"YOU DIDN'T?!" Gianna gasped, as her cousin sat completely silent, avoiding all eye contact. "YOU TOTALLY DID!" She said with a maniacal laugh. "MIO DIO (MY GOD), Gio is going to KILL you when he finds out."

"YES. YES HE WILL. Which is why NOBODY can EVER know. Especially not Gio." Luca said frustratedly, shuddering at the thought of his cousin, Gianna's twin brother, Gio ever finding out about his little one night stand with Aidan fucking Taylor.

Gio is the quarterback for the Crenshaw High Spartans, so naturally his rivalry with Aidan was something else entirely. Though Luca never really understood it in the first place, it was what it was. Spartans and Raiders don't mix, they're like oil and water; or more like bleach and ammonia, an utter disaster.

"Well?! Tell me everything! How was it?!" She asked him excitedly, clearly living for the drama.

"I don't remember much..." He drawled, wincing in embarrassment. "Or well... Anything, really..."

"LUCA! What do you mean?! Do you know if he used protection?!" Her expression shifted from teasing to frantic. Luca groaned at the thought of having to answer his cousin, and also at the thought that one of the biggest manwhores in the county might have neglected to use protection. "YOU HAVE TO GET TESTED." She screeched at him. "God only knows where all he's been."

"Cavolo, Gianna, lo so! (Damn, Gianna I know!) I'll figure that out myself okay, can we just not talk about it. And stop screaming, you're giving me a headache." Luca cried out as held his head in frustration.

"You gave yourself the headache with all that tequila last night." She snapped at him sassily. "Just go fucking get tested, okay?"

"Perdio!" (For God's sake!) Luca groaned at her, burying his face in his palms.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot. Nonno needs extra help tonight at the restaurant. Are you free to pick up a shift?" Gianna asked blankly as Luca groaned in agony at the thought.

"No." Luca said flatly, as if it actually made a difference.

"Let me rephrase that. Nonno needs extra help tonight at the restaurant, you are free to pick up a shift." Gianna said snappily.

"Ugh fine." Luca rolled his eyes and gave in grudgingly, it wasn't like he could get out of it. He liked helping his Nonno and Nonna  at the family restaurant, don't get him wrong. But today wasn't exactly the best day for it.

"Great. Drink a Pedialyte and suck it up. You're an adult now, you can vote and buy lottery tickets and shit." Gianna replied, lightly ruffling Luca's hair with one hand while clutching the steering wheel with the other. It wasn't long before Gianna drove them back across town and pulled into her drive way.

"Thanks, Gia, I seriously owe you." Luca whispered gratefully as he climbed out of her car.

"You're welcome! Go take an ibuprofen. And take a shower, you look like you were brought back from the dead." Gianna teased, blunt as she always was.

"Haha. Funny." he deadpanned as he crossed her yard and into his own. Yes, they lived next door to each other, and their Nonna and Nonno (Grandma and Grandpa) lived on the other side of Luca's house.

To say that Luca's family was close was an understatement. It started when their Nonna and Nonno immigrated from a small village in Sicily a few years before Luca's Papà and his aunts and uncles were born. Now their whole extended family unit included at least thirty people in Crenshaw County alone with even more in New York City. And that's only Luca's Papà's family;  we haven't even gotten to Luca's Mamma's giant Greek-Italian family in Montréal.

    Their family were huge, loud, and very, very close, to the point of suffocation, but Luca wouldn't trade them for the world. When he was thirteen and realized he was gay he thought he was going to lose it all. He thought for sure that his giant, super warm, and super Catholic, Italian-American safety blanket would be snatched away from him. But thankfully, that wasn't the case.

He sat his parents down first and ripped off the proverbial bandaid, they seemed completely unbothered by it, which Luca found strange but he chose not to question it. His six year old little brother Marco was only one when Luca came out to the family; far too young to understand anything, but as he grew up he knew that his big brother loved other boys and that there was nothing wrong with it.

But the hardest part for him had yet to come; telling his Nonna and Nonno. They were his world, he grew up with them, he loved them with all his heart; but deep inside he feared that as super conservative and pious Catholic Sicilians,  they probably wouldn't be able to see past this.

    One fine day he finally plucked up the courage to tell them. He went over to their house and told them; actually he just screamed it at them randomly out of nowhere. His Nonna cupped his face lovingly and kissed him on the forehead saying "We love you no matter what" in her thick Italian accent.

Nonno, on the other hand, just walked up to him with a blank expression, ruffled his hair and said "Non siamo ciechi, figliolo." (We aren't blind, son.) as a smile cracked on his face and he pulled his grandson in for a tight loving embrace. The rest of the family just kind of found out on their own, though nobody was truly surprised. Privacy wasn't exactly a thing for Luca's family, neither was a respect of space for that matter, nor using inside voices; but he wouldn't want them any other way.

