Road Trip - Chapter One

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[Quick message] Before you start reading, I feel like I have to warn everyone. It's been a long time now since this chapter has come out and I'm writing this message from the future *waves* but a lot of people have gotten/will get really mad at Leo and even stop reading, I have to come here and yell, KEEP FREAKING READING, a lot quit after the first few chapters and there are over 30 chapters. You WILL get mad and annoyed at certain characters because that's naturally what I intended, KEEP FREAKING READING, everything will make sense and unveil itself. You will not hate anyone by the end, I promise you. There needs to be a storyline and you will not get the full picture in just the first few chapters, so please . . . KEEP READING.


My story wasn't always complicated. Once, it was actually quite simple. My mom and dad split when I was a baby, my mother was half American so she moved back to the states when it happened, leaving me an airport baby.

Airport babies feel like they don't really have a home, except the airport, because it's always the same. I flew back and forth between America and Italy growing up, until my mom popped the question that would change everything.

"Do you want to come live with me?" she had asked.

Having spent most of my life with my dad's side of the family left a lot of mixed emotions in me about what it would be like to live as an American. Summers were always the best time, because those two months were what I had with my mom every year and they were the best memories I've ever had.

I was blinded by all the moments I had on the beach, carnivals, theme parks, Disney Land, that I immediately said yes, not thinking that I would be leaving everyone behind and that it would not always be theme parks and sunny days at the beach. I didn't think of the fact that I'd be going to a new school, meeting new people, being in a completely different culture and way of living.

Obviously, she was a good mom and had asked me many times if I wanted to change my mind. I never did, I wanted that Hollywood life that I endlessly saw in the movies. But real life wasn't like the movies, it wasn't sunshine and daisies.

And that was how my story began. I spent one summer with my mom before we moved out of her apartment and into a new home. A home that already had a family, but a family with a missing piece. And I wasn't prepared to be that missing puzzle piece.

But a lot of things changed since then. Eventually I realized I was no one's puzzle piece, I was my own damn puzzle artwork. I was young, it shouldn't have been my responsibility to save a family that was already breaking apart. And falling in love and acting on those feelings didn't help the family, instead I made things harder on everyone. I blamed myself for a lot of things that happened. But again, I was a child, so it wasn't fair.

Thankfully, I was no longer a child now and from the moment I wasn't, I made sure everything was going to feel different. It definitely happened, everything was different, just in the way I didn't expect.

Even if it sounded kind of harsh, I was free. Everything I went through with Derek and his family just didn't matter anymore. It happened, it was in the past, and even though I was still connected to the family since I was still with Derek, I wasn't put the weight of having to worry every second about everything. Like getting caught kissing him and feeling like shit because we were step brothers and our parents didn't feel all that comfortable even though they tried to be supportive.

Ultimately, it was our fault they got divorced. And only one of us wanted to admit it.

Going on this road trip would be the longest I'd ever been physically with Derek since we went our separate ways to college. Our visits were usually just the weekend and sometimes holidays. But now? It was going to be a mega long road trip across the United States of America.

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