Family Comes First

B23

- A m a r a R u s s o -

"Hey Salvino." I greeted, walking down the stairs with my bag in hand.

"Hey." he said, looking up from his phone and tucking it away in his pockets.

"Have you seen Santino?" I wondered. "I haven't seen him all day and he's supposed to drive me to Caroline's."

"Yeah, so I'm going to be driving you, actually." he said, holding up his car keys.

"Wait, why?"

"He's dealing with some stuff." he shrugged, and I instantly became suspicious.

"What 'stuff'?" I questioned.

Salvino sighed, shaking his head. "Look, do you want to go or not? I have things to do too, y'know?"

Yep, now was definitely not the time to push for answers.

I'll ask them later.

"Does Salvatore know though?" I asked. "Just making sure."

"Yeah, Santino texted Salvatore after he asked me." Salvino assured. "Now let's go."

~

"So... what are you going to do after you drop me off?" I asked, yearning to start some sort of conversation.

"Go back home, do some work for Salvatore." he answered offhandedly, before tilting his head to the side. "Actually, I just remembered. I need to buy some stuff from Target. I'll probably make a detour there before I go back home."

"That's nice," I nodded. "What are you going to get?"

Salvino turned his head to look at me. "Why do you want to know?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Just curious."

"M'kay," he said slowly. "I don't know. I have to check my list. I wrote everything I need to get on my phone."

"You did?" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah," he agreed, and seeing my expression, his lips quirked to the side. "Why? Is it that hard to believe?"

I chuckled, shaking my head. "I've never seen you go out to buy things before, nevertheless make a list of things you need to buy."

"Well, time changes people." he smirked. "And I have bought things before."

"I'm not having a hard time believing you spend money." I told him wryly. "But more or less the fact that you made a list."

He frowned. "Why is that?"

"Because the last time I made a list, you laughed at me." I pointed out. "And now you are doing exactly what I did."

Salvino's cheeks didn't turn red, but the tips of his ears did.

"I did not." he stated.

"Yes you did." I nodded surely. "You and Santino made fun of me for having short term memory."

Salvino spluttered. "When did that happen?"

"Just a few weeks ago." I deadpanned, and his focus went off the road so that he could look at me.

"No way." he said.

"Yes way," I nodded, looking back at the street to see a freaking seagull in the middle of the road. "STOP!" I screamed.

Salvino's foot slammed on the breaks, and I felt the seatbelt yank me backwards as the bird flew away in fright.

"Put your eyes on the road, bro." I gasped, holding tightly onto the belt.