Between Two Mountains - 1. Chapter 1

Vincenzo revved harder and, with a throaty growl, the convertible shot out of the hairpin bend like a bullet. Cosmo felt his heart skip a beat, grinning in elation even as he gripped the leather seat so hard that his knuckles turned white.

Bring it ON…!

Far below, the open sea swept into view: a vast sapphire blanket receding to an endless, hazy horizon of powder blue. In the bright June sun, the landscape around them was a semi-desert of pale rocks and dry grass, dusted with silvery olive trees and punctuated here and there by tall, sculptural pines. Hungrily, Cosmo drunk it all in with his vivid green eyes. This was surely the best life a seventeen-year-old could live: tearing through the landscape, man declaring his ultimate supremacy over nature.

He knew his kid brother wouldn’t approve. He’d be worried about every lizard, every bug, every plant… but Luca had always had it easy next to him. He could afford to be idealistic.

They swept around another corner at dangerous speed. The breeze whipped through his untidy hair – hair that, if he was honest, could have done with an extra wash that morning. He hoped his companion hadn’t noticed.

“This is awesome, Vincenzo!” he cried, doing his best to make himself heard over the roar of the engine and the whip of disturbed air.

The driver laughed. “I know, right?”

“You don’t get it. Riding the Amalfi Coast in a Ferrari… it’s like a dream come true!”

Vincenzo smirked and kept his eyes on the road. Free to admire him, Cosmo looked him up and down and felt an intense shiver of attraction. Vincenzo was a year older than Cosmo, very fit and effortlessly stylish, with artfully slicked back hair kissed with perfect gold highlights. What would it feel like, Cosmo wondered, to hold Vincenzo and have him hold him back? To press up against him until he could feel everything?

But he’s out of my league… right?

Vincenzo was part of an outlying branch of the Colomba family, which owned several fancy hotels in Ravello, the town where they both lived… or some such local business empire. The details of it didn’t matter much to Cosmo. Wherever it came from, there was money, and Vincenzo, at least, didn’t seem to have to work for it. That was more than could be said for Cosmo, but what could you do? Some people had all the luck.

Their unlikely friendship had been born during lockdown, when the fates had conspired to make them neighbours. Last summer, after he had been rescued from the criminal clutches of his birth family, Cosmo had moved in with Luca’s adoptive parents at their modest home in Monte, the highest hamlet in town. The house had a pretty spectacular view down the rocky, verdant Valle del Dragone towards the coast, but it only had two bedrooms, and, to Luca’s chagrin, he had been forced to share his space with Cosmo.

The arrangement was meant to be temporary, until a better solution could be found. But no sooner had Cosmo settled in than the world he thought he knew had changed abruptly into some strange, disease-ridden hell. Cosmo, his ambivalent brother and his harassed foster parents had found themselves trapped indoors together while the whole country was ravaged by some wretched foreign virus. The four of them lived on top of each other wherever they went: the house had one open-plan living space, and no garden. The only outdoor area they had was a small, paved courtyard at the front of the house.

Vincenzo and his parents had moved into the house next door just before the world changed. A larger villa with four bedrooms and a garden, it even had a private driveway off the mountain road with space for several cars, including Vincenzo’s Ferrari. As luck would have it, it also had a terrace that looked straight down onto Cosmo’s courtyard, and it was there that Cosmo had first encountered Vincenzo.

One morning, after yet another quarrel with Luca, Cosmo had stepped out into the courtyard to clear his head, only to stop in his tracks, staring upwards with his jaw agape like a fool.

It was as if he had encountered a vision of Eros himself. The young man standing on the balcony, wearing a loosely fitting dressing gown that Cosmo’s dazed mind read as wings, was surely the most gorgeous creature ever to have walked this Earth.

“Hi, kid,” Vincenzo had said nonchalantly, completely unfazed to be seen in his present condition. “What’s up?”

Cosmo’s heart, on the other hand, was beating nineteen to the dozen.

“Ah… ciao,” he had mumbled, craning his neck to get a better look, feeling absurdly like the Romeo to Vincenzo’s Juliet. “I just came out here to get away from my family.”

Vincenzo snorted. “I hear ya. Lockdown’s a drag, isn’t it?”

Cosmo offered the older boy a slightly befuddled smile.

I made him laugh…!

It was good. It was easy. And, from then on, they had met outside to chat quite regularly. They never talked about anything too deep, but it had been so good to see a friendly face for a few minutes each day that Cosmo didn’t mind.

