4. Fontana's Party.

Leonardo and Tommaso walked to Fontana's house: the party had already begun a few minutes ago when they decided to get up from the sofa, after the endless cigarettes (and not only) that had passed between their fingers and that they had smoked. Lorenzo should have waited a little longer than it should for the presence of both boys, precisely because the only one who knew the ways to reach the house was Tommaso, who kept his head down and tried not to make any more fools. Although at least he had managed to admit it to himself, he had felt good with Leo at his house and the ice had officially melted. The two always seemed to be friends: they joked and laughed on the various sidewalks they found themselves stepping on with their own feet, sometimes hitting each other during jokes just to make fun of themselves and find a new way to talk about something new.

Seeing them together at that party, with such harmony that it rarely was born in two people who had just met, seemed almost strange. Also because it was a really rare thing, finding someone so similar to themselves that they felt so connected to it from a time that seemed endless. They had become the exception to a usual rule known to everyone. No one at the party noticed, no one outside of Alessio: when it came to finding something wrong with his best friend, it was impossible for him not to pay attention to something, especially if he wasn't going as usual. He was able to perfectly grasp the signals that Thomas threw unconsciously; yet, seeing them together, smiling and amused, he did not say a word, also because it did not seem like the moment to him, having something else on his mind.

After taking a sip of his beer, avoiding looking around and looking for another redhead – decidedly longer than Tommaso’s – Alex greeted newcomers to the party. « Good evening! » He said to the two boys, radiant, carrying out his free hand to shake it to the new knowledge; his arms still slightly open, to express acceptance. Here Tommaso presented them officially, while the two shook hands and it seemed to end everything there, or this is what Tom thought, at least until Leo offered to take a drink for himself but also for him, hoping then from circulation.

« So... » Alessio finally began, with the green glass bottle in his hand taken earlier, a beer now almost finished, his eyes focused on the latter. It was one of the few opportunities he would ever have to carry on the speech if his best friend wanted to talk about it. Because the dark-haired boy found himself thinking, that they would have to talk about so many things that instead remained hidden in the background, even if their friendship should not have allowed it. He continued, only after feigning a cough. « It's that Leonardo Greco, right? » he asked, without looking up from the bottle.

He mixed the dark liquid left inside the glass bottle and only after a while did he raise his eyes to the red, without stopping from moving the drizzle of beer he would drink shortly after. Tommaso didn't notice, rather he moved his head towards Leo and smiled unconsciously as he saw him talk to a girl nearby that he didn't know, holding two other bottles in his hand equal to the one Alex held in his hand. The latter turned first to his friend, noticing the shy smile that had appeared on his lips, and then to what was his new acquaintance, which until then did not seem to have hit him much. A boy like the others: not that he had so little knowledge, all similar to each other.

« I don’t know him so well, » Tom finally shrugged his shoulders with a quick gesture, while Alex decided to drink that last sip he ruminated in the glass of the bottle and left on one of the tables set for the party. A party similar to all the others he had been to, and the rest of the group of friends, had been to. It was, in fact, a common and Italian house like all the others around Rome, whose additional decorations were nothing more than bottles of alcohol of various kinds, depending on the landlord. It was Alex who spoke: « Remember that we do not befriend any possible buyer or enemy of Fontana, okay? »

Those words were meant to bring Tom to normal, but the redhead didn’t even listen to his best friend for a second: he just nodded, to give him some sort of content that wouldn’t have the desired effect. Alex turned his eyes up, looking for someone in particular who hoped would make an appearance as soon as possible. After that, Leo joined them again, handing redhead one of the two bottles he had brought with him, starting their party.

They spent most of the evening laughing and joking all three together. As the minutes passed, many more people finally made their appearance and there was no trace of Fontana. Too busy saying goodbye to everyone and checking that no one stole or broke some important items for his family. Things seemed to be going pretty well between the three boys until they were also joined by Matteo who didn't care much about Leo, whom he had already met sometime before, but rather found the new beer to drink during the evening, undisturbed. So much so that he had escaped Tom's gaze rather quickly, as did Alessio, who had found a way to escape from the two in who knows where in the house, leaving both Leo and Tom alone. As much as they had tried to look for them, they gave the two missing after ten minutes of vain search, grabbing – instead – one of the bathrooms in the house: perfect for smoking, without being disturbed, and to talk about everything they wanted. The most they could aspire to was to hear someone knocking to use, the bathroom.

« Then, Tommaso Mancini... » exclaimed Leo in his light brown eyes, which under the electric light of the room seemed to have something green, as he rolled the grass Tom had just sold him, something more he had left. Nothing Giuseppe wouldn’t have been happy about: pocketing new customers and new money was his biggest and most enjoyable hobby. Here, after pocketing his money, Tommaso remained silent, sitting inside the tub, together with Leonardo, observing him in silence and waiting for his request. By now it was quite quiet, compared to the journey a short time earlier on the bus, but at the same time agitated. « Tell me a little about yourself. »

« What would you like to know? » Tom asked accordingly, brazier than usual, turning to Leo and raising his eyebrows, full of curiosity and trying to figure out if he had been able to surprise him, even a little. Instead, he only managed to notice that the other's eyes lit up, although he would never quite understand why. « All you want to tell me. » was the only thing he said, in the end: in the short time they had been together, at home Greco, they had learned to understand that there were already ‘forbidden’ arguments that it was best avoided at any time if he had not been directly interested in coming forward first.

