Oh how I love all of you! I'm so glad you liked the date, I think I rewrote half of their conversations like four times. So I was going to skip ahead to the end of the night with this chapter but instead we get a little peek into Tommy's family. I'm a quarter Italian, but I have shamed my roots because I had to use like fourteen online translators. I always hate them because they're so literal so I used all different ones and then I looked up Italian proverbs and then I conjugated a few verbs by myself with this little conjugation table I found. Anywho, long story a little less long, we meet the Italian side of Tommy's family and I'm making Tommy's dad full blood Italian and his mother full blood French. I don't know if those cultures clash too much for that to even be possible, but whatever I didn't even introduce the parents. Before I go right into the chapter, I have to thank you guys for all of your awesome reviews and wonderful words! Especially
Kimberlli ((lol, I'm so glad you liked the Sadie and Kwest hookage. I was picturing it the whole time I was writing and it was terrifying lol.))
tommys21 ((That is exactly what I did the whole time I was watching Dead Man's Chest. Well not on my own, because that would be really weird, I was with like eight friends lol. One time we almost got kicked out of Harry Potter. It would have been funny if I hadn't been so scared. I was petrified thatI was going to get ban for the theater lol. I live in Sephora, it is my world lol. I found some S Club 7 on Limewire, ok fine I went looking for it, and I love listening to it because I still remember all the lyrics. It's funny yet disheartening that I couldn't fill my brain with something more useful lol.))
Tayna05801 ((I wish I had a Tommy lol. He would make my life complete lol.))
smileon ((I'm glad you thought the lyrics fit well, I was kinda stressing about that lol. hehe, I always think dancing is totally dreamy. And I think Tommy is totally dreamy teehee))
Tommy4eva ((Oh eighties dance moves, I am forever indebted to them. Especially the moonwalk. Unless that's seventies but I don't know. Damn you Wes! Except the break dancers on So You Think You Can Dance are always my favorite lol. Hehe, the story loves you back! lol, that was weird to type.))
lileigh760 ((lol, my family thinks there's something wrong with me because sometimes I talk out loud while I type and they're like "Who is Liam?" they know of my obsession but they've only been aquainted with the first season because I yelled at them if they came in and talked during the second one lol. But I'm glad you liked the update and Nathan lol!))
Duddley111 ((Oh I would so marry the fresh Prince, just so I could be the fresh Princess lol. I'm so glad you liked it!))
scott4eva ((I'm so glad you liked the update!))
jackjackio ((I think I've heard the bend observation on TV and it was my subsconcious telling me that I have unresolved issues with me...bendiness. lol, I am so jealous of Kiera that it's not even funny. And I feel like I am the only one on Earth who supports the whole Elizabeth/Jack pairing. I would love for them to get together. Johnny's old but not that old, even though there's more separation between us than with Tommy and I...Tommy or Jack...Tommy or Jack. I really lovethat I only look at the charactersand notJohnny and Tim. Idon't knowif I would pick JohnnyDepp only because he's kinda weird.Oh I love the babble! I adore the babble! And I love string cheese, it'sso fun to play with lol.))
romanma32 ((Aw, I am so glad you like it so much!))
Judeh05 ((I have only encountered one person who doesn't find Tim appealing and she's not speaking to me. I think I ended my rant with 'and you're not even that pretty anyway' and then I regretted it because that just mean. lol, I'm going to marry him. I'm convinced. If E.J. and the Viper are in season 3 I would be the happiest person alive. I am in love with the Viper and Tommy in the Viper. The only thing I love more is Tommy on the motorcycle. If I had to choose between the two I think I would have to pick...the motorcycle. Wow, that was a hard decision. I loved the entire episode with White Lines. They could have ended the season there and I would have been mildly satisfied, I can never be completely satisified with any season finale unless I hate the show then I'm just glad it isn't polluting my TV karma. I think Captain Jack is the only hot pirate alive, the others are fat and have missing teeth and wait...there aren't any pirates alive. That was one of my more intelligent moments in life. If Tommy were gay then I would just have to laugh. That would have to be the most brilliant plot twist in the world. Seriously I would sit in front of my TV and laugh my ass off lol.
