Tutti Italia: A Novel Page 5

  “Hi! I wasn’t even sure I had a roommate. I never hear you in there,” joked Rachel. The girl just stared at her. She was shorter than Rachel by about a head and a half, toothpick thin, pale as paper, pierced and tatted up, and had medium length black hair. She took something called Muscle Milk out of the fridge and went into her bedroom. Rachel was a little miffed. She may not have told a funny joke, but that didn’t mean the girl had to be so rude to her. After all, they’d never even met. She decided right then and there that she didn’t like the girl, and she wasn’t going to talk to her unless she had to. She slid her card into her door, and made her way into her room. She went into the bathroom and locked the door that led to the other bedroom, signally that she was going to be using the bathroom. She got the water started. Then, she went back into her bedroom to get undressed. She threw her clothes in her hamper and got under the hot spray. Rachel sighed in pleasure. There was nothing better than a hot shower at the end of the day, in her opinion. It loosened up all the knots that had accumulated throughout the day, and it washed all the dirt away. Then, she washed her long hair and quickly got out so she could go to bed.

  The next morning, Rachel knew it would be a bad day before she ever left her room. She woke up to thunder and lightning raging outside her window. Rachel only liked thunder storms if she was wrapped up in a thick blanket, sitting in a window seat, with a book and hot chocolate. Seeing as none of that was available to her at the moment, she gritted her teeth, tucked her coat tighter around her, and left her room for the building across the street. When she got in the door, she shook out her coat as best as she could, and tried to dry her shoes on the mat that had been put right inside the door for that very purpose. She wasn’t quite sure if it would work, but she did it for the benefit of the person that had put it there. She made her way into the briefing room, and was about to take the same seat that she’d had all week, when Jason flagged her down from the corner of the room.

  “Hey! Rachel, over here.” She blushed, but she walked over to him.

  “Good morning, how are you?”

  “Oh, I’m alright. I wanted to talk to you more last night but by the time I got off the bus you were gone.” Rachel felt guilty now. She hid her face in the notebook that she clutched to her chest.

  “I live right across the street. It was less than a five minute walk to my dorm. I feel terrible now. You must have thought that I vanished into thin air.” Jason chuckled a little as she sat down next to him.

  “Yeah, something like that. I was a little tempted to check the skies to see if maybe you had flown off on a broom or something.” Rachel playfully punched his arm.

  “Hey! I’m nowhere near as evil as a witch!” He pretended like the punch had hurt him, real bad.

  “Oh, ouch. She’s broken my arm! She’s so strong.” Rachel’s whole face turned bright red in embarrassment. She saw a bit of regret flash across his face. Good, maybe he wasn’t the type of guy that liked to embarrass women for his own amusement. That was good to know.

  “Oh, stop it you big baby. It didn’t even hurt.” He stopped rubbing his arm, and laughed once more.

  “I know it doesn’t hurt, but you’re really cute when you blush.” That statement made her blush even more, and she watched as he grinned at her in a self-satisfied kind of way. She looked away from him to try to get her normal coloring back, and saw that the chaperone from the day before was back. She strode up to the front of the room and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

  “Good morning, class. Normally on Fridays, we go to the outdoor flea market in a town that’s close by and we spend the afternoon wine tasting. It’s raining pretty good outside, but we will still go on our trip. The weather here in Italy is strange. It doesn’t always know what it wants to do. Maybe by the time we get to Pordenone, the rain will have stopped. If not, there are plenty of stores in the area and little café’s that we can wait out the storm in. If the weather is bad, then the wine tasting will be that much better. If you need to use the restroom, do it now. We will be getting on the bus in fifteen minutes.” Rachel got up to use the restroom. Jason stayed sitting down, and that led her to believe that he would be waiting for her to get back before he got on the bus. She was right. When she came back, the two of them did their best to stay dry from the door of the building to the door of the bus, but to no avail. Rachel’s hair was about five shades darker when it got wet, and it curled tightly around her face. Her mom always told her that it gave her a younger, fresher look. A pang of homesickness shot through her, and she stumbled on the step. Jason heard her slip and spun around to try to catch her arm.