As to Vincenzo, he hadn’t broken off their friendship when the lockdown ended, as Cosmo had feared he might, and they had begun to hang out together in person. The older boy had never tried to take their friendship to the next level, but hope sprang eternal.

He has his freedom, and he has his car. Why would he keep me around if he didn’t get SOMETHING out of it?

And, Cosmo knew, sometimes guys kept their true feelings hidden. It was all part of being a man… something that Cosmo was very keen to be.

This morning, when Vincenzo, in that oh-so-casual way of his, had offered to drive Cosmo to Sorrento for the day, he had almost jumped with joy. Sorrento was forty kilometres away… or two full hours if you went by the longer route. The older boy probably just wanted to show off his Ferrari, but wasn’t there also the possibility that it might be a date?

And, you know, it had sort of felt like one. When they reached the Sorrentine peninsula, Vincenzo had taken them round the scenic Nastro d’Oro road, as Cosmo had hoped he would. They had swum together at the Marina Grande (treating Cosmo to the sight of Vincenzo in his swimming shorts, which he wasn’t going to forget any time soon), and then Vincenzo had bought him lunch at a snack bar on the beachfront. He had even snuck him a beer.

Now, as they journeyed home, they were travelling back along the meandering coast road in the direction of Positano, the sun-drenched mountains growing higher above them.

“Ah, it feels good to be alive,” Vincenzo sighed, flashing him a grin as he changed down a gear to accelerate out of another bend. “I can’t wait to get out there and have some fun again.”

“And me,” Cosmo replied. “Or, you know, to start having fun.”

Vincenzo took his eyes off the road for a second to give him a questioning look.

“You’ve really never had a girlfriend?” he asked.

In a few short seconds, they had already drifted very close to the centre line. A bus lumbered past at close quarters, veering away slightly with a pointed honk of its horn. Vincenzo flicked the driver a rude gesture in his mirror and turned his attention back to the road.

“Once, but…” Cosmo hesitated; he didn’t want to give the other boy the wrong idea. “It wasn’t serious.”

Yes, back in Salerno there had been Elisabetta, the official girlfriend, a girl of eighteen with a background almost as shady as his own (which was saying something, when you were descended from the infamous Neri family of Naples). They had spent a lot of time together, getting into all sorts of trouble. But there had also been Massimo, the gentle, eager boy from the year below Cosmo at school. Nobody else knew about those little meet-ups, but they had left large footprints in his memory.

Vincenzo chuckled. “Well, don’t worry. We’ll get you laid this summer, I promise. I’ll make it my solemn mission.”

The older boy flashed him another enigmatic grin. Cosmo snuck him a furtive smile in return.

If that means what I hope it does, I’m in.

He found himself imagining their first time together. Where would they do it… Vincenzo’s bedroom, while everyone else was out? In the back of the car, parked somewhere remote? Or… outside, somewhere away from prying eyes?

Outside by sunset, surrounded by Luca’s precious wildlife…? Vincenzo nibbling my ear, reaching for my belt…

The image produced the predictable effect, and he shifted in his seat, finally letting go of the leather chair to cross his hands demurely in his lap.

“Can this thing go any faster?” he asked, hoping to keep the other boy’s attention away from what was happening below his trousers, but they had already arrived among the first scattered hillside houses of Positano.

Vincenzo snickered. “Of course it can… but not here. Even I have my limits.”

The heart of the town, an intricate confection of colourful houses clinging improbably to the steep mountain slopes, tumbled down towards the sea below the road. Normally, Cosmo supposed, the place would be rammed with tourists by now… but this wasn’t a normal year, was it? Positano, Praiano, Conca dei Marini… only now were they starting to emerge from their long sleep. So was Amalfi, usually the bustling heart of the coast, where the blue waves had been lapping at an empty beach for months. Soon, it would start to fill with Italians eager for sun and fun… and maybe a few intrepid tourists from further afield if they were allowed to travel.

And Ravello, high in the hills above Amalfi? Cosmo’s so-called ‘home’, which everyone supposedly found so beautiful? How many visitors would climb the winding road up the Valle del Dragone this year? Could all the restaurants and hotels make up for lost time and money?

Idly, Cosmo wondered, but then he realised that he didn’t really care. What had all those people ever done for him? Not a lot. The only people that mattered to him were in this car and, he supposed, even though it often felt like a prison… in that small house up in Monte.

