Chapter Four

Calogero was out of breath by the time he reached the corner of East Fordham Street but he was gratified to see Jane leaning against the tenement buildings, hands in the pockets of her long coat.

"I'm sorry," he panted, kissing her quickly as she pushed away from the red brick wall. "It's been one of those days, ya know?"

He loved the fact that she hadn't look pissed to see him, only relieved. But now she looked concerned and he hadn't meant to worry her at all.

"It's all good, Jane, come on." He pulled her towards him and under his arm. In her heels, she slotted just underneath, like she was meant to be up under his arm, like that was where she belonged. The feel of her body against his made him almost sigh in relief. It had been a shitty day and she was the only person that could make it any better.

He took hold of her arm, turning her towards him, holding her close.

"Calogero, are you okay?" She said in his ear. He turned his head to kiss her, more deeply this time. When she pulled away, he was grinning.

"Better for seeing you."

Jane rocked back on her heels thoughtfully, a half smile shrouded by the look of curiosity on her face.

"Calogero…"

He sighed, taking her hand and tugging her along beside him.

"If you don't want to tell me what's going on, that's fine. But don't lie to me."

She had quite a way with words. She could make him guilty as sin and wanting to spill his guts in a matter of seconds. And she did it so reasonably too.

"My father threw me out of the apartment."

Jane stopped walking, a gasp escaping her lips. He was almost amused by her wide eyes, her lips formed in a perfect O.

"He what? Why would he do that?" She scrunched up her face in confusion before all the pieces slotted together and her expression fell. "Oh."

Calogero felt his blood boil at the guilt he could see in her. Damn his father for this.

"Don't," he warned her sternly. He tugged again at her hand to keep her moving and even though she kept up she still played dumb.

"Don't what?"

"You know what. Don't start blaming yourself. He'll cool down soon, it ain't a problem."

"Well, of course it's a problem. I mean, where ya gonna go? Who you gonna stay with?" She sounded upset and he hated to hear her upset.

"I sorted out a place tonight, that's why I'm a little late, so stop your worrying and let's have us a good night, okay?"

"A place where? Who with?" He gave her a long meaningful look and then it was her turn to sigh.

"Okay, okay. I'll be quiet."

He hugged her to him, kissing her forehead, admiring the way her lashes lay on her cheek when she closed her eyes. Damn, she was beautiful. And just looking at her made him think everything might turn out alright.

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"Everybody's staring at us."

"Nobody's staring. Stop being paranoid." Calogero tried to laugh Jane's comment off but the truth was, everybody was staring. Even Paolo was starting to look uneasy. He stood in the far corner, taking careful sips from a can of beer but Calogero could read his mind like an open book.

'Oh, shit, people think I invited a black girl.'

Calogero and Jane were sharing an armchair near the kitchen door. He was starting to wonder if people were as thirsty as they seemed or if they were just heading into the kitchen to get a better look at the two of them.

"Can we just go? Please?" Her voice was tight, and he did his best to pull her around towards him and block her view of the room. He didn't want to be here either but no way was he leaving after ten minutes. He wasn't gonna give anyone the satisfaction of forcing them out.

"We said an hour," he said to Jane. "Just an hour and then we'll -"

"C!" The voice, sounding pleased as punch to see him, threw Calogero off balance. He turned to see Dante, Slick's big brother. He was wearing a leather jacket and a crisp white shirt, his hair carefully greased and his smile genuine.

"How you doing, man?" C reached out to shake his hand. "You remember, Jane, right?"

Dante smiled down at Jane.

"Sure. How you doin', honey?"

"Hi, how are you?"

Jane didn't look too happy to be called 'honey' but Calogero was just glad to see a friendly face. Dane pulled over a nearby wooden hear and sat backwards on it, stretching out his legs in a pose that reminded C of his brother, Slick.

"Hey, C." Behind Dante stood Marco Grante. He had been a neighbour of Mario's, a couple of years younger than Calogero and although he'd said hello on the way in, he hadn't seemed brave enough to venture over until he saw Dante do it.

"Marco. You realise we ain't got lepracy now?" Calogero's comment was biting and Jane looked so embarrassed, he felt bad for saying it.

"Hey, it's not like that, man." But by the redness of his cheeks, Calogero knew exactly how it was. "I just didn't want to interrupt you and your friend."

"Girlfriend," Calogero said in a hard voice.

"Hey, really? My name's Marco." He grabbed Jane's hand and shook it enthusiastically.

"Jane," she answered uncomfortably, struggling to free herself.

"So where you been hiding, C? We don't see you around so much no more." Marco was babbling now and Calogero reminded himself that he was still just a kid really.

"I been around, man. If people look, they'll find me."

