Elisa

2

"You working tonight Ellie?" Romeo asks as I get out of the car. A car whizzes past us nearly knocking Gio on the ground. He curses them off with a wave of his fist. The school parking lot is especially busy this morning.

"Yeah, 4-10. You?" I ask him.

"Same shift. Your dad has been killing me lately."

Remi scoffs. "Try being his son. He forces me to go into work whenever he needs more people. Little Miss Elisa over here gets free passes all the time." 

I roll my eyes. "That's because I work double the hours you do."

"Nah," Remi looks at Romeo. "It's 'cause she's 'daddy's little girl.'" 

"Well maybe Dad would like you a lot more if you didn't steal from his alcohol cabinet." I shoot back, and Remi shuts his mouth.

"Shit," Romeo mutters. 

My dad nearly burned the house down last week when he noticed a bottle of whiskey missing from his cabinet. Remi has been known to steal from him, and now Dad keeps very close tabs on his alcohol collection. Last week was the last straw. He ripped apart Remi's room, until he found the bottle hidden under clothes in one of Remi's drawers. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of crying (just my mother's tears), and it ended with Remi slamming the front door and driving off somewhere. He didn't come back until midnight, to a bedroom with no bed. 

My dad moved it to our backyard, telling Remi: "you wanna act like a dog? you'll sleep outside like a dog." 

I've seen my dad really mad, but I don't think I've ever seen him like that. Remi's been suspended from school twice in the last two years, and has been arrested once for trespassing on private property and proceeded to mouth off to the Philly cops. Last month, he got into a full-on fist fight with our older brother Dominick because Dom caught Remi stealing money from his wallet. 

My dad might be a little fed up to say the least. Remi should be nicer to me considering all of the juicy illegal shit I know he does. I could tell Dad at any second and everything he loves would go POOF. I'm not that mean, though. I hate when my dad yells at him.

"So, what's the update on Friday night?" My best friend Frankie leans against my locker. Frankie and I are in a band called The City. She's the lead singer, I play electric, Ollie is bass, and Ruby is on the drums. We've finally been getting gigs at places, which is really cool. I never really cared about making money from it or anything, though. I just like to play my guitars. 

"Can't."

She groans. "Dude, we have to play at this place! Convince your dad to let you take off." 

"I have to work. Friday night is the busiest nice at Rosa's, and he won't let me bail on the rest of the staff." I tell her. Truth is, my dad is actually really cool about me being in the band and all. The problem is my mother. Gina Paccaroni, "will not have one of her Italian, Catholic children be in a band with a bunch of delinquents." Her words, not mine.

My family is exhausting.

"Fuck, Ruby and Ollie are gonna be so pissed El." Frankie grabs at the roots of her dark long hair. 

"Well they can talk to my parents if they have an issue with it. I don't talk back to them, you know what happens." 

"Francias Carlisle. Take the nose piercing out, immediately." Sister Roberta startles the both of us. 

"Yes, ma'am. I will go to the bathroom to do so." Frankie straightens her back dramatically. 

Sister Roberta glares at us as Frankie and we giggle and run to the bathroom. The bell rings, but Frankie never took her piercing out. 

----------------

"How can someone be so God damn attractive?" Ruby sighs loudly. 

"Agreed." Frankie stares dreamily at the soccer field. 

"Please, stop staring at him." I roll my eyes as I continue sketching. When the weather is nice, my group of friends and I spend our lunch period on the bleachers, away from the annoying cafeteria. Our lunch happens to fall at the same time as Romeo's gym class. Hence the reason why my friends are staring at him. 

"El. How can you not be in love with him?" Ruby gushes. I look up from my sketchbook, glancing at Romeo. He's carrying the ball down the field and dodging every guy on the opposing team. It's just gym class, does he need to try so hard? 

"Well, for starters, he is like family to me." I use my finger to blend some of my pencil lines. I then take a bite of my bologna sandwich. "Besides that point, he is the biggest dickhead at Archbishop Joseph." 

"Are we discussing Romeo, again?"  My cousin Fi takes a seat next to me. Her name is Fiorenzia, but I think that everyone can agree it's way too extravagant of a name to constantly repeat. It's not surprising that my Aunt Dulce named her daughter that. It's not surprising that any time someone call's Fi, "Fi," Aunt Dulce get's in their face about how it's "Fiorenzia." Just like she call's my other cousin, Fi's sister, Martina, when everyone else in existence calls her Marti. God forbid anyone pronounces my aunt's name Dul-sey, and not Dul-chey. Italian woman just hate using nicknames.

Uncle Leo (Marti and Fi's dad) owns the restaurant with my dad. My grandmother died of breast cancer when I was three years old, so my dad and uncle built the restaurant as a tribute to her. That's why it's called Rosa's. I wish I was old enough to truly know her. From the way my dad talks about her, she sounds like a saint. I see her in my dreams a lot, even though I don't remember her besides small flashes of her face. 

"Yes. Ruby and Frankie can't shut up about him." I hough. 

"C'mon. He's a dickhead." Fi laughs. 

"Okay but deep down he has to be a nice guy." Ruby stares at him dreamily. "I just can't believe you have the opportunity to fuck him and you haven't." 

I choke on my sandwich and Fi spits her water out.

"You're sick." I chuck a potato chip at her head. "If you want him so bad, why don't you go talk to him?" 

Ruby shakes her head, bouncing her black curls. "That's all you, El. You two would be absolutely perfect together." She's half-black half-white. She's got the prettiest shade of brown skin, and adorable freckles on her face. Not to mention her eyes are bright green, clashing with the rest of her dark appearance. 

"El is this artsy rocker chic," Fi explains, "and Romeo is popular jock soccer player. Complete opposites my dude. It would never work. Plus, our family would be in their business all the time." 

I throw my hands in the air. "Thank you!" 

"So what about the family part?" Ruby asks.

Fi and I look at each other and dramatically groan. "Our family is the nosiest family you will every meet." I tell them, for the one hundredth time.

Fi nods. "They know everything about every single Italian family in the northeast. El and I both agreed we will not be breeding with another Italian. Italian's are off limits." 

"But they are so sexy," Frankie smiles and Ruby nods in agreement. 

"You can't fall for it. Their mother's are crazy." Fi says, definitely talking about Aunt Dulce. I think about my own mother and how she threw out all of my dark nail polish colors last year. I now have a secret compartment to hide my new collection. 

I continue my sketch. "You don't fuck with Italian's. You just don't."