* * *

They cruised up through the top of the valley a while later. Far down below, the rocky Dragone stream cantered down through the valley on its way out to sea, amidst a neglected tangle of olive trees and wild scrub. To the right, the sunlit churches and palazzi of Ravello crowned an undulating mountain ridge. Ahead rose the carefully terraced and cultivated slopes of Monte Brusara, where Cosmo could just see his own modest home peering back down at them. Across the valley, the loosely connected hamlets of the neighbouring village of Scala zig-zagged their way up the side of an even taller peak. Throughout the valley, the order imposed by man tangled improbably with the steepness of the landscape, locked in a perpetual war of attrition.

Cosmo eyed the distant mountain dubiously. Surely, the sight of home should confer a sense of welcome… of belonging? But he was still a stranger there. Honestly, he was still a stranger everywhere.

He had friends, after a fashion, but he was an outsider there, too. They were all two years younger than him, for one thing… Luca’s age. Luca was even dating one of them, a spunky girl called Emilia whom Cosmo rather liked. Then there were Giacomo and Daniele, but they were too wrapped up in each other these days to have much time for Cosmo. Their enforced separation during lockdown only seemed to have strengthened their desire to spend every waking hour together.

No, these days, it was Marco that Cosmo saw the most. The smallest and mousiest of the five, Marco was the only one who was still single, and he wore the slightly weary look of someone who was far too used to being a third or fifth wheel.

Like Cosmo, Marco was fostered, his birth family having proved a disappointment. Perhaps because they had that much in common, they had taken to hanging out a little to help pass the time.

“D’you want me to take you home?” Vincenzo asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Cosmo blinked. “Huh? Oh, nah. Take me to work.”

Vincenzo shook his head sympathetically. “You have to work tonight? That sucks.”

Cosmo shrugged. “Beats being at home.”

For some reason, after Cosmo had left that unfortunate business with the police behind him, Marco’s foster carers Gianni and Angelo had been keen to help him get back on his feet. Calling on their family connections in the time-honoured Italian way, they had fixed him up with a job at the restaurant owned by Gianni’s cousin Anna and Angelo’s brother Pietro… if you could really call it a job. Sometimes, it felt more like paid training. Cosmo supposed he should be grateful but, compared to his old home city of Salerno, Ravello sometimes seemed like the sort of place where everybody just had to know your business.

“Work it is, then,” Vincenzo replied.

They had already turned away from the stream and were making the final ascent to the mountain ridge. They passed the main road tunnel that ran under the town, and soon the eclectic houses of Ravello crowded in upon them. The Ferrari growled its last as Vincenzo drew the car to a halt at a tree-lined junction in the shadow of an ancient church. From here on in, the streets became too narrow and steep for cars. Cosmo would have to walk the final stretch.

Cosmo hopped out of the car and turned to lean briefly on the passenger door, shouldering the small rucksack in which he had carried his beach things.

“Thanks for today,” he said. “I had an amazing time.”

Vincenzo winked. “No worries, kid. Thanks for the company.”

Cosmo felt himself flush dully at the sound of the embarrassing nickname.

I wish he wouldn’t call me that.

He tried to cover his embarrassment by looking down and running a hand through his hair. Yes, it definitely needed a wash. Still, he couldn’t let the other boy go without saying what was on his mind.

“Ah…” he ventured, biting his lip uncertainly. “D’you want to get together again tomorrow? Only, I was thinking…”

“Sorry, Cos,” Vincenzo interrupted affably, “I’m busy tomorrow. No hard feelings, though? I’ll see you again soon.”

Cosmo’s disappointment was bitter, but he didn’t intend to show it. As casually as he could, he took his weight off the door and moved back a step or two. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

Vincenzo grinned. “Alright then. Ciao, buddy!”

With a spin of rubber on tarmac, the scarlet convertible scorched back down the hill, heading, presumably, for the main road tunnel, and then for the snaking, zig-zagging climb back up to Monte.

Cosmo sighed. Once again, he had fumbled an opportunity to let Vincenzo know how he really felt.

I’ll tell him soon, I swear.

Dejectedly, Cosmo took to the welcome shade of the trees behind the church and climbed the little flight of steps that led up to Via Roma, the narrow, crazy-paved alleyway that passed for a high street in the small mountain town that he somehow, unaccountably, now called home.

* * *

“We need those chillies, Cosmo.”

“Yes, signora Rossi,” Cosmo replied dully. “I’m chopping as fast as I can.”

