2. Fontana's weed.

That same afternoon, Tommaso was comfortably placed in his room: lying on the bed, covered by the protective shadow born because of his yellow curtains to hide the windows, smoking the usual afternoon cigarette before starting what only he would call the study. A study that basically consisted of reading the first pages of the book and then leaving everything to a foreign future. In short, one of his usual boring afternoons, without having much to do, waiting for some of his friends to send him a message asking him to go out, have an aperitivo with a cold peach tea, or play foosball at the usual bar. It had just passed three o'clock in the afternoon. When a message from Alex completely distracted him from what he was doing, which was getting bored. Alessio has been Tommaso’s best friend since the two were children: known in kindergarten, they correspond perfectly to the stereotype of an extroverted boy, who always wants to play and have fun, and an introvert, who instead hopes to vanish as soon as possible or that someone will take him home on his bed. Ever since Tom had preferred to put himself in the corner, rather than play with his teammates, Alessio had decided to take him under his protective wing and create a duo that most classmates knew. Almost the entire school knew Alex precisely because of his outgoing character, ready to help anyone who turned to him. As a result, they knew about Tom’s existence, even though he would have preferred otherwise. He sighed, reading the message and the name that was pulled out by his friend.

From Alex:

Reach us in the usual place, Lorenzo has to talk to us.

After taking one last shot from his cigarette, he made sure to put it off on the ashtray he kept with him on the bedside table, shortly after outside the house, grabbing without being noticed by his mother the heaviest jacket on the coat rack. He didn't want him to hear him coming out again without studying or doing something for school: Tom knew he only wanted the best for him, but how could he do something that made him uncomfortable, that made him feel discomfort? His friends were the only thing that showed him what it meant to feel good, like being in a house all to themselves, so much so that being with them was the only thing he would gladly do, if someone asked him, whatever the time of day. Outside it was as cold as in the morning Tom knew it was better to wear something else heavier to avoid a looming malaise, but it was not in the least of interest to him.

So much so that he found himself walking, with his hands in his pocket, to warm up as best he could and without going too fast, which led him to arrive in a colossal delay at the appointment they had given himself: in fact, Alessio sighed to finally see him present himself. Tommaso saw his friend well carrying a hand in his wavy hair, trying to tame them like his fingers without really succeeding. In a split second, he caught his blue eyes, almost ice, that anyone in the world would find beautiful. Because they were: not surprisingly, Alessio was heartbreaking in the group of friends, the one that was quite rare to find single. Almost, as a result, Thomas could only be the complete opposite in this field as well.

The famous ‘usual place’ mentioned, where everyone gathered to discuss important situations and things, was nothing more than a simple Olympic swimming pool abandoned for a long time, not too far from all their homes put together. They were all able to reach it in ten minutes of walking or doing laps on their own skateboard. The pool was very large and all blue that must have been light, almost white, when it had been mounted, but which at that time was ruined by the elements and dust. There no one would disturb them: there were few people who frequented her and those were nothing more than boys like them, who used the pool as a track to skate with a track that was also perfect to start with. It was no coincidence that everyone, except Tommaso, had the instrument by their side ready to do all kinds of stunts, talking about various topics such as school, girls, and the last football game they had seen on television. From the look his friends, attentive to his approach to them, exchanged, Tom realized he was in very big trouble.

« Tommy, where the fuck were you? » exclaimed his best friend, Alessio, seeing him arrive so late, his arms open in confusion, that he could be glimpsed from the arched eyebrows. The others said nothing, while Thomas had decided not to answer the question he had been asked, wanting to focus on something else.

« So why am I here? » Tom asked rather, letting his hands go in search of his cigarettes and lighter, in the pockets of his jacket. After that, he brought a camel to his mouth with his eyes turned to those talking to him, completely ignoring Alessio, who seemed annoyed by the thing: to prove it, his arms folded and his gaze turned to the abandoned structure. His interlocutor was none other than one of his schoolmates: they did not attend the same class, but Tommaso was quite sure that they were the same age. Lorenzo had to have other commitments, so as not to be there. He waited to receive an answer from him, taking a shot from the now lit cigarette. « You have to do delivery this weekend, nothing challenging, the usual thing. »

And Tommaso nodded, letting what he might call his colleague continue. «You will have to give it to Fontana at his house, during the party, here it is.» having said this, a small transparent bag passed him with a quick gesture, from which you could see grass, a little smaller than the palm of his hand. He was immediately placed in Tom's right pocket and it was as if nothing had happened, as there was nothing inside them but his cigarettes and house keys in his jacket pocket. « And then ... you have to look for a guy named Leonardo, I don't remember my last name, but he's the only one you've never seen. If we caught, girl. » and so the boys waved goodbye with a nod of his head while Alessio, holding his skate, moved quickly towards his friend, particularly confused and with the mind that was already joining the dots, while Tommaso still did not know how to behave from the discovery just made.

He began running away, in the stands nearby, almost hoping that the Leonardo who had been mentioned to him was the same one he had met in the morning at school. He would gladly make friends with him, even though he didn't know at all what it was to do with that speech of theirs so he had to look for him. Obviously, no one would be there to explain it to him: he wasn't the boss and never would be.

