cara mia || tommyinnit

xxiv

"Un ragazzo!" Toni cried as she hugged Tommy, who still had the pair's suitcases in hand. He laughed awkwardly, looking to Chiara for help. She only shrugged. "Questo è il tuo amante?"

"God, no," She laughed as she took her shoes off and hugged her other mom. "Un amico, Madre."

Tommy stepped back and greeted Emira, unsure of what the girls were saying.

"We're not staying long," Chiara explained. "We're here to skate then dip."

"You guys flew all the way across the country... to skate?" Emira asked in disbelief. "I'd ask how rich are you to afford that, but I'm afraid of the answer." She waved them away, pointing to the backyard.

A security guard in the doorway held two pairs of skates by the laces, waiting for the two.

Chiara interlaced her fingers into Tommy's hand and dragged him out of the house and towards the backyard, with the security guard following shortly after.

It was surprisingly cold in the region of Georgia they were in for it being the beginning of summer. Tommy wore baggy jeans and a loose graphic tee, while Chiara wore simple leggings and an oversized hoodie. It didn't take long for them to put the gear on and jump on the ice.

It was inches thick, Tommy noted. He could dive into the ice as hard as he could and it wouldn't make a dent. As he stepped onto the ice, his feet wobbled like crazy before ultimately falling onto his ass.

"Fucking 'ell," he muttered as he rubbed his back. Chiara offered her hand up, and he gladly took it, embarrassed. He watched as she held onto his arm as she maneuvered his body in the proper position.

"You have to bend down a little bit," she instructed.

"That's what your mother said." The boy was then received with a slap on the back of his neck.

"It'll do you no good to stay stiff, Simons." He did as told and moved one foot before the other as slowly as he could. In his peripheral vision, he could see Chiara gliding next to him as if she were walking normally. The ice didn't faze her.

"Who taught you how to skate?" he asked, trying to ignore her hands on his arms.

"I took classes as a kid before I started singing," she explained as they skated around in circles. "I used to think I'd go professionally with my friends before I got signed."

"Marcela and Teddy, right?"

Chiara furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"You, uh, posted them on your story once and, so, I stalked," he confessed.

"Interesting," she stated. "Why're you here, Tommy?"

A silence went by. "What?"

"In America. You hate Americans."

"Not you."

"Still," she edged on. "There's no way you flew across the world just to skate with me."

Tommy looked down at the girl on his left and smiled. Her hair was loose and curly and her eyes turned down in a curious expression. His eyes darted from her mouth to her eyes over and over again.

"Ara, you're my best friend," he softly replied. "And as ChiChi, I'd like to think that we are friends too."

"Yeah, friends," she reiterated, staring at the trees around them. "I never asked you what your reaction to my face reveal was, by the way. Apart from the fact you bought a whole ass ticket to the States on a whim."

Tommy laughed as he thought about it. In doing so, he tripped over a dent in the ice and stumbled a bit as Chiara held him. "Well, I called you a bunch of times, but you never responded. When I realized you were never going to, I sat on my bed and reread our conversations over and over again, comparing Ara and ChiChi. It became fairly obvious that you guys chat completely the same, and I thought I was the biggest idiot in the world for not knowing."