Marta, who ran the restaurant kitchen, gave him a weary sort of look that was equal parts sympathetic and frustrated. “It takes time to develop the knack,” she said more gently. “You’ll get there.”

That’s easy for you to say, Cosmo thought. You’re, like, sixty going on two hundred. You’ve had all the time in the world to ‘develop the knack.’

But he held his tongue. He was being unfair and he knew it. Marta may have been sixty, but she didn’t look a day over fifty-nine.

Pietro was supposedly the great entrepreneur behind Da Rossi, but when it came to the day-to-day running of the place, it was definitely the women who were in charge. When he wasn’t helping out at front of house, Pietro concerned himself mainly with publicity, costs, prices and logistics. Marta, the matriarch of the family, held court in the kitchen, while Anna, Pietro’s wife, kept a watchful eye on everything to make sure it was all being done to her satisfaction. For all her apparent gentleness and warmth, Cosmo sensed that Anna had a keen business mind, too.

Only, Anna hadn’t been around so much lately. Something to do with her father being in hospital. Pietro was doing his best to manage, but Cosmo could tell it was stressing him out.

The kitchen was uncomfortably hot and steamy, not helped by the fact that the temperature outside was upwards of thirty Celsius. Cosmo shoved the board of finely chopped chillies towards one of the cooks – he wasn’t important enough to do any cooking himself, relegated instead to endless chopping and washing up – and reached for a second board that bore a mound of fresh parsley. A few strands of his slightly lank hair tumbled down in front of his eyes, and he brushed them aside without thinking about it before reaching for a fresh kitchen knife.

Marta tutted impatiently. Her own long, black hair, which was streaked with grey, was tied back behind her head in an annoyingly neat and tidy sort of way.

“Wash your hands, please, Cosmo.”

Cosmo sagged slightly. “Yes, signora,” he repeated, and turned to wash his hands for what felt like the thousandth time that evening.

Marta circled around the stainless steel island Cosmo had been working at and, before he knew it, his mop of untidy hair was being forced into a plastic cook’s cap. He protested and tried to duck away, but Marta was implacable, and soon he was properly equipped.

“You’re a good worker, Cosmo,” Marta sighed, “if you could only work on your personal hygiene just a little. I think you’d even be handsome, like your brother, if you scrubbed up a bit.”

He glared at her for a second, put out not just by the vaguely humiliating comparison to Luca, but also the futility of it all.

Seriously, what’s the point? I don’t know what the heck I’d want to scrub up for.

Well, he reflected, there was always Vincenzo. Maybe he was worth the effort.

He reached for the board of parsley once again and took some of his frustration out on the heap of freshly washed herbs. They didn’t know what hit them.

Marta nodded approvingly. “That’s more like it.”

Cosmo smirked slightly to himself. You wouldn’t say that if you knew it your own stupid face I was picturing while I was doing it.

But he didn’t mean it. Marta Rossi was okay, really. So were all the people he had met in Ravello. That was one of the most annoying things about living here. His job was dull, his life was dull, and there wasn’t even anyone he could blame for it except his own lousy self.

He had been chopping and cleaning for a couple of hours when Pietro came to find him and ushered him into the restaurant’s office, leaving one of the more junior waiters in charge of the front of house. So far, Cosmo had only been trusted to work the early evening shift, when the restaurant was at its quietest.

The office was small and windowless, but at least it was hooked up to the air conditioning that cooled the restaurant floor. Relieved, Cosmo prised the cook’s cap from his head and shrugged off his kitchen whites. Pietro sat down behind his computer, looking as stylish as ever and unflustered by the summer. Like all his family, he had very dark eyes, and his black hair was cut short and neatly groomed.

He was in good shape, and he was pretty handsome for a thirty-something, but the whole businessman look wasn’t really Cosmo’s type.

Ah, who am I kidding? I totally would.

…but he supposed Anna might have something to say about that.

“How’s Sergio?” Cosmo asked.

Pietro glanced up for a moment. “Improving, thanks,” he replied. “This damned virus is a beast, but they’re planning to take him off the ventilator soon. They reckon he’ll be able to breathe on his own.”

“Anna will be thrilled when he comes home.”

Pietro nodded. “For sure. We all miss him.” He offered Cosmo a wry smile. “Even though he works for the competition.”

Sergio, Cosmo knew, was head waiter at a hotel elsewhere in town, despite having achieved the almost inconceivable age of sixty-five.

