Chapter 8: We. Don't. Speak. Italiano. 

“Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey!” Tanner exclaims the next morning, coming into my room.

“Shh!” I cry, pulling the pillow over my head. “Too. Loud.”

“Sorry,” He responds, lowering his voice. I feel my bed seep in slightly as he sits next to me.

“Can I have some Advil or Tylenol or something, please?” I plead, my voice muffled by the pillow.

“Being the amazing friend that I am, I already have it for you,” He tells me.

“You’re wonderful,” I retort, removing the pillow from over my head and sitting up.

“Yeah, I know,” Tanner teasingly replies, handing me two white Advil’s and a short glass of water.

Throwing back the pills, I gulp down the water, realizing just how thirsty I am. I guess all the alcohol dehydrated me. Like I said, last night was kinda a first for me. I place the glass down on the bedside table and fall back down on the pillow, curling up underneath it.

“I’m never drinking again,” I groan as my head starts pounding.

“I sure hope not, last night was awful,” Tanner laughs lightly.

“What happened?” I wonder, crinkling my forehead in confusion.

“You don’t remember?” He asks me in disbelief.

“Obviously not,” I chuckle.

“All the drinks and the throwing up and Orland and Br-“

“Oh!” I nod, “Yeah, yeah, I remember now. That was really bad, wasn’t it?”

“Oh yeah,” He confirms with a small nod. “So, you still up for breakfast?”

“Yes! I’m starving,” I whine, petting my flat stomach. “And thirsty.”

“What a coincidence, so am I,” Tanner announces as if him being hungry is a shock.

“What a shock,” I giggle, praying for the Advil’s to hurry up and kick in because my head is killing me.

“We can leave as soon as you get ready, but I think that there’s something you need to do.”

“What might that be?” I ask him suspiciously. I have a feeling that I’m gonna like what he’s about to say.

“You gotta apologize to Drew.”

“What? I’m not apologizing to him.” I firmly deny.

“Okay, well, you don’t have to, but I think you should.”

“Why would I do such a stupid thing? If anything, he needs to apologize to me.”

“I know, but I don’t think that’ll happen for a while. You do remember what you did, don’t you?”

“I threw my drink on him and then threw the glass at him, right?”

“Right.” Tanner says, suppressing a laugh.

“Nah, I’m not gonna apologize,” I shake my head, lightly.

“Okay then,” He replies, seeming to accept my answer. “I’ll be in room, so just come get me when you’re done getting ready and whatnot.” With that, Tanner stands and leaves my room, closing the door behind him. I sluggishly clamber out of my bed, and stand on my feet for a second as my stomach churns a bit. I don’t think I’m gonna throw up though. At least I hope not, my friends are gonna start thinking I have an eating disorder or something if I keep throwing up so much. Which I definitely don’t have, by the way.

When I’m confident that I’m not about to like, pass out or puke, I go over to my closet and pull it open, taking out a random pair of white short shorts and a thin pale blue t-shirt with the words, “teenage mess”, written across it in lowercase black letters. I take out of a pair of panties and a bra also before standing to my feet and walking out of the room. I run smack into Bradley, who’s just come out of his bedroom. His arms shoot out, balancing me before I lose my balance- which doesn’t take much considering my slightly hung-over state. After he’s sure that I’m not gonna fall on my face, Bradley retreats his arm and then makes his way downstairs.

That was bad. That was very bad. I know that I drank a lot last night, but I do remember him saying that he was, and I quote, “done interfering in [my] life”, which, admittedly was a stupid thing for him to say. I mean, he stopped interfering in my life when he told me that didn’t wanna get back together or even be friends. Sighing loudly, I push my way into the bathroom and lock it before peeling my clothes off and jumping into the spacious shower, turning the showerhead on.

Thirty minutes later, I’m out and dressed and pretty much ready to go. I’m feeling a little better than I did this morning on account of the amazing thing called Advil and my stomach keeps growling, demanding food. I go back into my room and throw my clothes in the hamper where Francesca will collect them to wash. I just love the fact that she washes everything.

I slide on a pair of sandals and yank my hair brush through my damp hair, sniffing it to ensure that the disgusting vomit smell is gone. I guess when I was at Club 22 I didn’t do such a great job of holding it back. I didn’t do a very good job of doing anything last night, considering the fact that I laid on the bathroom floor. Which is really, really gross and I should probably go and see a doctor to make sure I don’t have like, herpes or something now.

