AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were pretty great too, Annabella,” Leo tells her, and I smile at him for being nice to her when I know he’s not her biggest fan. He says she’s a bad influence on me, and sometimes I’d have to agree. But she’s essentially the sister I’ve never had, so I don’t care.
“There you are!”Mammasays, both her hands busy with bouquets of white peonies. My favorite. “My girls!”
“Mamma!” I exclaim when she gives me my bouquet, both my hands now full. “Thank you.”
“You were absolutely breathtaking, Camilla.” She whispers, kissing my cheek. “I am so proud of you,bambina mia.”
“Thank you,mamma.” I look at her dark hair, loose down her back, and her green eyes full of tears, and something inside of me breaks, too. My eyes well up with my own tears, and unexpectedly, they begin to stream down my face.
I look past my mother to see him, my dad, standing to the side with his eyes fixed on his phone. He must feel my stare on him because he looks up. Instead of acknowledging me he looks at me and rolls his eyes, then goes back to his phone. Something inside of me withers and dies—hope, I think.
Mammamoves past me to hug Annie, whose parents aren’t here tonight because they don’t like ballet, leaving me to stand alone. Before I can think of going back to Leo, my little—favorite—brother, runs up to me and throws his arms around me.
“You were so good, sissy!” Andrea wraps me into his tight hug.
My heart bursts and I grin, “Thank you, Dre.”
“Who wants to get ice cream?” My mom asks, “We can go to Mandy’s!” My favorite ice cream shop.
I smile, “I’d love some ice cream.” I murmur to her, holding my arms up with the flowers to tell her I don’t know what to do with them. “Let’s go.”
“Hold on.” My mom replies with a smile, “Marcello will grab the flowers and take them to the car. We can walk to Mandy’s from here.”
“Yay!” Annie does a little jump up and down. “What are you going to get from there, Cam? Maybe we can share?” Sharing has been our go-to always. Annie and I—and probably everyone else in this recital—are scared to gain too much weight and not be able to get roles.
“Yeah,” I nod rapidly, “We can share.”
Leo comes to my side as Marcello grabs the bouquets from me and wraps a possessive arm around my waist. “You need to go change.”
“Change? Why?”
“I don’t want anyone else to be looking at you, Camilla.” He rolls his eyes, and I tense, “You’re basically half-naked.”
My dad grunts from behind Leo, and I tense. Looking down at my body, I do a small perusal. I’m wearing a leotard and tights, yes, but the tutu covers most of everything he doesn’t want me to show.
My mom huffs, “She’s fine, Leonardo. Everything is covered.” He tries to argue, but she holds her hand up, “We’re leaving.”
After changing our shoes, Annie and I link arms and stride after my mother, and when she gets to my father he shakes his head, disappointing me. He never spends time with me; I think it’s because I’m not one of his precious sons. They’re all he cares about.
“I’ll wait in the car,bella.”
My mom nods slowly and pats his arm, a condescending gesture my father ignores, but I notice. She does it to me when I’m being a brat or when she plain disagrees with whatever I say or want.
“Sure.” Is all she says as we walk away from him and out of the Performing Arts Center.
Annie’s arm is linked with mine on the right side, and Leo is holding my hand on the left. It’s perfect, really, and this is what makes me happiest. Spending time with my favorite people. Well, they are all my favorite people, if I’m being honest, but when it comes to most favorites—number one and two—Leo comes out at the top and Annie in second place. Not that I’d ever admit to her that a boy is taking her spot.
Andrea and my mother walk ahead of us, leading the way. They’re lost in conversation, and I bask in the moment quietly, admiring the scenery around us. Downtown Chicago is beautiful at night, with all its lights and tall buildings.
Finally, after five minutes, we walk up to Mandy’s and get in line to grab our ice creams. Annie and I opt for coconut and Leo orders chocolate. Chocolate is my favorite, but unfortunately, Annie is allergic. So we compromised. And Leo doesn’t like to share anything—not even with me.
Once mom is done paying, we go outside and find a table. It only has four chairs, but we grab one more from an empty table. I sit next to Annie and Leo, and Andrea andMammasit across from us.
WhileMammaand Andrea talk about the latest video game he wants for Christmas, I focus on eating my ice cream. The coconut ice cream also has shredded coconut chunks as well, and I close my eyes and savor it. When I open them, Annie is staring at me with a smile on her face. She then tilts her head and nods it toward another table.
My eyes follow a path to it, and a guy around our age sits there with his friends, speaking another language. It sounds rough, raw. But I’m mostly paying attention to the way he looks. Dark hair, slightly longer on top and faded on the sides. It falls over his forehead in an endearing way that makes me want to sweep it out of the way. I look at his full lips as they move in a hypnotizing way, trapping me under a spell.
Annie squeezes my arm in what I think is a warning, yet I couldn’t look away if I wanted to. There’s something about him that’s pulling me in, and when he looks up, our eyes meet. If I thought I got butterflies from Leo, I was very, very wrong.