He shook his head incredulously. “Don’t you guys ever retire?”

Pietro chuckled. “Some of us do. But some of us are lifers. Do you think you’ll be a lifer, Cosmo?”

Cosmo frowned awkwardly. “Ah…”

How can I answer that without telling him I hate his stupid job?

But Pietro smiled. “I’m just messing with you. I know your heart isn’t really in hospitality.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“As long as you turn up and do your hours,” Pietro went on, “I don’t mind. You’ll take something from it all the same, and you’re still providing us a service.”

See…? Why do they all have to be so damned NICE all the time?

“I guess it beats working for criminals, right?” Cosmo conceded. “Thanks for taking a risk on damaged goods.”

“You’re far too young to be ‘damaged goods’, Cosmo,” Pietro said gently. “Your family should never have put you in that position.”

Too young to be damaged goods? I spent six years protecting my lil’ bro from the crappy gangster life our birth family had to offer in Naples, then got fostered for eight loveless years by signor Emanuele and signora Barbara Annunziata, the most intolerant old fucks in Salerno. I should have known better than to come out to THEM. No wonder I ended up tearing the place up with Elisabetta and then running away from home.

And, so, he had ended up here in Ravello, guarding a cache of Neapolitan weapons for his dear aunt Assunta Neri, until that precocious kid Giacomo had chosen to involve himself in his affairs. When everything had gone wrong, Giacomo, a boy of fourteen, had ended up taking a bullet that rightfully should have belonged to Cosmo himself.

Yeah. These goods seem pretty damaged to me.

Pietro must have seen the doubtful look in Cosmo’s eyes, because his jaw took on a more determined bearing.

“Everyone deserves a second chance, Cosmo,” he said. “I learned that the hard way.”

“What do you mean?” Cosmo asked.

“You know Gianni Fortuna?”

One of Marco’s foster dads. Sure.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Gianni might not be here today if Angelo hadn’t found him in time to stop him doing something stupid. I didn’t give him a second chance, you see.” Pietro’s brow knotted slightly, as if he was reliving a painful memory. “I was grieving and distracted, and we were all a bit less worldly back then. All I saw was a boy trying to put the moves on my kid brother at my wedding and, in my wisdom, I couldn’t imagine that Angelo might actually return his feelings in kind. If I’d been a bit less wrapped up in some stupid macho notion of ‘family pride’…” He sighed. “Thankfully, Angelo’s quick thinking made sure Gianni got a second chance… and, later on, Gianni was generous enough to give me a second chance.”

Cosmo looked at him more hopefully. “So… you’re okay with boys having sex, now?”

Pietro wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I’d be lying if I said I could relate to it. To tell you the truth, I’d rather not think about it at all. But, you know… I’ve just had to accept that some people are built that way. Who am I to tell them who they’re allowed to fall in love with?” He chuckled ruefully. “Anyway, I’d be in trouble if I still clung to my old attitudes now. Since Angelo and Gianni set things in motion all those years ago, there seems to have been an endless procession of boys dating boys in this town. I mean, seriously… where do they all come from?!”

That’s nice for them. But what about me? None of that goodness seems to be coming MY way.

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Pietro’s advice about Vincenzo, but he sensed that this wasn’t the right guy to ask. If Pietro had struggled to accept his own brother’s private life, what help could he really be to him?

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” he asked.

Pietro sat back in his chair, seeming to relax a little.

“Mamma and I have been discussing your progress here,” he said. “You’re doing fine, but… we’re not sure the kitchen is making the best use of your talents.”

He paused, as if expecting a protest, but Cosmo said nothing.

You’re probably right. I mean, what talents? I suck.

“So…” Pietro went on uncertainly, wrongfooted by his silence. “I’d like you to try your hand at a couple of other things, too. You can have a go at crunching some numbers here in the office with me, but… I’d also like you to try your hand at the supply side.”

Cosmo gave him a blank look. “You mean… fetching and carrying?”

Pietro inclined his head. “If you like. My cousin Fabrizio – he’s a junior partner in the business, you understand – is doing a supply run in a couple of days. I’d like you to go along and help him out.”

A day out of the kitchen? That’d be a change.

“Sure,” Cosmo replied. “Whatever you want.”

Pietro nodded. “Good man. I’ll let Fabrizio know to expect you.” He smiled. “Now, I really must get back out onto the restaurant floor.”

