Fourteen: Luca Capaldi

Fourteen

Luca Capaldi

Swim team wasn’t exactly known for it’s glory. Most of the time, girls preferred watching football players practice instead of us. The main reason I was allowed to be on it was that Giuseppe saw swimming as a skill. He saw football as a game. It was also one of the few reasons he would allow me to skip going with him to any “meetings” he had.

In the water, I wasn’t the heir to a dynasty built on bullets and bloodshed. In the water, I could forget about all of the responsibilities and strings that came with this privileged life. Practice for swim team was Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then the rest of the week the pool stayed open after hours for any students that wanted to use it to train harder. The pool was my safeplace. I could ignore my future there. Ignore the way my brother was an asshole to the girl who was probably the closest thing I had to a best friend.

Ignore the way that Daniela looked like she was breaking on the inside most of the time because