  “Thanks. I didn’t realize that the steps would be that slippery.” He pulled her up in front of him.

  “Here, you go ahead of me, just in case.” Rachel was mortified again. She’d made a fool of herself in front of this handsome young man that may or may not be in her life past today. If he was, then she didn’t want to look like a perpetual klutz. If he wasn’t, she didn’t want to be remembered as a perpetual klutz. Either way she was afraid it was a lose-lose situation. She made her way towards the back and found a seat. He sat down next to her and stretched his long legs into the aisle. He shook out his coat, as much away from her as he could get. He was considerate of trying not to get her wet. All in all, a gentleman. The chaperone got on the bus and counted heads before she took the seat right behind the driver. She hadn’t told them how long the ride was going to be, but it was alright. Rachel was happy with watching the scenery, even if it was through a rain streaked window.

  It was almost an hour later when the bus came to a stop in a crowded street that looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. When they got off the bus and it drove off, however, Rachel could see what was hiding behind the monstrosity. There was a street fair going on despite the light drizzle. The chaperone had been right. The weather really did do what it wanted. The Italians didn’t mind though. They had tents and hastily erected overhangs that covered their wares, and the customers just scurried from stall to stall to stay dry. Rachel had to smile at their dedication to shopping. It warmed her heart, because she was a self-proclaimed power shopper herself. Jason gave a sort of groan behind her and she spun around to face him.

  “What was that for?”

  “Shopping. As a man, I simply hate doing it, regardless of the company.” He scrunched up his face like he was getting ready to ward off a verbal assault about what he’d just said. Rachel laughed and just stuck her tongue out at him. He raised an eyebrow at her, then laughed. “I don’t think anyone has stuck their tongue out at me since I was in the fifth grade.”

  “Oh yeah? Then I guess it’s about time that someone did it to you again, isn’t it?” He gave her a look that said he gave up. He shrugged his shoulders before bowing and holding his arms out like he was waiting on her to lead the way. She took a second to cement that image in her memory, then she straightened her back and squared her shoulders before sticking her nose in the air like she was a stuck up little princess and parading past him. She only went a few steps before she stopped and looked behind her to make sure he was coming with her. He was shaking in silent laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” She crossed her arms across her chest, trying to keep her coat as tightly wrapped around her as possible.

  “You just looked like the perfect little hoity toity princess, parading by a servant that was beneath you. It just reminded me of my little sister. She’s seven, and when she gets mad at me, she sticks her nose in the air like you did and just stomps by me. The last time she did it though, she ran face first into a door, and I had to die laughing. You walking by like that reminded me of that moment.”

  “So, you’re trying to convince me that you weren’t laughing at me? Is that what I’m getting?” Jason laughed and caught up to her.

  “Yes. Because it’s true. I really wasn’t laughing at you. I bet you never knew that you were such a good seven-year-old impersonator, huh?” Rachel smiled at him.


  “No, but then again, I didn’t know that I was impersonating anyone, either.” She stood up straight and started do an exaggerated pageant wave. “I would like to thank the Academy for having such faith in me! My parents, for always giving me a reason to pout and whine when I didn’t get my way. And my brother who makes me so mad that I put my nose in the air and stomp away from him.” Jason burst out laughing.

  Chapter 9

  Rachel was caught up in looking at the old towns and fields that they drove through to get to the winery. It wasn’t as long of a drive as the restaurant had been, but it seemed that way. There wasn’t much variety outside. There were fields and vineyards, vineyards and fields. She could feel herself dozing again. The warm sunshine was the culprit. It bathed Rachel’s face in a warm, soft glow, and the tediousness of the countryside didn’t help her any. She woke with a start as Jason gently nudged her shoulder.