« Ao', Tommy! » exclaimed his best friend and, consequently, Tommaso stopped before he could get to sit down, finally turning to Alessio and showing all his attention to his friend, the cigarette still to be finished but now on the asphalt, extinguished. Alessio rested one hand on Tom's shoulder to stop him in place, while with the other remaining free he signaled that he didn't understand. « What the fuck do you have today? »

Thomas was surprised by this question and, almost unwittingly, raised his eyebrows and turned his attention completely to his friend. He didn't know what to answer him, for the simple reason he had no reason to be weird. It was Alessio who believed it, but Tom felt tremendously normal: it was a normal day, a normal life that didn't want to continue that way. And then, hearing Leonardo’s name had made him uncomfortable in every possible way; he didn’t want to think about the fact that the universe had given him a signal he hadn’t caught. That he didn't want to grasp, that he didn't do for him. « Alex, what the fuck are you saying? » he asked with his forehead wrinkled and his face upset and confused, while the recipient of the question brought a hand on his chin, which in turn puzzled. He made numerous signs with his hands, as he spoke, to make his words even stronger in their meaning. To this, there was also a disappointment with Tom: there was something he was not telling him and he knew it, if he felt it in his soul, reading his every movement. « You didn’t even say hello, asshole. Where are you going? »

« At home, where should I go? » Thomas replied dryly, this time keeping his gaze towards the road he would have to travel to return home. He couldn't say why he wanted to run away from the abandoned pool, but he felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to escape once and for all. Then Alex, laying his feet on his skateboard, quickly followed Tommaso next to him without hesitation for a single moment, trying in every way to understand what was going on. It had never happened that Tom hadn't noticed him or ignored him: they were best friends after all and every thought was shared as if it were their own. « I'm coming with you. ”

« I had noticed, you're coming after me with the skate, thanks Mr. Asshole! » he replied concisely, not looking his friend even in the face: rather, he kept walking like nothing, his gaze turned down as if he wanted to check that he is stepping on the right points avoiding falling, and Alex - by his side - seemed to follow him without making any sound outside the skateboard, whose wheels on the ruined asphalt could not avoid a jarring sound.

They put more than it would take Thomas alone to walk the entire road: the cold was no longer as exaggerated as before, but he was still able to make Tom shiver with cold, who knew no other way to cover himself than putting his hands in his pocket. Arriving at his own home was his salvation: he would have stopped having to take deep breaths to eliminate the tremors. The two retreated to the homeowner's room and, arriving there, threw themselves almost simultaneously on the mattress of the bed, comfortable at the right point. The first thing Alex did, after settling down as if that was now his home, was to pull out of the back pocket of his worn jeans a transparent plastic package, similar to the one Tommaso had with him and that he should have delivered to Fontana. He pulled enough from this small envelope to make what would become a joint and divide it with his friend on his left. Tom meanwhile, had passed his hand a couple of times over his reddish hair that annoyed his eyesight and arranged his slightly raised sweater after removing his leather jacket and then placing it on his room desk, completely in disarray.

« Do you know who this Leonardo is? » Tom asked, taking a shot from the joint and then passing it on to Alex, hoping to have some more information about this guy and almost hoping that it was the Leonardo he had met in the morning, at the stop. Or maybe he didn’t hope so at all. He had simply decided to ask about it without too many pretensions or questions, without following the reason that was whispered to him all the time and without being heard by others that he was on the wrong path, which should not have continued with such brazenness. It wasn't even a thing from him: Tom was the silent guy in the group, who never asked questions about anything or anyone. The perfect guy, for the people he had dating over the years.

Alessio said nothing about it: he understood that something was wrong, but it would be useless to ask questions that would not receive sincere answers. As always, he would wait for the right time to find the right clues that would, as a result, lead him to understand what Tom was hiding from him. « It's called Greco by surname, » replied the hedgehog, also taking a breath of smoke from the spinel before reviewing it. He had heard many other boys their age talk about Leonardo Greco, the newcomer to the city. A name that had passed through the mouths of various characters who were giving Alex an alarm signal, but – he thought – that he had nothing to worry about at the time. « Matt told me he was with you this morning, you should know him. »

Involuntary gesture, the redhead smiled, letting the smoke invade the rest of the room and then come out of his mouth. Alex seemed not to pay attention to his friend's smile, too focused on his thoughts, but Tom himself managed to realize it and stop before he was even stranger than he already was. And then, he wondered: what reason did he have to smile like that? For a nonsense thing like that? He sighed and turned to his friend moments later, nodding accordingly. « Oh, then I think I got it. »

And so they spent the afternoon, between various joints and loud music that no one but them seemed to notice at all. Meanwhile, Tommaso took his cell phone a couple of times to check and managed to find it mainly on Instagram: Leonardo Greco, the boy he would meet again a few days later at a party and whom, he hoped, he would get to know better at any cost. Alessio did not notice anything, but rather stared at the white roof of the room with a single thought fixed in his head that he would never announce to his friend, but that he would rather keep to himself for another time.