Summer Nights - Luca

❣ 𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐲

After dinner, the duo were up in the hideout when a thought entered Alberto's head. What if we stayed here?

Any additions to that thought were interrupted by Giulia jumping up to them and saying, "Alright, boys! Pretty good today but let's talk technique."

Just before Giulia was going to continue, Cecilia came through the gate, looking up to the hideout.

Alberto also saw her and greeted her, "Cecilia!", before climbing down.

"Hey. Do you still want to come over?", she asked.

"Of course!", he said before turning back to Luca, "I'll be back in a while."

"Don't wait up!", Cecilia jokingly said to Giulia.

The two then started walking down the street towards the girl's house when Alberto asked, "So do you like to sing a lot?"

"Yeah. It's probably my favourite pastime. I mean, aside from hanging out with you guys", she said with a smile.

"Cool. Why do you like it?", he asked.

"Well, I don't know, you guys are really nice, and-", she got cut off by both of their laughter.

"Not us, singing", he elaborated.

"Well, I find it a lot of fun. When I grow up, I wanna be a singer", she told him.

"A singer?", he asked, confused.

"Yeah", she said obviously, "Y'know, someone who sings for people and gets paid for it."

"Oh", Alberto said, understanding.

"When I grow up, I wanna become a famous singer and I'll sing for the biggest audiences in the world. I'll be so popular, people in other countries will want to hear me sing and I'll get to travel around the whole world to sing for people!", she said, going off into her little fantasy.

"And I could come with you!", Alberto blurted out, getting caught up in her fantasy.

She suddenly stopped.

"D-Did I say something wrong?", he asked.

"No, not at all", she told him, "Just... I never thought I'd have someone with me for all that."

"Wouldn't it get lonely?", he asked.

"Hm", she shrugged, "I'm kinda used to lonely. And besides, I could meet different people everywhere I go... but, yeah, I guess it would be nice to have someone by my side while I'm on the road."

She suddenly thought of something and fondled around in her purse before pulling out a small postcard that said "New York" on it. It had brightly lit, towering buildings on it with the beautiful night skyline.

"Guardare!", she said, showing it to Alberto, "My cousin sent me this when he went to New York. Someday, I wanna sing for all the biggest crowds in New York. My cousin told me that if you can make it in there, you can make it anywhere."

"What makes New York so special?", Alberto asked, defensively.

"It's got everything! It's got gigantic theatres and music halls and thousands and thousands of people! It's a huge city of lights and it's where stars are made! Only the best of the best are from there!", she exclaimed.

"The best at what?", he asked, slightly confused.

"The best at anything! Singing, dancing, acting, making people laugh, cleaning windows, lying. Anyone can be anything there", she told him.

"Anyone?", he repeated, his eyes starting to light up.

"Anyone", she told him again.

"Well, where is it?", he asked curiously.

"It's all the way across the ocean in America. Someday, I swear, I'm gonna hop on a plane and fly all the way to New York and I'll become a star", she told him, suddenly realising she'd been rambling about it for a while, "But, um, what do you wanna do when you grow up?"

"Me?", Alberto said, "Uh... I don't know."

"Really? Well, that's alright", she told him, "Maybe you just haven't found anything you're super passionate about. What's stuff you really like?"

"Let's see, Vespas, pasta, fishing, and hanging out with you guys!", he told her.

She laughed and said, "Well, maybe you should just stay in Portorosso. You could become a fisherman perhaps?"

His face started to fall and he quickly said, "But I-I also wanna go travelling on my Vespa, once Luca and I get the money for it."

"Hm", Cecilia thought for a moment, "Maybe you could become an explorer!"

"A what?", Alberto asked.

"An explorer", she repeated, "You could go travelling all around the world and go discover places people didn't even know existed!"

"That sounds cool!", he said.

"And you'd be great at it! Ah, we're here", she said, standing outside the front door of one of the many houses.

They stepped inside and Alberto became entrances by the various photographs and knick-knacks that were on display. As they were passing through the rooms, Alberto's eyes went to a picture of what looked like a younger Cecilia smiling with a boy older than her. She quickly pushed the frame down and kept walking without another word.

They eventually got to the living room with the girl's prized record player and she dramatically gestured at it and said, "Ta-da!", before quickly stopping and saying, "I don't know why I did that."

Alberto recognised it and said, "You've got a magic-singing-lady-thing!"

"A what?", Cecilia asked, surprised.

"Uh, never mind", the boy quickly said.

She chuckled and said, "You've got the funniest names for things, 'Berto."

"Berto?", he repeated.

"Yeah. Alberto's a little long so I shortened it to Berto. You can do the same for me. Give me a nickname", she told him.

"Uh", he thought for a moment, "How about 'Che-che'?"

"Che-che", she said, trying it out, "I like it."

She then bent over to the drawer containing her collection of records and pulled out the song she was humming earlier.

"Here's the one you wanted to hear. It's called Un bacio a mezzanotte", she said as she put on the record.

When it was playing, she started dancing to it. After a moment of slight hesitation, Alberto started to dance alongside her. It was a lot of fun and she was surprised at how good he was at dancing. While they were, she said to him, "I think we've found what you can do when you grow up!"

"What?", he said over the music.

"You can be a dancer!", she exclaimed.

After that song finished, she showed him all the records and asked him to choose one. He chose the one he thought had the coolest cover. After that, she put on the song that was her favourite, Cittá vuota.

"This one is good for slow dancing", she told him before gently grabbing his hands, "Let me show you how it's done."

She intertwined the fingers of her left hand with his right and put his left hand on her waist before putting her right on his shoulder.

"There you go. And now you just sway your hips to the music", she told him.

They swayed as the music played and he followed her as she spun herself around him and showed him how to dip her before the song finally finished as she leant into his chest, both of their faces warm.