The Devil of DiRisio (11 page)

“What does it say?”  Anna Marie asked.  I skimmed the article.  It basically claimed that they were an item now.  Neither of them had confirmed the relationship, but they had been seen together on several occasions and he was even seen leaving her Tuscan Villa.

“Nothing,” I lied.  “Can I borrow this?”

“Sure, I have more.”  Anna Marie settled in on her bed and opened a
Teen People
magazine with none other than Veronica
Valerio
on the cover.  I wanted to tear it to shreds, but I held back.  Maybe there was a perfectly logical explanation for all this.

I used my key and entered Will’s house as quietly as possible.  I went into his bedroom and found him still sleeping at 1:00 in the afternoon.  That wasn’t like him.  Usually, he got up early to jog or lift weights. He was obviously exhausted from his long night of partying with Veronica
Valerio
.  How could he do this to me?  I got so angry I jumped on the bed and started beating him with the rolled up newspaper like he was a misbehaving dog.  He woke up confused and instinctively swatted me away.  I fell on the floor but jumped right back up and continued my assault.

“What are you doing?”  He asked as he held me back with one arm.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out
or
did you think I was just stupid?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, Will.”  I stopped swinging at him long enough to show him the picture in the paper.

“Oh,” he said.  I lunged at him again. He caught me and slammed me down on the bed.  He had my arms pinned at my stomach so I kicked at him.  He used his knee to pin down my legs.  He was so big.  When did he get so big?
        “It’s not what you think.”

“Oh, it’s not?  Then what is it Will?  You lied to me. How could you?  I love you.”  I broke down and started crying pathetically.  Will sat me up and held me as I let the tears flow onto his bare chest.  “You said you were in Paris.  How did you end up in Florence with Veronica?”

“I
was
in Paris.  The game was in the afternoon.  We won, so some of the guys wanted to celebrate.  One of my teammates owns a club in Florence so we went.  Veronica was there.  After a few hours, she offered to fly us back to Rome on her private jet.  I wasn’t the only one in that limo.  Nothing happened.”

“Oh, so now it’s Veronica again? 
Why not Ronnie?”
I sobbed.

“Nothing happened,”
  he
assured me again.

“You swear nothing happened?” I sniffled.

“Baby, I swear on my parents’ grave. Nothing happened.”

I said I believed him even though I didn’t. 

***

“I’m actually glad you came over,” he said as I sat on his kitchen counter while he made French toast.  “I’ve
been wanting
to talk to you about something.  Our schedules are so busy; we don’t get to talk face-to-face a lot anymore.”  I sighed expecting another marriage proposal.  He was going to find some way to turn the whole Veronica situation and our busy schedules into a reason for us to get married.

“I’m worried about you.  About your health,” he said as he took our plates to the dining room. He sat down and started eating his three pieces of French toast without finishing his thought.  God forbid it be two pieces or four pieces. No, three.
Always three.

Why was he concerned about my health?  My health was great.  I was a dancer.  I had to be healthy.

Halfway through his breakfast he said, “Are you
gonna
eat that?”

“You can have it.  I already ate,” I said dumping my French toast on to his plate. 

Will took a second to arrange the new addition to his plate into piles of three then said, “You see? This is what I’m talking about.”

“What?”

He set down his fork and wiped his mouth with a napkin before saying, “For a long time, all you did was eat, sleep, and dance.  And I understand that.  Dancing is your life.  But lately, it seems like there’s a lot more sleeping and dancing and a lot less eating.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I haven’t seen you physically bring food to your mouth in a month.”

“Well, we’re both busy.  You said so yourself.  We don’t get to see each other that much.  I eat when you’re not around.”

Will stood up and started tapping his appliances. Apparently my eating habits, or lack thereof, really made him anxious. “I’d like to believe that, I would.  But I’ve talked to Anna Marie.  She hasn’t seen you eating either.”

“Well … I’m not with her all the time.  I like to eat by myself.” I leaned my head on my fist and watched as he made his way around the kitchen.

“She says all you do is sleep.”

“I’m tired.  I dance twelve hours a day.  Don’t I have the right to be tired?”

“You’ve lost like 15 pounds.  You’re not healthy. You need help.”

I stared at him as he tapped the toaster three times, then the stove, then the blender, then his George Foreman grill. And he had the nerve to say
I
needed a doctor? He needed one so much more than I did. “Will, thank you for caring, but I’m fine.  I am healthy.  Madame Mara says I look better than ever.” There was no way I had really lost 15 pounds. Not purposely anyway. I just hadn’t felt like eating. I wasn’t starving myself. Not purposely anyway. That’s what anorexics did. They made a conscious decision to stop eating. I hadn’t done that. I just hadn’t had time to eat lately. I wasn’t anorexic.

 I stood from the table and followed him into the kitchen.

“Just let me take you to a doctor.  I’ll do anything if you just see the team nutritionist.”

 “You need a psychiatrist,” I said dumping my empty plate into the sink. My tone sounded a little
more bitter
than I intended it to. Will probably thought I was saying it out of spite, but I wasn’t. I really thought he needed to start seeing a doctor again. I just chose the wrong time to bring it up.

“Why? Because I care about you and I want you to be well?” he asked.

“No, not because of that.
Does this seem normal to you?” I asked as I tapped the toaster twice. He quickly leaned over and tapped it a third time. “See! See what I mean? You have a disease, Will, a diagnosed disorder. And you need help. You’re trying to control me just like you control every other little thing in your life. Well, you can’t tap me three times and turn me into the perfect little
fiancée
, Will. That’s not how it works!”

