Chapter 21
Our Mini Italy and Family Pranks
Dedicated to @ItsDebster because of the PM's we send each other. In this chapter there are boys and Riley begins to face her problems. Only you and I understand the significance of this ;). Also- this is just because you are an awesome sauce kid and my little sister on Wattpad. Thanks for your support hun. Always know i got your back.
“So you don’t like the end of movies?” Seth asks rather quizzically.
It’s Friday at long last and we are on our date. Which, is going rather amazingly (if I do say so myself.)
He took me to a small Italian town. We had gone out to a little Italian bistro and ordered huge bowls of, rather stereotypically, pasta.
After making small talk he took me to get ice-cream at this small ice-cream parlor and now we were taking a walk around a particularly large plaza with this amazing Italian architecture surrounding us.
“It isn’t that I don’t like the end of movies. I love the end of movie and get rather irritated if I can’t finish a movie. It’s just that I prefer those few moments at the beginning of the movie where everything appears okay and uncomplicated. I enjoy that feeling of security and happiness- no matter how brief. After all, aren’t movies meant to be an escape to a world of fiction?”
Seth throws his head back and laughs.
“That was not funny Seth.” I say and pout.
“I know it isn’t My Lil Soccer player. I just find the way you said it amusing.” He says pulling me closer to him.
I snuggle into the crook of his arm and place my head on his shoulder.
“I told you not to mention the fact that I got into the team again tonight. Tonight it’s just about you and I.” I look up at him.
He looks down at me and moves his thumb up to my mouth.
“You have a little ice-cream right there.” He says making to wipe it off with that thumb of his. His emerald green orbs burning into my boring almost black ones. His handsome features start moving in towards my face. He had a look of absolute determination in his eyes.
“That’s okay, I got it.” I say before rubbing my face intensely. I diver my glance away from his eyes and feel myself move a fraction of an inch away from him.
I don’t know why I had to ruin that moment. I guess it just didn’t feel right. Almost like it was too forced. I didn’t feel comfortable kissing Seth in that moment- yes, I would have been kissing him right now if I didn’t pull away like that.
I was just a hopeless romantic band girl who wanted her first kiss to be romantic and natural…sue me.
I finally look back up and Seth and he looks back down at me with a very confused expression. And maybe even a bit of relief. The determination however, was gone from his eyes and I knew that he would not attempt to kiss me any time soon tonight. I assume that his ego could not take another blow.
“So why did you bring me here?” I ask deciding that a change in topic and some small talk was in order.
Seth being the remarkably kindred spirit he is let’s the whole incident go and pulls me back close to him making me relax again instantly.
“Well, I am a proud Italian and this is where my grand-mother grew up as a child. This town was built by Italians and is mainly Italian till this day.”
I look around at all the surrounding beauty. Completely captivated by it all.
“I love the architecture. You know, I have always wanted to go to Italy since I was a kid,” I smirk at him, “Especially to meet all the hot Italian guys.”
“Honey, you have your own ‘hot Italian guy’ right here in America.” He smirks right back at me.
“Who said that you were hot? There is a difference between being cocky and delusional.” I say looking at him seriously.
“You said I was hot. And you are right- there is a difference. I am on the cocky side of that dividing line.”
I shake my head and glance up and him. He is looking straight ahead of him towards the long staircase at the end of the plaza. The staircase leads up to the second floor of some building.
We walk over there licking on our ice-cream and enjoying each others company. It was quite a chilly night out and I was bundled up in a thick duffel coat, a thick pair of winter stockings, a woolen dress and long boots. I was warm and cozy.
Seth was wearing an expensive looking suede coat with a fleece inside, jeans and biker boots.
Why we were eating ice-cream was beside me but, I couldn’t care less. Quite frankly I deserved a treat even if it got me sick. Which, it probably won’t due to how bundled up I am.
By now we have reached the long, marble staircase.
Seth leads me up the staircase to around the halfway mark. Then he indicated I should sit. I sit down and instantly jump back up.
“What’s wrong? Did something bite you?” Seth questions me quizzically.
I stare at him completely exasperated.
“No Seth, my butt remains unbitten and unmarked however it is frozen. The stairs were just really cold and it gave me a shock. That’s all. You can calm your ‘hot Italian’-self down.” I tease him.
“At least you admit that I am a hot Italian.”
Then he does something really unexpected. He takes off his jacket.
“Seth, are you mental? You will freeze. I don’t want to date a damn ice-cube. Also, you need to drive home and you can’t do that if your extremities are blue.”
By now Seth has placed his jacket on the stair.
“Seth. You are going to die of hypothermia if you don’t put that jacket back on.” I reprimand him. Why won’t the stubborn donkey just listen to me?
“Riley, just sit on the jacket. Please.”
I can’t believe him. He risked his life so by arse would be warm. The stupid, kind, sensitive idiot.
“Seth, I appreciate the chivalry. I really do,” I say lessening my tone, ”No one has ever done something so kind for me. However, would you please put your coat on so you don’t get frost bite.”
Now it’s his turn to look exasperated.
“Riley, you really can exaggerate can’t you? It is not that cold. Believe me- I will be just fine as long as you cuddle next to me. Now will you please show me how much you appreciate the really kind thing I did and just sit down on the coat?”
I laugh and sit down on the soft coat. It is still warm from Seth’s body heat. I move next to him and slip between his arms. I adjust my body so that I fit comfortably into his body. He wraps his arms around me tightly- pulling me as close to him as possible.
We sit there for a while in a really comfortable silence. Allowing the quietness and beauty of the atmosphere to sink in.
“Seth?”
“Mhm” Was the answer I get.
