Chapter 23: Chapter 23

It just couldn't be true.

I sat next to Dario, who calmly drove the BMW through the streets while rock music played on the radio and Nicolo hummed along in horrible tones behind me.

As if this whole situation wasn't fucked up enough!

I was just about to meditate with my eyes closed to somehow block out everything around me when Dario spoke to me again, which made me more than just insane. How to repress, forget, or keep someone at a distance when that person seemed to enjoy stumbling you over and over again.

"Everything okay?" he asked calmly and I just couldn't resist taking a deep breath at his dark voice, which was annoying to me. The feeling of being constantly inferior to him, and of being happy to do so, seemed to be with me all the time, so I summoned up all my courage and simply spoke to him about Gino. Maybe then he would let it go.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about what my fiancé is up to," I replied, slightly nervous, and he immediately checked the rearview mirror to make sure Nicolo's attention was on us. I turned back, too, unobtrusively, but Nicolo was texting on his cell phone, not even noticing that we were both eyeing him.

Turning back to the front, I lost myself briefly in Dario's eyes before tearing myself away from them and looking back at the road ahead.

"What's he supposed to do. There's only a few things that Gino enjoys," Dario said with such a dislike that he even made me slightly angry and again I took the side of someone I barely knew, though I felt at the same time that I really didn't want to be like that.

"And that's what someone who just seems to enjoy tying up women says," I retorted, crossing my arms. Of course, I immediately felt his piercing gaze on me, but I didn't pay him any more attention, even if I had to force myself to do so, until he had to oppose me again, which made me look for his eyes.

"Woman," he said quietly, and I frowned in confusion until he glanced at me. "You mentioned women. Plural. I've only had fun with one in my life. Well, woman."

After a brief moment of overwhelmed silence, I turned back to Nicolo, who returned my gaze at that moment, prompting me to turn back to the front, wide-eyed.

"Giovanna, right?" I asked like an idiot, so as not to make Nicolo suspicious, whereupon Dario stopped at the side of the road and eyed me.

"Of course," he said controlledly, but I knew he was lying at that moment. Just the way he looked at me gave me the certainty that he meant me and this renewed silence pulled me back into a rigidity that seemed endless until Nicolo got out and opened my door for me.

"Have fun," I heard Dario say, but I escaped from the car and almost fell over the curb, but a street lamp saved me from renewed embarrassment.

"Not so stormy," Nicolo laughed at my fast pace, but I just watched in silence as the BMW disappeared around one of the next corners. Because he was gone, something changed in me again. The opportunity to feel completely free again gave me my self-confidence back and I curiously examined the entrance to the driving school in front of us.

Really ugly green doors and a little sign that says "Open."

I was about to wait for Nicolo to go in first, but when I glanced over at him he was walking the other way with his back to me, making me look between him and the door in confusion.

"Nicolo?" I called loudly after I almost didn't see him anymore and then quickly started to catch up with him. I didn't pay any attention to all the people who were coming towards me and skillfully turned my way between them to catch up with Nicolo after a very short time. "What you up to?"

I took several deep breaths and had a fleeting thought about exercising more until he pulled out his headphones and grinned at me.

"What do you think why I failed four times?"

I eyed him with a questioning expression until he winked and just kept walking.

"Are you telling me you're not going there?" I concluded, keeping pace with him as I waited for an answer.

"Yes, but not always."

"But Enzo," I interjected, panicking slightly at the thought that he would end up blaming me for Nicolo failing again. "Please, let's go to the driving school," I asked him while holding his jacket, but he just shook his head and walked on.

"Come with me. We can still go to the driving school tomorrow," he said and turned into a narrow side street, through which I reluctantly followed him. Sure, I didn't want any of this and by God I knew I'd certainly pay for it, but Nicolo didn't listen to his father or his brothers, so why should he listen to me?

After thinking further about the ways in which I would be tortured, we arrived at the end of the narrow alley, where we faced a wide street with the sun beating down quite heavily on our heads.

But that wasn't our goal.

On the other side I recognized the city park with its many sunbathing areas, the table tennis tables, the basketball court and the tall trees. Everywhere children were playing, while adults chatted while jogging or walking their dogs.

I watched a couple about my age cross the street, laughing holding hands and I couldn't help but imagine if I could ever be this happy with the man by my side.

Surely this pretty redhead wasn't given to a Mafiosi. They must have met at school, fell in love early on, and marriage and children would soon follow. Just the way it should be.

"Vica?" Nicolo suddenly spoke to me and I looked at him confused. Only then did I realize that I had stopped.

"Sorry, thought I knew the woman."

He ran on and I followed him and after we ran across a huge meadow, he suddenly stopped at some young people who seemed younger than me at first glance.

"These are Guiseppe, Angelo and Luca," Nicolo explained the names of the three and after I shyly gave everyone my hand and introduced myself, I examined them and the things that were on the blanket in front of them.

All three basically looked the same and certainly could have been brothers. They had dark hair, dark eyes and were dressed in a surfer look. Only Luca was a bit fatter and after the first few sentences that came out of his mouth, I realized that he was also the joker of the troupe.

"They don't know I'm a mancini, so keep it to yourself," Nicolo whispered firmly in my ear before he sat down and I looked at the shisha, the food, and the beer cans, then also sat up cross-legged settle down under the checkered ceiling.

