Mesmerizing Mr. Mafia

11

This was almost a nostalgic feeling to me. I couldn't tell you why, how or even what of but it certainly felt familiar.

The house was a comfortable temperature for once and I was still cozily wrapped in the fleece blanket that was just a little too short for my Bambi legs. My face was buried in one of the back cushions of the sofa to try to keep out the lights that had been turned on as people woke up and very soft voices were speaking from inside the kitchen.

Nostalgia.

Within seconds of being awake I realized that the people talking were Angelo, his mom and little sister. I wished I could understand what was being said because whatever it was, it sounded urgent. I sat up and rubbed the tired blurriness from my eyes, thinking that maybe them realizing I was awake would make them include me in whatever seemed amiss.

Wishful thinking.

I watched as Domenica looked away from Angelo and her mom and over to me, a cute smile forming on her plump lips. "Good morning, Chloe."

Angelo and his mom stopped bickering, instead focusing all of their attention on me. Angelo seemed very indifferent to me being awake but much like Domenica, Gianna smiled, her eyes gleaming in the friendliest way. "Good morning. We saved you some breakfast," she said sweetly while moving away from Angelo and over to the dish filled sink, her back now to me.

"Get dressed, criceto. We need to be out the door in three minutes," he said the words without even looking at me, something on his phone seemed way more important.

Domenica giggled under her breath, I'm assuming it was because her brother had just called me a hamster without even thinking twice about it. It sounded like he didn't know his own language.

And seriously? Three minutes? If I hadn't woken up when I did, was he going to wake me from my slumber and carry me out the door himself? In my pajamas?

Probably. I wouldn't put it past him for one second.

"You're taking me to school still, right Gelo?" Domenica grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, almost daring him to say no.

He looked inconvenienced for a split second before smiling at her and nodding. Then he looked back at me and that smile quickly disappeared, "Two minutes, Chloe."

I thought about throwing myself under the blanket and trying to hang out with Mrs. D'Amico all day but I knew that wouldn't slide. It would also be pretty awkward I bet so I slowly got up and started digging through my bags of clothes.

Assuming it was going to be another hot day, I grabbed a pair of denim shorts and a puffy sleeved white top and started to make my way towards the bathroom.

"You're going to have to take those with you. The car is here," Angelo said and for some reason that seemed to bring him so much joy.

"It'll take me literally two minutes to change."

I saw the look he gave me and immediately gave up. I've been awake for exactly five minutes and I could already tell this was going to be another fabulously long day with Mr. Mafia himself.

~_~_~_~_~

My stomach started growling rather loudly, slicing through the silence with such ease it was unnerving. The three people sitting with me at the table, two of them being Luca and Lilly, all looked at me as if my stomach was the thing that was going to save this insanely awkward moment.

We could have been having an ok time I'm sure, if this fourth person wasn't here. I got along well enough with Luca and Lilly but Angelo didn't trust me to be in anyone's care other than his, and apparently this other guy. Angelo had big boss things to do today and I didn't fit into that equation but don't you worry, he made it perfectly clear that if I was going to try to run away while he was away, he was going to find me and "make it so that I could never move again" and I believed him.

So instead of being a throuple we had to add in this fourth stranger whose name was Dino. I never really thought people could look like their name, but I suddenly understood what everyone meant when I met him.

He hadn't proven himself to be a complete d**k yet but I was sure that with time, his true colors would come out. Luca was a diamond in a mine full of salt. He just didn't belong with these people.

"We should tell them to bring your food out a little quicker, shouldn't we blondie?" Luca laughed to himself before taking a small sip of his black coffee.

I completely agreed with him. We had been at this restaurant for well over a half hour and I still hadn't seen any glimpse of my food coming out anytime soon.

"Wouldn't be the worst thing I've heard today," I mumbled just as Lilly shoved her elbow into my side. I thought about doing it back to her but quickly realized that she was trying to get my attention focused on the tv playing behind Dino and Luca.

My face was plastered all over the Morning News.

My eyes shot open, the hunger pains in my stomach becoming a distant memory. I knew my family wouldn't believe that I had run off to New York to live with Sienna without hearing it from me first.

The image changed from me to what looked like a press conference with the Los Angeles police department. I could see my dad standing in the background with Violet and my youngest brother and sister.

I wanted to scream at Luca for being too loud as he tried to get Lilly's attention. She too was focused heavily on the tv as much as I wished she wasn't.

Our intent staring proved to be suspicious to Dino and he whipped around in the green leather booth. I couldn't see what his face was doing but I could only imagine he wasn't all that thrilled with his findings.

"Your parents are offering 10 million dollars for you?" Lilly said in total disbelief, "God, what's that like? My entire family combined wouldn't make that much in our lifetime."

"We need to leave," Dino said while standing up. I think he was starting to pick up on the stares from the other patrons in the restaurant. "Luca, call Angelo. Tell him about this."

Luca looked at Dino like he was out of his ever-loving mind, "Oh no," he shook his head, "You're the one in charge today, you do it," he climbed out of the booth before grabbing me by the elbow and pulling me up. He did the same with Lilly as soon as I was out of the way and already being dragged towards the door by Dino.

"Exactly," he said to Luca who was now right behind us with Lilly, "I'm in charge and I'm telling you to call Angelo."

They had a stare down for a few seconds before Luca ended up whipping out his phone and Dino opened the back door of the SUV up, "Please don't make me push you in," he said the words as if the thought of forcing me to do anything actually pained him.

I got into the car, not necessarily willingly but it probably looked that way. Lilly was a different story, as always. She thrashed and screamed in Dino's arms before he eventually got her in and slammed the door behind her.

Luca got into the passenger side and appeared to be on the phone with Angelo now so I was trying to eavesdrop on that, all while Dino got behind the wheel and Lilly shot daggers from hell at me.

"Why do you give in to them so easily?" She all but screamed at me. "We could have been saved if you hadn't just done what you were told like a scared little bunny!"

I assumed she thought that if we made a scene in the restaurant, one of the lovely patrons who had noticed the news and saw me, would have come to our rescue but if there was anything I learned in my time here in Italy, it was that Angelo seemed to know everybody so as horrible as it sounded, there was no point in trying to get out.

I would just have to figure something else out.

Luca slouched in his seat as I caught the tail end of an eye roll. He really didn't like Angelo. He started nodding along to the words that he was being told as if Angelo could see them and it would make him stop talking quicker.

"Alright, got it," he said quickly before throwing his phone down into the center console and glaring over at Dino. "I f*****g hate you. I really f*****g do. In no way ever is this my fault but now somehow it is. Drive to the airport. Angelo and Dom are going to meet us there."

"Why are we going to the airport?" I scooted to the edge of my seat and moved my head to be in between both of them.

"Just...be quiet, Chloe," Luca said, broken.