ARIANA
After we were done at the hospital, Enzo was the one who carried everything for me. I got off of the bed. As soon as my feet touched the ground, my whole world suddenly started spinning. My hand reached to grab something, anything, to steady me. My hand was instantly captured by Enzo. I couldn't see it because my vision had gone completely dark. But I could feel his touch. It was the same as all those years ago.
The touch came with a lot of sweetest memories that left my mouth and my heart bitter again. I gulped hard and tried to snatch my hand from his hold. He let go of my hand but wrapped his arm around my waist so I wouldn't fall. “I know! I can understand. You don't have to say it.” He whispered in my ear. There were no questions asked.
He didn't rush me at all. He let me get better on my own. After a few minutes, when I finally got my vision back and my head stopped spinning, I found Enzo staring at me with a concerned look on his face. I didn't want him to worry about me anymore.
A second later, he masked it up with a smile that never reached his eyes. Then he scooped me up in his arms with an ease. “Enzo! What are you doing?” I asked, feeling embarrassed with the encounter.
“I am gonna carry you in my arms. And some I know, you are feeling dizzy, you can't argue about it as well. Just stay quiet and rest up. Leave the rest to me.” He was very firm with his order. I didn't say anything. I just remained quiet and I let him carry me out of the hospital. I rested my head against his shoulder.
The scene brought back a memory from the past. Mom and dad were on their tenth honeymoon. And as usual, my brother was wasted at a bar after gambling mom's money away. I knew, no one was home. It was my fourteenth birthday. I was a nerdy bookworm back then. With thick glasses and braces on. I was too engrossed with my studies that I hardly ate.
The thickness of my body was lost. I was like the girl who had her skin hanging on the skeleton. Due to lack of care, despite me going through puberty, I was flat from both front and bum.
Let's just say, I wasn't the popular kid around. And people came to talk to me only when it's a surprise test on their head, they need help with their assignments or during the exam days. The class’ popular girl, always the mean blonde, her birthday was a week later.
I had set everything up. I had asked Enzo to set up a birthday party for me that's liked by people of my age. And he did. It was a huge birthday party. I invited the whole school. Even the mean girl, I couldn't remember her name anymore.
What happened was, she threw a party for herself, a week before her birthday. And since she was the new popular girl in the school, head of the cheerleader gang, she had the upper hand. No one came to my party and I was devastated.
Being a teen, I was rational. After everything, she had the audacity to show up at my place. She and her mean boys destroyed my party, soaked with with soda, smashed my cake all over me, threw my gifts in the pool and ran off. One of the boys, to impress the popular girl to have a Chance with her, threw a gift at me.
It was a music box, made of heavy wood. It was handmade by some craftsman from Paris. Enzo brought me that gift especially when he learned that I had grown interested in ballet.
The box hit me in the head and I was unconscious. When I came to, I was at the hospital, in Enzo's lap as the doctors worked on my head. They had to shave the left side of my head for the stitches. I was crying the whole time.
Until he started singing to me. After we were done, he carried me out of this same hospital, just the way he was carrying me after my chemo. My head was against his shoulder. I never saw any one of those kids again, like ever. At least, not around me. I knew, Enzo did something to them that night, nothing to hurt them but to scare them enough to stay away from me. I just never asked.
“What are you thinking about?” Enzo's question pulled me out of the dark thoughts of my past. I gave him a small smile and shook my head.
“Nothing much. I remembered my fourteenth birthday. How I was badly hurt. I never knew how you came. I had dismissed the servants for the night.” I asked him, playing with my fingers on my lap. I was suddenly very nervous.
Enzo offered me his hand. At first, I was staring at his palm, thinking nothing but still lost in the back of my mind. Then I placed my hand on top of his. “I have always kept my eyes on you. If it wasn't for my rivals, following me that night, none of them would have hurt you in the first place.” He replied in a low tone. I watched his grip tightened on the steering wheel.
I let my fingers interlace with his. “You never told me who hit me with the music box. You said, they would never hurt me again.” I asked him the question I hadn't asked him since he told me to let it go. That it was all settled.
I might have never asked him about that incident again. But no one was talking. And I didn't know who hurt me so badly that I had to spend my birthday at the hospital, on Enzo's lap.
“It was Charlie.” He replied and I frowned in confusion. At first, I thought I heard him wrong.
“You mean, my ex Charlie?” I asked, as if I couldn't believe him. Of course, I couldn't. Charlie and I were together since kindergarten. Yes, he had moved away for a few years. But he came back. At the age of fifteen, we met again and instantly clicked.
“Charlie wasn't fat. I remember, he joined a year later. And we reconnected right away.” I tried to argue, but there was a part of me that believed that Enzo.
“You were the one who told me that it was Charlie who threw the music box at you. The camera footage also confirmed. You rested for a few days then you couldn't remember the names and the faces of the kids who did you dirty.” I gulped hard when I listened to his side.
“That's the reason why I couldn't let you marry that bastard. I told your parents, anyone but him. But they never talked to you. And you were adamant. You were just a foolish kid.” He added, smirking proudly at his deed.
In anger, I wrapped my arms above my chest and turned my face toward the window. That's when I realized, we were actually going in the opposite direction. “We are not going in the right direction. Where are we going?” I asked, looking around.
“You'll see!” He replied proudly. I almost wanted to roll my eyes at him. He stopped the car in front of my favorite ice cream parlor. Instantly, my mood went from sour to sweet. He rolled his window down and ordered.
“Triple scoops of caramel crunch ice cream and a scoop of dark chocolate chip ice cream.” it was our usual spot with our usual order.
He drove toward the window where we got our orders. He paid and drove away. He parked not too far away from the parlor. We both went to the back seat. He had his arms wrapped around me as we both ate our ice creams.
“You remembered my order.” I whispered, looking at him from the corner of my eye. When he didn't say anything, I turned my face toward him and I froze. His face was inches away from mine. My heart started pounding against my rib cage.
He had his mischief glittering in his eyes as he looked into mine. I gulped hard when he scooped a spoonful of his dark chocolate chip ice cream and smudged it on my bare shoulder. I was breathing heavily as he leaned in and licked it off of my skin.
Then he took a spoonful of my caramel crunch ice cream and smudged it all over his neck. Something clicked into me. My brain shut down in an instant. Licking my lips, without thinking at all, I climbed into his lap. One moment, I was looking into his eyes, and the next moment, I was licking the ice cream off of his neck.
Enzo pulled down the straps of my top. I shivered when he pulled one of my breasts out. My toes curled and I had to cup my pussy with one hand when he smudged his ice cream on my breast, especially on my nipple. I placed my ice cream on the back deck of the car and cupped his head with both of my hands as he started licking my nipple.
“Oh, Enzo! What are we doing?” I whispered softly. At that point, I didn't know how I was able to ask him that question. Because I was totally insane in his arms as he sucked my nipple then twisted it between his teeth.
“Shhh… just enjoy the moment, baby.” He replied, pulling my top down completely. He poured the rest of the content he had left in his cup. Then with his tongue, he took me to heaven again.