Sink or Swim - Luca x Alberto

Assistant Lifeguard Luca

The following Thursday

Alberto's POV

Turns out Massimo has a pretty good taste in music, too. Saturday night I asked him if I could borrow some of his albums (apparently that's what the flat folders are called), and he said I could! So he grabbed his favorites and brought Giulia's record player into my bedroom (it's like my magic singing lady machine, but without the big golden flower on top). He doesn't have any Louis Armstrong music, since that's "musica americana" and that "isn't his preference". But he did give me a bunch of other cool albums, like Carla Boni and Claudio Villa and a whole bunch of other people I've never heard of.

I really did like the music, but pretty much all of them were either way too happy or way too sappy. Even when I laid in my bed and focused really, really hard, I still didn't get the same feeling I did from the daydream song. None of them compared to it.

But I still listened to them—all of them. I even listened to some with Giulia the day after, since we were hanging out and stuff. We've been spending Sunday nights together, since it's the last night before Luca stays for the week.

"What song is this?" She asked at one point. She was flopped onto Luca's bed, but was somehow still able to keep it neat.

"Uhhh...." I picked up the album. "Looks like it's called 'Volare'."

She had one leg hanging over the bed, and she was swinging it with the beat. "Heh. I like it." She nodded her head to the song. "My dad knows some really good songs."

I smirked and snuggled into my pillow, resting my hands behind my back. "Oh, yeah."

Well... I guess it's a good thing that none of the songs were like my special song. That makes it truly special, then.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun this week. Luca and Giulia came to visit me at the dock on Monday, and I got to swim with them during my break. And the next two days were really fun, too: we rode bikes, played soccer, went beach combing (I found snail shells); Riccardo even joined us in a game of tag. By the way, Luca's really bad at that game.

But now it's stupid Thursday, which is a work day... which means I had to get up earlier than usual this morning.

When I woke up, Luca was already awake—no surprise there—and he was sitting on his bed writing in that stupid journal. I was too tired to roll my eyes. But despite me being sleepy, I still noticed how funny Luca's bedhead was.

Soon he noticed I was awake, and he smiled at me. "Buongiorno, Alberto," he said in a gentle voice. How is he always so happy in the mornings?

"Morning, Lu." I stretched, then reached down and pet Rosana, who was (and probably still is) curled up in a ball near my pillow. I hopped off the bed, knowing Massimo would come drag me out of it if I didn't do it myself. (It's happened before.)

I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and that's what I'm doing now.

Before Luca and Giulia came back, I never brushed my teeth as long as Massimo said I should. But now that they are back, I'm making myself brush my teeth for a whole two minutes, just so Luca thinks I'm a super responsible and hygienic guy.

A minute's passed so far, and I'm about to die of boredom. So I take this time to smooth out my hair. My hair is a lot curlier than Luca's, so it doesn't go everywhere when I sleep, but springs of curls still poke out almost every morning. Somehow, Giulia always wakes up with perfect hair. How does she do it?!