Latisha C ((I just love to watch people fall, especially their faces. It has the be the most humorous thing in the entire world. They tuck their lip between their teeth and their nostrils flare...Spied does that a lot on the show too. If anyone said that about my dad I would have to hide in a whole for at least twenty years and never look at him again. I would burn my eyes out. I've only witnessed two guys wear eyeliner in real life. As for the movies, the only way I take my Depp is with his liner. But I think Mason would be a pretty girl...maybe. I haven't given it enough thought yet. Click was really good, with a deep message that kinda ruined the funny sometimes. Because you'd be laughing and then it's like 'oh, he's a workaholic and his family hates him, that sucks...' but the son grown up was really hot. I'm so glad you liked the update!))
You guys are simply wonderful and now, on with the chapter!
Chapter 13: Nightfall of Diamonds
"Where do you wanna go?" I asked lightly, with my head turned to look out the window to see the glistening snow dripping from tree branches and swirling with the twinkles of Christmas lights outside. Nightfall of Diamonds anyone? Ugh, I knew listening to those Grateful Dead albums with my dad would screw me up somehow. I looked back at him, a secret smile playing on his face, his face illuminated even in the dark, as he down shifted and turned to look at me.
"I have a place in mind." He said mysteriously.
"Seriously, the whole Sean Connery thing is so played out. Just tell me."
"What do you mean the Sean Connery thing? So you do think I'm more like James Bond than Kwest?"
"I am not answering that."
.o.o.o.
"Tom…" I whimpered, holding my nose in the air and sniffing like a hound dog and staring at him with wide-eyed horror, "it smells like…pee." I finished with feigned tears. I do not want to smell piss when I'm eating ice cream. That is the most unpleasant prospect in the world, other than kissing T-Bone again…which is slightly eminent but whatever. He bent down lightly, his hand finding its newly familiar place on the small of my back, and whispered to me with a smile in his voice.
"Trust me Jude."
What if I just said no? Like, what would he do? Would he be offended or …cry. Or would he be mad. I just have no way of gauging his reaction. I merely rolled my eyes lightly as the back door swung open, the metal banging viciously against the dirty, chipping tiles that made up the walls.
You know in those horror movies when one of the characters finally sees the monster or the devil or whatever was terrorizing them in the first place and they scream right before their inevitable death since they were only a side character anyway? …I dunno, something about this moment made me think of that.
I turned my head to look and my gaze was met with one of the most unattractive men I have ever seen, in all seventeen years of my existence. A stained white apron was straining to stay tied around the girth of his stomach, that rivaled the spans of George O'Malley's forehead. Various splatters of mysterious stains dirtied the white t-shirt that struggled the hold the width of his arm inside. The counter was too high for me to see the rest of him, but if I had to guess I would say his pants are …well I have no idea what they would look like since it's not entirely in the realm of possibility that he even has pants on. An unshaven, scraggly 5-moons-ago shadow seemed to eat away at his face and chins while the light reflected off his bald spot, piercing a shot of light against the windows.
It reminded me of that whole stage with Jamie when he tried to catch sunlight with the face of his watch and then shine it in people's faces at every moment the sun was up. He cried when I told him that he was making the Sun burn out. And then he really cried when Spied stomped on his watch and crushed the glass into the bottom of his bare foot. It's really astounding that he isn't dead by now, I didn't know people could actually get by in life without thinking. But I guess he's surprisingly living proof.
I felt bile rising in my throat as the man's hand reached under the apron and t-shirt to scratch himself in places where I'm sure the sun doesn't shine. Like there is no doubt that the rays of Sun cannot breach the barriers to get there. There is no possible way.
"Tommy, I am leaving right now."
"Aw, don't be so judgmental Princess."
"Oh shut up. You're telling me that the King of all obsessively compulsive cleanliness has actually been here before."
"Let's just say they're like family." He told my cryptically as Tony-Soprano-in-training's face lit up before he raced from around the counter towards Tommy.
"Oh my God! Tommy run!" I screamed as I watched the man lunge himself at Tom. I shot out a death grip in hopes to save him, but when I cracked an eyelid open I saw the two hugging. So he's going for…smothering?
"Ah passerotto!" The man cried fondly into the embrace before pulling away. So I'm guessing that wasn't a battle cry…
I watched the two pull away, Tommy smiling with his whole body and the other smiling reminiscently, his eyes staring and hand over his mouth in surprise, his leaning posture to see all of Tommy from a hovering distance.
They're related.
I shuffled, not uncomfortably, but feeling as if I were intruding on a reunion of sorts so I just stared at my shoes. I heard muffled greetings in Italian and broken English until Tommy came over, wrapping an arm languidly around my shoulders.