« I live in Rome for as long as I can remember, » the redhead began, carrying a ready-made cigarette to his mouth and trying several times to light it with his lighter, nothing he didn't have at hand, in his jacket pocket. « it's one of my favorite cities. The only subject I go well into is science, I would like to do medicine even if school is not my forte at all, since they rejected me twice ... » he let out the smoke inhaled from the cigarette, before continuing with his long speech. He didn't know what to tell him and so he had begun to sting things about his life: who he was, where he lived, what he liked or not to do. « Then there is... Alessio, my best friend, introduced him to you first, he... helped me a lot not to be rejected for the third time. » and he paused another pause, closing his eyes and carrying the cigarette from his fingers to his lips, to take a shot of it, then continued, raising his shoulders. « And I like movies. That's all, a simple Roman from Rome. I think my love for carbonara is obvious. », Leo burst out laughing and his huge smile, a smile that could only bring joy, so much so that Tom smiled just as much.

« Are you more like from Scrubs or Grey's Anatomy? » he finally asked the dark-haired guy, first holding a hand in his hair and then turning to stare at the eyes of his interlocutor, waiting for an answer. The joint was ready, between his lips, to be lit. It could very well be noted that Leo was looking for his lighter, but it was Tommaso who handed him his own, with the answer already ready for the question he had just been asked.

« Scrubs forever, man! » and they burst out laughing once again, bringing the speech to other topics: who were their favorite characters in the series in question, how they had discovered its existence, coming to touch on topics that did not have much to do with the thread of speech they had initially taken.

That was until the two suddenly muted each other, looking at each other, without saying a single word. With the sound of music in the background and the various cries from the party participants, the world seemed to belong only to the two of them, as if they were the last human beings on earth. It was Thomas who looked away first, extinguishing his cigarette on the ashtray they had brought with them and had placed it on the edge of the tank, with a high risk that it would break into a thousand pieces due to a bad gesture.

He didn't know how to behave with a new person: it was Alessio who made friends with him when they were children and everyone else had done the same, not vice versa. But what was he waiting for? That his guardian angel shake him from this shyness of his? None of this, since it was Leo who pushed him slightly to the right, bringing him back to reality, with a gesture of his leg. The two were now quite close and the dark-haired man intended to pass him the joint now lit, complete with the return of the lighter; but before anything concrete could happen between them, they knocked on the door: Tom immediately recognized Alessia's voice, unmistakable.

« Tommy, I know you're there, I have to talk to you, please. » and the redhead puffed, turning his eyes upwards and getting up from the comfortable tub, abandoning the boy in front of him, justifying himself only with a shrug. She couldn’t leave her there, as she wouldn’t move until she reached her to talk. And then, he had to admit he was curious. « Excuse me, » he told Leo to justify himself, carrying one of his hands over his eyes before focusing again on what to do. He was now standing, not far from the tub but also from the door, and he didn't know where to start. For a second, she hoped the girl just wanted to say goodbye to him and then leave, without bothering him much. « Five minutes and I'll be back, I promise. »

« I will find you, if necessary! » exclaimed the brown with a smile, simply looking at him and bringing the joint back to his lips, which lit up in contact with them, then seeing Thomas open the door and go out, hoping that the new friend would soon and not leave him in there all alone. The redhead said nothing: rather he left the room, looking at her friend and looking for the most secluded place possible to talk to her. She looked weird: the red hair was inspired, makeup slightly drooling on her face, and bright green eyes, perhaps because of tears she had shed recently. Tom sighed, imagining it would be a tougher evening than he wanted.

« Alexa, what happened? » Thomas asked, at first almost annoyed that he was there, with his closest friend and neighbor, rather than anywhere else. It was one of those moments when she didn’t want to be disturbed, but she completely changed her attitude when her gaze passed from her to the scene behind her. Alessia widened her broken eyes, leading them to a scene behind the boy.

« What the fuck is your friend having? » he almost screamed and indicated what Tommaso could never have considered a problem for an evening like that: it was only Alessio who, as usual, had captured the heart of one of the many girls present at the party, intending to spend only one evening there. And he had succeeded that time too, coming straight to the kiss. Nothing he had never seen before, but a pattern that repeated itself rather continuously. The boy turned to the redhead, which seemed upset by the scene, so habitual. « He's kissing a girl, so what? »

« Sure, first he says he likes me, and then does he do that? I don’t know, if you can't tell me... then maybe it's better if I leave this shitty party » she said, adding nothing but rather running away as far away from the scene as possible and from Alessio, who had barely touched in the race, while the latter hurried to chase her in turn, after realizing the mistake she made. And for a single moment, Alessio and Tommaso looked at each other: the eyes of two best friends who had hidden a small detail that had changed an entire evening. But Alessio was smart enough to follow the redhead, while Tommaso observed the stunning scene, with his eyebrows raised and in complete silence, his gaze empty and partly disappointed, managing to grasp only the figure of Leonardo coming out of the bathroom to head towards the front door, from which he too would also come out very soon.