My Italian Summer

I turned my body to grab my seatbelt and saw my brothers still standing there. I gave them one last wave before turning back around to tie up my seatbelt. Yes I said tie up my seatbelt, there was a loop but not a piece for the buckle to clip to. Believe me know when I said it was a pretty old truck, the thing is falling apart. “Ready,” I said, giving a thumbs up.

The truck started rolling down the road and I pressed my head against the window. I watched the trees whip pass me and felt a little nervous about the whole trip again. “Dad are you going to worry about me while I am there?” I ventured to ask.

“Am I going to worry? Are you seriously asking me that?” He snorted, surprised that I even asked that. “You are going to be four thousand eight hundred and two point six miles away and you’re going to asked me if I am going to worry?”

I widened my eyes at him, curious on how he knew that. “Dad did you really go online to look up how many miles we will be apart?”

He gave me a sheepish grin and turned to look back at the long straight road in front of us. I couldn’t help but laugh which caused him to redden in embarrassment. “Hey when you have children you will be doing the exact same thing!” he yelled to defend his pride.

I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window to examine where we were. My family lived outside of Charlotte, North Carolina in a little place called Mooresville. To describe Mooresville well were to begin; there was a lot of traffic. Yep this place was really crowed because lots of people wanted to live here, I mean who wouldn’t it’s a nice peaceful little town if you think about it.

An uncomfortable silence settled between us as we stopped at the light. Great this was the longest light in all of Mooresville and it decided to turn red when we get quiet. Out of reaction I reached over and turned on the radio to my favorite station. The song Hit and Run began to play which made me want to dance. I started bobbing my head when it changed and a country song I had no clue what the name was started playing. My mouth dropped open as I watched my dad take his hand away from the radio and placed it back on the steering wheel.

Narrowing my eyes at him I reach for the nob and change it again. He then looked over at me with a smirk on his face and reached for the nob. I quickly placed my hand over it so he couldn’t change it, “Not this time old man.”

He laughed loudly at me and held his hands up in surrender for a moment before placing them back down. “Alright you can have the radio this once since you are leaving.”

I smiled in victory and did a little dance in my seat which earned me a few stared from the car next to us. I glanced at them and gave them my biggest smile and waved. The young man that was sitting in the passenger seat blushed a little and waved back, while the mother rolled her eyes. I giggled and leaned back in my seat to stare at the never changing light, so it seemed.

After what seemed like ages the light finally changed and we made our way to the airport. Pulling up into the farthest parking spot possible my dad began to unload the suitcases from the truck bed. I raised an eyebrow at him and he gave me his best innocent look. It was so obvious that he was trying to stall so I could spend more time with him.

I grabbed two of my jet black suitcases that had a blue ribbon on each of them so no one took mine on accident and began to walk to the entrance. I got butterflies in my stomach as I looked down at my passport and boarding ticket. A loud cough came from behind me and shot around to look at a line of annoyed people waiting to get by me. I blushed and quickly made my way over to a waiting area and sat down.

“You ok kiddo?” My dad’s voice sounded behind me, making me jump a little. He came from behind the bench and sat down next to me.

I looked up at him and gave a weak smile before returning to look at my passport. “I am going to miss you dad.”