Stars Uncrossed (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 23

"Shhh! Look at me." Aidan shushed him, as he forced Luca to look into your eyes. "None of this, was your fault! You hear me? None of it. You were sixteen, and he was like what, forty?! He had no right, he was a predator, Luca."

"I tried to fight him off but he was stronger and bigger than me." Luca sobbed uncontrollably into Aidan's chest. "He told me if I told anyone that he'd make sure I never go to the Olympics ever. But I did, I told the police and the US Olympic committee and he was dismissed immediately, but he ran away to God knows where to avoid being tried. After I came forward, thirty one other boys and girls came out to say that he did similar things to them."

"You did the right thing, babe..." Aidan reassured him, stroking his cheek to wipe the residual tears off.

"But that's not where it ends..." Luca said softly. "Remember I told you my grandparents back in Montréal were from enemy families?" Luca asked, to which Aidan nodded perplexedly. "And how I told you they owned rival chains of Italian and Greek restaurants." Aidan nodded again. "Well that was all true, but there's more too it. My Grandfather was a Pugliese, and my Grandmother was a Papadakis. They belonged of the two largest crime families in Montréal."

"You mean like... the Mob?!" Aidan cried out as he visibly tensed up. Luca shushed him, glancing around nervously. "Relax, nobody is home! But seriously your family are in the FUCKING MOB?!!"

"Mob is such an ugly word, we prefer the term business." Luca said nonchalantly as Aidan stared at him like he had grown a second head. "Anyway, When they got married, at first their families were enemies, but then they ended up coming together to create one large and even more powerful mafia, the Pugliese-Papadakis crime syndicate. Anyway, so my family tracked Ryder Lark down."

"I don't like where this is going." Aidan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but Luca knew he needed to tell him, he had to know because he was the only person he trusted to make him feel better.

"They tracked him down and brought him to Canada on grounds of a fake job as a gymnastics coach. When I got there, they had him tied up to a chair. At first I was terrified, but then he kept taunting me, he kept calling me jailbait and something snapped in me, I-"

"Luca... What did you do..." Aidan stared at him, clearly unsettled with everything he was hearing. Luca knew deep in his gut that he needed to stop talking, but he needed to get it out; it was eating at him from the inside.

"My cousin handed me a gun and told me to..." Luca trailed off as he stared with narrowed eyes at the floor, shuddering at the thought of himself being capable of murder. "Ryder Lark kept telling me that I wouldn't do it. That I was weak and that I'd never be an Olympian. So I held it up to his head and... I... I pulled the trigger."

Luca felt Aidan let go of his hand, shifting away from him on the bed. Luca felt his whole world come crumbling down in just one second. He lost the one person whom he thought he could trust and depend on.

"The gun wasn't loaded. My cousin couldn't let me be the one who did it, they wanted to keep me as far away from the mafia business as possible. They took me away so I wouldn't have to see my cousin... finish the job. But... He's dead. And the worst part is... I wasn't upset that he's dead. I wasn't upset that I wanted to kill him. I wanted it for all those thirty one other kids just like me who felt dirty and used and physically ill after he... If he was apologetic, I wouldn't have even thought twice about letting it all go and forgiving him. But he wasn't! He looked me in the eyes and kept teasing me and taunting me, asking if I was still tight... and..." Luca glanced up to see the coldest, most terrified look in Aidan's eyes. He let out a sigh and lifted his hand to touch Aidan's face only for the taller boy to flinch away from him.

Luca felt his heart break into a million pieces in his chest. He always knew that Aidan would hurt him, that he would lose Aidan one day. But little did he know that it would be his own doing that would drive away the boy he had fallen so hard for.

"I... I need a second..." Aidan said gulping nervously as he got up and stalked slowly away from Luca who sat sobbing on his bed. The part that broke Luca's heart most was the way Aidan would look over his shoulder at him in fear, as if expecting Luca to murder him while his back was turned.

He felt the tears come down his face as he heard Aidan shuffling around his bathroom. He already knew what was coming. Aidan was going to break up with him and probably go straight to the police and turn him in. Part of Luca hoped that Aidan would be the pillar he needed at this time. He could have gone to his parents, his Nonno or Nonna, or one of his cousins, but no. Instead he came straight here because he knew Aidan would make him feel better, or so he thought.

Yet another example of how he had changed in the almost two months they had been dating. Here he was when he needed his family most, but he found himself seeking refuge instead in his boyfriend's comforting touch. But now the one person he thought would always be there for him was exactly who was disgusted by him to the extent that he couldn't even look at him, let alone touch him.

Luca wiped his tears and got up off of Aidan's bed, quietly walking out of the room and making his way out towards his car letting a single tear fall from his glassy eyes. He had been crying a lot in the last twenty four hours, for different reasons and with different emotions. But something about this single tear felt heavier than all the rest, it was a tear of rejection and sadness, and perhaps that is what hurt him the most.