Luce di Stella • Kenan Yildiz

Chapter 33: Best Friend & More

Author's Note: I just want to clarify that in this story, Dean never left Juve for Bournemouth.

🎶 Put A Little Love On Me — Niall Horan 🎶

"You invited who?" I shouted at my cousin Umbi through the phone as I was hurrying downstairs to Dean who was coming to pick me up to drive down to Umbi's parents' villa in Santa Margherita.
"Kenan and his fiancée, you know that we were friends back then" he replied with a slight amusement in his voice. Umberto was crazy. Each generation of Agnelli's had its black sheep - and in ours it was Umbi, as we lovingly all called him. But he was crazy, loved partying and... what came with it. He was a fun soul though and we all loved him to bits.

"Yeah... But a memo before would have been nice. He called me a whore last week" I scoffed into the phone. I threw my duffle bag into the trunk of Dean's 1968 Alfa Romeo Spider as I had gotten downstairs, my phone still glued to my ear. When I sat down on the passenger seat, I quickly leaned in to peck his lips.
"Umbi" I mouthed to him as he nodded at my phone before starting to drive.
"Oh, that makes it just so much more interesting, you know - I live for the drama" my cousin squealed excitedly into the phone.

"Well, it's neither me, nor Dean who's bringing it. If he's that immature to not being able to get over the fact that I got with someone else, it's his fault. Or Dilara's for thinking someone like this is ready for marriage" I huffed.
"Like I said, it's going to bring drama" he chuckled and I rolled my eyes.
"We're just leaving the city now, we'll be there in two hours I guess" I said before hanging up and pulling up my Spotify road trip playlist.

"Did you know Kenan was coming?" I asked Dean, who gripped the gear shift a bit tighter.
"He told Ferran this morning in the changing room, making sure that I was going to hear it" he said through gritted teeth.
"Please don't do anything stupid" I said, seeing that he was seemingly upset, especially after both our encounters with him a few days ago.
"He called my girlfriend a whore! I should duel him for your honour!" he argued and I laughed.
"Now, now, someone's been watching too much Bridgerton" I joked and he laughed too. It was easy being best friends first, before becoming lovers.

One year today. One year since he walked out that door and never came back. One year in which I lived like a ghost - I did my few obligatory family appearances, but other than that, I only stayed in. No birthdays, no win celebrations with the team, no coffees at the bar. Dean was really the only person I agreed to see, but exclusively at home. He was here again today, knowing exactly what day it was and what it meant to me. He was the person that had brought my smile back throughout the year, he was the person I laughed with again, for the first time after he had left (and it took me five whole months).

"Come on, it's time" Dean chuckled and pulled up my arms from the sofa.
"Time for what?" I pouted, but I knew what he meant.
"Time to bring the light that you are back to the streets city" he said dramatically, making me laugh. He made me go to the cinema and we watched a squeaky rom-com, our favourite movie genre.

"He was so corny with the Titanic move on her" I laughed as we stumbled out of the cinema, cracking up about how cringe the movie had been.
"Look, a photo booth!" Dean exclaimed and I looked at where he pointed across the street. We looked at each other with a twinkle in our eyes and ran over there, him getting behind the curtain first.

"Ouf... It's tight in here" I huffed as I almost stumbled over his giraffe legs.
"Sit here" he said and pulled me down on his lap. This wasn't strange, I had sat on his lap a lot of times, but his touch on my hips felt different today.
"You have 5€?" he asked and nodded at the machine in front of us, which snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Huh... yeah!" I quickly replied and pulled out the grey banknote from my wallet before feeding the booth with it.

"Ok, 3,2,1... tongues out!" Dean exclaimed and we both stuck them out, making funny faces.
"Now we strike a model pose" I chuckled as the second picture was coming up and I put my hands behind my head, giving the camera a sultry look.
"Sexy" Dean teased me and I turned to him, only realising now how close we were. Our eyes met and... I don't know, something was different since we stepped into this photo booth. I could feel his fresh mint breath on my face and my heart started beating faster.

"Have you... ever wanted to kiss me?" I whispered and his breathing accelerated as I heard the camera click behind us. He nodded slowly and my heart stopped for a second. Dean, my best friend, the shy 10-year-old lanky boy I met all those years ago, wanted to kiss me! Our faces were only millimetres apart and it was him who closed the gap to my lips, giving me a sweet kiss first, as we heard the camera click again. But it quickly got more heated as I moved to straddle his lap and my hands went into his hair while his roamed around my back before slipping under my shirt and feeling the naked skin of my lower back.

"Hey! This is not a sex booth!" we heard a guy shout who was peeking behind the curtain. Dean and I quickly pulled away and giggled, stumbling out and murmuring sorrys to the couple waiting outside.
"Here" Dean said and gave me one of the two picture strips with the four photos.
"What a memory" I whispered as I looked at the last two pictures of us.

"Thank Heavens you're a quick driver, Francesco is so fucking sloooow" I groaned as we pulled up to the villa.
"But he survived so many make-out session of ours" Dean chuckled, making me laugh too.
"Yeah, he's a Saint" I replied, still laughing.
"THERE THEY ARE! THE COUPLE OF THE MOMENT, THIS WEEKEND'S LUCKY OCCUPANTS OF THE MASTER BEDROOM - THE ROOM WHERE LEGENDARY ME WAS CONCEIVED" Umbi shouted over the whole alleyway as we stopped the engine in front of the stairs leading up to the house's entrance. What made it even worse was that he was apparently currently talking to Kenan and his fiancée and those two now looked at us disturbedly.

Dean laughed while I got out of the car annoyedly.
"You're an idiot" I huffed at my cousin as I pushed inside, not even saying hi to the people he was chatting with.
"Hey bro" Dean said behind me and shook hands with Umbi. I turned around to smile at him talking to my cousin. He looked at Kenan and Dilara now, his happy face having turned into an annoyed one. He didn't say anything and just proceeded ahead to me, putting an arm around my shoulder as we walked upstairs to our bedroom.