I looked up with a small smile, holding a hand out for the man to shake but the formality was hurled out the window as enveloped me in a binding hug. Dude, I so cannot breathe right now and it's not only because you smell like…meat. If I die in this hug, it will be the most shameful death ever recorded in the history books. And I don't think he's doing it on purpose, so maybe he'll only get a man slaughter charge…
"Eh, zio! Non penso che lei può respirare." Tommy called out as I felt the man's grip loosen before he let go of me completely. I fell into Tommy, his arm finding its way back around my shoulders reassuringly as Tommy held out another arm towards the guy. Seriously I need a new name for this guy.
See, the man, the guy, the Tony Soprano. This better be an introduction.
"Jude, this is my uncle Bernardo." He told me before the hand swept back a pointed towards me.
"Zio, this is Jude." He said slowly, annunciating and elongating every letter in my name so much that it sort of didn't sound like a word any more.
J-uuu-D-e.
Whatever. But finally, a name! He has a name! So it's not Tony or Pauly or Junior Bruno or …The Godfather. Those would have been my first guesses.
I thought about throwing my hand back in his face but I knew better because I didn't want another hug. Bernardo looked back at Tommy with smiling eyes. "La bella, ella é tuo…dolce metà?" He asked, his eyebrows wagging. Um, I definitely wanna know what he just said. Like right now.
I looked up to Tommy questioningly who laughed with his uncle, sending a small look that he thought I couldn't see. I watched an understanding pass through the two before the back door swung open again, revealing someone more believably in Tommy's lineage.
A sculpted nose, chiseled jaw, broad shoulders, and confident swagger…am I seeing a twin here?
But as he approached the little powwow I saw one difference, icy green eyes but differing only in color from Tommy's.
"Thomas?" He called out with a deep set, growling voice that seemed to purr out words rather than say them.
"Enzo?" Tommy asked as he turned, taking in the other one. A silent moment ticking by before the two broke into laughing grins before each wrapped an arm around the other's shoulder, each hand clasping the other back forcefully. Tommy pulled away first, turning to me and also giving me a full view of Enzo.
And my God the Quincy men are gorgeous.
Except, I guess Enzo isn't a Quincy. I watched his eyes flicker over me, in a respectfully staring kind of way that didn't make me want to button up my coat to my neck and become a nun. Our eyes locked a moment, no connection, but he was still nice to look at. Tommy cleared his throat loudly brushing his arm around me once more, but this time I felt him staking his territory. Hehe this is so fun.
"Jude this is my cousin Vinny. Vinny this is Jude." I burst out laughing in the face of these clearly and proudly Italian men, not being able to help myself. My Cousin Vinny, seriously?
Seriously? Is this a large cosmic joke for watching Kill Bill instead of Snow Dogs that one time? They all looked at me like I had been beamed down from a land where laughing in strangers faces was appropriate before I snuffed my giggles and apologizing.
"Sorry. It's just…uh, never mind." I said quietly before Vinny let out a small chuckle.
"Yeah, I've seen the movie. I get that a lot."
"You mean people laugh at you a lot?" I asked lightly, threading another chuckle out of him.
I heard Tommy shift next me, as Bernardo tried to wrench the coat off my shoulders. "È freddo fuori! Siccome la casa brucia, riscaldiamoci." He called out before ushering Tommy, Vinny and I behind the counter.
With Vinny in front of me I watched his arm sweep out to hold the door open as he guided me past it with a smile. I graciously took a step past it but jumped a foot in the air when Vinny got sucked behind the small line. I looked back to see Bernardo gripping his collar, menacing growls leaving his lips.
"Is he in trouble?" "Jude. He's twenty-two and working at his father's ice cream shop by and living with his parents by night. He's always in trouble."
"You make him sound like a super-hero."
"Super hero's have less sex."
"I thought you said he lives at home."
"He does." Tommy said with a slight pout that vanished once realization dawned.
"Ew." Failure to Launch anyone?
.o.o.o.
"Ti voglio bene Thomas! No siete estraneos." Bernardo called after us once more as I clutched my cone tightly with one hand and latched myself to Tommy with the other, no wanting to slip or get lost.
I have lived in Toronto all my life, but Jesus, this city is enormous. We were in the heart of Little Italy and I realized that all the times I had gone with my family we had only fleeted on the minor outskirts and there was actually seventeen blocks to its heart. "What did he say?" I asked through the chattering of my teeth.
