Te Adoro - Book 2 ✔️

• 2 •

Little surprise update. Woop woop!
Artist credits in photo.
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The food was great. Giulia and Luca ate a decent amount, satisfied.

Turns out, there was a welcome party for the two graduates. Massimo and his parents set everything up, hanging multicolored lateens above their heads and have tables set out filled with food, and other tables we left empty so people can sit.

Light music played as a background to the chattering and laughing guests (nearly half the town was here!), some with wine glasses and others with plates of food. Some couples took to dancing, laughing away. It caused the teen to smile gently, seeing how happy they were. Giulia had mentioned he dance with one of the female guests their age, but he declined plainly. Giulia shrugged and didn't press further, grabbing a girl with dark curls to dance, who happily obliged.

Now left alone, Luca had decided to try and interact with the people he didn't know, yet they knew all about him. They embraced him and shook hands with him, congratulating him on graduating, and offered gifts. Few handed him gifts for Giulia as well, which he safely put to the side with his. They could open them together later. The more the people approached him, the more his smile faltered. As a result, he was left with sore cheeks and tired feet, sitting on the ground beside the gifts as he looked on.

From a distance he spotted Giulia and this mysterious girl, laughing and having fun, a soft, more genuine smile appearing on him. Unlike the others, this one didn't hurt him, as it was real.

He loved seeing his friend so lively and having fun. It was rare for her, as she focused more on her studies than the classmates interested in her. He was as well really.

Romantically broken, he decided. The women around him were pretty, yes, but he never felt the electricity with them as he's read in the romance novels he checked out from his school's library. The attraction seemed..friendly.

"Luca!" The voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see a grinning Giulia and the brunette she was with.

He managed a smile.

"This is Clementine. She's a lifeguard here" The redhead grinned, and Luca shifted his gaze to get a good look at her.

A caramel-skinned woman with a charming smile looked down at him, reaching a hand out, her deep brown curls bouncing as she moved, "Piacerre".

The next thing Luca noticed were her tattoos. Her arms and collarbone were decorated with what looked like  gentle red cherry blossoms he's seen from books, complimenting her skin beautifully. He decided to stand to properly greet her, catching a blue anchor tattoo that peeked at him from the skirt of her teal summer dress. The print on her thigh perfectly matched her eye color; it reminded him a lot of a clear sky on a hot summer day.

Well, wasn't she full of colors?

"Piacerre," Luca responded, smiling back at her.

"Woah, that's a cool-looking piercing." He blurted out, cursing himself for pointing only that. "A-and your tattoos. It's pretty"

Clementine's smile widened sheepishly.

"Right? It's called a septum. It's very cute" Giulia laughed, looking at the piercing, and then shifted her gaze to her ears. "I've been wanting to get one, but Mamà always said no. She let me pierce my ears though" She moved her hair to show off her blue gemstone earrings.

"Well, you are 18, and I know how you can do it so it doesn't hurt" Clementine grinned, then looked at Luca, "Maybe you can get one too"

At that, Luca shook his head with a nervous chuckle, "No way."