Leaving my room, I walk into Tanner’s and spy him laying at the foot of his own large four poster bed, watching some movie on TV. The Dark Knight Rises, by the looks of it. The guys are all pretty into superhero movies and all that kinda stuff, save for Bradley and Walker but me? Not so much. Like, Tanner likes Batman, obviously, Mikey likes Superman and the other one likes Spiderman. Yes, the other one. The stupid one who I hate. I hate him and his stupid choice of a superhero. Like, what’s so super about a man who can shoot sticky webs from his fingers? Nothing. At all. That’s what so super about it.

“Ready to go?” He asks, not looking over at me as he’s too fixated on the movie.

“I am ready to go,” I confirm with a nod. “I’m starving and I just ran into Bradley,” I complain.

“Well, I can help with the food situation, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stop your Bradley run-ins.”

“Unfortunately. I think that he’s leaving though. Oh! Tanner do you have any chocolate? I hear chocolate’s supposed to help with hangovers.”

“They are and I do,” Tanner agrees, reaching on his bedside table and throwing a Milky Way at me.

“Oh man, I love Milky Ways,” I coo, ripping the package open and scarfing it down.

“I know you do,” Tanner laughs, turning his TV off. “Okay, let’s go- I haven’t eaten in like, six years.”

“More like six hours,” I chuckle, walking out of his room with him.

“You say car-mel, I say car-a-mel,” He shrugs as we go down the stairs to the living room.

“That’s a stupid example,” I inform him, bumping my arm against his.

“I knew you’d say something like that- you really are a really, really mean girl.”

“Hey, I’m hung-over,” I remind him, chewing on the chocolaty goodness. “I have an excuse to be crabby.”

“Yes, but what’s your excuse on the days you aren’t hung-over?” Tanner asks, only kidding of course.

“Shut up and take me to get food,” I say, my tone matching his as he pulls the front door open for me.

“Yes ma’am,” He replies, gesturing for me to go before him. I take a step outside into the sweltering heat and bright sunlight and let out a high-pitched shrill, turning on my heel, and running back into Francesca’s very nice, very dim living room. Tanner gives a confused look and raises an eyebrow at me. “What? Are you a vampire or something? Can’t go out in the direct sunlight?”

“Haven’t you ever seen Twilight? If I was a vampire, I could go out into the sunlight and be just fine, save for a little sparkling.” I giggle, rubbing my burning eyes. “No, the light- it’s so bright.” I defend. “I’m gonna go and get my sunglasses,” I tell Tanner and bound my way back up the stairs and collect my aviators before making my way back downstairs. “Okay, I’m ready now.”

“Good, I’m slowly dying here,” Tanner says dramatically, again gesturing for me to go out before him.

I step past him into the sunlight, protected from the disgustingly bright sun due to my sunglasses. Tanner pulls the front door closed and sticks his hands down in the pockets of his khaki knee shorts. He’s wearing a dark green t-shirt and a pair of guy Sperry’s.

“You poor baby,” I sarcastically remark, as we make our way down the sidewalk. “Where’re we going?”

“There’s a breakfast place somewhere down here,” He informs me. “I mean, it’s nearly 3:30, but I’m pretty sure that they’re still serving breakfast. I think it’s like, day long.”

“3:30?” I echo, pulling my phone out and checking the time for confirmation- 3:25 p.m. “I can’t believe I slept so late,” I mumble, putting my phone back down my short shorts pocket.

“Well, you did have trouble getting to sleep.” Tanner says.

“I did?” I ask, briefly glancing up at him. “This is why I’m never drinking again.”

“Yeah, remember I stayed until you fell asleep? It took about an hour and a half. But I mean, you can drink, I just think that you shouldn’t go overboard. And you should wait until you’re twenty-one, when it’s legal.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk, Mr. I’ve-been-drinking-smoking-and-driving-since-I-was-fifteen.” I reply, teasingly.

That makes Tanner laugh, “Okay, you know what? Firstly, I’ve never been stone cold wasted like you were. Okay, well, maybe once or twice, but still. Secondly, I don’t even smoke anymore- it was like a five time thing and it’s super weird and you better never do it. Thirdly, that’s just true, but I do have a license now, you know.” He defends himself, giving me a boyish grin.

“All very valid points, I suppose. I’ll make a deal with you though,” I offer.

“Lay it on me,” He retorts as we walk past an old lady with her grandson- at least, I hope it’s her grandson, because he’s really young. Like seven or eight or something like that.

“As long as you don’t force me to go out to anymore stupid parties, I’ll stay away from alcohol.”

“Deal,” Tanner says with no hesitation, holding his hand out to me, shaking mine.

“Oh man,” I whine, suddenly remembering something from last night.

