Chiara Rose

quarantacinque

tw - mention of eating disorders

Rocco's POV

I stood out on the back porch, staring at the backyard that was filled with memories of my father. The swimming pool where he'd taught me how to swim, the tennis court he had installed when Gi and I went through a tennis phase when I was 12. The massive lawn area, were he introduced me to the sport I grew to love, football. Where he'd taught me how to throw a football, and the way around the game, even though he wasn't overly familiar with it.

The barbecue where Dad had taught me to cook a proper barbecue. I seemed to be the only son of his that could manage it, Tino and Gi tried their best but it just didn't work out too well. The outdoor dining table where we'd had so many family dinners, so many family dinners without Chiara whilst she was living on the other side of the world in a shit hole.

A mixture of emotions flooded over me at the thought of Chiara. I've never been good with emotions, and I think that was obvious with how I treated Chiara at the start. Another wave of emotions flooded over me at the thought of how I treated her and I knew what this emotion was. It was guilt. With Chiara's recent bulimia diagnosis, I can help but feel a little guilty for it. Maybe if I hadn't been such a pain in the ass when she came home this wouldn't have ever happened.

She was only diagnosed yesterday, and I swear I'll never forget the day.

Flashback starting

"Come on, just tell us what you were talking about in there."  Carlo whined to Camila.

"I already told you, girl stuff. Now leave me alone."  Camila said sharply, and it was enough to shut everyone up. She'd been on edge ever since she got to the school during the shooting, I wouldn't be surprised if something happened between her and Agostino.

I also knew she was indeed telling the truth. Val and Chiara were indeed talking about girl stuff, I was lucky enough to hear the start of the conversation. Now don't get me wrong - I usually love listening to girls talking about their tits - but not Chiara's, hence why I shot out of the room. I'd prefer it if I never had to think about that again.

It was insanely boring out in the waiting room, the Marino's had gone home once Tino convinced Uncle G that we'd be fine alone. Tino did have to promise to call him every half an hour, but Tino got what he wanted as usual.

Tino was the closest thing we had to an adult here, since he told Nonno, Nonna and our Zia's and Zio's not to come out. Not sure why he did that, but he's in a shitty mood so I wasn't going to question him.

"Can we get McDonalds for dinner?"  Carlo asked, and both Tino and Gi gave him a sceptical look. Now probably wasn't the time to bring up dinner.

"I mean Chiara mentioned before that she felt like fries, so like I don't know." Carlo added nervously, obviously lying and Enzo let out a very loud snort. He just wanted McDonalds and knew they struggled to say no to Chiara.

"I was going to say yes anyways before you brought Chiara into it, so stop using your sister for stuff." Agostino said, and Carlo was about to respond but Val walked out of the room, carefully closing the door behind her. The look on her face gave me no confidence, it just made me feel worse.

"What is it?" Enzo asked carefully, and Val honestly looked like she could start crying right now.

"We had a chat." Val said, hesitantly taking a seat across from the six of us. She was one of the limited people in the world who wouldn't be scared of the sight of us.

"Please spit it out Val." Gi croaked, he didn't even know what was going on and he looked like he was about to cry. To be honest, thats how we all felt, Gi was just better at showing it.