Tear In My Heart ✔️

III. Close Calls (edited)

"Noah, where on earth have you been?" were the first words I heard as soon as I walked into the house.

"Hello to you too, Nonna," I mumbled as I took a seat next to the rocking chair she always sat in with knitting needles in hand. I closed my eyes and massaged my throbbing temples in order to offer some kind of relief to my pounding head. I had no such luck.

"Noah, I'm only asking one last time, where were you?" She demanded and I looked up at her with tired eyes. My grandmother had been born in Italy and moved to the US when she was twenty-seven, bringing my father with her. We shared the same blue-green eyes and freckles across our noses, but other than that we were complete opposites. She was quiet and conserved while I was loud and social. She liked going by what she knew and I liked taking risks. "Noah," she warned, the way her grip changed on the knitting needles let me know that she was hanging onto her patience by a thread and if that thread snapped, one of those needles would end up in my eye.

"I just hung out at a friend's house. I got tired after a bit and decided to crash there, that's it." I was technically telling the truth, I just left out some major details like getting drunk, almost having sex with a stranger at the time, and the fact that said stranger was a boy that refused to get out of my head. Ugh.

My Nonna narrowed her eyes at me, trying to tell if I was lying or not. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck. She was extremely good at catching me in lies, even white lies. After a few tense moments, she relaxed, causing me to as well and I had to keep myself from letting out a sigh of relief. "Next time, call me, ragazzo (boy)."

"Sorry, Nonna," I apologized, but she shook her head.

"Noah, you're always 'sorry', Noah. This happens too many times, and you make up outrageous stories expecting me to believe you're actually at your friends' houses when you're actually out spending your allowance partying and drinking and probably sleeping with God knows who!" I swear all the color drained from my face. "And it stops now," she continued, shaking her head as her focus went back on her knitting. "I know what it's like to be young and free and sometimes you do just want to party and drink every now and again, but you're going to stop spending my money on your illegal fun and get a job."

"But Nonna-"

"And if you don't, you can kiss your beloved football goodbye." My heart stopped beating as I tried to process what she'd said.

"I'm sorry, Noah, but that's how it has to be," she shrugged. "I'm old and your football is costing me too much. Plus, you need to start learning some responsibility and working for your own things. You're a senior in high school for crying out loud! You need some more money for university!"

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "I'll start looking next weekend."

"No need," Nonna said. "I've already arranged it and you start work next Monday."

"What?" I practically yelled. Surprise dripped from my voice. "Nonna, what the-"

"You'll be working at the pizzeria around the corner from the football fields where you and your teammates always hang out, and that's final." I felt my heart drop as I blankly stared at her. No. That's right across the street from where he lived. "The father and son that own the pizzeria are also Italian and we'll be having them over for dinner tonight as a thank you for allowing you to work there. I've known the owner for a while and even though it's just a pizzeria, he takes employment very seriously." I mutely nodded my head, barely hearing or processing anything she said. All that I knew was that I was screwed. Badly.

Still dazed, I stood up and slowly trudged off to my room, Nonna most likely grumbling to herself and shaking her head at me, but I didn't care. I needed to clear my head of him. I needed to forget Madison.