GOLDWING (ing version)

chapter 5

I woke up and looked at the clock: it was just 11 am. As usual, Leo was already awake and wasn't even in the room anymore.

Among a few notifications on my phone, one of them was a message from Ethan.

Ethan🥁

10:30

When you wake up, come to Vic's room, we ordered a pizza that will arrive close to midday.

11:06

Good morning, I'm leaving.

At that moment I just wanted to sleep a little longer, but I controlled my laziness and got out of bed. Then I took a hot shower, changed into clothes like the ones I wore the day before, and left the room. As I open the door of Victoria's room, I saw Ethan, Thomas, and Leo sitting on the couch, while Vic was sitting on the floor.

"Good morning, everyone," I said, very peacefully.

"Wow Damiano, what is that face? It looks like you stayed awake until 4 am," Thomas said.

"Ahhh yes. Tonight was very complicated."

Barely does he know that I had gone to bed at 4 am.

When I got close to Vic, I kissed her on her forehead and hugged her. But after observing her for a while, I noticed that the weather was good, but she was wearing a sweater, probably to hide all the bandages I had put on her.

"Vic, why don't you take that sweater off? It's like 23 degrees," Thomas said.

"I'm fine with it, don't worry," she said, trying to smile.

"Come on Vic, take that sweater off," he kept insisting.

"I already said I'm fine like this," she said, crossing her arms.

Instantly when I saw him approaching her and trying to take off her sweater, my only impulse was to grab Thomas and lean him against a wall.

"Listen, Thomas. If she said she doesn't want to take off her goddamn sweater, you better respect her, ok?"

"What's wrong with you, Damiano? You two have been having some one-night stands, right?"

Before I hit him, I feel Ethan and Leo pull me with my 2 arms, trying to calm me down.

"Damia, calm down," Ethan said, a bit edgy.

When I let go of Thomas, I looked around and perceived that Vic was no longer sitting where she was. I went to the bathroom, and I even went to my room, the balcony, and the hotel reception and there wasn't a single sign of Victoria de Angelis.

"Good Thomas, she disappeared again. And you know whose fault it is? YOURS."

"Damiano, calm down. She'll be right back," Leo said, in a calm voice.

"CALM DOWN? You are asking me to calm down? You perfectly know that when Vic disappears, something isn't right."

"I know, but it's normal, what do you think that she thought when she realized you were almost hitting Thomas because of her?" Ethan said, with his arm around Thomas's shoulder.

"She'll show up, don't worry," Leo said, giving me a little hug.

I spent nearly 1 hour calling Vic, and all those calls went unanswered. However, the pizza arrived, but the whole situation left me not hungry, so I went back to my room before I want to hit Thomas again. I took the opportunity, and I could pack my small suitcase and sleep a bit. A few hours later, Leo woke me up yelling at me, it seems it was almost the time of the flight. I had slept more than 6 hours, and I hadn't realized it. I hurriedly changed my clothes, grabbed my suitcase and documents, and left the hotel room. When I arrived at the reception, Ethan, Thomas, Leo, and our manager were already there, but someone was missing, Vic. Yes, she was missing for over 6 hours.

"Well guys, shall we?" the manager said.

"No, Vic's missing."

We waited almost 1 hour for her at the reception, and she didn't show up, and I, who was already worried before, had stayed 1000 times more.

"Well, Damiano, sorry, but we can't wait any longer, we should be at the airport 30 minutes ago," Leo said, yawning.

"She'll arrive, Leo, I'm sure!"

"Sorry, we really can't wait for more time," said the manager.

In the end, we ended up going to the airport, without Vic. As soon as I walk into that airport shop, I remembered how much she and I loved to watch and try on perfumes because it's what we used to do whenever we traveled. I tried to do it myself, but it wasn't cool doing it without her. Even when we were on the plane about to take off, I checked if she had called or something, but there was nothing, as I was expecting. To try to forget about that situation, I put on my travel pillow and slept until the plane landed.

The weather in Rome was very calm, very satisfactory for an early summer evening. We each went to our houses because we had 2 days off, and then we would go to Zurich to continue the tour.

I called an Uber, and a few moments later I headed to my apartment. It was unbearably hot inside, and it was just at that moment that I realized how stupid I was when I don't have left any window open. To try to relax, I took a long shower, ordered food at Uber Eats, read a book, and started again my The Big Bang Theory marathon: yes, that's my synonym for peace, and that's how I coped with my concern about Vic's disappearance for a few hours.

When I ended my marathon, it was almost 1 am, and I noticed that it had started to rain outside, so I took the opportunity to smoke on the balcony while listening to the sound of the rain, which was a little therapeutic for me. And suddenly, I hear someone ringing my doorbell. At first, I thought about not going to see who it was, even because it was 1 am and no one usually visits me at that time. I mean, Leo visits me at dawn when he's drunk, but that's another situation.

When I opened the door, I saw who it was, and I didn't know if I was supposed to be happy or annoyed.

"Hello..." Victoria said, giving me a tiny smile, trying to hug me.

"Victoria, are you serious?" I said, taking off her arms from my shoulders.

"I know I disappeared, but..."

"But what?"

"What matters is that I'm fine now..."

"Vic, I don't know how you can be so... selfish! You just think about yourself, all the time, and that's visible in your words. You have no idea how much I was worried, and on top of that: WE WERE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!"

"You don't know how much it hurt to hear you argue with Thomas because of me."

"Seriously? I was just defending you, and are you still upset? Sorry Vic, but I don't have the patience to hear your invalid arguments," I said, almost screaming.

"Well, so this is how it ends? Okay, so forget about our trip to Santorini, our shared clothes, the borrowed books, and that stupid friendship bracelet. From now, we only relate because of the band, are we clear?" she said yelling, and pushing me against the door of my apartment, leaving there quickly.

My first reaction was simply total shock, I didn't expect that to happen on a quiet Saturday night. I had just lost my best friend.