"He says not to be strangers." Tommy told me.
"Oh." I muttered softly as my feet crunched in the snow. After a few moments of comfortable silence I felt Tommy stop walking so I halted my own steps as I looked up to see a small alcove of trees and between the evergreen branches I saw a small bench. We walked down a cleared path and Tommy plopped himself down before reaching out an arm and shepherding me next to him. I snuggled beneath his arm, resting against his side as I took baby licks of my ice cream.
"Any bugs?" Tommy asked me.
"Nope." I returned lightly as I felt him expel a breath of air into the night.
"Good." He breathed. Um, hello, he better be kidding.
"I don't see how you can eat that. It's literally below freezing out here." "I can't believe you can miss out on this ice cream with your latte." I snorted back.
"Don't scoff at the latte. They get you through the morning. And I grew up with that ice cream, it's not like I missed out forever." "Yes about that, what was your last name?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Picciano." Tommy returned in perfect Italian that made me swoon.
"Say it again." I asked through a grin.
"Picciano, mi amor." He purred, snuggling a hand inside the pocket of my coat.
"So why did you change it?" "Darius said that Bruno could be the only remotely Italian one, so I took my mother's name."
"Going against the family? I would think The Godfather taught you better than that." I chided lightly.
"I'm sorry if I'm the only man on the Earth that doesn't feel the need to watch Marloon Brandon croak out more lines than he can handle." I gasped.
"Take that back."
"No way."
"The only aspect of The Godfather that one can legitimately criticize is Coppola. Both of them. Sofia for existing, and Francis for the third movie for casting her."
"I blame Coppola for all of them."
"Blasphemy! You're gonna get killed one of these days. I bet those twinkle lights are tapped." I felt him chuckle deeply beneath me as he shifted his cup into the hand away from me and other fell to the top of my head.
"So where are your parents now?"
"Ma mère has family in the Loire Valley so I'm guessing somewhere around there."
"You don't know?" I asked lightly, knowing the sense of not knowing where a parent is.
"Bernardo and Enzo and Stella were more like immediate family than anyone else."
"Stella?"
"Bernardo's wife, Vinny's mom, my aunt." I let out a soft 'ah' of understanding as I felt his fingers tracing strands, lightly following the length of them to my temple before crawling back to the top and starting over. I sighed contently but wanting to wrap my arms around him. I impatiently sat up straight holding my cone out to him like I was ten.
Actually I was acting like Jamie when he was ten and had a neurosis about ice cream. It wasn't my fault that time it was Sadie and Spied's. Sadie was twelve, Spied, Jamie and I were ten that summer and Sadie had walked with us ice cream because we had been bugging my mom. Once we got there Spied made Jamie order the rhubarb flavor, which is meaner than pushing someone in front of a bus.
Because ew, who wants rhubarb ice cream?
And who even thought of making rhubarb ice cream?
And who orders rhubarb ice cream enough that they keep it in stock?
"Do it Jamie-a. Do it. Do it! Do it! Do it!" Spied chanted into the small parlor, irritating the old people who were trying to ward off their brain freezes. Whatever, they shouldn't be eating ice cream; they should be eating strained prunes or whatever. Ok that was mean. Sorry Grandma. I take it back.
"I hate rhubarb."
"Have you ever even tried rhubarb?" Sadie spat meanly. She had hated Jamie since he walked in on her peeing three days ago. Before she tolerated him, now she's like…evil.
"Well no, but, I don't…"
"Don't judge a book by its cover, Jamie. If other people did then you wouldn't have any friends."
"Sadie." I whined as I kicked her in the shin with my mud-caked shoe.
Once it was our turn in line Sadie took the liberty of ordering for all of us, knowing what Spied and I wanted, "and a sugar cone with rhubarb for the gawky one." She said with a sweet smile and a finger pointed at Jamie.
"That was really mean Sadie." I told her indifferently as I licked the dripping vanilla from my fingers. We all watched in anticipation as Jamie tentatively licked the bulbous scoop from the top. He immediately winced and thrust the cone away from his face.
"Get it away! Get it away!" He demanded, shoving the cone into Spied's hands and running to the bathroom.
"What is he doing?" Sadie asked in disgust.
