace, their horrible moments and argumentative tendencies had simmered down to nothing but passive aggression and moments loaded with subtext. 
"You're a fucking child." Naya had said to Talia once. 
They had found themselves away from everyone else in the midst of an honourable function, after Talia had chucked a drink in one of the guests' faces. 
Naya was never one to curse, and Talia was one of the very few people who could force that level of aggression out of Naya's mouth. 
"Oh, I'm a child? For stopping a woman from hitting on my father, at an event in honour of my dead mother?" Talia snapped, "Yeah, Sure. I'm a child then."
Naya retorted, "Someone behaving in a way that you don't agree with doesn't give you the right to throw champagne in their face." 
Talia wasn't the type to keep things on one level, or even to let them gradually build up. 
She was the type to make things escalate, and take them from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye. 
"You wanna see childish?" Talia picked up a glass, the first in the line of many, before dropping it on the ground. "Because I can show you childish." 
Naya watched as the glass shattered into pieces. 
"Talia, Stop."
"Why would I stop," She picked up another glass and dropped it on the ground, "When I'm just getting started?" 
At the time, Talia had just turned 18.
Naya was 28.
Despite the age gap and lack of actual blood relation, they would bicker like siblings. 
"I'm not asking you to not be upset. I'm asking you to behave accordingly when in the public eye. The media is ruthless and you're so young-" 
"I don't give a fuck about all of that." Talia cut her off, "And I especially don't give a fuck about acting like a doll in some kid's playhouse." 
Naya massaged her temple as she felt a headache coming on, "Talia..." 
Talia frowned at Naya, "You know what? I'm asking for the impossible from you. It's not like you could ever understand the bond between a mother and her child." 
Talia was unaware of Naya's struggles with child loss, so she didn't know exactly how much weight her words held. 
She was young and in the midst of experiencing grief and loss. So was Naya. 
You would've thought that, that would bring them closer but nope. 
Talia's emotions were unregulated, and Naya had a tendency to separate herself from her emotions when things got too rough. 
As such, despite their similarities, there was always a barrier that kept them apart. 
Don't get me wrong, they obviously had their differences as well. 
It's as if they existed as a direct contrast of each other's so called weaknesses. 
Naya was always polished and proper, with a hurricane of chaos brewing beneath the surface. 
On the other hand, Talia was the beautiful mess and striking force that refused to be watered down for anyone's sake. Especially not for her family. 
Three years had passed since their biggest dispute, making Talia 21 years of age and myself her senior by a year. 
The one thing that I can say I did notice, was Naya wasting no time to remind Talia of her place when I first saw them interact.