Fifteen

Quattro

"No, but really, I have to ask," Nari said as we walked along a random street. We hadn't long left that little cafe, where I did have the best gelato of my life, and Nari was trying to 'get to know me', which was a little unnerving considering I don't let people into my life. "Why are you here? It doesn't take a genius to see that you don't want to be in Italy but here you are, so of course, I'm going to ask. What gives?"

I sigh and stop walking, looking around uncomfortably. "Nari, look..." I try to formulate some of answer that would be better than telling the truth but I figure, Nari is a stranger and I doubt I'll see him after this trip away, so what the hell? I may as well tell him the truth. "Ok, well, first of all, I'm pretty sure that my parents are going to end up splitting because Dad is cheating. Again. The boy I like has a girlfriend and I swear she deliberately puts up tons of photos of them together and tags him in it just to make me jealous. And I have a total of one- one- real friend and she currently isn't talking to me because I made some stupid sports team and she didn't. Any one of those reasons could be why I'm here against my will."

I count the reasons off, holding up one finger at a time. "One- parents on the verge of divorce. Two, boy troubles. Three, best friend hates me. Take your pick."

Nari stares at me. He goes so far as to open his mouth but wisely chooses to say absolutely nothing. Instead, he nods his head, spins on his heels and starts to lecture me on the history of a nearby building. I listen to him, finding myself more interested in what he had to say, right up until these next words come out of his mouth.

"So, let's talk more about this boy," Nari said, giving me a quizzical glance. Seeing the startled look on my face, he laughs and rolls his shoulders back. "We can talk about your parent's possible divorce because I've been there, done that, had the therapy to get over it. We can also talk about friend troubles but to be honest, I don't have much experience in that. But you have boy problems and I am a boy."

I couldn't think of anything worse than talking about my non-situation with Max to Nari. He made a valid point about being a boy so he can do boy talk but I could hardly stand him so I wasn't going to pour my heart out to him. He could use it against me again in the future. Not that I had any plans to ever see him again. 

Taking a deep breath, I start to explain everything to Nari, despite my better judgment. I start at the beginning, back when I first started to catch feelings for Max at the joint school show we did when I was in year eight. We were paired up together and he made me laugh at every rehearsal. The drama teacher wasn't impressed with either of us and after a few weeks, she relegated us to a 'backstage' job. Even though I was a year older than Max, I thought he was a really cool boy who had an amazing taste in music, introducing me to bands I'd never heard of before. The girls I hung out with were a little too girly for my tastes while Max was more like me. We hung out often and I guess it was my fault that I let us become friends. 

Whenever he fancied a girl, he'd tell me about it and instead of telling him that I fancied him, I would tell him to go for it, ask the girl out. And he would. He'd ask the girl out, take them to the cinema or wherever he took them and then the next day, I'd get a hundred and one texts about how 'amazing' it was. Jealousy would rage inside me but I couldn't bring myself to tell him of my feelings. It would ruin everything. 

"Wouldn't it?" I say, meandering the streets of Verona, looking for validation from Nari. "Everyone says boys and girls can't be friends and so far, I've been proving to them all that we can be friends. But if I were to tell Max that I like him, it just proves to everyone that we can't just be friends."

Nari shrugged his shoulders. "Ok, but who is to say that it would be a bad thing if you became more than friends?"

"His girlfriend?"

"Apart from her," he says, rolling his eyes and leading me down another alleyway. "Just out of interest, have you ever had a boyfriend?"

I shake my head. For years, I've tried to convince myself that I don't need a boyfriend, that boys were just stupid and I was better off without them in my life, but I always knew, somewhere deep inside me that I was lying to myself. It's not that I didn't want a boyfriend- I wanted one- it's just, the one I wanted was someone I couldn't have. It's a sad realisation that I come to, as I walk the streets of Verona, famed for Romeo and Juliet, that I was a fifteen-year-old girl who had never had a boyfriend, who had never been out on a date, and who had never been kissed. 

"I bet you think I'm pathetic," I grumble, hiding my face behind my hands. Groaning, I stop walking and lean against a wall, hoping that I won't get swallowed up by the ground, despite the fact that I kind of want that to happen. Nari smirks. "No, you know what, I can see from your face that I'm being pathetic."

Nari leans against the wall opposite me. "You might be pathetic but I won't judge you on that. What I will do, though, is show you, my little bird, how to kick ass and get the boy. You will be Juliet and Max can be Romeo."

I frown. "You know they killed themselves in the end, right?"