The Italian Catalyst -CASTELLANO SERIES: ALEXANDER’S STORY

I’m sure by now you pretty much know or at least, read about my parents in most news articles and celebrity tabloids, oh then there’s my brother, Martin Castellano—great guy, love my fratello to bits and then, there’s my twin sisters—Lucy and Victoria who wouldn’t even let me go near their friends because they know how much of a manwhore I can really be. Hey to be fair, those girls always approached me first and I guess, I just don’t really how to say no.   I stay out of everyone’s way most of the time. I avoid the cameras, the tabloids like it’s the plague and so far, I’d say the more I avoid them, the lesser they are interested in me now.    Alright, I’ve strayed too far, where was I? Hey, my name’s Alexander David Castellano—I know, mom’s pretty big on our names and this—is my story.   I just turned 21 this year and I’m currently in my second year of Harvard Business school. I know, my parents couldn’t even believe me when I told them, although I’ve been getting pretty much ‘E’s for all my classes, told my dad it’s just another word for effort but the look on his face told me he’s already imagined at least a hundred different ways to murder me.     I’m not sure how I got in, in all honesty. Harvard isn’t a place who took in bribes or anything—not that my parents even allowed me to do so. I think I just worked really hard that year and aced everything but then, I got lazy, distracted (girls, parties, girls), I don’t know, it’s all a blur.   Anyways, as I’m seated here in this massive library, scribbling circles on my textbook, why do we even need a textbook beats me. This thing’s massive and heavy and honestly, it’s giving me a backache. No amount of training in Varsity football and swimming could help with this.   I pulled my hoodie over my head as I glanced at the text message that a girl sent me—eggplant emoji and what the hell are these? Water droplets? The f**k? Stop tempting me god damn it!   Not today Satan, I have a test to study for…unless…   My fingers began typing quickly against the screen until someone snatched it right under my nose. “Be over in 5 babe, dress lightly…”My best friend, Scott read out loud—a few heads looked up to look at us, their eyebrows creasing as they were trying to figure the whole text chain.   “Dude, not cool. Give me that.” I tried snatching my phone away from him.    “It’s not wonder your siblings call you a manwhore. You’re supposed to be studying, not texting one of your many side chicks asking for a quickie.”   “Hey, she gave me that invitation, I was just merely declining her politely.”   “You asked her to dress light, Castellano. How is this declining her?”   “Be quiet! The library is a…” the librarian who strangely resembled like the green giant slug from monster’s inc snarled at the both of us.   “A sacred place where all geniuses and noble prize award recipients are born, yes, we heard that at least a million times, Mrs. P and we’re sorry.” I said, throwing an arm around her. “Alexander! Don’t think just because you two are the star quarterbacks on the Varsity team, I’m gonna let you off easy.” She pointed her ruler at the both of us.   “Hey! Some of us need to study in here !”   “Oh come on Evan, lay off the books. When was the last time you got laid?” I shot back at the kid who was now glaring at me through his thick, dark rimmed glasses with the same textbook under his chin.   “My name is not Evan…” the boy trailed.   “Whatever, I’m out of here. I don’t wanna get trashed by a bunch of book nerds.” I said under my breath. “And it’s all thanks to you, for once, I’m actually trying to study.” I glared at Scott who all but shrugged at me.   “Now that I managed to get your ass out of the library, Coach wants to see you right now in his office.”   “Again? Did he perhaps found out that night at the pool?”   “If that were the case, my ass would be dragged in along with you as well.”   “Then, what is it?” I asked as we exited the library and into the hot weather of mid-June. f**k its so hot I could my balls were sweating already. “Dude, if I knew I would have told you. But I don’t, so I guess you just have to find out yourself.”   “I’ve been having a headache all morning staring at all those nerds in the library this morning, memorising their textbooks and reciting information like its their mantra, on top of that, I didn’t even know there was a test coming up this Friday and I can guarantee you, one more E is all I need for my dad to hang me dry.”   Scott winced at the mention of my dad. Name one person who wasn’t intimidated by my father, just one and I’d pay you with the remaining coins in my pocket. Dad always mentioned that mom used to be super uptight when they first met, but guess what? Newsflash dad, the roles are reversed right now.   “Scott Bennett! How many times do I tell you not to give my number to one of your many w****s? I swear to god if there’s one thing you…”    Well well well, look who we’ve got here. Andrea Bennett, the fiery red head with zero fashion sense who always wore probably the same grandma pants with that god awful tie dye-d t-shirt. Her eyes although, made up for it. They were a shade of green—which was really rare and her lips were rosy pink. My eyes trailed further down her outfit and my eyes widened. Wow, she really outdid herself wearing those hideous yellow crocs.   