"And how do you know each other?", Giuseppe wanted to know immediately and looked me up and down with a dirty grin, which I found quite uncomfortable. I wanted to say that I was a Mancini's fiancée just to avoid getting his piercing stare, but I bit it back and avoided his eyes.

"She's my girlfriend," Nicolo said out of nowhere, grabbing my hand, which made me stare at him in disbelief.

Oh No..

Nicolo's warm hand in mine felt so strange and wrong that I wanted to snatch mine from him at that moment, but I quickly realized why he was lying to the three of them. At least I initially thought it was because of his reputation.

"Your girlfriend? Who believes!" It came provocatively and amused from Guiseppe, who narrowed his eyes at me at his words. "You don't have to lie for him, sweetie. We all know only too well that Nico will always be a virgin, unlike me. This week there were already three chickas," he said arrogantly and then gave Angelo a high five, while he partied with his open pink camisole like he was Hugh Hefner himself.

Why was Nicolo hanging out with such idiots anyway? He didn't need that at all.

Guiseppe and Angelo suddenly laughed stupidly, only Luca seemed to be somehow uncomfortable with this topic, because he played nervously with the lid of his Coke bottle and looked at the meadow next to us. It made me increasingly angry how they were amused by judging others by their sex life and how funny it was when you didn't have one. Apparently they fucked their way through half of Palermo and felt like they were something better because of it. Demigods chilling on a knitted blanket in the park. Typical.

"You sure get around a lot, but quality counts for me instead of quantity," I replied to this arrogant Giuseppe, who stopped laughing immediately afterwards.

"Are you seriously accusing me of only fucking ugly people?"

"I don't blame you at all," I explained to him with a grin on my lips and it really felt incredibly good to be able to argue with someone who was on an equal footing with me. At least in terms of age. In terms of mental maturity, he didn't seem to have much more than a frozen pea. Gino and Dario were so much more mature and dominant, I didn't dare to provoke them, nor did I want to, but he came at just the right time to let out all my accumulated frustration. "But you seem to think you have to fuck a lot of women to be cool. That makes me wonder if you need to compensate for anything with your bragging or if you just don't have anything else to brag about."

Luca laughed softly and Nicolo grinned sideways at me while Guiseppe thought about what to say to that.

"Are you speechless, gigolo?" I asked confidently and he shook his head with a smile, which made me a little unsure.

"You're accepted," he said unexpectedly, raising his hand, which I should probably clasp, but instead I looked over at Nicolo, irritated.

"We fuck each other off more often. It's normal," he said, and although I really didn't feel like it, I gave this Guiseppe a high-five and then listened to the three of them talking about some of the teachers at their school.

Only after we had been sitting there for at least half an hour, observing the people in the park and enjoying the weather, did I notice again that my hand was still in Nicolos.

If he hadn't done it to avoid being seen as a virgin, then why?

I stared thoughtfully at the white beer cans in front of me and deftly released my hand from his to grab a beer and open it, which immediately resulted in Nicolo taking it from me with a warning look. I looked at him questioningly and the way he now looked and looked at me, I recognized something of Dario and Gino in the depths of his irises.

"What's that about?" I whispered softly and looked briefly at the others, who were talking loudly about who was going to get cigarettes next and therefore didn't pay any attention to us.

"You know who you're engaged to?" he retorted just as quietly, raising an eyebrow questioningly, which made me ponder. Gino allowed me to drink red wine in his club, so why shouldn't I be allowed to drink beer? As if he would even notice.

"I think the fact that you're passing me off as your girlfriend would bother him a lot more than that one can of beer."

With a serious look into his eyes, I took the can from his hand again and put it to drink, only to immediately grimace in disgust.

Warm beer! How disgusting..

"The fact that I was just trying to stop the two pickup guys from ruthlessly filling you up and shamelessly hitting you up is sure to please him."

I wrinkled my forehead in irritation, glanced at Giuseppe and Angelo and was about to ask Nicolo if he was serious, but suddenly I saw behind Angelo further away at the edge of the park Dario, who was certainly looking for us and anything but was pleased.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed in panic and without thinking about it threw the can aside where I suddenly heard Luca scream loudly. With a racing heart that almost made me faint, I looked at him in shock and was horrified to realize that I had fired the can right in his face and hit his nose.

"Ai, dio Mio", I whispered with big eyes and stared at the blood that was constantly running out of his nose and at that moment I even forgot Dario out of sheer guilt. "Luca, I'm sooo sorry!"

I hurriedly got up from the ceiling, was handed a handkerchief by Guiseppe and dropped to my knees next to Luca, putting one hand on his back for support and the other hand with the handkerchief on his nose.

"You can't miss the fat one," Angelo suddenly laughed and even Nicolo laughed too, but when he suddenly looked next to him, his amused expression died, while a cold shiver ran down my spine and I could literally feel who standing behind me

I held Luca tight while every hair on my body stood up and I saw a large shadow next to mine in the meadow.

And already I was kneeling in front of Dario again, only this time with my back to him and I already knew because we had skipped driving school and drank beer here with three strangers that it would not end well for me.

I heard that one noise in my head and swallowed hard while my breathing quickened at the thought of it.

Tip. Tip. Tip.

I owe him a new watch.