Million Pieces °Bastille Dan°

Little Old Italian Woman + FaceTime

I dive my head into Gi's chest, totally embarrassed by our mother, while he wraps his arms around me. We're both in hysterics. As if she seriously called Dan up on FaceTime.

"This is a nice surprise..." Dan's voice trails off. She even has the volume on full.

"Congra..." — her voice trails off as she looks over her shoulder at me for reassurance, so I nod my head — "congra...tu...lations Daniel! I very proud." Mamma puts her hand where her heart is while the other holds the phone upwards. She shakes a little bit so Gi let's go of me and holds the phone for her. He was always her favourite...until she realised that favouritism is bad.

But I think I might be her favourite now, giving her grandkids to spoil rotten. "Thank you Dafne, how are you?" Dan looks like he has legitimately woken up. He's probably on the tour bus and getting a early nights sleep, or trying to because of jet lag. Moscow is roughly two hours ahead of Italia.

"I very...great...now that I am a...uh...a nonna!" My mamma knows a small amount of English...I think she's been learning for Dan. Either that or she wants to know what me, Gi, and Armani are talking about. She's a gossip girl in our village, but not the kind that creates drama. She's the nosey neighbour, though no one minds that she knows their business.

"Nonna is grandma in Italian, right?" Dan asks as he looks in my direction, so me both me and Gi nod our heads.

"They're going to love you as much as we all do." Dan happily smiles while mamma nods her head.

"I go now. Tell Marzia you love her now." My eyes widen as I try not to laugh. I can't believe I sounded just like her once. How rude and demanding...but we're not trying to be rude. It's those shitty apps people use, they make us sound tedious.

"Oh er..." Dan's voice trails off while he blushes bright pink.

"You two are so gross." Gi awkwardly says as he squints...and he is fifty one. It's not like he hasn't't been this in love before...because he has.

"I know right." Dan laughs.

"Hurry. My dada is running out."

"Data, mom!" Giovanni says in his thick New York accent. It's where he has been living since he was sixteen, every couple of years we fly over to the big Apple and celebrate Christmas or whatever. He's an official American citizen and everything.

"Love you...Mia..." Dan awkwardly says while I throw my eyes back. This is totally embarrassing.

"Love you too." With that mammma proudly smiles.

"You need to eat more, Daniel. You're boney. Bad for hugging." Dan doesn't look offended as I would do. But he tries not to laugh.

"I'm really not that skinny, Dafne...." Dan is. I know he is. But he is a self conscious guy who is mentally fragile, he doesn't see himself a thin.

"Skinny." She says back while I nervously laugh shaking my head. Over her shoulder I whisper 'I'm sorry' to which Dan smiles for a second and shakes his head like it's no big deal. Just like everyone else in the world...Dan has his own problems and insecurities.

"Sorry about her Dan. You know must know what typical Italian mom's are like, she won't stop until you're able to finish an entire lasagna." It's always weird to hear Gi speak English, but Armani...not so much. I mean he was born in America and rarely comes over to Italy. Although he's fluent in Italian.

"Nah mate, it's all good. I'll call you up a bit later, yeah?" Dan says looking at me. Of course I nod my head.

"You end now?" Mamma says looking totally confused.

"Mom..." Gi's voice trails off. I guess we're both feeling awkward for Dan.

"What? How do you end!" With that Dan laughs.

"I'll end the call okay, send my love to everyone your end." Gi, who is actually the one holding her phone shakes his head.

"Sorry for being a pain in the ass, Dan."

Dan cracks one more smile before hanging up. "He is lucky to have an Italian girl. You need to feed him more." Mamma then says in Italian.

"Huh?" I say not really understanding what she just said. Sometimes my mind is like that, especially after talking English. Everything seems hazy and my thoughts even don't make sense for a couple of seconds.

"She said he's lucky to have an Italian girlfriend, but you need to feed Dan more." Gi's voice, in Italian, trails off. While I shake my head.

"Stop being so fucking Italian!" I laugh nudging mamma on the air while Gi then points at papà's black car which is waiting in the loading bay.

I don't think he should be parking there.

"Ay" She slaps me around the back of my head for swearing. Gi, of course, laughs at me for fucking up.

"Daniel wouldn't like it if you swore." I thought my mother stalks every single thing Dan does. Dan swears more than me, sometimes for no reason. It's like he has tourette's without the ticks.

"Yeah...no." Gi says as we both crack up laughing.

"He loves everything I do, so you are wrong." I know that I'm 'too old' to sass my mother, since I'm going to be a mother. But...I can't resist.

"Wow." She says literally pushing past me and walking to the car.

"You forgot you phone!" Gi shouts, but she continues walking. It's truly amazing how she can put up with all of our shit...and never says a bad thing about us. Me and Gi are the only kids who has stuck around for her, despite being a reason why our seven other siblings are more or less dead to us.

I guess once you move to a different place...shit gets dark at home. And you're not there to solve or help the situation. You become an outsider. And they don't forgive you for not being there when 'they need you most'.

Although I was hurt and saddened, Gi was the only person who stuck up for me. I always looked up to my big brother who was strong enough to move away, it inspired me to dream big and that impossible is nothing. I love my village...but I adore the world.

But now I'm back here because I'm pregnant. And Gi is back in Italy because Armani wants to study Latin...

The things we do for our kids.