He sighed and said, “Fine, maybe I can use an appointment or two.” He sat down at the dining room table and put his head in his hands. I felt so awful. He didn’t deserve this. I felt like the worst girlfriend ever. “Why don’t we go together?” he asked looking over at me. There was a gleam of hope in his eyes. “I can make the appointment today.”

I glared at him suddenly angry again. How could he think I was anorexic?  I ate plenty.  He was just trying to get my mind off the fact that he cheated on me with Veronica
Valerio
.  I would’ve brought that up, but I didn’t feel like fighting anymore.  I was too tired.  So, instead, I took a piece of Will’s French toast, slathered it with syrup and stuffed it in my mouth defiantly.  It was so thick and sweet that it made me gag.  I wanted to puke, but I held it down.  When Will went to get dressed, however, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.  It all came back up into his sink.

***

I felt lost and alone.  I was convinced my boyfriend was cheating on me and he was convinced I was anorexic.  All of my instructors thought I was a fat unskilled dancer.  The only person that had any confidence in me or my talent was Damian Karl and that’s only because he wanted to sleep with me.  Even my roommate, my supposed best friend, had betrayed me.  How could she tell Will I haven’t been eating?  What did she know?  I went back to my room and slept the afternoon away.  It was a fitful sleep with frequent dreams of my life in
Venton
Heights.  Was I any better off now than then?

I awakened to someone pounding on my door.  I looked over at the clock.  It read 8:45 although it felt like the middle of the night.

“I’m coming,” I called as I crawled out of bed.  The pounding continued. “Hold up, I’m coming.”  I opened the door and got the surprise of my life.

“Hey, little sis, I’ve missed you.” 

I burst into tears.  I didn’t realize how much I missed and needed my big sister until I saw her after so many months.  “Hey, hey, don’t cry.  Sasha’s here,” she said as she hugged me.

In that moment, I forgave her for everything she did to me.  She was not the leader of the Bitch Brigade that had tried to destroy my life. She was my big sister, my protector, and my hero. I thought everything was going to be all right now that Sasha was here. 

“Where did you come from?  What are you doing here?  Where have you been?  How did you find me?” I asked once I’d gotten myself together and we were sitting on my bed.

“Wait, wait, first things first.  I want to apologize for everything that went down at Bridgeton.  There’s no excuse for the way that I acted and for what I did to you.  I’ve been to counseling and I think I’ve worked through all of my identity issues.  Can you forgive me?”

“Of course, I can forgive you. You’re my sister.  You’re the only sister I have.”  We hugged again and I started to explain to her everything that had been going on in my life.

Sasha and I talked non-stop until one o’clock in the morning when Anna Marie came bursting through the door with some random Italian guy in tow.  She seemed startled by my presence.  I guess she was hoping I was going to stay the night with Will. 

“Oh, hi,” she said as her eyes shifted nervously from me to Sasha to her Italian friend.  “You must be Sasha, I guess,” she said obviously perplexed.  I had told her everything about my sister including her cavorting with the Bitch Brigade to get me expelled. She was probably wondering how I could let her back into my life.

“Wow, you two do look alike.” Anna Marie stared at me waiting for an explanation as to why she was here.  I told her in Italian that I would explain later hoping that she had learned enough of the language to pick up on what I was saying.  When I saw the complete vacant stare she gave me, I knew I was wrong. 

Her sleek dark haired Italian friend, on the other hand, was simply overjoyed that I spoke Italian.  Immediately he approached me, kissed both my cheeks and started rambling in Italian.  He told me that Sasha and I were obviously sisters, possibly even twins, and that there were several sets of twins in his family.  He then went on to explain that he was happy he wasn’t a twin because then he would have to share everything in his life with someone else. 

Even things that were personal like his clothing.  He loved clothing and he loved shopping.  He would hate to have to share his wardrobe with perhaps a brother that didn’t have his same appreciation for fine attire.  All of his clothing is well taken care of.  Take the jacket he was wearing, for instance, he saw it in a magazine being worn by Dolce of Dolce and
Gabbana
and he just had to have it.  He searched for months until he found it then spent way too much for it but it was worth it because it worked for any season.

All of this
he said so quickly that even I had a hard time understanding him.  I wondered how Anna Marie even stood a chance of catching every third word. After going from talking about twins to his fabulous jacket to rambling about his pet gold fish, he somehow ended up asking where the bathroom was.  I looked at Sasha who was completely confused as to why this guy was talking so much and waving his hands about dramatically with each phrase. Then I glanced at Anna Marie who seemed awestruck by each word, and there were many, that flowed out of his mouth.

“Oh, my God, that was the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said when he paused for a breath.  Then they started making out right in front of us. “What did he say?” she asked when she let him up for air.

“You’re kidding me right?” I asked.

“Do you hear how fast he talks?  I have no idea what he’s saying.”

“He wants to know where the bathroom is.”

“Oh.” Anna Marie turned to him, started pointing toward the hallway and speaking very slowly and loudly in English.  Her friend had no
clue
what she was trying to say.  Finally, he looked to me and I told him it was down the hall.

“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Anna Marie said as she swooned onto her bed.

“Anna Marie, you don’t speak Italian and he obviously doesn’t speak English.”

“I don’t care.  I’m in love.”  I couldn’t tell whether she was drunk, stupid, or both.  Sasha started giggling. Anna Marie sat up and glared at her.  My sister hadn’t been in the country 24 hours and she was already making an enemy.

“What’s his name?” I asked trying to lighten the mood.

“
Raffaele
.”

“
Raffaele
what?”

“I don’t know?  How do you ask that in Italian?”  Sasha started laughing louder.  She was practically rolling on the floor.  Anna Marie didn’t find it funny at all but, she chose to ignore my sister.  “You
gotta
give us some alone time to … you know … get to know each other better.”