"Hey, Rizzo, you up?" asked Johnson.
"Yup, what's up buddy?"
"I was just wondering if you were really okay with OC and your sister, or cousin, or whatever. Cause, to be honest, I don't know if I would be."
"Well, I mean, at first I definitely wasn't. I mean, catching your cousin in your teammates room when you didn't know they even knew each other was- unpleasant, to say the least. I really flipped out on OC, and I nearly locked Gianna- that's her name- in her room for the rest of her high school career. I mean, he was only a freshman, sure, but she was only 16 at the time, a baby."
"Jeez, I'm surprised you didn't kill him," said Johnson.
"Yeah, well lucky for him Gi came to his defense. The little brat had the nerve to yell at me, like I'd never been yelled at before, 'cept my coaches and my ma. Come to think of it, she yelled at me like she was my ma, I felt like a little kid caught in the cookie jar.
"I mean, granted, all my family does is yell. When you've got as many people shoved in one house as we do, things get a little loud. And I guess her brothers and I toughened her up quite a bit, because she does not take being scolded lightly. I threw her over my shoulder and she yelled and kicked the whole way out of the dorms- made a real scene.
"Finally she says to me, 'Michael Eruzione, what in the hell do you think you're doing? Carrying me around like a sack of potatoes? I am hardly the child that used to allow this sort of behavior from her cousin who she always looked to as an older brother figure. And as an older brother figure I always expected that when I found someone I liked, you'd be happy for me, because that's what you're supposed to do.' She had her hand on her hip and everything. Then she ended it with, 'And I'm telling your mother about this'. I couldn't help but laugh so hard I had to put her down and look at things from her perspective."
"She sounds like a firecracker," said Johnson, "Probably while OC likes her, only type of girl that could handle him would be one hardened by years of the Eruzione family, if you're anything to judge from."
"Yeah right," said Rizzo, "I'm the gentle one in the my family. You should meet the rest of them."
"I hope to God I never have to," said Johnson, pulling a face, before laughing and turning over in his bed, "Well, goodnight."
"Night Johnson," said Rizzo, turning out the lamp. And thinking of his family, who he had been missing a lot, Rizzo fell asleep.