Andrea Bennett was Scott’s little sister who was a year younger than I was and Scott made sure to emphasize that she was totally off limits. Not that I was going to ever break the rule, I mean, she looked like a fire truck ran over her and sprayed their hose in her face—must have been the reason why she looked so f*****g pissed on this bright and lovely morning.   “Ew, it’s our manwhore friend again.”   “And that’s the first thing you say to me after a year of not seeing each other?” I chuckled at her and continued, “You’ve not been getting any action have you? Is that why you’re so flipping mad?”   “I’m mad because my brother here, has been passing off my number as his and weird girls have been texting me and here! Nude pic! Are you serious? I was in class when this text came in and my Professor threw me out! God! Scott Bennett, what the hell were you thinking?”   “s**t, give my that, did you look?” Scott grabbed his sister’s phone and deleted the text. “God what were they thinking?” I heard him cuss.   While I let Scott deal with his girlies on his sister’s phone, I glanced at Andrea. “You seriously went to class looking like that?” I asked. “Hey Alex.” A girl walked past, winking at me and Andrea rolled her eyes.    “What’s wrong with the way I dress? It’s comfortable.”   “You look like roadkill Andy.”    “Stop calling me that.” She folded her arms across her chest and it’s hard to peel my eyes away right now when I realised how…fully developed she was, also I was the only other person that called her Andy and she absolutely hated it. “When did you return?” I asked, interested to know as to why she left without saying another word and then popping right here again, in front of us.   “Last week.” She snapped. “I decide London wasn’t the place for me.”    “Okay, I’m sorry I did this but here’s some cash, get yourself a new number and throw this one out.”   “This better be the last time you’re doing this Scott. I can’t keep getting booty calls at 3am asking if they could give me a good time and they promised to do wonders with their mouth, what does that even mean?”   Scott and I burst out laughing at her innocence and she just glared at the both of us. “You two are pigs, you hear me? I’m leaving now, I’ve got a class to make up for and a Professor to explain that I wasn’t watching p**n during lecture.”   “Maybe if you’ve sent that picture to him, he might give you an A.”   “It’s a woman!” She shot back.    “A woman would know a good rack when she sees one.” I smirked and she rolled her eyes at me as she left, not forgetting to flip me the middle finger as she went.    “We’d better start running.” Scott said to me as he begin to jog away from his sister. “Hurry!”   “Scott James Bennett you sick son of a b***h!” Andy spat as she screamed at her brother. “Dude, what did you do?” I asked as the both of us sped off the opposite direction of his sister. “I just merely set that picture as her screen saver, I just thought she might appreciate it more than I do.”   “Dude, come on, that’s your sister.” I shot back. “If I ever did that to my sisters , Martin Castellano would have killed me in a heartbeat.”   Scott waited outside the Coach’s office while I went in, took a seat and braced myself to be yelled at once again. Except this time, my results were slammed right on the table in front of my face. “Hey look, it’s my straight E’s.” I said lightly as I pulled the piece of paper towards me.   “Alexander Castellano! These are ‘E’s , not A’s or B’s. Your results are so shitty and yet you still find have the nerve to laugh.”   “Oh come on Coach, didn’t you say consistency is key?”   “I…” Coach ran a hand across his jaw as he tried his best to remain calm. “Consistency in your training on the field, not getting f*****g E’s on your grades. How are you getting an E in English? Did you perhaps confuse the subject with Italian or something?”   “I slept in for the test and yes wrote the whole thing in Italian, hence…”   “Slept in? What the hell were you doing the night before?” he seethed.    “Do you really want to know?” I smirked and he sighed.    “I just don’t understand what’s the matter with you. You skip field practice, you’re doing so badly on your papers but yet you spend hours in the library a day studying…”   Well, 9 out 10 times I wasn’t actually studying in the library but I’d give my Coach the benefit of  the doubt by refraining from talking this time.    “You need to do something about your results Castellano, that is if you want to save your spot on the school team.”   “What does that even mean?” I turned in my seat to look at my Coach pacing back and forth in his office, honestly that action alone was driving me nuts.   “What I meant is, if you don’t pull your s**t together and buck up in your studies, I’m afraid I’d have to kick you off the school team and have someone replace your spot alongside your buddy, Scott.”   “You can’t do that!” I protested. “Besides, Scott and I are the best on the team, you know that. Without us, the team’s pretty much dead!”    “Castellano, our team will do fine with or without you. You can always be replaced if the school decides you’re not performing in your studies, it’s just like ripping off a used bandaid and discarding it without a second thought. I realised I’ve been doting on the both of you long enough to feed your arrogance and pride. But trust me when I say I will bring someone in who’s just as good as you on the team.”   Ouch.   “And who that might be?” I spat, grabbing the seat with my fist.   “The one person who’s vying for your title as Captain for as long as I can remember.”    Bryan Trevors.   The one person that seems to be competing against me at every possible game—whose also worthy enough, whether it was football or the swim team and every other sport that I ever played. “That’s not possible, he doesn’t even go here, how are you even going to pull that off?” I asked, pushing myself off the seat and rising to my full height.   Just then, a knock came and the door opened.    Standing not too far away from me, was Bryan in the flesh. “What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped, Scott who stood not too far away from outside watched me with question marks all around his head. Bryan had a smug look in his face as he spoke. “The great Alexander Castellano, glad to be seeing you up close and personal this time.”   “Don’t you see me enough on TV screens?” I scoffed.    “I don’t follow up with celebrity bullshit.” He shot back and my jaw clenched. Hey not my fault, I never asked to be on the news all the time.     “That is enough from the two of you, I will not tolerate nonsense from boys with reputation like yours. Mr. Trevors transferred to Harvard just today, he’ll be joining the rest of your batch mates in your course and I trust you’ll do a fine job in taking care of your team mate.”   “Coach! With all due respect, I thought we agreed on the headcount of the team, you can’t just bench one of my players and add on another on such short notice, not when we have a big game to practice for.” I argued.   “Castellano that is enough! The team may be yours but I run the whole Sports Organisation on this Campus. You don’t call me Coach for no reason. Your team mate O’Brien had a spine injury just yesterday, so I have no choice but to bench him and replace him with Bryan here. And whether or not you will make it to the big game, I suggest you proof to me with your grades and show me that you are capable in balancing both your education and team effortlessly; I have the highest expectations from all my Captains and that includes you! Either you get a tutor or you lose your title as Captain.”   “Coach!” I began.   “End of discussion Castellano. Now, I need to speak with Mr. Trevors here, you know the way out.”   “Do I even need to explain?” I asked, hoisting my backpack higher as Scott and I took our exit through the hallway of the offices and out of the building once again. “Coach wasn’t exactly just talking, that man’s voice can be heard at least 5 doors down.”   “Great, because I’d hate to repeat myself.” I snapped. “ I blew out a breath of frustration.    I guess Coach and my dad was right after all—I do need a tutor. But question is, where the hell would I find one on such short notice?   **   Andrea’s POV   “That son of a b***h, how dare he? What’s wrong with my outfit?” I stared hard at myself in front of the girl’s bathroom mirror as I pulled my hair up in a high pony. “Cute tie dye shirt.” Some girl commented as she walked out of the bathroom stall. I recognised her, she was the one who I saw walking out of my brother’s apartment last Tuesday although for the love of god, I cannot remember her name at all.   Just give her a second or two and she will ask about…   “How’s Scott? He doing alright?” She asked and I fought the urge to roll my eyes through the glass mirrors. “He’s getting his balls checked for diseases, probably from f*****g around too much.”   “What?” She asked, her eyes wide as her fingers reached her abdomen. “Are you serious?”   “A hundred and one percent. I just saw him this morning, he told me he needed to go to the hospital for his monthly check-up.”   Andrea, you aren’t the most pleasant girl right now, stop your nonsense and stop scaring away those poor girls.   “Anyway, gotta go, I’m late for my class.”    I walked right out of the bathroom stall and made a mental note to pick up my laundry from the dryer later, it should be done by now and then what’s next, grocery shopping— Scott and his dumb friend Alex has pretty much emptied out my cereal box.   Alexander, I hadn’t expected to see him this morning. As much as I tried my best avoiding that jerk, I yet, somehow bumped unto him this morning and got a real good look of his perfect face. He was exactly just as I remembered him, but only better.   He was still pretty much the same, still a manwhore but still just as good looking, f**k, did I just think that out loud?    