Cry Until You Bleed

56- Epilogue

"Where are we going?" He asks her curiously.

"Well, I don't know where you're going but we as in the girls, are going to lunch and then shopping. You can come with us if you want to carry all of our bags," She suggests with a toothy grin, patting her boyfriend on his bare shoulder as she passes by him to go back to her room.

"I think I'll just find something else to do," He tells her after a sip of his coffee.

"Thought so," She giggles before disappearing again down the hallway. "Arrivederci!"

"I know what that meant," I tell him in a gloating manner, crossing my bare legs under the table. Well, they weren't bare but I was wearing a pair of jean cutoffs and they were pretty short so my legs were pretty much bare. From spending the first part of the summer in Spain, I got a really impressive tan though, so I can't say that I'm complaining. "Lo sono intelligente." Which means 'I'm smart' even though I'm sure that he knows that I'm just joking because even people who don't speak much Italian know that arrivederci means 'goodbye'.

"Ora che stai ricevendo arrogante," Marco tells me with a small laugh, stirring up his coffee. "Se parlo veramente veloce, non si capisce una parola che dico . Puzzi come un pesce prosciugato."

"Okay, I was just thinking that I got the hang of it but then you have to go and wreck my confidence," I accuse him with a pointed look because I have no idea what he just said to me and he said it all so fast that even if he was speaking words that I do know, I probably wouldn't have been able to catch even a syllable of any of it.

"Questo è quello che si ottiene per sempre troppo pieno di te. Non ho intenzione di smettere ora," He tells me with a 'You know that I'm just messing with you' type of grin and then a troublesome laugh. Again, I have no idea what he just said and he's speaking so quickly that even if I knew the words, I couldn't keep up with his fluent speed.

"Great. I've broken the Italian," I mutter just as there's a knock on the front door. I assume that it's Mia because sometimes, she leaves early in the morning to go for a walk or a jog around the block before any of us wake up. She thinks it's peaceful but sometimes, she forgets to take her key with her and gets locked out. "I'll be back and then I'll just punch you until you start talking so that I can understand you again."

"Mi piacerebbe vederti provare," He tells me with another taunting laugh and a white-toothed grin.

"Gah!" I yell at him as I get out of my little wooden chair. "English, Marco. English!"

He just keeps laughing as I hurry towards the front door and as I open it, I greet Mia with a wide grin. "Cia, bella! Benvenuti a casa!" And that means 'Hello, beautiful! Welcome home!' At least, I think that's what it means.

However, when I actually look to see who's on the other side of the door and I realize that it's not Mia, my heart plummets. My throat starts going drier than the Sahara Dessert on the Fourth of July and my palms are immediately sweaty. This boy that I haven't seen in almost a year, the boy that I've spent so much time trying to forget. Although it's practically impossible to forget a boy like Niles, I've tried my best. I haven't seen him since the grand ol' goodbye that night in the rain. I haven't called him since I got back home back in December.

So I'm sure that you can imagine my surprise when I see that boy standing in the hallway of my Italian apartment building, looking right at me. "Oh my God," I choke out under my breath, not really knowing how to respond to him being here. Never in a million years would I imagine Niles showing up here in Italy. I've spent this time away from him trying to accept the fact that I'd probably never speak to him again and it's been awful. Even now, I sometimes cry about him because I still miss him so much.