“This was why you brought me here wasn’t it?”
/
/
/
Seth dropped me off at the front door and I walked in after giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Just as I walk in Dylan walks out.
“Where you going?” I ask him.
“Just picking up a package for your dad. I owe for letting me stay here.” Dylan answers.
I nod understanding. I have often had to pick up one of my dad packages. Often they contain resources he needs for one of his stories. Also, being the scatter-brain he is, my dad would forget about the package until the last minute which means we often had to fetch them late at night.
I walk further into the house and that’s when I begin to hear voices.
“I still can’t believe she did that!” Will exclaims. He sounds pissed of…this ought to be good
I enter the family room where all my siblings and my dad are sitting around the fire place. I grab a seat in between Pete and Dan and I cuddle into Pete’s chest whilst throwing my legs over Dan (the benefits of having older brother’s- you get to use them as furniture.)
Will is leaning on the wall next to the fire place where as Cassie and Emma are on the other couch.
“Who is she and what did this she do?” I ask.
“She is you. And he is till whining about the Will-amina prank.” Cassie answers jovially.
We had affectionately nicknamed Will as Willomina since my turn-him-into-a-girl prank.
I look at my little brother. “You are still complaining? The you must really be a girl.” I tease.
He glares at me. I return his ‘knee-shakingly-scary’ glare by laughing.
“It is not funny. I had to put lemon juice on my skins since Monday to get rid of that tan. And it is still not gone. I look like on of those hairless dogs.”
I start laughing even harder. Who knew that he was such a wimp?
“Well you sure can dish it out but when it comes to receiving it you suck.” I choke out.
“Yeah man, that wasn’t even her worst.” Pete says.
“You all say Riley was the best prankster of us all yet never in my twelve years have I seen her perform a prank other than girl-i-fying Will.” Emma says.
“Well. Riley wasn’t the best prankster of us all. That does to Dan. However, she has done some pretty funny things.” Cassie answers.
“Like what?” Emma inquires.
“I remember the time she turned Dan’s hair pink for not helping her.” Pete says.
“I remember the pink hair.” Will exclaims, “I just don’t remember why she did it.”
“Well. For the year we were all in high school together- when she was an eighth grade freshman and Dan a senior. She left a project at home and Dan offered to fetch it during his free period. When his free period came he forgot to get and Riley ended up going down a symbol because it was late.. Now the beauty of this prank was the simplistic nature of it. Dan thought that she had applied the dye straight to his hair. So he wore a beanie. However, the pink hair never grew out. His hair’s roots kept on turning pink. So he thought that Riley kept on sneaking in and doing touch ups. So he slept with his door closed. Yet the dye never wore out and his roots kept on getting pink. It took our brother dearest around three weeks to figure out he was repeatedly washing his hair with dye since his shampoo contained the dye.” Pete says with glee.
“Classic with a twist. Simple with a prefect execution. Memorable, long-lasting effects. You are an evil genius.” Will says admiringly.
“What about what Cassie did to Pete?” I say.
“What did she do?” Emma asks excitedly. This is understandable since it is so rare that either Cassie or I do something mischievous or wrong.
“Well…” I answer. Pausing to give it a dramatic effect.
“Oh for the love of macaroni tell the story,” Will says.
“Okay. Patience young grasshopper. So Pete decided to steal all of Cassie’s handbags and graffiti all over them in sharpies. So Cassie started buying all sorts of in-soles and so forth and placing them in Pete’s shoes in order to convince him that his feet were growing at an abnormally large pace. The next day Pete went and bought bigger shoes but, Cassie just repeated the process. Pete began to think he was turning into bigfoot. He was so freaked he started researching methods to shrink one’s foot size- the vain idiot. Eventually Pete had to buy shoes three sizes bigger before finally having the sense to try them on in the store and realise that he had been pranked.”
“That’s okay. The best however was when I pranked Pete in my senior year.” Dan says.
“Everybody. Dan is about to prove why he is the King Prankster.” Cassie says.
“Preach it sister,” I say.
“So as you all know Pete loves waking up late. So one day I got fed up with having to wake him up and him ignoring me and making me late. So with the help of Jake, Cassie and Riley I wrapped him up in his sheets with only his eyes poking out. Of course, his royal highness here remained asleep through all of this. Then a few of my friends came over and helped me carry him to my car. I took him to school like that. He couldn’t move out of the sheets since I took my belts and buckled him in. Then I took his lazy ass and threw it into the rose bushes at school. Left him out there for an entire day. Every one who passed stared at the real life mummy in the rose bushes.” Dan finished.
Everyone burst out laughing. I remember that day. Pete was furious when he arrived at home. He had this weird sunburn around his eyes only which lasted for weeks. He actually wore sunglasses to school in order to cover it up.
“I remember that,” my dad says as he goes and sits between Cassie and Emma. They both cuddle on each of his arms.
“My favourite prank was still the one we all performed on your mother where we kept on telling her that she didn’t put enough salt on the food. She used to have to put on piles of salt. Then when she tasted the food she would cringe yet we would all insist that there was still to little salt. Do you remember that one?” Dad asks.
We all laugh and nod. It might seem like a childish prank but to be fair we were all pre-teens and toddlers.
“I remember suffering through that horribly salty food,” Cassie says frowning.
We all laugh at that one. That food really was horrible and salty. In general it was really icky.
“It’s not funny. I=the salt bills were astronomical that month. And I had to get a new doctor because the old one thought I was crazy after I complained about my healthy taste buds.”
We all look towards the holder of that familiar voice.
I the doorway stands none other than my mother with Dylan behind her.
Joy…