Games We Play - Round 1: Never Have I Ever (18+ dark mafia romance)

Chapter 3&4 (Valentina)

Valentina

Chapter 3

Capo d'Orlando, Sicily, Italy – August 8th, 2019

The sun is starting to burn me alive, and I've only been exposed to it for less than an hour. I stretch my arms out in front of me to inspect whether I've reached the amount of tan that I've been trying to achieve for the past six weeks since we came to Italy.

"Put your hat on." My mother motions from her lounge chair, too engrossed in her book to even look up at me. She just sees me moving and feels the need to say something.

I look down at the bucket hat in my lap. "It makes my head too warm."

This makes her put the book down and throw me an annoyed look. I envy her for how relaxed she looks in her bikini. She looks kind of poetic, sitting alone on our private beach sipping a Martini - only having to worry about how the book is going to end.

She tilts her head and looks at me over the sunglasses. "Then go hang out with your friends. Where are they? Where's your brother?"

I squint my eyes at her. "Nice, mom. Trying to get rid of me like I'm a toddler."

She softens and closes her book. "Honey, you've been complaining for the past five days about being bored. It has nothing to do with me trying to get rid of you. Just go to the beach with your brother next time or go and see what Raisa or Alex are up to."

I sigh. She's right. I haven't seen Raisa in a few days. All we do is sit by the pool on our phones without anything new to add to the conversation or go out clubbing.

First of all, doing some self-care from time to time (i.e., smoking a joint in secret when no one's home, making lists of what I want to do with my life and then forgetting about them, sitting in the sun or taking hour-long baths) is way more appealing to me at the moment.

Second, I just got my sleeping schedule back under control and managed to sleep eight hours a night for the past seven days. When summer ends, I'll have to return to university and force myself to pass my exams. If I just keep partying and going out I will get myself kicked out by not passing exams.

But in the end, what's worse? Being bored to death or listening to the longest speech about responsibilities from two parents who grew up poor and got rich by working hard?

"I'm just going to eat something," I say.

"Okay."

I start to gather my things; the book I brought along for the summer (which I haven't started reading yet), my towel, and the beach bag.

How can I entertain myself tonight?

I could try and find my brother Adrik, see what he's up to. I could open the notifications that have been rotting on my screen since I woke up this morning. I could try doing something with Raisa and her brother. I could also check if any of the Barone boys are around tonight.

I walk up the path leading from the beach up to our garden, pressing on a random notification.

It's a text from Raisa.

Our vacation home in Sicily is in Capo d'Orlando, and we've been coming here every single summer since 2008. My brother and I have never actually gone out and explored Sicily because we had everything we needed at our home. Our family friends (the Volkov's) have always come with us and stayed in a house just a few streets away.

At the beginning of this year, the father unexpectedly passed away in a car crash, so we started the summer with a funeral in Sicily. It was Aleksander Volkov's favourite place on earth, and I always saw him at his best when we were here. It was like he belonged here rather than Russia.