Luca: A look inside

Chapter Four: Alberto's POV

The next day I get up and walk down into the tower. I check out some stuff and then I remember. Today is going to be another day that we ride our vespa. But today I want it to be both of us. So I grab a pencil and paper, and immediately go down to where our vespa is. I get to work while I wait for Luca. I only wait for like, ten minutes when I see him. I quickly stuff the pencil and paper behind the rock I'm sitting on, and remind myself to grab it later.

"Hey Luca!" I say.

"Hi Alberto!" He says back.

We bring the Vespa out of the area where we built it and to the top of the hill. "Look, we gotta ride it together," I tell him. "If you don't sit on the back and hold on to the front, the whole thing falls apart." I jump onto the Vespa and look down at the ramp below.

"Oh, and who's holding the ramp?" Luca asks.

"The turtle. Come on. He's faster than he looks." I smile over at Luca.

"Oh okay. Here we go." I push the vespa forward, ready to go . . . but I see Luca is still standing there.

"You, uh, coming?"

He moves away from me and crosses his arms. "Nope, can't do it. Never in a million years." I turn my body towards him, and lean forward. It's time that I've passed on my wisdom to dear Luca here.

"Hey, hey, hey. I know your problem. You've got a Bruno in your head."

He looks back at me confusedly. "A Bruno?"

"Yeah. I get one too sometimes. 'Alberto, you can't, Alberto, you're gonna die, Aberto don't put that in your mouth," I quote some things I've heard over the years. "Luca, it's simple. Don't listen to stupid Bruno!"

Luca still looks super confused. "Why's his name bruno?"

I can't tell him, also that's not the point. So I say, "I don't care. It doesn't matter. Call him whatever you want! Shut him up! Say, silenzio, Bruno!"

Finally Luca stops questioning it and looks up at himself. "Silenzio, Bruno." He says slowly.

"Louder!" I say. "Silenzio, Bruno!" I hop off the vespa.

"Silenzio, Bruno."

"Silenzio, Bruno!"

"Silenzio, Bruno!"

"Can you still hear him!?" I ask, yelling.

"Nope! Just you!" I smile excitedly.

"Good! Now hang on!" I throw this metal bowl with holes in it on Luca's head, you know, for protection. I don't care about myself, but if something were to go wrong, at least Luca would be safe. Then I pull him onto the vespa seat while I stand up, and take one look in the mirror before pushing off the ground. "Andiamo!" I yell and we start down the hill. It's all going well, and I'm surprised that the vespa is still in one piece. But apparently it's not.

Because I feel Luca wrap his arms around my waist and pull his side of the vespa back to mine. "Yeah! Whoo!" I yell excitedly. We get to the ramp and I can hear Luca saying silenzio bruno behind me. We fly off the ramp in what feels like slow motion. We fly as high as the seagulls! But soon we're falling. Fast. Also towards a huge rock. But it's thanks to Luca we aren't dead. He kicks off of me at the last second and we land on opposite sides of the rock. That. Was. Awesome!

"Woo-hoo! Yeah!" I laugh once we're above the water.

"Yes! We're alive, I can't believe it!" Luca says.

"Take that Bruno!" I yell.

"Yes!" We climb out of the water, and then laugh and go back to get the vespa parts that sunk into the water. I grab the paper out from behind the rock and shove it into my pocket on the way back to the tower. Then we hang out all day. We spend every second building new things, looking through all of my stuff, and talking. I love every moment whenever Luca asks me a question about something. And sure, I don't technically know if everything I say is true, but it makes enough sense to me, and Luca seems impressed so it doesn't really matter.

We easily hang out until sunset, talking and listening to music. I expect Luca to leave, the fish have already gone to the sky so I'm not sure what he's waiting for. But of course I don't mind. We're laying on our back at the top of the tower not doing much.

When Luca asks, "What are all those tiny lights?"

"Anchovies," I say. "They go there to sleep." It's true. At least I think so. Like a lot of things, I don't really remember where I learned it, all I know is that it just makes sense.

"Really?" Luca asks.

"Yeah. And the big fish protects them." I point to the bigger circle shape that definitely looks like a huge fish. "I touched it once. I don't know, it felt like a fish." I say.

"Wow," Luca says. He's sitting up now. "Your life is so much cooler than mine," I look over and smile at Luca. He's so . . . I don't know. "I never go anywhere. I just dream about it."

He looks sad, so I say, "You came up here."

"Thanks to you." He turns and looks at me. Then he stands up. "Otherwise, I never would've seen any of this." He leans on the short wall of the tower. "Have you ever gone to the human town?" He asks.

I sit up. "Yeah!" Oops. Probably shouldn't have said that. "Uh . . . no. But, but my dad told me all about it." I walk over to him. "So I'm pretty much an expert." I lean on the wall too and look at Luca.

"Your dad sounds so cool. You're lucky he lets you do what you want." I look down.

"Yeah, for sure." I sigh in my head. Maybe I could just tell Luca? But what if he would leave and never come back? I can't have that happen. Again. I start to feel sad, then I remember that not everything's about me. Luca is sad. I should focus on that. I can tell because he's being quieter than usual. Also his eyes seem sort of wet.

I force a smile, just for him. "Hey, you remember that time we almost hit that rock? And we flew through the air, and I was like, 'yeah!' and you were like 'no!" Luca laughs and wipes his cheek. I laugh too. It's almost not completely forced. Almost.

"Wouldn't it be amazing to have a real vespa?" Luca asks me. I look out at the human town.

"Yeah. That's the dream," I say. I look at Luca, but he's in some sort of day dream. So I just lay back down and stair at the fish. Not long later, Luca comes back over. He lays down next to me and I glance over at him. He still seems sort of distracted, but he's obviously here enough to have walked back over. "Luca?" I ask. He doesn't answer. I sit up and look at him. But he's asleep. I smile and decide to try to sleep, myself. Eventually, I can't stay up any longer, and I am asleep.

ALRIGHTY- as usual, PLEASE comment mistakes in anything. ALSO I HAFTA PEE SO BADLY RN HAHAHA anyway. Sorry, bad chapter as usual. But I don't really care at this point I'm just bored and like to write. Well . . . idk what else to say. Ideas? Anyone? Anyway, I just like to try to make it seem like Alberto is sort of very you know, obliviously in love with Luca. Yes, I said obliviously. I mean obviously too, but yeah. I just mean like Alberto and Luca, especially alberto, don't really know about crushes and stuff. Alberto, because he never got to see his parents together, and Luca, because I could definitely see his mom like refusing to expose him to anything like that. Haha idk why. BUT AS I WAS SAYING, in the future I could definitely see them literally doing couple stuff but not realizing and just being like, "wow, Luca you are such a good friend." ALRIGHT I SWEAR I'M DONE NOW HAVE A NICE MORNING/afternoon/evening/night! Also if anyone needs to talk or anything, I'll be here! My tiktok username is/was (I don't remember) my bio thingy or whatever. Or maybe one of my previous comments IDK GO CHECK OR JUST COMMETN AND I CAN TELL YOU <3 THAT"S ALL