He was exactly the reason why I left to London without thinking twice. Those nights spent with him messed me up real good and I vowed that I’ll never let it happen again. It took me a whole year just to forget him but when I saw him earlier, those memories came flooding in all over again and I hate the way I was feeling right now.    Fuck it, I thought.   He probably would have forgotten it and so should I.   I walked into my next class and looked around the lecture theatre for an empty seat and chose the one right at the middle. I wasn’t a nerd for crying out loud but I always made sure I got through with my studies. Our family wasn’t as well to do as most of the kids that go here—Dad was a Vet and mom was working as head chef in one of those big restaurants which I have never visited—not that I was allowed to. I’d like to think we were living comfortably, just enough, you know? I never lacked anything, at least.   Anyways, middle row in the theatre, not too front, not too back. The seat next to me was empty so I left my cloth bag there, pulling out my laptop getting ready for a class. I glanced at my crocs and suddenly felt a tiny bit embarrassed about it—yellow crocs, what the hell was I even thinking? Screw my brother’s chicks, one of them probably stole my shoes on their way out and left theirs behind.   “Move your granny pouch aside, I want to sit here.”    That familiar voice ordered and my head snapped up. “There are at least twenty empty seats all around us and you just have to sit here?” I hissed.    “Why not? I have a thing for elderly people.”   “Stop calling me a grandma, that’s just rude.”   “Okay I’m sorry dad.”   “You’re insufferable, I hope you know that.” I snapped as I moved my bag towards the carpeted floor while Alex took a seat next to me.   The Professor walked right in and started up his laptop while everyone else shuffled in. “I need a favour.” He said under his breath, turning to me looking a little more serious this time. I felt the heat radiating off his body and his woodsy cologne radiating off him made my legs go weak. What? Doesn’t matter if I hated this guy, I appreciated a man who smells good.   “If it includes sleeping with you or being your pretend girlfriend, it’s a big fat no from me.”   “No, the f**k?” he stifled a laughter. “I’m not gonna sleep with you, don’t wanna get your crocs shoe prints all over my sheets.”   “God Castellano, do you hear yourself?”   He took a deep breath before continuing. “Right, sorry but no. It’s neither of the above, what I’m about to ask of you, I very well know you’re gonna say no but…” he quickly added before I even protested. “Hear me out Andy, you do me this favour and I’ll give you whatever you want, or do whatever you ask of me.”   I thought for a bit before answering. “What exactly is it that you’re proposing?”    “I need you to tutor me just until finals.”   “Tutor you? What are you? 5?” I snapped, irritated as I realised my laptop was dead. f**k I swear I had it charged before I left the apartment this morning.    “5 A’s short on my grade, that’s what. Please, you’re the only person I can think of who can tutor me and is someone I won’t think of shagging. And please, I would never ask any of the nerds in the campus library, I have a reputation to keep.”   “Your reputation of a womanizer? Or was the dumbest Varsity Captain who can’t do math even if his life depended on it ??”    “I would say its the reputation of a Quarterback of the school team? Team Captain? The hottest guy on campus? Sexiest eligible bachelor, Ring any bells?” He sighed exasperatedly.   “Wow aren’t you just self-absorbed? And no, I don’t want to be tutoring your dumb ass at any costs, I need to keep my sanity intact and I’m a very busy woman.”   “What are you busy with? It’s not like you have anything to do or friends to go out with.”   “I have friends.” I snapped. “I just happen to not tell you anything that has to do with my personal life.”   “Dust bunnies aren’t counted.” Castellano smirked as he offered me his notebook instead. I eyed him warily as I tore out a piece of paper to get ready for note taking. “God aren’t you such a nerd?” He said as he watched me write the date and the title of the class on the top of the paper.   “I’m not the one getting ‘E’s on my grades.” I winked as he raised a brow, not really pleased after the low blow I just gave him.   “Just think about it Bennett, don’t shut me down just yet. I need your help and you’ll need mine to work on that social skills of yours.”   “Hey I’m happy being alone, thank you very much. Besides, Harvard isn’t exactly an all friendly environment, especially when everyone’s more concerned with their grades than having a small chit chat by the vending machine.”   “You sure about that? Because last I checked, even Lisa has more friends than you and her grades are just as good.” Castellano pointed his chin towards the goth looking girl who sat in a corner looking in her mirror and she mumbled something wordlessly.    “Her name isn’t Lisa, and why don’t you just ask her to tutor you instead since she’s got good grades?” I made a face while I struggled to pay attention as he leaned in closer.   “I can’t, I think I may have slept with her.”   “Good god! Okay fine, I’ll think about it. How much do you pay an hour?”   “However much you want baby.” He winked and I all but scoff. “Alexander, keep your s****l innuendos away from me. We’re in public!” I hissed as I looked around but so far no one was paying us both any attention.   “Hey you asked and I’ll deliver. When you’re done making up your mind, text me and we’ll meet up and please, don’t tell your brother—he doesn’t exactly appreciate the whole idea of me and his baby sister being together in the same room.”   “How are you suppose to hide me tutoring you from him?”   “No offence, although your brother and I are best friends, Scott isn’t the brightest person around here. He’s oblivious to a lot of things unless if he decides on paying close attention. Plus, I think he’s pretty busy with his football practice so he won’t bug us as much.”   “Good, because I don’t want him or anyone else knowing that I’m tutoring the Captain of the football team because he’s too dumb to even score an A on English.”   “Hey how did you know about that?” He chuckled, leaning back into his seat.   “I overheard the English Professor laughing at your paper while talking to this other professor.”   “Wow, you must be so lonely to have to eavesdrop on a Professor’s conversation. Tell me, what else did they say?”   “They said you wrote a whole English essay in Italian on ways to…”I felt my face turn red as I recalled the conversation but the look on Alex’s face urged me to continue. “Come on, what else did they say baby?” He smirked.   “Ways to make a girl scream your name in bed. f**k, who even writes s**t like that on an essay?” I rolled my eyes as I now realised the sheet of paper he gave me was still blank and I wasn’t paying any attention to the Professor. Ah screw this, I’ll just have to re-watch the recorded video on this subject later.    Alex chuckled as he threw an arm around the headrest of my seat once again. “But don’t you worry, I absolutely would not lay a finger on you even if you asked me too. I’m not a crocs kinda man—always prefer my girls not wearing anything.”   “You are so disgusting, Castellano.”   There were not enough cuss words in my dictionary that I could think of, all I could think of is a million other ways on how to hit this guy, send him into a concussion and just ignore him for the rest of my life. Although,I found it hard to move my leg away when his leg was touching mine.   “A penny for your thoughts?” He asked as he was scribbling something on his notebook and I didn’t even bother to glance at his book at all. I was mad and annoyed at him—who said I ever wanted to sleep with him and what’s wrong with crocs? You know what? I’m gonna make it a point to wear all the crocs in the world if that meant that would keep him at a good arm’s length.   “How is it you’re still the same after one long year of not seeing you?” I said quietly and he tapped his pen against his knuckle as he stared right ahead.    “I didn’t change Andrea, you did.”    **   Alexander’s POV   I left the lecture theatre feeling pretty confident she’d say yes, I mean, I practically offered that woman an offer most girls would’ve not resist.   However, I may have to rethink my approach. What if she says no? Then what? Who the hell was I gonna ask to tutor me?   From afar the cafeteria, I watched the new potential captain—Bryan Trevors who just recently transferred to Harvard take a seat in between some guys from the Science club, god those nerds. What do they possibly build in those labs? I will never know.    Then in came Andrea, who’s long red hair stood out amongst the crowd. She was alone—as usual. It always seem weird to me that she never had many friends of her own, especially when she was a pretty decent person to be around with, I think it was only me who managed to bring out the devil in her.    Oh wait, she did have this friend Sam who was also on my team, great guy and I think they were somewhat best friends? I don’t know, I haven’t been exactly indulging in people’s personal matters you know?   I got a text from Lucy—my sister demanding to know whether I stole her running shoes from her wardrobe and I replied a quick yes, telling her I’d get her a new one. What? I lost mine after sneaking out from a balcony at a girl’s place when her parents came home earlier than expected and I needed one asap.   Anyways, where was I? Yes. Andrea.    She was walking in the cafeteria with Sam who later then caught up with her and they were laughing about something—probably about the fact that how she was dressed after rummaging her grandmother’s wardrobe.   I watched her eyes go wide as when Bryan called her name then a small smile crept to her face involuntarily as he hugged her, going on and on about something. How did those two know each other?   “Dude, eat up. We have practice after this, the hell are you staring at?” Scott asked as he nudged me, causing me to lose my train of thought on his baby sister.   “Nothing, just formulating some new tactics for practice later.” I lied, playing around with my food as I found it harder to peel my eyes away from Andrea Bennett.   If I didn’t know better, I think she liked this Bryan dude and I know just the way how I was going to make that woman my private tutor.