Dante got the joke and started to laugh. He reached over and shook Calogero's arm.

"C, I missed you, man. I miss all Slick's friends, you were a crazy bunch of bastards even when you's was kids. You remember that time you set up a lemonade stall?"

Jane smiled at Calogero in that way she did when she heard something new about him.

"Alright, D, that's enough," Calogero said lightly but of course that didn't stop him.

"The lemonade was so bad nobody wanted any but Mario and Slick rounded up all the local kids and forced them to buy it anyways. It was daylight robbery with a cup of bad lemonade as consolation." Dante was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe and Marco chuckled along.

Calogero looked at Jane and rolled his eyes. She smiled uncertainly and even though he wouldn't have chosen that story to share with her, it was nice to be laughing with friends with her by his side. It made them feel like a normal couple.

"You guys want a drink? C? Jane?" Dante stood up and was backing towards the kitchen when Calogero nodded. "Yeah, I'll have a beer."

"Lemonade please," Jane said. Dante nodded his head and disappeared. "He seems nice," she said to Calogero.

"Who, Dante?" Calogero looked at her in surprise. He'd never really thought about it in detail but he guessed Dante was a good guy. He'd been a killjoy when they were kids, always trying to stop Slick from getting in trouble, but he'd been right when he said they were crazy little bastards. "Yeah, he's okay."

"Er, C? This guy a friend of yours?" Paolo was standing there uncomfortably, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at a smiling Vito. Vito looked sharp in a pair of cream slacks and a pale blue shirt. He was darting a look around the place, his eyes lingering longest on the girls in the room.

"Hey, C. I dunno what this guy's problem is." Vito spread his hands out innocently. "I thought he was a friend of yours?"

"He is." C looked at Paolo then Vito. "You both are."

Paolo looked put out.

"Oh, okay. I was just checking. No hard feelings, man." He clapped Vito on the arm and headed away from them. Calogero suddenly felt that inviting Jane and Vito was probably overstepping the mark. It was probably time they left.

"How you doin', Vito? We were just gonna leave as it happens." He gestured at Jane and then saw Vito's eyes light up approvingly.

"You're C's girl, huh? I'm Vito, his er- new room mate." Vito smirked at C who was glad he had told Jane he'd been thrown out. Otherwise his big mouth would have given the game away.

"Jane Williams," Jane said. "Are we going, Calogero?"

A couple of girls in mini skirts walked by and into the kitchen.

"Ah, man. You know those girls, C? Wanna introduce me?" Vito's eyes followed them for as long as the swinging kitchen door would allow.

Calogero looked hesitantly at Jane.

"Can you just give me a second?" He asked her. Dante came out of the kitchen door balancing two beers and Jane's lemonade.

"Here ya go." Dante held out the drinks and Calogero took his beer and set it down on a side table before passing the lemonade to Jane.

"Dante, would you keep Jane company for just a second?" Calogero squeezed Jane's shoulder as he backed away from her but she didn't meet his eyes.

The girls in the short skirts were Sophia Fratelli and Marnie Grigio. The both of them lived a couple of blocks from Calogero and once upon a time they'd mixed with the same crowd.

"Hey, ladies, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine." It was only once Calogero approached Sophia and Marnie that he saw Rachel Dimarco leaning against the far kitchen wall, sipping from a plastic cup.

Vito obviously didn't need any more help in getting acquainted with the girls. He already had the two of them giggling and satisfied that he'd done the necessary introductions, Calogero turned to leave.

"Hey, C. Where you running off to?" He wasn't sure how Rachel managed to get between him and the kitchen door but there she was, in her tight black capri's and low cut shirt, her heavily made up eyes fluttering from his chest to his face.

"How you doin', Rachel," he said politely. He tried to move around her but she sidestepped him so she was directly back in his line of vision.

"How comes we never see you no more, C? Is it not the same without your boys or is it we just ain't your kind of flavour these days?"

"Rachel, I saw you this morning."

He saw her most mornings in fact. It was her nosy ass mother who ran the general store a few doors from his building. He saw Rachel at school, sometimes on the school bus, and every now and then his father had brought home a message from her.

'Rachel says hi. Rachel asked after you today. Did you know Rachel's father comes from the same place in Sicily that I do?'

Calogero was sure his Pops would change his mind entirely about Rachel Dimarco if he saw what was written about her in the boys locker room.

"You know what I mean. You don't come to parties, you don't hang out with us-"

"Well, the invites ain't exactly been falling through my door," Calogero said. It was the truth too. Since he'd been with Jane most of the invitations had stopped.

"Well, if you ever wanna go to a party, you're always welcome with me." Rachel reached out to stroke his arm and it was then that Calogero tried again to pass her by. Rachel grabbed him by the waist and pushed him against the kitchen cabinets, causing a glass to slip off the counter and into the sink. The crash startled him and interrupted Vito and the girls.

