I don't really think this song relates to the chapter, but I'm attaching it anyway because I know how much alicewondersonland loves it and him!!!! You're welcome Betty!!! BTW you should read her book Enigmatic Stranger.
Dante laughed. He laughed and laughed while I sat on the floor looking at him like an idiot. What the hell did he find so amusing?
Was it the bald spots on my head? Angela fought like a true girl, pulling my hair at every opportunity. Was it my bruised cheek? My broken ribs? I had no idea, but he did just get me out of trouble so I let him laugh.
"Are you done?" I finally asked.
He pressed his lips together. "Yes, I think so."
"Good." I grumbled as I tried to stand up.
"I walk away for two minutes and you almost kill a girl."
"I did not almost kill her. And that girl accused me of ruining her so called marriage." I was still really pissed off. "She accused me of sleeping with him. Why would I even want to sleep with him when I have you–" I stopped talking. There was no way to save that.
Dante laughed, but it was more of a sexy laugh than a real one. "It's hot." He said. "Too bad I missed most of it."
I was still trying to get up from the floor when I asked, "What! How was that hot?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "How is it not? You are pretty tough, aren't you? I like that." He leaned down to my level.
"Please tell me you aren't coming on to me right now. I think she broke my ribs."
"Hmm..." He unzipped my sweater and lifted up my shirt, exposing my throbbing side. "I'm not a doctor so I can't really tell."
I frowned at him. "Then why undress me?"
"Why not?" This whole answering my questions with another question was starting to bother me.
"You know what she's going to do now, don't you? She's going to run off to the hospital, get all the doctor papers documenting all of her injuries, and then she's going to show them to everyone we know including my mom. As if I don't already have enough problems with those people. Ow!" I finally managed to stand up, but that simple movement sent a blinding pain down my body. Angela knew how to punch.
"You should lay down." Dante said, trying to steady me. "Or we can go to the hospital and beat her at her game."
"I don't want to beat her at anything. I want her to drop the whole Nick thing. Everyone needs to drop it. I don't care about him anymore. I don't even know who he is anymore, the way he came over here, and threatened me. A normal person doesn't do that." I needed to stop talking. It only made my side hurt more.
"What did he say to you?" I could see the wheels in his head spinning, as he came up with a plan of revenge. Dante seemed to get mad easily. Thankfully it was never at me.
"Just the way he was acting that day you choked him out, which by the way was pretty awesome. Too bad you didn't actually choke him out. Angela would've been at his funeral rather than being here, beating the sh!t out of me."
Dante's eyes widened. "A pretty dark thought for such a nice girl."
"I'm not nice. Don't mistake me for a nice girl. Nice girls wouldn't want to hurt their cousin, they don't yell at their own mothers every single time they see each other."
"Come on."
"Come where." As soon as I asked that I started to laugh, because it just sounded funny. Dante was confused for a second, but then chuckled.
"I guess you really aren't a nice girl." I shook my head no. He sighed. "What I meant was that you should come with me up to your room."
"I see you in a whole new light." He said as I limped out of the bathroom, clinging onto his arm. It seemed like everyone was staring.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I thought you were innocent but after that ," He shook his head. "You've revealed your true colors. I like you better than I already did. Your coming close to beating out coffee."
"The spoon thing is still holding me back, isn't it?"
"Si."
***
We came to the conclusion that I was just bruised. Angela didn't do any real damage. She did however tell her mother what happened who then told my mother.
Dante stayed in my room with me. We didn't really do much other than talk and the conversation mostly consisted of him trying to find out how corrupted I really was. His reactions to the things I would say were kind of funny. I didn't tell him that I learned a lot of it from Jade.
Everything was going really good up until mommy called.
I answered the phone by accident and it was too late for me to hang up. "Oh Skyla, are you okay?" She asked in a panic, surprising me.
"Yeah I guess so."
"I heard what Angela did to you. That girl is all over the map right now. She wants to find someone to blame and you have to admit, you're the obvious person."