  “Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up. We’re here.” Rachel stared around with wide eyes. Damn it! She’d fallen asleep after all. Well, at least Jason was keeping an eye on her. She was a little shy about that. She didn’t know if she should get involved with someone that she probably wasn’t going to see anymore after today. She’d think about that later. She wanted to enjoy the day without a proverbial cloud of doom settling itself over her.

  “I can’t wait to try out the wine. They must have so many different kinds here.” Rachel got off the bus and saw an old stone building with a red tiled roof, covered in vines that had huge clusters of grapes hanging everywhere. It was exactly what she’d pictured a vineyard to be. There were miles and miles of grapes surrounding the building, and there was a larger building a little ways in the distance. “That must be where the distilleries are. I hope we get to see them up close.” Jason looked at her with a blank expression. She laughed good-naturedly at him. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of distilleries.” He held his hands up in protest and shook his head. “You are so missing out. It’s how they make wine…well, any alcohol really. They’re these huge metal containers where they let the grapes ferment and then they press the juice out of them. Depending on what they want to make, they may add a few other things, but essentially, then it flows down into another huge metal container that gets stirred continuously until it gets bottled up.” Jason had an impressed look on his face. Obviously this boy didn’t read as extensively as Rachel did. If he had, maybe he would have been able to make sense of what she’d just said. She made a mental note not to show off her knowledge in front of him anymore, and make him feel bad. She took the lead on the tour, because learning about things was a passion of hers, and she wanted to be right there in the thick of it.

  “This is where we have our little store,” the young woman giving them the tour said. “This is mostly what people see. They don’t understand all the hard work that goes into making wine because they’ve never done it, and they don’t want to learn about it. So we just show them where they can buy the bottles.” The woman left them to browse in the vine covered building that the bus had stopped in front of. Rachel could completely understand what she was talking about. She’d seen it herself. An older man with a very bushy mustache walked over to them.

  “Hello! My name is Geovanni. I am the owner of the vineyard. Are you ready to taste our wines?” A cheer rose from the crowd gathered around him, and he took a tray of glasses and passed them out to everyone. “Make a line and I will pour while I talk, ok?” No one had a problem with that, and they did as they were told. Geovanni went into great detail about how this particular wine was made, and what gave it its distinct fruity taste. Everyone sipped from their glasses while he spoke. He brought out a new bottle of something different, and this time he didn’t have to tell them to make a line, they were ahead of him, with glasses ready to be filled again. This pattern repeated itself a few more times, and then the woman who had given them the tour came back with an empty tray that she used to collect the empty wine glasses. When she came back, she had another tray with small black squares on it. At least, that’s what it looked like to Rachel until she got closer. They were small black cups with something dark and shiny inside them.

  “This is our famous chocolate liquor. We serve it in chocolate shot glasses. Go ahead and take your shot before your glass melts.” He didn’t have to tell Rachel twice. She loved chocolate to the point where she even considered it an extra food group. She downed the shot, but she scrunched her face up in distaste. It tasted nothing like chocolate. It was straight liquor, and she didn’t like it. She wished that she could take it back. It cleared up her sinuses quite well, however, because it smelled like paint thinner. She hurriedly ate the chocolate shot glass that it had come in. She smiled. That was better. Even though she wasn’t as partial to dark chocolate, it took the taste of the liquor out of her mouth, and for that she was grateful.

  “What did you think about all the wine we tried?” She was trying to make conversation with Jason on the bus ride back to base.

  “I wasn’t too partial to the first one. It was way too fruity for me. The shot at the end was alright, but I could have done without the chocolate shot glass.” Rachel adopted a nose in the air attitude again.