"Whoah, take it easy with her, C. Don't be such an animal."

Sophia and Marnie giggled as Calogero put his hands on Rachel's arms and tried to manoeuvre her out of his way.

"Come on, C. You and me go way back." Rachel was practically purring as she pushed her body against his.

It must have been the noise of the glass smashing that brought Dante into the kitchen. Unfortunately for Calogero, Jane was right behind him. His eyes met hers over Rachel's head and without a word, she turned and walked out.

"Jane!"

"Let her go, she doesn't belong here," Rachel said with a toss of her hair.

"She belongs wherever I do," Calogero snapped.

"Then maybe you don't belong here either."

Calogero was through being gentle and this time he prised Rachel's hands from himself and shoved her aside.

"Maybe I don't."

He didn't even bother saying goodbye to Dante or Vito. He hurried out of the kitchen, through the living area and out onto the street.

"Jane! Jane, wait up!"

He knew she could hear him but that didn't stop her or slow her down. If anything he thought she speeded up.

He was panting by the time he caught her arm and pulled her towards him.

"Hey-"

Jane pulled her arm angrily away from him and stepped backwards.

"What is it, Calogero? What do you want?"

"Whoah, come on. Nothing happened, okay? That was all her. I don't want nothing she's offering."

Jane's eyes were flashing.

"And what exactly was she offering?"

He put a hand over his face for a second and then drew a breath.

"Jane…"

"Look, I don't appreciate you bringing me to a party just to prove a point. You left me alone with people that didn't want me there-" She was starting to use her fingers to check off his list of wrongdoings so he interrupted her right there.

"I left you with Dante!"

"I don't even know Dante! His brother beat up on my brother and tried to burn down my neighbourhood. And if that's not bad enough, I walk in on you with your hands all over that girl!"

"You're talking crazy," he told her. "She had her hands on me. I was tryna get away from her."

"Didn't look like you weren't trying that hard."

Calogero fought against the rise of his temper.. She didn't seem to be listening to anything he had to say and in all fairness he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He wasn't interested in Rachel, not one bit.

"Why did you bring me here tonight? You must have known it wasn't going to work out. People ain't never gonna accept us and that's just the way it is."

He didn't know if it was the fact that she was voicing his deepest fear, but Calogero suddenly lost it with her.

"Well at least I'm trying! I don't see you introducing me to your friends or family. Shit, you haven't even told your Mom about us!"

She pursed her lips angrily.

"Oh, because telling your Mom worked out so well for you, didn't it?"

"My Mom was actually okay about it. It's just my father-it's the way he was raised-who wants me to date an Italian."

"Like the girl in there?" Jane demanded. "I bet he'd be real happy if you took a girl like that home."

Calogero didn't want to say that bringing Rachel home would be his father's dream come true. Instead he took a breath.

"Jane, I'm trying here, I swear to God I am, but you're not being fair."

She screwed her face into an expression of disbelief and he knew then and there this argument wasn't going to get resolved today.

"I'm not being fair? Did I take you somewhere you feel uncomfortable and then wind up wrapped around some guy in the next room?"

"Jane!" He was yelling at her now and even though it was the last thing he wanted to do he couldn't stop himself. "Do you really think if I wasn't in this one hundred percent I'd take all the shit that I do? I got people crossing the street when they see me coming, my own father can't stand to look at me, and you're accusing me of scamming on other girls? What kind of shit is that?"

"You think you're the only one?" She yelled back. "You think I don't go all day with the stares and the whispers? But I'm not trying to force us on anyone else like you do. I don't care what other people think. The only thing that mattered to me was us!"

"Was?" He picked up on her using the past tense and this only made him madder. "I dont need this shit, Jane, I really don't. I got no place to live, I lost all of my friends this past year and everyone in my neighbourhood treats me like a damn leper! And for what? For this?"

Jane was shaking and he didn't know if it was because she was angry or upset. She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

"If I make your life so hard, Calogero, maybe it's better for both of us than I'm not in it."

"If that's what you want, I ain't gonna stop you." He stared back at her, watched her eyes fill with tears before she turned her head proudly and strode off. She wouldn't allow herself to cry. He knew she was much too reserved to start bawling in the street. But she was upset, and he had been the one to upset her.

That wasn't his role, wasn't his job. He was supposed to cheer her up; to make her smile when the rest of the world brought her down. Knowing he'd been the one to put tears in her eyes felt like a punch in the gut.

He desperately wanted to chase after her now. He wanted to call her name and tell her he was sorry. But instead, Calogero watched Jane Williams walk away until she disappeared from sight.

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