“What?” Tanner interrogates.

“Did Bradley really punch Orlando in the face or was that just my imagination?” I query.

“Oh, no, that really happened.”

“Oh, gosh,” I sigh, pulling my phone back out of my pocket. “I’m gonna call him and make sure he’s okay.”

“He looked just fine,” Tanner assures me, shrugging. “I mean, he did look just a little pissed.”

“This vacation really, really sucks,” I grumble, going to Orlando’s contact and calling it, putting it to my ear.

“Ciao?” Orlando answers on the fourth ring, his voice tired.

“Hey Orlando, it’s me- Sydney,” I explain.

“Oh,” He clears his throat. “Hey, Sydney.”

“Hey,” I repeat. “Uh, listen, I’m so, so, so, so sorry about last night,” I apologize profusely.

“It’s okay, Sydney,” Orlando laughs. “It’s not like you hauled off and hit me- your boyfriend did.”

“My ex-boyfriend,” I correct him. “Hey, while I have you, I have a very important question to ask.”

“Okay then, shoot.”

“Were you born here? Like in Italy, I mean.”

“No, I wasn’t. Why do you ask?” He wonders.

“I was just wondering,” I shrug even though he can’t see me. “I was just wondering how you like, fluently speak English if you were born here in Italy.” I explicate to Orlando.

“Oh, well, no. I was born in California and I lived there with my mom until I was ten and then we moved here and started living with my dad. They were both like, born here though, so I guess I’m like an Italian-American? Or American-Italian? I don’t know, but yeah, that’s why I speak Italian- it’s just in my blood.”

“Well, that’s pretty cool. So, yeah, again, I’m super sorry about Bradley hitting you.”

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Orlando chuckles. “I mean, it really hurt, so it’s not cool, but you know what I mean.”

“Right, I know what you mean,” I confirm with a small laugh. “My friend and I are going to breakfast though, so I’ll talk to you later?”

“If that Bradley guy’s okay with that? Because if he hits me again, I’m gonna hit him back,” He threatens.

“Bradley doesn’t care about me or what I do.” I assure Orlando. “And he’s not gonna hit you again.”

“Okay, then, sure, I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’re a little bit weird,” I tell him half-seriously.

“Says you,” Orlando chuckles. “Bye Sydney.”

“Bye Orlando,” I reply, pulling the phone away from my ear and ending the call. I slip it back down into my pocket and then look up at Tanner, who’s looking at me as we continue to walk down the sidewalk. Man, I hope that we’re almost to this breakfast place because it’s really hot out. Granted, we’ve only been walking about five or six minutes. “What?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at my friend.

“Do you like him?” He curiously asks.

“Orlando? Yeah, he’s nice. I don’t like him, like him though, if that’s what you mean.”

“Well, that’s cool, I guess.” Tanner replies, then gestures across the street. “There it is.”

“Have you even ever been there?” I wonder as we make our way across the busy street.

“I have, actually. Elena and I came yesterday morning,” He explains, pulling the door open to the café.

“Elena?” I echo, narrowing my eyes at him as I walk by. “I told you to stop flirting with her.” I scowl.

“It was just breakfast, Sydney.” He chuckles. “What, you don’t think that I’m good enough for you cousin?”

“Don’t be an idiot; you know that I think that you’re way better than good enough,” I roll my eyes, following behind Tanner and sitting down at a table with him, right across from him.

“Then I don’t see what the problem is,” Tanner shrugs. “Besides, we’re not like, together or anything.”

“Yeah, yet!” I exclaim, shaking my head. “It’s just a little weird. Like, I don’t even know her.”

“Which you could easily fix if you ever came out of your room. She’s really cool though and funny.”

“And pretty,” I add. “She’s really pretty. I’m not saying that you can’t be with her; it’s just weird.”

“She is very beautiful,” Tanner agrees. “And you know what else is weird?”

“What’s that?” I ask him, picking up the menu in front of me and peeling it open.

“You, my best female friend, dated Bradley, one of our best male friends. I didn’t care though.”

“Correction: Bradley’s not our friend. He’s yours.”

“He’s yours too,” Tanner says, shaking his head at me, wearing a displeased expression.

“No, he’s not.” I scoff. “He said he doesn’t wanna be my friend anymore. He doesn’t talk to me. He doesn’t look at me. Last night he yelled at me and he said that I was brain-dead. He’s not my friend. He’s not my boyfriend. He doesn’t want to be my anything.” I explain in a somber voice, blinking back tears. I’m not cry in this public place because that’s just ridiculous. I remove my sunglasses and look blankly at Tanner. 

