Chapter 2 Domenico de Cerintti

He picked up his now damaged phone from the kitchen floor. The screen was badly cracked and the phone was not switching on. He swallowed down his anger. At least, he thought, he gave Marino a pretty good beating as revenge. Revenge… the word sounded sweet, familiar and foreign to him.

Revenge…

He rose, eyeing the shattered plate and spilled food on the floor. He walked out of the kitchen. Marino would clean it up. 

•

A broken nose, a split on the lip and a swelling under the right eye were the injuries Marino suffered.

 Marino kept muttering incoherent complaint the whole minutes he spent cleaning up his minor injuries.

“Of all days for you to destroy my face, its today! Today!”

“What’s happening today?” he asked, crossing one leg over the other and swinging his damaged phone in his hands.

“A freaking party! Fernando D’oseliotti’s freaking partito! And you dare destroy my face!”

“Stop making a whole lot of noise. I could have done more, you deserve it. You smashed my phone.” He spoke in a calm yet irritated tone.

“You're the worst! You better tell me what’s wrong!”

Marino words caught him off guard. He hadn’t considered the fact that Marino could guess what was going on with him. How did he even know? Marino didn’t know anything.

“You are shouting too loud.” He snapped, looking at the switched off TV.

Few seconds of silence and he looked at Marino. He was leaned back against the sofa watching him, his expression now calm

“You are coming to the party, right?” Marino asked.

He shrugged.

“You are coming.” Marino pronounced

He scoffed, “Says who?”

“Says me. You need to let out some steam. Drinks, music, crowd, girls and you are as loose as an eagle.”

He thought about it. This was the new him and the new him loved parties plus he needed some loosening up. It could be just what he needed to begin the new week, come out, meet people, showcase himself and prove his worth… and mark his preys.

“I will come.”

A wide mischievous grin was Marino reply, “I’ll feed you to the dogs, brother.”

“I’m anticipating.” He got up and began making his way back to the room. He might well just complete a few things he had to do before he got wasted and lazied the whole Sunday.

“Make sure you clean up the kitchen.” He ordered before stepping inside their bedroom, narrowly missing the shoe thrown at him.

“Domenico!” His older sister’s surprised voice came over the line the second she picked the call. Andrea.

“Buon giorno, those are the words.” He chuckled, rolling unto his back on his bed. He could almost not feel the heaviness in his chest, the familiar voice of his sister, the longing to be home helped ease his fraying nerves.

“Domenico de’Cerintti! You called me!”

His chuckled turned into a laugh.

“Yes, I called you.” He replied between laughs. He stopped when she didn’t say anything else.

“Hello? “

“I miss you.” His sister voice came over the line again,” Its been long I heard you laugh that way.”

His lips drew into a thin line. He didn’t want to talk about it.

“I know you won’t tell me what happened to you but I want you to know that I’m here for you, I’m always here for you. Domen, trust me on that one.”

He kept mute. Not because he didn’t believe her but because believing just wasn’t enough for him.

He cleared his throat, “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.” She answered with a sigh, “Been very busy lately. Marco’s been working late recently so I have to take care of Mario and Gio all by myself throughout the day. You can imagine.”

He chuckled, he sure could.

“Maria’s been helping but she has a fiance now, she can’t be as dedicated as she was before.”

“Little pepper?” he asked, his smile becoming wider at the mention of his little sister’s nickname.

She gave a short pleased laugh,

“She’s been such a darling.” She coed, “She makes things a tad bit easy for me.”

“Of course that’s…” he paused, hearing a faint girly voice in the background.

“Is that little pepper? Give her the phone.”

“Baby! “he heard his sister call, her voice sounded very faint. She must have put the phone away.

“Its brother, brother Domen!”

He heard an excited squeal and soon the voice of his 6 year old yonger sister filled his ears.

“Brother Domen! You finally called! “She exclaimed in Italian in her tiny babyish voice

He feigned a frown even if she couldn’t see him.

“Finally? Don’t I call you? “

“The last time you called me was about a month ago and sister Andrea said you almost never call her, she said you are a bad bad brother.”

He forced down his laugh keeping his tone neutral,

“Little pepper, am I a bad brother?” he asked in a lowered voice feigning sadness.

“Yes! You are supposed to call me everyday!”

He laughed aloud this time around, his shoulders shaking with the sound. He crossed his legs.

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“Promise to call everyday? “

“I promise.”

“Good, now we’re on good terms.”

His smile didn’t drop.

“So tell me. What…”

“Bye brother, dodo, I’m off to play with baby Mario before he cries himself to sleep.” She said quickly.

He chuckled. She would trouble him about not calling and then not up to two minutes into the call, she would get off hurriedly. Her reason, big people talk are boring.

“She’s really your little pepper.” Andrea’s voice came back on the line.

“Yeah.”

“So when are you coming home?” she questioned, her tone no longer playful.

“Coming home?”He asked although he knew what she meant. He started counting the rows of panels up on the ceiling.

“Yes Domenico. When are you coming home? You’ve been away for over 6 months, only calling at intervals to assure us that you are still alive and we do not call a search party.”

“I’m at school.” He answered turning over on his stomach. He leaned his phone against the headboard and placed it on loud speaker.

“School? You’ve accepted your admission? You registered? When?”

“Three weeks ago. I’ve gotten an apartment, not far from the school. I’m settled in.”

“That’s great. I thought you were going to waste your life.”

They fell silent until she spoke again.

“Just be careful, Domenico and whatever it is you are struggling with, getting high on alcohol is not the answer.”

“I don’t…..”

“Don’t lie to me. I know, I know everything. I know you either bury yourself in your engineering books or bury yourself in a woman’s arms. I know and it has to change. You weren’t brought up to be promiscuous.”

“It’s my life.”

“And it’s mine. Your life is my life, I don’t live for myself, I live for you, my family, those I care about and so I don’t behave carelessly. You, your life, you live selfish. Very selfish.”

The heavy rock in his chest was beginning to appear again, making him anxious and uncomfortable.

“I can take care of myself.” He said again, his voice cold.

A pause.

“We love you.”

“Tell Mario and Gio and your husband I said hi.” He spoke and waited out of respect for her to cut the call before he switched off his phone. He felt like he was being suffocated and he got up, going over to his study table at the window. He sat on his chair and opened the big book on engineering he had been studying the night before. A few seconds and he was engrossed in the book.

Andrea was right after all. He either buried himself in his books or in the women. Although the last part, he cancelled a long time ago.