For the next couple years, Lovino and I were being home schooled by his dad.
Antonio Fernandez Carriedo is Lovino's adopted dad. He's a Spanish man, who, along with his Belgian wife, lived mainly off his inheritance from his parents. She ended up getting a job at my dad's work because she wanted a career.
They adopted Lovino when he was two. After his parents died. They did it as a favor to his grandpa, who was a friend of Mr. Carriedo's family. Lovino has a little brother too, who was adopted by this pianist friend of his that married his maid. The brothers looked very much a like, except Lovino's hair was darker than Feliciano's. They even had the same curl. I've met Feli a few times because him and his parents usually visit them every summer. Lovino never liked me around him though. Feli has the type of personality that everyone adores so people tended to like him better than Lovino and his slightly grumpy attitude. I guess he was afraid that I would too. That would never happen though. Not after everything Lovi has done for me…
Like I was saying, Lovino had joined me in the home schooling because he'd 'be bored there without me'. He had got his father to be our teacher and set everything else. All for me. He came back to school with me in the end though.
When he taught us, Mr. Carriedo was really kind. Always happy and smiling; he'd always cheer me up. It changed after his wife left him though. He got really depressed. Lovino was upset too, but hid it behind annoyance and sarcasm. He even started using cuss words around that time too. Mr. Carriedo realized this too and tried to act happy for him to make him happy too. He even made this 'spell' to make Lovino happy. It made him look like a complete idiot, which Lovi would always tell him that, but would turn away and repress a smile. Say what you want, but the 'spell' served its purpose. Still, even with Mr. Carriedo acting happy and smiley again, things weren't the same with him.
Mr. Carriedo home schooled us till I was thirteen and Lovino was fourteen. By then, Peter was six and ready for kindergarten so I had no reason to be home schooled anymore. The whole point of it was to take care of him and continuing my schooling. I was worried that I'd be teased like when I was younger, but nope. I was completely ignored by most people, which was worse in a way. I did have Lovi…no, Lovino. I don't want to call him Lovi right now.
Anyway, he wasn't ignored like I was. People always wanted to talk to him. They'd ask him to join groups too like the soccer team or the cooking club. It made me feel a little insecure for a while. He ended up having no interest in the others though and I asked about it once.
"Those idiotas aren't worth my time." He answered. "If they want to be a bunch of bastardi and ignore you then I don't need them."
I'll never understand him. He could have had a lot more friends, better ones even, but he stuck with me.
That same school year, my dad and Mr. Carriedo had something to tell us. We had just came home from school and were called down to the parlor. Lovino was there like always after school.
Lovino and I sat on the couch with Peter on my lap. Mr. Carriedo was on the couch across from us and the coffee table in between us with a big grin on his face, one like before his wife left, while my dad was pacing back and forth behind it.
"Arthur, sentarse y relajarse. There's no reason to be so anxious and tense."
Daddy sighed and took his seat next to then the Spaniard tried putting his hands on Daddy's shoulders, as if to massage them, but his hand's were slapped away.
"Stop it, you git!" Daddy told him, annoyed.
"Aw, but Artie.."
And then my dad and Mr. Carriedo started bickering back and forth. We tried waiting for them to finish, but the boys got impatient.
"Shut up, bastardo and tell us why we're here!" Lovino said to his dad.
"Yeah, Jerk of Jerk!" Peter chimed in. "I want to go play!"
While Mr. Carriedo just laughed at his son's outburst, ours glared at Peter. I quickly put my hand over his mouth so he couldn't say anything else.
"They're right though. Just tell us what you have to say." I spoke, mostly to get Daddy's attention away from Peter.
Dad's face went red and he looked away from us.
"Fine…Antonio and I have been in a relationship for the past year or so now." He said.
"And we're getting married. You two can call me Antonio now, by the way, okay amigos?" Mr. Carriedo, or rather, Antonio said the last part to Peter and I.
We were too surprised to say anything, except Peter though his words were muffled by my hand.
I honestly didn't mind so much that my dad liked guys or that he was with Antonio. It was, for one, that they kept it from us, and two, the connection I made. All of my dad's 'working overtime', sneaking in late, and barely being home at all was because of Antonio. He took all of my dad's time; time I could have had with him.
Lovino and his dad ended up moving in with us. Dad and Antonio got married soon after and didn't see them much afterwards. All I wanted was some time with my dad, but he was always with Antonio. They'd spend their time going out or cooking (Antonio trying to teach Dad) or having an occasional make out session in Dad's office (I accidentally walked in on them a time or two).
I tried to spend some time with my dad at first, but he always said he couldn't him and Antonio had something else to do. I gave up after a while. My relationship with my dad became strained at best. Of course, he was so busy that it took him a while to see it and then he couldn't understand how things had gotten that way.
Lovino…he's been keeping me together these last couple years. I'm sixteen now and he's seventeen. We've been best friends for over a decade now. I don't know what I'd do if he suddenly left. I've depended on him so much over the years that I don't know if I could get by without him.
Right now though, I'm trying to stay mad at him. What did he do? Nothing. That's part of the problem. Everything else is going wrong and I'm stressing out and he's…oh, Lovi. He's trying to get me to talk and to comfort me. Though its not his fault, I just need to be mad for a while.