"Where the hell have you been" Luca's Mamma screamed from the kitchen as Luca tried to tiptoe through the front door and stealthily climbed halfway up the stairs.

"I was with Gianna!" He closed his eyes for a minute and exhaled deeply before yelling down from the bannister.

"LUCA. Vieni qui! (Come here!)" She screamed from the kitchen as Luca groaned audibly. "ADESSO!" (NOW!) Luca dragged his feet as he descended the staircase and skulked towards the kitchen.

"Oh God, you look like like you got hit by a car." His Mamma said looking at his disheveled appearance.

"Thank's Mamma..." He said with a glare.

"Go... get ready..." She said scanning him up and down with her eyes. "We have to go to the restaurant in a half hour."

"What? NOW?! I thought we were going later tonight." He protested childishly, earning him a stern glare from his mother. "Okay fine, I'll go get ready." he gave in and dragged his feet back up the stairs and towards his room. After brushing his teeth, popping a few ibuprofen, taking a hot shower, and downing an espresso, Luca managed to morph into what somewhat resembled a functioning human.

    Saturdays and Sundays were naturally busy at the restaurant. Giovanni's was an establishment in Crenshaw County. It was one of the first and arguably one of the most popular Italian restaurants in the county. People of all ages from all over the county would come to eat at Giovanni's for an authentic Italian dining experience, which Luca's Nonna prided herself on.

    The lunch and dinner rush were particularly rough, so the whole family usually helped out, especially on weekends. Luca usually waited and seated tables with Gianna and his cousin Arianna, while Gio and their other cousin Enzo worked in the back helping in the kitchens. Luca and Gianna worked well together. Since he was only a few weeks older than the twins, most of the family jokingly called them the triplets.

During a short lived lull in the dinner rush, Gianna and Luca caught their breath, standing by the entrance of the restaurant to take reservations, and gossip some more about the night before. Gianna's eyes suddenly widened as she glanced behind Luca over his shoulder.

"Non guardare indietro" Whispered Gianna, advising him not to look behind him towards the entrance. Luca raised an eyebrow at her in confusion as she mouthed the words that he could have gone the entire day without hearing. Aidan Taylor. "Vai vai! (Go go!) I'll handle it." she whispered as Luca scurried away towards the kitchens, thinking fast about what he could possible do. He glanced down at his name tag and suddenly an idea popped in his head.

    He ran to the office in the back and opened the drawers frantically looking for something, he reached in and finally pulled out exactly what he was searching for. A name tag that had 'Niccolo' etched onto the metallic surface. Unpinning his own tag and replacing it with his cousin Niccolo's old one, he walked back towards the front area of the restaurant.

"There you are. Table 19" Gianna looked at him with a questioning gaze as she turned back to the group of boys and addressed them  with a fake polite tone. "He'll escort you to your table, Enjoy." she said as Luca grabbed four menus and smiled politely to the boys indicating for them to follow him. Weaving through tables until he finally led them to a booth in the back corner of the restaurant.

"Hi, I'll be serving you today. Can I get you all something to drink first?" He said mundanely as he set the menus down in front of the four boys. They all wore red and white varsity jackets, indicating that they were all Hilldale Raiders football players. Luca recognized Aidan and another dark haired boy, but the other two didn't seem familiar to him. Aidan smiled at first, but Luca made a point to seem like he had no idea who Aidan was, which wiped the smile clear off of Aidan's face. Luca took the boys' drink orders as normally as he could and politely smiled before going to get their drinks.

"Alright explain." Luca jumped at the sound of Gianna's voice in front of him, it was as if she had materialized out of nowhere.

"Shhh... God..." Luca whispered to her pulling her into a secluded corner away from earshot. "He asked for my name, and I didn't tell him."

"That explains the name tag..." Gianna nodded while staring at him with narrowed eyes. "What I don't get is why he's staring at you like that?"

"Like what?" Luca asked oblivious to what Gianna was talking about.

"I don't know I can't quite pinpoint it." Gianna said honestly which didn't really help anything at all.

"He's probably freaking out because he slept with a boy." Luca rolled his eyes as he filled the drinks. "Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Straights, I tell you... No offense."

"None taken, fratello (brother). But that's not it... God! What is that look?! I can't figured it out..." Gianna said staring at the boy blatantly, with her signature gum smacking.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, sorella (sister)." Luca smirked as he loaded the drinks onto a tray. "They'll be gone soon, and Aidan fucking Taylor will have moved on to his next girl for the night." Gianna shook her head with a smirk, as Luca glanced at her knowingly before making his way back to the boys' table.