May 28th 2022

♡❀˖⁺. ༶ ⋆˙⊹❀♡

"Vale, Svegliati il ​​culo!"

I groan as the bright sunlight hits my face. Excruciating bright even though my eyes are closed shut. I move onto my side to try and get of out the sun -- but felt the blankets get torn off me. The cool breeze nipping at my skin.

I let out a frustrated groan and finally open my eyes to see my best friend, my roommate, Viviana. "Its time to get up." She sternly says. I reach my hands up to rub my tired eyes.
"Why so early?"

"Your 'boy toy' eagerly wants you to come to his race." She shoves my phone infront of my face, revealing that she was and still is on call with someone, Marco. Marco Bezzecchi. My best friend since childhood. I eyed her for the nickname she chose for him.

My family had moved to the small city Rimini when I was near the age of 3 from Verona, and moved in next to the Bezzecchi family. Our parents grew close with one another. Mr and Mrs Bezzecchi had 3 children, 2 girls and 1 boy. Silvia, Laura and Marco.

Marco, whom I grew the closest with. He was even the one who made me interested in racing. I begged my parents to let me go into the karting, even with all the 'no's' and the 'its too dangerous,' I got them to say yes. There on out, me and Marco raced eachother, on either a team or on seperate teams. Starting with karts and then motorcyles. We were both pretty competitive, but we would always leave those emotions out on the track.

We both made it to Moto3 and later on Moto2 with eachother. Then he recently moved up to the big leagues, Motogp, just this year. I would have too if I hadn't crashed the final race of our last Moto2 season. I had a contract with Gresini all ready for me, but due to the injuries I had endured, it had been dropped, followed by a 'Sorry,' in an email.
Great, right?

"Vale?" I hear his voice. "Hey Marc. How's it going?" I say up and take the phone out of her hand. She then leaves my bedroom, giving me a quick thumbs up.
"I'm doing great. How are you holding up?"

"Could be better.. you had to wake me up at eight in the morning?" I joke. His chuckle echos out of the small speaker of the phone. "Of course I had too. We're in Italy right now for a race, I was wondering if you wanted to come?"

"Yeah? And how much will love ticket cost? If its not sold out already.." I let out a yawn and stretch out my back. "I have a pass that I can give you. The race starts at 11, you know where it is right?"

"Of course I do."

"Great, see you there. Ti amo!" He excitedly says and the line goes silent. I place my phone ontop of my nightstand and reach over to grab my prosthetic leg. Strapping it on, I stand up and further stretch out my back. I go over to my closet to pick out clothes for the day.

Simple black shorts and one of my boyfriend's shirts that he had given me a couple weeks back. I grab a pair of socks and slip them on before brushing out my frizzy red hair -- putting on mascara afterwards.

I grab my phone and then leave my room to make my way towards the kitchen, finding Viviana. Sipping on what I presumed to be coffee. "Are you going?" She asks once her eyes land on me. "He has a pass for me." I shrug my shoulders and take a seat on one of the barstools. "I don't see why you wouldn't go after 'that.'" She smirks and wiggles her eyebrows at me. Gesturing to Marco.

Viv has never liked my current boyfriend, my only boyfriend I ever had, Leo. She always said that Marco would be better suited. More boyfriend material.

Me and Leo have been dating for the past 3 years now. I will admit that he is attractive, but he's rather much an asshole. Something I can agree with Viviana on. Why am I still with him? I still don't have a clue.

"Can you not?" I glare. "What? Marco is lovely, and soft on the eyes.." she grins. "Why don't you ask him out then, if that's what you think of him?" I bite back. "I just might if you aren't."

"Good on you then. Marco is nothing other than a brother to me." She slides me a glass of coffee. I feel my phone vibrate. "You're not going to tell him are you?" I look up at her, scrunching my eyebrows. "Leo." She clarifies. "Of course not."

"Good, because you know him.. he'll go all ape shit. I don't need to be fixing the front door." She eyes me whilst I text back.
"What time are you leaving?" She then adds.

"It gets pretty busy.." I take a sip of my coffee, burning my tongue. "Jesus fucking christ." I hiss, placing my cup back down on the counter. No longer wanting it. Viviana chuckles. "You're coming right?" I then ask. She shakes her head. "No, you're a big girl now. Plus motorcycles aren't my thing, you should know that by now."

"Right." I giggle, standing myself up and readjusting one of my straps. "Do you want me to drive you though?" I feel her eyes burn into me. "Like you said, I'm a big girl now. I'll just take my bike."

"You sure about that?" I look over at her to see that she was gesturing to my plastic leg. "I'll be fine." I shoo her off. "You just haven't riden since.. the incident? I still need you in one piece, you know?"

"I said I'll be fine."

"If you say so Vale."

₊˚⊹♡

"There you are!" I hear a familiar voice. I lift my visor and look in the direction of the voice. Seeing Marco walking over towards me, away from the tables of people. A couple I recognized to be riders. I examined my best friend, seeing that much hadn't changed besides the metal in his earlobes.
"You're not replacing me right?" He jokes, eyeing the bike I was sitting on. I shrug my shoulders and take my helmet off. As I go to slide my leg over, I became incased in his arms. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." I chuckle. He releases me and I go to shove his shoulder. "But why didn't you tell me you came back home?"

"I did. This morning." He shrugs his shoulders and gives me a look. "Yeah, this morning. But when did you get here?"
"A couple days ago... I didn't want to bug you though!" He holds his hands up in defense.
I shake my head at him. Before noticing a couple sets of eyes on us.

"Here, come." He grabs my hand and pulls me in the direction of the other seated people. "Marco! Hey!" A man waves him over to his table. We pass a couple of the others and couldn't help but notice most of them all eyeing me up and down, glaring at my prosthetic.

Me and Marco come to a halt. The man who called him over stands up and the two shake hands, saying their 'hellos' and 'how are yous,' whilst I cut out most of their conversation as I continued to feel eyes on me. "Ti piace quello che vedi?" I finally snap. Looking at each person seated. No longer wanting an audience.

Most of them turned their heads, but there was one who didn't. One who looked fairly familiar but I couldn't pin point who exactly it was. He looked to be of the riders though, given his choice of clothing. I felt more anger build up as he continued to look at me. What was his problem?

I tore away from Marco and the other man and stormed over to him. "Vale, hey!" I heard behind me. As I got closer, I felt a hand tug me back. I looked around to see Marco giving me a look that read 'don't start anything.'

"Come on, I want you to meet Luca." I take one last look to the unknown man before allowing Marco to redirect me elsewhere. "I forgot how feisty you are." He chuckles, walking us over to the same man who first greeted Marco. Luca. I presume.
"Luca, sorry. This is Valentine. Long-time friend of mine." Luca reaches a hand out for me to take. "Lovely to meet you!" I take his hand and gently shake it. I smile up at him. "Likewise."

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