The sun was a bit hotter than usual that day, the sounds of the wave crashing again the seashore and the soft blow of the wind made it the perfect time to go for a dip in the water. There were not as many tourists as usual at the time, perhaps it was due to their timing of arrival, they had come right before high season, merely because both Chiara Consiglio and Grazia Bellafiore Valenza were not fans of a huge crowd.
In their bathing suit, they slowly walked into the pool and started swimming around. The feeling of cold water against their skin were all the rewards they needed. They had walked all the way there with the children and they felt like they deserved it. Meanwhile the kids had just arrived right behind them with Chiara's older brother Dante, who guided them like a shepherd. Unfortunately for them, their husbands, Gianluca Saverino and Antonio Valenza could not come along with them because of their own businesses. Thus the women were left on their own.
It was a large family trip, not only did two of Italian's high society favorite ladies were present, but they also brought along their children, nieces and nephews. Among the youngsters, three of them were best friends, from Chiara's side were her two children Alessio and Valentino Saverino. Her older brother came along with them to make sure there was still a man figure present during their trip because watching over six young children was no easy matter, and he himself brought his only son Pietro.
Grazia herself brought her three children, the eldest was her son Luca, followed by her two daughters, Valeria and Ginerva Valenza. Among the children, there was an obvious closeness between Valeria Valenza and The Saverino Brothers. Since they had a close age gaps between them, it was much easier for them to get along, Alessio and Valeria were both fourteen years old and Valentino was thirteen Comparing that to Luca and Pietro who both were seventeen and had developed a sense of maturity and did not feel like grouping themselves with the youngsters. On the other hand, Ginerva who was only eight years old at the time.
The three were almost always seen together, the adults did not bother too much with it because they thought those kids were just developing an ordinary friendship between each other. Although they had to admit, as young as they were, Alessio and Valeria did look good together. They were both good looking and intelligent children. No one would be surprised if one day they would end up together, the mothers had had some talks about pairing the two together. Though they would still give the children a chance to choose on their on.
They were playing on the side of the pools, constantly dipping their toes in and back out again. Valeria and Alessio were good swimmers, they had entered the water and joined the rest of the family, Valentino, however was a bit of a scaredy cat, he frowned as he splashed the water around with his feet.
"Hey, why don't you join us?" Alessio spoke mockingly. He knew his younger brother was not a good swimmer, he had nearly drowned himself in a pool before and that left a trauma inside him. Chiara hushed her eldest son, because she knew it made Valentino felt inferior. Alessio did not bother to listen as he teased him by swimming around further and shouted his way to Valentino.
"You don't have to jump if you don't want to." Valeria swam closer and looked up to his face. Alessio saw Valeria near his brother and made his way to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulder, Valeria turned her head and saw Alessio grinning at her.
"Then, I will take her instead." He wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her further from Valentino. Alessio knew his brother was also very fond of Valeria, just like he did, and he wanted to tease him, but what happened afterward was never expected.
Valentino, feeling upset, jumped into the water merely from impulses, which was a bad move considering the fact that he could not swim. Moved by audacity, he tried to move his arms and legs to follow his brother and Valeria, Chiara who witnessed that was starting to get alert, he called out Valentino's name and asked him to go back to the side. Yet there was no respond as Valentino kept on trying to swim his way through. He should have listened because what Chiara had been worried about since the beginning eventually happened, Valentino was starting to act all weird. He stopped swimming and instead created a messy splashes around him. In other words...
He was starting to drown
"Valentino!" Chiara half shouted, this time everyone was starting to panic, Dante who had been sitting on the side immediately jumped to the pool and quickly lifted him up, bringing him to the side. When they reached the edge he pushed Valentino out of the water and the boy was coughing out loud, spitting all the water which had gotten in his mouth.
"Are you okay?" Dante asked him. Still feeling dizzy, he nodded his head briefly before turning to to see his brother and Valeria in the middle of the pool. All eyes were on him now, Chiara approached her son and checked on him. That boy nearly gave her a heart attack. Fortunately, he was not really hurt physically, just a bit shocked.
"Why did you do that? That was so foolish, don't ever do that again, okay?" She gently scolded him, but by then, he was beyond embarrassed because everyone then knew he was vulnerable. He hated it, the feeling of vulnerability. What made it worse for him was the fact that Valeria was also present, she was staring at him with pity while his brother was right beside her.
His pride as a little man was hurt, but there was nothing much he could do about it. When they were done with the fun, they gathered their belongings and went back to their villa. On their way there, Valeria approached Valentino and asked him how he was doing.
