Rise Up

Chapter 51: Maybe?

Arthur did really come and get me in a time that seemed to be less than a minute. He drove us around the city for a while, in an amazing black Ferrari, probably not his, and then decided to stop near the port. We sat in the car for a few more minutes, still in silent, without saying neither a word apart from the greetings when he arrived at the bench I was sat all lonely and sobbing.

"This silence is killing me. I've never spent more than five minutes in your company without hearing you complain about something or making some silly jokes."

He punched jokingly my shoulder, interrupting the run of thoughts in my mind. I was staring blankly at the surrounding. A storm of shiny stars were lightning the sky above us with the big full moon. With the window rolled down I could feel a fresh breeze coming directly from the sea and thank to the calm of the port in that hour of the evening, it was mesmerizing listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks.

"Ok... I know what you need right now." Saying so he got out of the car, leaving me there alone for a few minutes, not before coming with two big ice creams in his hands.

"Here you go, champion. Hazelnuts and dark chocolate, if my memory is still working well, right?" He passed me a cone, finally stealing a smile from my stone cold face.

"Thank you, Art. For everything."

"Also for the ice cream I guess." He smirked down at me, starting to lick his gelato worse than a kid. Having him so close again, after all these years spent apart because of our different paths, was making seal the cuts in my heart quite quickly.

"Above all for the ice cream."

After the little snack break that basically consisted in my dinner, I got out of the car, leaving him behind me a bit surprised. "You coming?"

We took a short walk around the huge yachts at the bay, enjoying the unusual quietness of the night, then we sat down at the dork, with our legs bouncing down and our feet almost in the water.

My eyes got stuck at the dark sky, following the paths of the thousands little stars there, recognizing some constellations.

"I've had the worst fight ever with Lando and it's all my fault."

My words came out of nowhere, making him jump for the unexpectedness.

"That sucks... Do you want to talk about it?" I scoffed at his words in reactions, exhausted of talking and talking, as if it would resolve anything at the moment. "Or we could just sit here a little longer, if you prefer..."

His sudden change of plans made me laugh. He looked like scared of me, knowing well how much a bomb ready to explode I could be when something was tormenting me.

Regained back my breath from the laughters, I recomposed myself, leaning more in my seat and getting closer to him, just to avoid other people hearing my relationship's problem.

"He bought a house. For the both of us. He didn't even ask me to move in with him first..."

It took me almost half an hour to explain him the reasons why I was broken alone in a bench in this country, as I was often interrupted by my own sobs and loud sighs, impossible to hold back.

"Hey, come here." His arm reached my shoulder, pulling me in a short side-hug that increased my bad humor, my cries even worse than before. I snuggle my face against his chest, to hide the embarrassment of the moment of being with him in these terrible state.

As the good friend he's always been to me, he stayed there, not daring to move, keeping me tight in his embrace, caressing my back every now and then in comfort, exactly as he was used to do back in the hospital after my accident, when I had to spend more than a month laid down, unable to move on my own and fighting with the demons in my head.