From London to Rome

Chapter 41

Luca

I am so disappointed in my mother. I knew she wouldn't like the fact that I'm dating Skylar, but she really went too far with the things she said. Saying Skylar isn't worthy. How can she say such things? She hasn't even met Skylar. And she took it even further when she said Sky isn't skinny enough. I never want to hear anyone say such things about Sky again. If it was one of my friends saying these things, I would have punched them square in the face, but simply because it's my mother I'm expected to just accept it. Well, that won't be happening.

These past three months have been the best in my life. Ever since that first time I talked to Sky, I felt at home with her. She lets me be who I am and doesn't judge my decisions. She listens to me when I talk about the most random things and stays up all night with me to watch the stars. Whenever I'm with her, I don't worry about the what-ifs in life. She makes me laugh so much I have tears rolling down my cheeks. She makes me truly happy and I cannot imagine not being with her. Sky's favourite novel says it all; in the words of the famous Mr Darcy: I wish never to be parted from you from this day on. Or in my case: from the day I first laid eyes on her.

I forgot I'm still sitting in the living room with my parents until mum starts speaking again.

"I won't have it. You're not dating this girl. I don't even care if you date Sydney or not, as long as it's not this girl. Do you know how much you can damage your reputation with this? I won't have it. We worked way too hard to let a random girl ruin everything. Besides, she probably just wants you for your money or your fame."

I thought we've had the worst of this conversation, but mum keeps going and going.

"Do you even hear yourself? I just told you I love her and you tell me to simply break up with her? Let me tell you something; that is never going to happen. And I don't care about my reputation and what people think about me. I fell in love, so what? The only one ruining something is you, mother. You have insulted Skylar in so many ways in the past half hour and I will take no more of it. Skylar is everything I could ever dream of and you keep on insulting her by calling her a gold-digger? What's your next insult going to be mother?"

All this time my father hasn't said a word. He knows that going against mum will probably cost him a few nights in the guest room, but I did expect him to take my side and fight mum on this. He met Skylar for heaven's sake, back then he was all fun and jokes about it and now he barely says a word.

"Ella, I think you're taking this a bit too far. If our son is in love, which I know he is, who are we to tell him not to love her?"

"How can you be so sure he's in love? This is just a teen thing, it will blow over in no time."

"Be reasonable with me here. Luca is 21, he is an adult and I trust his opinion. And I've seen the way he looks at her, there is no denying that."

"Go a step back there. You've seen him look at her? That means you have seen her. When in heaven's name did this happen? And you didn't tell me?"

"A few weeks ago, I came home and she was here. She seemed like a decent and polite girl. Not that I had much time to get to know her because Luca had her out of here within a minute. Because he was so eager to leave, I assumed he wanted to keep it to himself for a little while."

"You brought that girl into my house and I didn't know about it?"

"Actually, she was here quite a few times." This only makes mum angrier. Luckily, she didn't hear what I whispered after; that she would have known if she were home more often.

Mum keeps on raging. I leave it to dad to calm her down, she's made me so angry it's a miracle I haven't broken anything in the house yet, and I'm not the violent type usually. This isn't even about protecting Skylar anymore. This is my mother trying to micro-manage my life. This is what caused my fight with Skylar a few weeks ago. My mother and her everlasting opinions on what I should and shouldn't do. It's time that I put an end to all of this.

"Do you remember the first time I met your parents, Ella? They weren't too fond of that Italian you picked up on your vacation. They told you the same thing you are telling your own son, and look where we are now. We stayed together anyway, got married and had two amazing children. What if you would have listened to your parents? We wouldn't be here now if you had."

Wait a minute, my mum was a rebel when she was young? If I had known this sooner, this conversation would have ended a very long time ago and I wouldn't have to listen to mum saying all those hurtful things about Sky. It seems like I'm stepping into my mother's footsteps once again.

"Well mum, since you apparently exactly know what you're talking about, I will just continue with what I'm doing. It's my career and my life. I'm going back to Skylar tonight, I'll be back tomorrow and you can tell me whether you accept my relationship with Sky or not. It's up to you, but there is no stopping me."