Sorry for not uploading yesterday, Mere! D8 Not that I have block, but I called in sick yesterday. x(

Chapter Ten

(Gianfranco's POV)

I wake at a time of about nine in the morning. I'm late for breakfast. I scramble up from under the bedsheets, stumbling in the tangle instead. I crash to the floor, then stand immediately. My mother will be furious. I haven't made breakfast yet. But my mother comes up, comforting me. I look up to her, then memories come flooding my vision, and I'm suddenly sobbing my heart out once again. She helps me onto my desk, where a platter of breakfast has settled. I consume it hungrily, and she just tells me to stay put.

I don't really care. There's not really a reason for me to get out. At least, one I can't give. Ercilia comes by to comfort me. Except for her and my mother, nobody comes to bug me. I just sit there, thinking of memories with Vivian, crying when I have to. Ercilia stays there, not necessarily bored, but she's very willing to stay with me because I'm so unstable right now I might as well have killed myself when no one's there through electrocution.

I don't know what Vivian is doing right now, but I just want to think that everything that happened last night was something that never happened. I'd like to think that. But when I have to go to the bathroom to relieve myself, I see her, and my heart hurts with a pang as she turns away, no smile on her beautiful face. Anger and resentment fills me as I return to my desk.

Why did she have to be so convinced her parents control her world? Why do her parents dominate her world so? I don't really mind, because I'm old and still living with mine, but I don't really understand the concept of letting them do and decide everything for you. That's the only thing I can never understand, because as I have reached my twenties, my parents have given me the run of the home instead of me going off on my own. But it's like living on my own really: I have to handle the bills, most of the housework, do a living, cook for them, and more.

And then, I'm bored. So extremely bored. I go downstairs, hand-in-hand with my cousin, and we go tinker with the engines below the second floor. We have a good time, and hardly anyone bothers us. My mother and her cousin is happy that I'm happy, and brings us milk and cookies for a snack. My auntie stays with us, since we share her interest in engineering, and reminds her daughter to stay out of her father's engine. I can't help but crack up as, as if on cue, her father appears. She appears to complain, but the rest of us know she's just pretending. She's almost always like that, just joking around. She has a great sense of humor.

We share jokes and pick-up lines, my aunt more so, because they are so common in her home country I'm betting it's enough to keep me laughing all year round. My aunt tells and re-tells stories of her life, and her husband does as well. Ercilia goes 'eww' over their love story. My parents join in, and tell their love story, where it's my turn to go 'eww' for my cousin. We're all drinking and laughing that more of the family comes by. In this case, it's the McQueens, minus their daughter. That's when the discussion begins.

"Not to put a downer, Franco," my cousin starts, "but what are we going to do about Vivian?"

My smile disappears. "I don't know," I murmur, staring at my warm glass of milk.

"Well, it has to stop, for one," Sally says. "We're not like that, out to control her life. We know that. We were just concerned."

"She doesn't seem to know that," I say as I tip my glass back, rim to my lips.

"Does she let you talk to her?" Ercilia asks the parents of the girl in question.

"Yes, but not about that," Lightning says sadly. "She goes into hysterics every time."

I nod. She's as frustrated as I am. But I can't talk to her; her parents already proved that. What would happen if I did so?

"What would happen, I wonder, if I did so?" I say out loud out of mindlessness.

"Well, she might throw you out herself," Ercilia says. "I mean, screaming hysterics is not cool, cuz."

"But what would happen," I ask, "if I go with her parents and you?" I've turned to Ercilia. She's one of my better strategists, aside from my father.

"It seems like a plan, Franco," my father puts in.

"Not really," I say. "I mean, I don't want to invade her privacy or anything."

Suddenly, my uncle Lightning stares at me with such seriousness I almost flinch. "Do you really love her, Franco?"

I stare at him with the same amount of seriousness, maybe even more. "To the ends of the earth. From the bottom of my heart. Erm…." I stammer. "I mean, it's—I just—I…" I sigh. I can't seem to form a sentence whenever she's on my mind. "I love her, Uncle. I just do."

"Then if you do, why don't you go up there and convince her?" my mother asks fiercely.

"Because I want to respect her privacy," I say.

She shakes her head, frowning. "That's not the Gianfranco I know," she says. "The Gianfranco I know would tell the girl up there about the truth. He would convince her to love him again. The Gianfranco S. Bernoulli I know wouldn't just give up." She pauses, and I bow my head. "Where is that man, Franco? Where is my son, the man who wouldn't just give up?"

I looked up to my mother, and stared at each of the faces turned to me, and I can feel new determination in my chest. "But how?" I ask. That's another problem. I can't just waltz in there!

"Everything will come to you, Franco," my father said. "Everything will come to you, just as naturally as you can handle an F1 behind the wheel."

I took heart in that, and left the garage, setting my unfinished glass of milk down on a table. I dashed right up the stairs from the garage to the second floor. I burst open the door that led to the room, and found her there, holding her legs close. She looked up at me, then turned away, resting her chin on her knees. I shut the door, and settled beside her. I didn't know what to say, but I believe I should start slow.

"They told me they never meant…that," I start, voice low. "They told me they never set out to control your life."

She turns away from me as I look at her, then sniffs.

"Are you cold?" I ask. Ercilia sometimes shared her mother's allergies, and I was just acting on instinct. Vivian doesn't react, and I don't push it.

"Was it always like that," I start, "that your parents tell you everything?"

She nods. Gentleness is my only weapon now.

"You never tried even leading your school life?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"Why not?" She shakes her head again.

"Then maybe it's time to start leading your life now," I murmur, leaning closer, my right hand to the bed covers for support.

"I just don't want to," she squeaks. Or at least, she says in a voice like that.

"Why not?"

"I told you, Franco," she says, and I can her her voice tightening. "I don't want to."

"But I'll be right here with you," I reassure her. "Just as Ercilia and my parents and her parents are, too.

"Nobody expects you to lead your life alone. There are other people around you. You can't depend on them, that's given, but you can trust them to help you on your journey." I scoot closer, my hand on her shoulder now. "You can trust me the help you, Viv," I whisper.

She turns her head to me, her beautiful, blue-green eyes meeting mine. She stared at me for a few moments, and hope flared in my heart. She was going to listen.

"But what if I'm led down the wrong path again, Franco?" she asks softly, sadness still in her gaze. "What if you lead me down the wrong path, just like…he…did?"

I understand her, because her former 'boyfriend' turned her down. She was happy then, I realized, and after she had been rendered defenseless everything had gone downhill. She'd been hiding ever since.

"I won't," I say, staring fiercely into her eyes. "I won't, I promise you."

I think she takes heart in that, because after a moment, she presses forward to kiss me.