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Chapter 12: The Switch
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Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 12.1 - Valentina
How would it feel?I feel like I already know"I'm in April 2001, so you should've kissed me you idiot!" Marco yells from his seat, and everybody laughs.I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders, like the air is breathable again."Alright, this one's good. We must go clockwise, saying one thing we have never done. Those who have done it have to drink. Matteo starts.""It's Never Have I Ever." Ariana explains when Matteo doesn't speak.He sits up in his chair, and I find myself following the way his muscles flex as he does so."I know that game, okay. Never have I ever..."
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 12.2 - Valentina
Saturday 8:45am, BarcelonaHe's telling me the story about trying to escape Raisa and Allison when Isabella saved him, suggesting the drinking game.He talks fast when he's on drugsI can still follow him though, and he appears to be able to keep up with how much I can talk, not minding it one bit and not looking bored. He looks like he's actually listening, only interrupting when he has something even better to add."I want a pizza because even though I'm not hungry, I can hear my stomach growling and I don't want to pass out."He's leaning back in his palms like he did back in the fountain, legs stretched and spread out, face pointed to the sky."Where from
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 12.3 - Valentina
Saturday 7:11pm, Matteo's kitchenHe goes into the wine cellar, and I wait for him in the kitchen, making us another round of coffee. I hear laughter coming from the garden, so I go over to the windows in the foyer. I see Aurora laughing as she lays on the grass with her phone to her ear.I wonder if she's talking to Adrik.I see someone cutting the roses a bit further away. When he turns his head, I squint.Romeo?He's our gardener when we're in Italy and when we're not, and he's been at our house for over five years now. I must be imagining things. They're wearing the same type of jacket, that's all."Got it."
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 13: No going back now
MatteoPalermo, Sicily – June 1st 2020The initiation ritual doesn't take place on Sunday like Matteo had expected. His father came home in the evening, not at noon like he had said. He was in a good mood, despite their last phone call (he probably had more important things to worry about than his son's behavior) and didn't even talk to Matteo until the n
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 13.1 - Matteo
First, his grandmother formally introdues him to the rest of the men. The first people he's introduced to are Franco and Paulo, consiglieri and underboss, whom he already knows.Then his grandmother introduces Romeo, Vincenzo, Pablo, and Gianluca, the caporegimes – the captains. The ones who did all the dirty work, people who have killed other people.Romeo has always been around,
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 13.2 - Matteo
Palermo, Sicily – June 26th 2020It's grandma Angie's birthday today, so Lorenzo made an exception and gathered the whole family at her house for dinner. The 'family' meaning the extended family that includes the Barone and Altieri families as well.Grandma Angie lives in the townhouse next to their old house in Palermo. It's a one-story old building that
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 13.3 - Matteo
Palermo, Sicily – July 7th 2020He wakes up before noon on Saturday. It's not until he stretches, the sun warm on his face, that he realizes it's his 21st birthday today.Isabella had planned something after he asked for her help – he wanted to have fun again, and the lockdown restrictions had been loosened at the beginning of the month.
Games We Play - Awakening Chapter 14: Italian Summer
ValentinaMoscow, Russia - June 23rd 2020The weeks after I came back from Sicily went by in a haze. I spent them mostly watching movies and eating snacks, which led me wondering whether I was bordering on being depressed. Every day seemed to be exactly like the one before and sharing the same space with my family for days on end turned very toxic very quick.By the middle of June, Russia came back to pre-lockdown levels, which also meant that my social life took a dramatic increase. Not only did I have Raisa calling me almost daily to go out and do something ‘fun’, as well as Isaac asking me when I was free ‘to hang’, but I also had my parents drag Adrik and I to business meetings and formal lunches.My mother had commented that I had gained a little weight at some point during one of those lunches, which triggered my memories of being an insecure teenager with an undiagnosed eating disorder.Every time I come back to my hometown and spend some time with my parents, I come to the rea
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