  “How dare you! We can’t be friends anymore, we simply disagree on everything.” Jason laughed at the show she was putting on, and she continued. “I thought the first one was simply divine. I bought three bottles. The fruity ones are the best, I find. The liquor was absolutely atrocious, and the only good thing about it was the chocolate shot glass. The rest were tolerable, but the Spumante was the best.” She finished her little act and laughed with Jason. The base loomed up ahead of them. Rachel’s smile faltered. She wanted to spend more time with him, but she wasn’t going to be the one that asked to see him again. If he wanted to get together, he would ask…otherwise it really wasn’t that important to him. That was her philosophy, anyway. The bus went through the gate, and butterflies took flight in her stomach, wondering if he was going to ask her to hang out again was torture. She let him get off the bus first this time. As she neared the exit, she told herself to go about her business. Don’t stop to wave, don’t stop to say goodbye, simply get off the bus and head in the direction of her room. If he was interested he would come after her. She took a deep breath as her foot hit the last step. Ok, Rach, you can do this. She walked along the side of the bus, rounded the corner, and was about to cross the street. Still nothing. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment, but she kept going. She would be fine. It wasn’t like the boy meant anything to her. She just thought he was cute and was hoping to see more of him. When she got to the stairs, she hazarded a look back towards the bus and she could see him talking to three other boys his own age that hadn’t been on the trip with them. Maybe he knew them from work or something. Speaking of work, she needed to make a phone call.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, it’s Rachel. We just got back from our wine tasting tour, and I was wondering when I would be going to work and where?”

  “Oh! Hi, Rachel. Did you have a good time?”

  “It was wonderful. I even bought three bottles of wine.” Rachel smiled into the phone as she took her shoes off and stood them up next to the door.

  “I’m glad you liked it. Listen, I will come and get you on Monday at seven thirty. Then I’ll show you where you’ll be working. Dress for a teaching job. I have to go, my boyfriend is taking me out, but I’ll see you on Monday, ok?”

  “Ok, sounds good. Have fun.” Rachel hung the phone up, a little glumly. She still didn’t have any friends here, and she definitely didn’t have a boyfriend that she could be doing things with. She couldn’t even make friends with her roommate. That was embarrassing. She vowed to fix that as soon as she could. She’d be friendly to everyone that she met, so she could have someone to spend time with and do things with. She was ok being a lone wolf most of the time, but there were times when she wanted to go out with friends and have fun and be able to tell wild stories at work the next day. She had to admit to her
self that she was a little bit jealous and a little disappointed in herself. Maybe a quick trip to the mini mall would cheer her up. She’d gotten off her bed and was half way across the room when she stopped herself. No. She didn’t know when she’d be able to open up a bank account, so she had to save her money for things that she really needed. She flopped down on her bed and stared at the small slits of the outdoor world that she could see through the blinds. She left them barely open so she would get some light in, while keeping nosy people from being able to look in on her. She pulled out her journal and started writing down everything that had happened that day. She was just lamenting about her lack of a social life to her diary when she heard the door to the kitchen open. She could hear her roommate talking to a boy who responded in a rough voice. She went back to her journal. A few minutes later, she could hear animalistic noises coming through the paper thin walls of her roommate’s bedroom. Rachel blushed a brilliant shade of red before she scrambled off her bed and dove into the bathroom. She locked the door and started the water. She wanted to get a nice hot shower in before the two of them defiled the shower, too. Besides, if she was under the hot spray, she wouldn’t be able to hear anything that was going on in the other room.

  When Rachel tentatively stuck her head out of the shower to see if the noises were continuing, she heard nothing, and it made her feel a little more comfortable. She wrapped herself up in her towels, and unlocked the door on her way out. She was sitting on her bed, drying her hair off when she heard her own door to the bathroom lock. So she was right, they were going to be using the shower. She just smiled. She’d beaten them to it. Once she put on some sleep pants and a t-shirt, she sat back down and toweled the ends of her hair dry. Braiding it over her shoulder, she made a random grab at the few books that she’d brought with her and settled in for a nice, relaxing read. She must have dozed off, because when she woke up, it was dark outside of her window, and the book had fallen to the floor. She roused herself enough to pick up the book and find the page she’d been on. She marked it with a bookmark and put it back on the shelf. Then she crawled under her blankets and curled up in a little ball to go to sleep. She’d gotten all of her thoughts out earlier when she’d journaled, she’d thought, but she’d been wrong.