SHAMELESS, lewis hamilton¹

30

Summer break has lasted for the whole of four days so far.

She had spent the first day at her parents' house, then for the next three days they travelled to her grandparents and stayed there with them, her uncles, aunts and cousins. It was a full house, to say the least. But she enjoyed every second of it, even if her fifty-year-old uncle Dante had some interesting words to say. He's always tested her patience. No wonder he was still single.

The Bianchi family reunion was an annual thing. Old tradition. The tradition didn't start as a family reunion though, it was more of a basic needs type of thing. Nowadays it was mostly for making all types of food and hanging out. They could feed a whole village with the amount of it all. It was honestly ridiculous, but she enjoyed every part of it nonetheless.

The only annoying thing was the struggle of how she was supposed to carry all of the pasta, jars of her grandmother's tomato sauce and everything else.

She managed it though. She finally was able to sit down on her couch after the trip from Milan to Nice, then to Monaco, and she couldn't help but think that it was purely a miracle that she managed to bring all of it back home and store it on the shelves of her cupboard. Even though she did it every year. But it always surprised her, no matter what.

Mirabella used the pasta and the tomato sauce to make bolognese for dinner. It was basic, but it was still delicious. Especially when it was from the familiar recipe of her grandmother's cuisine.

By the time the clock was around midnight, Mirabella felt like she was about to pass out. But as she tried to fall asleep, she found out that she couldn't.

After what felt like the hundred time of twisting and turning in the comfort of her bed, she gave up.

It was too quiet.

It was fine when she was at her grandparents'. The whole of her mother's side of the family was there, and they all made some type of sound. Like her uncle Dante's insistent and deafening snoring, or her cousins giggling late at night. Then there were the sounds of the animals and the forest, as her grandparents lived on an old farm that was passed along the family.

There was always some sound there. But here, in Monaco? It was quiet. But it never bothered her before. She never noticed before, in fact, she preferred the silence.

So, she couldn't fathom why she couldn't sleep in the familiar silence. It was like she missed something, needed something, but she just couldn't figure out what.

As she sat on the couch on her balcony after giving up on sleep, watching the sunrise and listening to the birds sing instead, a sudden idea or realisation hit her. And it made her confused frown drop.

No, no, no, no, no.

She quite literally refused to accept that. No fucking way that could be true. No, thank you. That was just too cliche for her liking.

She'd rather just stay oblivious and act like the realisation never even entered her mind.

Lewis couldn't sleep.

It was too loud.

He could hear the sound of the living city like they were right next to him. The sounds of the people walking in the streets, the sounds of passing cars. It was too much. The bustling city was alive like it always was, but it was too loud.

He didn't understand it. It's never been a problem before. But it was now for some reason.

He tried to figure it out as he sat on his couch, watching the lights from the ships passing on the sea from the windows that covered the entirety of the walls. He watched the sunrise, light orange slowly creeping in as the sun rose higher and higher on the horizon.