Separated by the Sea

Welcome to Italy

Dez POV
The last few days had gone by in a blur. Piero sent me an email with all the details; what day the flight was, how long it would be, and that he would pick up my mom and me at the airport when we got there. After around two days of headaches, nausea, and a lot of sleeping, we finally got to Italy. It took a while to remember how to walk properly, but I quickly forgot about how uncomfortable the never ending plane trip was when I saw Piero at the airport. I wheeled along two giant suitcases and went over to greet Piero, who was waiting near the entrance. He smiled when he saw me and I tried to compose my excitement. I shrieked and gave him a quick hug, dropping my bags in the process. I groaned and bent down to pick them up, but he beat me to it. "I'll take them for you." I thanked him and began to follow him out to his car. I had totally forgotten about my mother and didn't remember she was there until she called after me, "Dez! Get back here and help me!" She had even more bags than I did, so I went over to her and took a few from her. We loaded the bags into the trunk of his car and began the drive to his house. In the city, houses looked old and they were all crammed together; it was the total opposite of California, where everything was spread out and fields went out for miles in every direction. The narrow roads made me feel claustrophobic and I felt as if the buildings were closing in on me. I was sitting in the back seat, so neither of them saw me getting as far away from the windows as possible. My mom seemed to be enjoying herself and couldn't stop talking.

"Wow, look at that building! The design is so nice!" I was annoyed by her babbling, so to distract myself, I finally got the guts to look out the windows. We were leaving town and there were less buildings. A few miles away from town, we were approaching a lush forest. It was so beautiful with tall trees, wildflowers, and I could have sworn that I saw a deer. BAMBI!!!! We were driving down a paved road at first, but Piero turned down a dirt road. I was starting to get scared because here we were, driving down a creepy dirt road full of potholes. I couldn't help but think about all those scary movies I watched and traumatized myself with. It always starts with a dirt road leading into a forest. Oh, geez, it was getting dark. I whimpered quietly and moved away from the windows once again, in case a bat or something decided to break through them and try to drink my blood and give me rabies. I was panicking really bad, but calmed down when a clearing came into view. In the middle of the clearing was a giant two story house. It was HUGE! It spread out for at least half a mile. We stopped in the front of the mansion and got out. There were grand marble steps leading up to the large double doors. Atop the doors, there was a golden knocker shaped like the face of a wolf. I got out of the car and went toward the trunk to get my bags. It was a pain getting them up the steps, but the work was worthwhile. Piero was about to open the door with a key, but I stopped him. "No, I want to use the knocker. It looks epic!" He chuckled, shook his head, and stepped back. I stepped forward and banged the knocker against the door. A few moments later, Piero's sister, Mariagrazia, opened the door and smiled when she saw me. She pulled me inside and gave me a bone-crushing hug. 

"I'm so happy to finally meet you," she screamed in excitement. I gave her a small smile just to be polite, but I was not sure how she knew me. She turned toward my mom and asked, "You must be her beautiful mother!" My mom gave her the fakest smile in the history of the world, but I seemed to be the only one to notice. 

"Nowhere near as darling as you!" she replied. I couldn't believe how absurd my mother was being, not about Maria, she really was great, but how my mom was acting. It was ridiculous.

"Come, meet everyone else. They are so excited to meet you!" Maria exclaimed.

We set the luggage down near the door and followed Maria down a hall. We passed three doors that were well spread out and stopped at the fourth door, which was open. We stepped in and I was instantly amazed. It was a giant open room with a huge TV, four sets of large sofas, a bar, and so much more. This room was big enough to be an apartment! When we walked in everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward us. Even the guys playing a serious war game on Xbox, paused their game to see us, or more precisely, me. There was an awkward silence until Piero cleared his throat and said, "Hey everybody, this is Destiny and her mom Jane. They are going to spend some time here with us and I would like them to get to know all of you." He seemed to be telling them something with his eyes and surprisingly, they understood. A pretty girl with blonde hair and the most amazing blue eyes and a guy with black hair and brown eyes, stood and came over to us while everyone else resumed what they were doing earlier. Piero introduced them and pointed to the guy, "This is Jay," he then gestured toward the girl and continued, "and his m-, er, girlfriend, Clover".