Insufficient

Chapter 31 - #Jailbreak

I'm sorry that this chapter is going to be on the shorter side, I'm trying to get back in the habit of regular updates

Juliana's POV

"Are you happy to be going home?" Massimo asks as changes lanes, blaring the horn at some poor old woman who was driving too slow for his taste.

I don't say anything, just nod halfheartedly. Home. That sounds nice.

Home, away from this stupid hospital. Away from the 24/7 supervision, away from the strangers constantly coming in and out of my room.

"Yeah, I thought so. Remind me, oh-so-talkitive-one, why didn't you want to ride with your parents again?" He griped, changing lanes again, without so much as turning on his blinker.

"They stare." I whisper, gripping onto the door handle with my uninjured arm. I will never get used to Italian driving. They drive on the wrong side of the road, and the cars are backwards.

Talk about heart attacks.

Massimo is the only tolerable one right now. He doesn't stare at me. He doesn't treat me like glass, or talk to me like I'm a petulant child. He doesn't consider me broken. And if he does, well then he's good at hiding it.

"You know, I promised I would take you straight home, but there's a new gelato place that opened. I've heard good things about it, and it's only a few minutes from the hospital." He offers, choosing to ignore my answer.

"I don't want ice cream."

"Okay? Well I do, and I'm the one driving so..." I roll my eyes, tightening my grip as he speeds up and wildly swings around the corner, barely avoiding running a red light.

Though, that definitely wouldn't be the only traffic rule he's broken in the past twenty minutes.

"I thought you said this place was close?" I grumble, squeezing my eyes shut as nausea rolls through my stomach, giving me a headache.

"It is. It's just a short twenty-five minutes in the opposite direction of the house." He says nonchalantly.

I groan, banging my head against the headrest, which most definitely does not help my headache.

"I hate you. I should have waited for my parents to be free." Massimo just laughs cruelly at my misery.

"If anything, you should be grateful for me. Not only are you getting ice cream, I'm cutting the time in half."

"Hate. You. I hate you so very much." I breathe in deeply through my nose, noticing that he does slow down, just slightly. Just enough that we don't have an entourage of honking following us.

"What do you want? A cone, a bowl, or a shake?" Massimo musses.

"My lunch." I groan, blindly reaching and adjusting the AC. It was already facing me, on full blast, but nothing would stop the prickles up the back of my neck.

"Oh. You know there's this food place not too far from-"

"No!" I yell.

"I'll get you a shake. You like caramel, right?" He asks and I don't answer. The swirling in my head is finally starting to subside, and I take the chance of opening my eyes again.

"Remind me to never get in another car with you for as long as I live." I look over to him and see that he is not even trying to hide his grin.

"Wait here, I'm going to go in and order. Stay." He commands, getting out before I can say anything.