"I know." I guess in a way it was my fault because he still loved me. I didn't do anything to make him love me though.
"I wanted to apologize for the other night. I guess by me saying that could have contributed to all of this."
No sh!t, mom.
So many apologies. What was the point of saying sorry if you were just going to screw up again? I was getting tired of it. "No problem. What's done is done."
"I didn't know you knew how to fight."
"Remember how dad forced me to take a self defense class in the ninth grade."
"I guess your father was good for some things after all, huh?"
He was good in general. I hated when she talked negatively of him. "What do you want?" I asked her. Dante was playing with my hair while I leaned against his chest.
"I'm actually down stairs of the hotel. I brought you some of Maria's famous homemade macaroni and cheese." Maria was nanny when I was younger, she was also the best cook on planet earth.
"Oh." I think Dante heard, because he stopped scratching my head and looked at me. "Okay I guess you can come up. But mom, I have a friend over." Oh no I'm so dead. I thought.
"Friend?" Dante asked. I ignored him.
"Oh that's fine dear." And then she hung up.
"Friend?" Dante asked again.
I shrugged my shoulders. "What do you want me to call you?"
"I don't know but friend doesn't seem to fit."
"Well when you think of a fitted word let me know."
Mother came upstairs quicker than I thought. The look she had on her face when she saw Dante made everyone feel awkward. It was half between, a this boy is with my daughter? And wow look at that boy...
"Hello I'm Anne." She hesitantly extended her hand to my friend. Dante shook it. I wanted to die.
"Dante." He introduced.
Mother's eyes widened as he said his name then her eyes shifted to me. She's heard that name before. "It's very nice to meet you, Dante." She wanted to make up for everything so she didn't say much else. Mother put the bowl of food on the counter and asked him, "Would you like any?"
"Um, no thanks I'm fine." This was so weird. Everyone was quite. "I actually have an appointment that I need to be at." Dante stood up from the couch. "I'll see you tomorrow." He kissed me on the forehead. "It was nice meeting you, Anne." They shook hands one more time before he left.
She handed me a bowl of macaroni and then took Dante's seat on the couch. Mother wouldn't eat anything unless it was a salad. "So that's him?"
I nodded, shoving a big spoonful of pasta into my mouth. Talking with your mouth full was forbidden in her world, so as long as I it was stuffed, I wouldn't have to talk. "He's very handsome." She observed. I almost choked on my food. My face must've been the color of a tomato. "Well I'm glad you fixed that. Getting to know him is much better than doing it one time."
"I agree." I said in the middle of chewing, mostly just to bother her.
"Skyla, don't talk with your mouth full." So I shut up. She seemed to be in the talking, maternal mood.
"I want us to start over." She said to me. "It really breaks my heart that we can't seem to act like mother and daughter. We used to be close, do you remember?"
I nodded my head. "Yeah, but then I got older and you wanted to control everything about me. You have to realize that I now make my own decisions, good or bad. And it's nobody else's business. You don't need to make up excuses for me, or try to fix things. Not unless I ask."
She gave me a closed smile. "So how do you feel?"
"Better. I'm just bruised."
"I can see that." She pushed my hair out of my face, exposing my purple cheek bone. "I'm just offering, but if you want I can make sure they keep Angela away from you until everything settles down. I'm sure once it does she'll apologize. She isn't a bad person. She's just a girl who thought she was in love. Love makes people do crazy things."
I nodded. "That would be good, and I'd also appreciate it if you didn't talk to Nick anymore. He screwed us all over, and from what I can tell he isn't very stable either."
"I can do that." She got up and served me more pasta. I wondered just how long this would last. I believed her when she said that she wanted us to have a better relationship. I wanted a better relationship, but would we be able to pull it off? We had very different personalities.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go on a cruise with me." She offered, sitting back down. "It would only be the two of us. I already bought my ticket because I've been wanting to go anyway, but if you wanted I could buy you one too."
"When is it?"
"Two weeks after New Years."
Who would say no to a cruise? Especially when it was paid for. "I'll go."