"I guess wiping his tongue." Spied said with a shrug and followed me to the table. "I don't wanna hold this anymore." He whined at me. "Then don't." I told him as Jamie came back from the bathroom dejectedly.
"Now my tongue tastes like paper." He said sullenly, standing in front of us at the table. "Can I have another one?" He asked Sadie as Spied snuck Jamie's cone full of rhubarb ice cream on the last vacant chair.
"Yea. Just sit down while I get some money." Sadie huffed as Spied and I giggled sneakily. Jamie plopped forcefully against the metal of the chair, the coldness and sharpness of the end of the cone impaling him in the ass. He immediately let out a shrill scream into the room, jumping up and trying to wipe the purple mess from the back of his cargo pants.
"Rhubarb." He said, tears falling swiftly against his cheeks.
He was kinda like Nathan, but kind of not since it wasn't his fault. It was Spied's fault.
"I don't want any more."
"You just yelled at me for not wanting any."
"I didn't yell. And I'm full now."
"Then throw it away."
"Throw it away?" I gasped out, thrusting the cone closer to his face.
"Throw it away." He repeated more firmly.
"No!" I huffed out indignantly. "Eat it for me."
"Jude, its too cold."
"Please eat it for me."
"Just throw it away Jude."
"No eat it for me."
"I don't want to."
"Please. There's only a little bit left. It's like two licks." I watched him sigh, and I knew I was wearing at his resolve. "Pretty please?" I whispered as I leaned against him, touching my lips to his for a moment, ignoring the sizzling spark like a seasoned pro, before pulling away to see his eyes closed and his lips still slightly puckered. "With sugar on top." I continued in a soft whisper, feeling his arms wrap around me against, my lips hovering inches from his again.
"Kiss me." He whispered gently.
"Will you eat it for me?" I bargained.
"Yes." He breathed as I popped away, jumping off the bench.
"I never said wh-en." I called out in a singsong voice, hopping from one foot to another. He grumbled some more before he snatched the cone from my hands.
"If I get frost bite,"
"Then, I'll never kiss you. So …eat it in the car." I proposed with a smile to myself. Hehe, this is so fun. I wonder if he'll do it.
"Are you insane?"
"If I'm insane, then you're anal. Oh wait…I guess I must be insane." I giggled out as he let out a sarcastic ha-ha-ha. "You would risk frost bite for a car?" I gasped in feigned surprise and he munched on the sugary cone.
"What can I say? She's a babe magnet." He quipped back with a wag of his eyebrows. My shoulders slumped slightly at the mention of other girls, my lips involuntarily jutting out in unhappiness.
"Do they know how attached you are to the car?"
"Well I wouldn't have to tell them that."
"You're right. Just bring them to the studio and I can tell them about the time you tried to have sex with it."
"That was a dare!" He shouted incredulously.
"They don't need to know that." I sang as I raced out of the tucked corner of trees, the lights whizzing past my eyes. I heard his steady patter behind me, without being able to hasten my own pace.
Damn these shoes, they are my enemy! They are the enemy.
He caught up with me a few steps later, throwing his arms around the bulk of my coat and pulling my back against his torso. "When do I get that kiss?"
"Let me surprise you." I returned as I spun around within his arms and holding him in a hug.
"Do you want to take me home?" I whispered in his ear.
"I should." He whispered back, a hand traveling from around my waist up to my ear, his fingers tracing a path around the outline and dipping to dance against my jaw.
"But you don't have to." I heard myself telling him. I pulled away as he grasped my hand, leading us back to the car. Snow piled faster and harder as I jumped into the car, buckling myself and cranking the heat in attempts to warm my freezing ass. "So I finally get to see the famous Quincy pad?"
"Whose made it famous?" He asked as he concentrated intently on the slick roads.
"Besides you, Kwest. He's told me stories. I like to think of him as my own private Entertainment Tonight." "I encourage you to tell him that. Call him Mary Hart too." I chuckled lightly into the car, picturing his fit at the insinuation of his womanhood.
"What has he told you?" Tommy asked. Um, things that I shouldn't know.
"I'll warn you now not to use any lines you have fed to other girls because I know them all now."
I told him, not revealing that I knew about the time he couldn't get it up for a model. Or the time he called out Jane Seymour with Sadie. Those are for something bigger and the latter is just disgusting and I don't ever want to actually have to say that.
Sadie told me with disdainful delight. I think those stories came spilling out…three hours after the break up. She is so vindictive that I am almost envious.