Catch Me

Chapter 9 (Part 1)

Annabelle was surprised to see Stefan so upset; it was so out of his character to act like that towards strangers. But then again, Annabelle thought, Roberto might not be a stranger as Stefan just mentioned that they used to be best friends. And apparently, he dated Angelica a while back. And it seems that they are a couple again. 

"Stefan, there is no need to be rude, Roberto is-," Angelica interjected before her brother could insult Roberto some more but was interrupted by Roberto himself.

"Angelica, please let me explain, ok? It will be better if your brother hears it from me" Roberto asked her, looking at her, smiling softly. Stefan snorted. Angelica looked like she wanted to say something, but then nodded, and stepped closer to his side. Roberto looked up at Stefan who wore an emotionless expression but his eyes, so much like his sister´s, Roberto noticed, were flashing with anger. 

"Stefan, I understand you are upset, and you have a right to be for the way I treated your sister in the past," Roberto said. Angelica started talking but he shushed her gently with a finger on her lips. He turned back to Stefan and said: "But I´ve changed. I´ve learned from my mistakes and I will never make them again."

The whole while, the two men didn´t break eye contact. The room was eerily silent, nobody dared to breath too loud. 

The silence seemed to stretch on too long when Stefan slowly stepped towards Roberto. As they stood so close together, you could see they were almost exactly the same height, Stefan was just slightly taller. He kept looking at him, and then all hell broke loose. All of the sudden he punched Roberto in the face; Angelica, Annabelle and Nonna Salvani screamed, and while Guiseppe was trying to get between the boys, the girls were trying to drag Stefan away from Roberto who was trembling with anger.

"Like hell you changed!," he roared. "You will hurt my sister again like you did the last time. You were not there when you left her behind. You didn´t see her cry, you didn´t have to hold her, saying things to soothe her and mild the pain even though you knew that wouldn´t help. She didn´t ignore you, she didn´t fight with you. My family had to deal with all this. I had to deal with it. Not you. You didn´t have to-"

"It´s enough, Stefan."

It was the person who he last expected it to come from.