“Well,” Tanner notes, awkwardly clearing his throat. “You’ll always have me. I know I’m not as great as him in your eyes, but I’ll always be here for you, Sydney, you know that.”

“You’re wrong,” I tell him, shaking my head.

“What about?”

“You said that you’re not as great as him in my eyes.” I reiterate. “That’s not true. You’re much better.”

Tanner opens his mouth to reply, but doesn’t get the chance as a guy who looks like he’s about our age walks over dressed in a full black attire. Wow, I hope he doesn’t go outside in all that black- he might have a heatstroke and die or something. Maybe I’m just over exaggerating the heat. I mean, this is Rome and all my life I’ve lived in Michigan. Obviously the two places have much different climates, so I guess they’re all used to the sweltering heat that exists outside.

“Cosa posso fare per voi due?” The guy asks in a thick Italian accent, flipping a new piece of pad paper.

“Uh, we don--“ I start, hoping he understands me.

“Non parlare italiano?” He cuts me off, raising his bushy eyebrows.

“We.” Tanner motions to himself and then to me. “Don’t.” He shakes his head a few times. “Speak.” Then Tanner uses his hand and makes it like a sock puppet as if to represent talking. “Italiano.”

So basically he just did that stupid thing that people do to foreigners by talking to them really loudly and really slowly like they’re retarded or something. Then again, the bushy eyebrow, jet black haired Italian isn’t the foreigner- we are.

“Fammi capire qualcuno che parla inglese.” The boy murmurs and then stalks away.

“Okay, that guy is straight up weird,” Tanner says, furrowing his eyebrows, then look back at me.

“No, you probably just freaked him out,” I giggle. “He’s Italian, not stupid.”

“Yeah, but I spoke very clear English.” He defends.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess here and say that he doesn’t speak English, Tanny.” I giggle.

“Well, they need to get someone who does because I am starving.” Tanner complains.

“I’m Victoria and I’ll be your waitress this afternoon,” A redheaded girl chimes, walking up to our table.

“See? This is more like it.” He feeds the girl his order and I just take the same thing as him because I’m pretty hungry too, so I’m sure it won’t be too much for me to eat. Though, Tanner does eat like has seven stomachs or something. The girl returns a good ten minutes later with two trays of food and two drinks. As she sets my huge tray in front of me, my eyes widen when I see how much food is packed on to it. This is why you don’t order that same thing as Tanner. She bids us a good breakfast and then retreats. “Oh my gosh, this looks so delicious,” Tanner says, immediately divulging into the food.

The breakfast here is nothing like the average American breakfast, that’s for sure. On our plates are plethora’s of various croissants, fagottinos, strudels, pastries and cold-cut products. I pick up a croissant and tear it apart, tossing the soft piece of powdered sugar bread in my mouth and chewing it slowly.

“So, what do you wanna do today?” Tanner asks me.

“Sleep.” I reply quietly, taking a sip of my hot chocolate.

“Sleep? It’s three in the afternoon, Syd, come on, you can’t sleep.”

“I can and I think that I will,” I reason, taking another bite of my croissant.

“You know, when you go off to college in September, you’re gonna look back and be like, “Wow, I was in Rome for two whole months and I all I did was sleep and eat and cry.”

“That’s not all I do,” I murmur.

“So far, yeah, it is.”

“Bradley and I haven’t even been broken up a whole week so excuse me if I’m not up to running around Italy,” I snap at Tanner, which intensifies my ever-growing headache by like, a million. “I’m sorry,” I sigh a second later.

“It’s okay,” Tanner retorts, actually looking up from his food at me. “I just don’t like seeing you sad, you know.”

“I know,” I nod, offering him a small smile. “And I really do appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me.”

“As you should,” He responds, teasingly. “So, let’s go somewhere- anywhere you’d like.”

“Well, there is the one really cool place that I learned about in like, tenth grade history.”

“And it’s here in Rome?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is,” I nod.

“Okay, then yeah, we can go. What is it?”

“I wanna go to the Trevi Fountain.”

“I don’t even know what that is, but okay.”

“It’s this really cool fountain thing and it’s really pretty.”

“Well, I’m just glad that you’re actually willing to go somewhere.” Tanner sighs. “Do you want the others to come?”

“I don’t care,” I shrug. “I mean, Elena should come since I’m sure she knows where it is. Walker, Mikey and Jaime can come too, if they want to. But I don’t want Drew to come. He’ll only make thing bad and then I’m gonna try to drown him.”

