Chapter 1
My heart beats harder as the plane starts speeding. I've never been on a plane before and I have definitely never left Italy. I look at my mom sitting beside me with her eyes closed, smiling. For her this is like the old times, when she used to date my dad. She still lived in America back then, for she is Californian, and flied every weekend to see him. When she had enough money to move out of her parents' house, she got her stuff, moved in with my father and had me. I'm now sixteen and am currently on a plane carrying all of my belongings, flying into my new life, my new home, leaving behind the broken heart of my mother and my old life, old friends, my father's family, everything I have ever know basically. After she found out my dad was cheating on her, a different hookup each nigh, she didn't get all cold like some mothers, she actually took more care of me and became more loving. She decided to take me with her and start from scratch in California with her parents.
I don't look at all like my father, actually I'm an almost identical copy of my mother. We both have long, honey hair, freckles, ocean blue eyes and full, peachy lips. From my description I sound pretty, I don't think I am. My mother is and quite a lot, she also is very young. Still, boys keep chasing after me. And as an idiot I lead them on because I'm scared someone will find out about me. But I don't want to in my new life, I don't want to be one of those girls everyone wants and envies at the same time. It's tiring and brings you nowhere in life, you just know how to be with people but not in the social skills kind of way. The only part I think I'll really miss are my two best friends, Martina and Lorenzo. I really liked them and they saw me for who I really am. They weren't my friends to be "popular" or to date me or other stuff like that, they were my first, real friends. We all met the first day of nursery and we've been inseparable ever since. And they are the only ones I told that I'm gay. In a homophobic school like my old one who knows how much people would hurt me, probably they would have beaten me up or something and made my life miserable. The worst part is that it's like "I love you", they're words that you can't take back and even if you could they would never forget it, making everything shit for me anyway. There are only two out LGBTQ+ people, one that gets treated like a goddess because she's hot and well, bisexual girls apparently attract guys, and the other one is a lesbian and constantly bullied because she is one of the unlucky people that get targeted by idiots and has no friend to comfort her. I didn't have the guts to protect her, I wish I did. But in this life I'm going to and I won't be the "popular" kid anymore. I'm going to stick to that promise. For real this time.
As I look out of the window, the plane leaves the ground and gains altitude fast. It's a bit shaky but I would have expected it to be way scarier. The pull is so hard it's like I'm stuck to my seat. My mom is so relaxed it almost looks like she's getting a relaxing massage after centuries of torture.
When the force that pinned me to the seat finally calms down I take out my Kindle and start reading Pride And Prejudice. I love that book, but then, I'm a hopeless romantic so everyone would expect it to be my favorite. And it is. I don't know, I guess it would be fun to be chased like Elizabeth got chased by Mr. Darcy. Not at her levels, I think that crosses some lines, but I would like the chase. I did get chased, but I didn't enjoy it, I got disgusted by it, but only because no girl ever did. There's this girl on TikTok, or rather, there was. She disappeared about a year ago, no one knows why or where. She didn't disappear as in someone kidnapped her or something, one day she left her school, her parents sold the house and she stopped posting. Her name is Savannah and she is hot as hell. No one outside of Italy knows her, but she turned gay half of the female Italian population. She was the tomboy that ruled the Italian TikTok world. Point is, I would love to get chased by her, my God. She is my age too.
I open the Kindle and read when Mr. Darcy writes his love letter to Elizabeth. It's the ninth time I read this book, I really really like it. I pause to think what I would do if someone wrote me a love letter. I look out the window and get lost in the beauty of the clouds. One thing I forgot to mention is that I love astronomy. I know clouds don't completely classify as astronomy, especially Earth's clouds, but they are still beautiful. I wonder what clouds on other planets would look like. I bet Jupiter's clouds would be astonishing, the pole's ones probably even more. The poles remind me of a painting from some artist like Van Gogh, they really are amazing.
"Rose" my mother says. I look at her. "The waitress asked you if you would like anything to drink or eat."
"Oh, yeah. I'd like hot chocolate, please." The waitress smiles at me and starts making my drink. She reminds me of Britney Spears in Toxic's music video. When I get my hot chocolate, I thank her, take a sip and continue wondering of what is the amazing world of the Universe.