"I'm fine!" he snorted. He was certainly not fine. Valeria remained silent beside him the whole time. Alessio was right behind them and he tried to comprehend his brother's attitude, he was acting like a brat. Among the two brothers, Valentino was the one who was more of a rebel even since his childhood, he had created some troubles in the family in the past, although things have gotten significantly better during the past few years, since Valeria came into their life, he still had some leftover of his childish side.
They arrived at the villa and after putting down their belongings, everyone was rushing to the bathroom to get proper bath and shower, fortunately the place had three large bathrooms available. A single bathroom could accommodate three people at once as long as they were comfortable with seeing each other naked. The women were first to wash themselves, and after that the children got their turn. To save time, Alessio and Valentino took a shower together in a room, Valeria was with Ginerva, and Pietro with Luca.
The bath time was a perfect time for Alessio to confront her brother as no one would interrupt them. He unleashed his disagreement toward how he behaved earlier, Valentino could not accept his brother's hostility toward him, he defended himself by calling him an attention seeker and he was the one who provoked him first.
"Just admit it, you were trying to seek for her attention." Valentino said as he lathered his body with soap.
"You are the one to talk, I know you also like her too, you were the one who was trying to get her attention by jumping into the pool, you know you can't swim, yet you did." Anger overcame Valentino and he stood up and pushed Alessio, the height difference between them were not too distant, and he was pushing with all of his power, Alessio who was not predicting that ended up falling on his butt and hit the lower part of his back, it let out a loud thud sound and Dante immediately came to the bathroom, who coincidentally was not locked.
"What happened?" Alessio was still on the ground and Valentino was standing right in front of him. Dante immediately handled the situation by separating them, at the end, both of them were sent to Chiara's room, Dante was also there, he was not pleased.
"What is wrong with you two? You are brothers, you should be supporting each other instead of fighting!" Both of them refused to look at each other, instead they were looking down looking like a caught criminal.
"Valentino, did you push your brother? You know he could get injured, right?"
"He started it first." Valentino defended. But of course, it was not a strong enough reason for him to do that.
"I was just telling the truth, Valentino likes Valeria, that's why he was trying to show off."
"Apologize to him." Chiara said sternly. Even though he was pissed, Valentino had no other choice but to apologize, and even though Alessio was equally upset, he had to pretend to forgive him in front of their mother.
"Now go back to your room."
Valeria was listening to the whole thing, because the door was not soundproof, and they were talking rather loudly, everything was clear. When she heard footsteps coming toward the door, she quickly hid behind the wall and the boys came out looking all sulky and gloomy.
During dinner that night, the boys were seated together on purpose, but deep down, they were still mad at each other. Valeria who was seated across of them felt bad because she knew she was the cause for their fight.
After dinner the children were allowed to play for a while before 11 P.M, while the mothers decided to clean up a bit, Dante, Luca, and Pietro were playing blackjack in the backyard patio. Not far from where they were, Valeria were sitting alone in a swing, she was staring at the ocean below the cliff, the waves were even louder in the night compared to the daytime. It was full moon, the cold night breeze gently swept over her hair and cheek. The air was salty, but her body had adapted to it. She was pushing and pulling the swing using her body, it went back and forth, just like that, until it was stopped by someone.
"May I accompany you?" It was Alessio. She flashed a smile at him and nodded,. He stood beside her and turned his attention to the view.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? Sicily is my mother's homeland, she only moved to Rome after she married my father. They held their wedding reception in the city, but we always go back here every year." She listened to his story.
"Look at the sky. There are so many stars tonight, don't they look like tiny diamonds?" Valeria lifted her face up. It was true, there were plenty of stars. Her lips formed a huge smile. It was a fascinating sight. There was a liberating sensation in her chest when she looked at the stars. It reminded her how small she was, to know that she was just a tiny part of the universe and how insignificant her problems were.
"It's beautiful." she breathed. When Valeria's attention was captured by the stars, Alessio's attention was captured by hers. Valeria was beautiful, at only fourteen, she had shown the signs of a lady, her skin was a soft warm marshmallow shade, her eyes were a milk chocolate shade. Her breast length wavy brunette hair fell perfectly on her face. She was not too tall nor too short, not too skinny, nor too curvy, she was just perfect in his eyes, and the best part about her was her charming smile. She had dimples on both side of her cheek, they are not too prominent, but they are still visible. She was both beautiful, charming, and cute at the same time.
"Here, I'll push the swing for you." He went behind her and started gently pushing her back, just enough force to move the swing.
Valeria started giggling every time his hand touched her back, it tickled her a little bit, but it was more of an expression of enjoyment of the moment.
What they did not realize was the fact that Valentino was standing in the background. He was hiding half of his body behind the wall. He had been watching the two since the beginning, and something flared inside of him.
Valentino had to admit he did not like Alessio being close to Valeria.
An unknown emotion to him began to possess him.
It was jealousy.