𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

#22 Damiano David

Warnings: None

Your hands grip the blanket tighter. gaze is fixed on Damiano's back as he messing with the door

"maybe they changed the lock?"

"nope, who cares? just ... just give me a minute. or do you wanna try it yourself?" a snide grin forms on his soft lips when the singer turns around to look at you. you shake your head and the corners of lips rise. you always smile if he smiles.

You have been doing this since childhood. There is a building not far from the school you studied in, and if you try, you can sneak to the roof. This is exactly what Damiano is doing now - torturing the old lock, trying to open it. It seems comical to you, like an adult guy, a world rockstar and an idol of millions, quietly muttering curses under his breath, trying to unlock a rusty door in an old five-story building. This is the roof he showed you the very first day you met.

Some school idiots bullied you and this dark-haired boy was the only one who stood up for you. You were all in tears and he promised that he would show you something beautiful. and so it was. from this roof you could see the football stadium and the school itself, you could see your house, and his too, from here you could see almost all of your district and it was as beautiful view as he promised. Damiano ran away from the whole world to be here by himself. and he shared this place with you. since then it has become your little utopia in the open air.

a disgusting creak pierced the room and the heavy door opened to the sound of the musician's glee.

"signorina, you're welcome" he stretches out hand in front of him, inviting you to go first while he is still trying to suppress the grin "in vain you didn't believe in me"

"nonsense and provocation! I always believed in you, so don't slander me" you glare at him and go outside. the warm evening breeze meets your face and tangles in your hair. you missed this feeling of a certain...freedom. here you could take off all the masks and just be yourself. talk about anything without fear of being overheard or misunderstood. no wonder this was your place, your little bubble of paradise. You lay an old plaid blanket, as always, near the very edge.

you have been doing this since childhood - you came here in order to be alone without any other people besides the two of you. at first just to do homework and chat. you took the biggest books out of your backpacks - the English ones - and used to sit on them and not on the cold concrete. Mom scolded you for the terrible state of this book, so after a while you began to carry a small plaid blanket.

Damiano always had problems at school and you couldn't stand aside, that's why you helped him with math here. later you ran away from school to skip lessons and mathematics was replaced by algebra and geometry. after a couple of years you were hiding here to smoke. Even now, every time you initiate a smoke break, Damiano parody you, remembering your first acquaintance with nicotine. "Ew! what is the point of poisoning yourself with this shit? it's not even tasty ..." he repeats your words, making a grimace and talking in high voice. His algebra and geometry notebooks were replaced by a battered notepad containing a lot of tilted handwriting. he wrote his first lyrics sitting on this cold roof. the world hear a very little of this writing, but you knew every single word by heart.

You remember how you burned exercise books here when you graduated from school. you were sure that this building would burn to hell and you would be jailed for it. Damiano, on the contrary, was sure that if you wouldn't burn everything at once, but little by little, everything would be all right, and no one would notice. he was right.

You both have changed since then. Damiano become much calmer and ... homelike or something. In the past, he still preferred small groups to large gatherings of people. But now he would choose to spend the day at home with the cats and a cup of chamomile tea instead of a party, even with close friends. His inner child broke out sometimes, but he learned to pacify him, enjoying the peace and quiet in between world fame. On the contrary, you become much more open and energetic compared to your school years. If you burned exercise books today, the singer would mutter that you will be imprisoned, and you would beg him to relax. A lot has changed since he first showed you the view you're enjoying now, sitting so close to him on a warm blanket. sometimes you told each other about people who come and go from your lives. but still there are things that have remained unchanged. you two have remained, something constant in each other's lives. and you were so afraid to spoil it so some things had to be silent so them became unsaid.