Summer Nights - Luca

❣ 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

It was a bright sunny afternoon in the town of Portorosso. The fishermen were hard at work, people were chatting and gossiping in cafes and ristorantes, children were playing in the square and a beautiful girl with golden, sunkissed locks by the name of Cecilia was sitting down by the fountain to write her poems, trying her best to push back the fear of her wasting her summer. Unbeknownst to her, she'd caught the eye of a boy who would change her summer for the better.

While trying to focus on her poems, Cecilia's train of thought was interrupted by the loud revving of the vespa belonging to the town nuisance, Ercole. She rolled her eyes and tried to get back to her poems, a near impossible task with Ercole's huge displays. She was just about to get back to her reading when she heard Ercole bulling some out-of-town-ers. She did snicker when one of them called him 'Signor Vespa'. As things escalated, she tried telling herself, It's fine, it's none of your business, they'll be fine on their own. But after a few seconds of brewing, she got up and went towards them, thinking, Damn my giant moral compass.

When she turned around, she saw Ercole trying to push one of those poor kids into the fountain so she quickly ran up to them and pushed Ercole off them.

"Get off him!", she said as she pushed him away, "Ercole, don't you have something better to do than bully some poor kids from out of town?"

"Don't you have something better to do than defend them, Cecilia?", he retorted.

"I did but your incessant showboating made it impossible to focus on anything but your annoying voice", she shot back. Through the years of Ercole's bullying, Cecilia had gotten good at coming up with retorts while listening from the side.

Ercole looked slightly shocked at her retorts so she doubled down and said, "That's right, I have a mouth that's useful for something other than smiling!"

Suddenly, a bike with a cart attached comes speeding towards the group, a bike that Cecilia knew all too well as the bike belonging to her dramatic friend, Giulia.

"Hey! Ercole! Basta!", Giulia cried as she came to a halt.

"Oh, look who's here! Spewlia!", he mocked her.

"Your reign of terror is coming to an end!", she said dramatically.

"What? You mean like a year ago? When you quit in the middle of the race? Because you couldn't stop", he put in a fake gag for good measure, "throwing up?"

"I didn't quit. They made me stop", Giulia growled.

Ercole sneered at her, "I think that's worse. Now go away, I'm having fun with my new friends."

"Ha! No. They're coming with us", Cecilia said.

Giulia got back on her bike and said, "Hop on. I could use the extra weight."