“That would be very bad,” Tanner laughs. “I’ll call them so that they can be ready when we get back.”

I nod in agreement and drink down the rest of my hot chocolate. I’m kinda surprised that they serve hot chocolate in the middle of June, but I like hot chocolate a lot, so I won’t complain. Tanner calls Walker and asks him and I guess that he says yes, because he tells him to ask Mikey if he and the girlfriend want to go and then tells him that we’ll be back soon. Then he calls Elena and puts on his flirty voice, trying to persuade her to come with us. By the smile that spreads across Tanner’s face, I can tell that she says yes. They conversate about something that I don’t care to listen to, and then he hangs up.

“Alright, we’re good. They said they’d come. Oh, did you want me to call Bradley and ask him if he wants to come?”

“No, I don’t want you to do that.” I deadpan, shaking my head.

“Okay,” Tanner clears his throat and goes back to stuffing his face.

 __________________________

“Wow, this is a really long walk- we should have taken a car,” Mikey complains.

“We’ve been walking for like, ten minutes, Michael.” I giggle.

“Yes and it’s been ten minutes too long.”

“Hey, how come Jaime didn’t come along?” I wonder.

“She’s sick or something like that.” He replies with a shrug.

“You should have brought her,” I tell him. “Can’t really trust Drew with your girlfriend,” I mutter.

“Sydney,” Walker says from the other side of me.

“What? It’s true.” I shrug.

“Yeah, but you can’t just say it,” He tells me.

“Yeah, okay.” I reply. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“How’s your, ah, friendship with Alison going?”

“Oh! It’s going really well, actually. She’s seriously the funniest person.”

“And the meanest,” I add.

“I don’t like you very much when you’re hung-over.” He informs me.

“She is mean,” I exclaim.

“This is true,” Mikey agrees.

“That’s only when we were dating- she’s actually super-sweet.” Walker defends.

“We’re almost there!” Elena chimes from a few steps in front of me, where she and Tanner are walking together.

“Dude, Tanner is seriously so in love with that girl,” Mikey voices.

“Tanner doesn’t fall in love. He falls in lust.” I correct.

“That’s true- when the last time that kid had a serious relationship?” Walker wonders.

“I don’t even remember,” I shrug.

I look up from the cobblestoned ground and see the Trevi Fountain. The pictures in the textbooks really have nothing on it. Like, at all. For one thing, it’s really, really huge, like, wide and tall. When we reach it, I stare up in awe, watching as the water cascades down the boulders. It really is gorgeous. I take my phone out of my pocket and snap a few pictures of it.

“Hey, you know what they say about this thing?” Walker wonders, suddenly standing right beside me.

“No, what?” I ask, looking up at him briefly and then back at the fountain.

“There’s an old legend. It says that if a visitor throws a Euro in, then they’ll come back to Rome someday.”

“Really? That’s pretty cool,” I truthfully say, pulling my money holder out of my back pocket. Earlier we went to this converter thingy and converted all of our American Dollars to Euros so that we could actually buy stuff here and whatnot.

“I guess so. You gonna make a wish?” He wonders.

“Yup,” I nod, taking a single euro coin out and walking right up to the fountain.

I turn around so that my back is to the fountain and bring the coin up near my lips in my hands, whispering my wish. After I make my wish, I gently throw the coin over my shoulder and turn around, watching as it sinks down with the billons of other coins that rest at the bottom.

“What’d you wish for?” Walker wonders as I walk back over to him.

“I can’t say, silly. If I do, it won’t come true.”

“You really think that?” He asks with a chuckle.

“Yes! I really do because it’s true,” I laugh.

“Okay, whatever you say.” Walker appeases me.

“I’m glad you see things my way, now take a picture of me with this thing,” I say, handing him my phone and striking a stupid silly pose in front of the fountain.

Please let Bradley forgive me. Even if he doesn’t wanna get back together- just let him stop hating me.

That’s what I wished for. 

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Author's Note: Welp, there you have it- chapter 8. Thoughts? Predicitions for the next chapter? Let me know in a comment! And don't forget to vote, por favor! Anyways, the picture is Sydney's outfit and whatnot. The song is a song that I'm kinda in love with at the moment and I think it sorta goes with Bradley and Sydney's relationship (Brydney, Bydney, Bradney, Sydley, whatever it is you call them, because those are the three I hear the most, haha). But yeah, please don't forget to comment and vote! And don't forget to check out my new tumblrs: the-magics-not-here-no-more.tumblr.com for character profiles and whatnot from this story and Like Crazy and also walking-in-the-city-lights.tumblr.com <3