* * *

Cosmo left work a while later, stepping out into the warmth of the evening. Somewhere not too far away, a cracked-sounding church bell chimed seven o’clock. It was still full daylight, sunset being two hours away at least. He was in no hurry to go home, so he turned listlessly up Via Roma, heading towards the cathedral.

In the absence of the usual summer visitors, the narrow, crazy-paved alleyway was quiet, aside from the echoing tread of his own feet. The whitewashed shops and houses crowded in from both sides, even sailing over the street here and there to create pools of cool shade. The gift and clothing shops that usually sold trinkets to tourists well into the evening had opened again, but most stood empty apart from their downcast-looking proprietors.

The grocery store was doing slightly better trade; both the owner and his son were on duty and busy serving customers. Cosmo had heard that the boy, Toto, was due to go to university in the autumn if the virus allowed it.

At least SOMEONE has a chance to get out of this place.

Since arriving in Ravello, Cosmo hadn’t even bothered to enrol in a school. He had never expected to be here for long enough to justify it and, in any event, it wasn’t like he had been learning that much back in Salerno. He had been too busy drinking and smoking with Elisabetta to think much about his schoolwork.

Luca, on the other hand… he was a proper little college boy, studying sciences at the liceo in Amalfi… he and his girlfriend both. The lockdown had got their time there off to a chaotic start, but Cosmo had little doubt that university also beckoned for them. Luisa and Mario Verdi’s great hope for the future.

Not me. I’m just taking up space.

As he approached the end of the narrow, winding street, the sounds of life finally assailed his ears, and he wandered out into the airy surrounds of the cathedral square.

It was almost like stepping into another world entirely. The stone-paved square wasn’t as busy as he remembered it being last year, but there was a joyous buzz in the air all the same. The naturally gregarious locals were out in force, celebrating being able to mix and socialise again.

At the head of the square, at the top of a flight of stone steps, the town’s stately cathedral glowed in its whitewashed simplicity. Narrow stairways and alleyways led in and out at the corners. At the sides of the square, several small shops and bars stood open, spilling out into large areas of outdoor seating where cheerful locals had gathered to catch up with each other. Opposite the cathedral, eight tall umbrella pines framed a panoramic view out over the broad, deep Valle del Dragone to Scala, where the shadows were lengthening slightly over the steeply terraced landscape and the rocky mountain peaks behind it. The air rang with the sounds of chinking glasses and conversation, and the loud, steady scraping song of the cicadas high in the canopies of the tall pine trees.

Cosmo cared little for any of it. He supposed it was good to see so many people out enjoying themselves, but none of them had anything to say to him. He mooched across the square and plonked himself down on one of the stone benches in the shade of the pine trees, hoping, in spite of everything, that someone he knew might happen to walk by.

Idly, his eyes raked the square, searching for a distraction, and eventually settled on a young couple in their twenties who were kissing enthusiastically by the railings with the view of the sun-drenched valley spread out behind them.

It’s all right for some, I guess. I don’t care that she’s a girl… I could just go for some of that right now.

“Ciao,” said a quiet voice.

Cosmo jumped and tore his attention away from the young couple. A young teenager was standing in front of him, check shirt tucked in a neat and tidy way into the waistband of his slim-fit jeans. His mousy hair was freshly brushed and swept away from a fine, clear brow. He had his hands in his pockets and a curious look in his cool grey eyes.

“Oh, ciao, Marco,” Cosmo grunted.

“See anything interesting?” Marco asked casually, glancing over Cosmo’s shoulder at the young couple by the railings.

At a freshly minted fifteen years of age, Cosmo guessed Marco still had some growing to do. He was smaller and skinnier than his peers Giacomo and Daniele, and his voice still had some way to drop. Cosmo tried to remember what it had felt like to turn fifteen, and found that he couldn’t.

Maybe it’s just too confusing a time to hang onto. Or maybe I was already too stoned.

Marco was still looking at him expectantly, and Cosmo realised he ought to come up with some kind of witty response. It wouldn’t do to give the younger boy the last word.

“I was, ah… just wondering if it was normal for boys to drool as much as Luca does when he kisses Emilia. Just conducting research, you know.”

Marco looked like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or chastise him.

“That’s mean,” he said after a while. “You can be kind of a dick, sometimes.”

“Yeah, I know,” Cosmo conceded, shuffling along the bench so the younger boy could sit down. “How’s life as the token single guy in the group?”

Marco rolled his eyes. “The same. Seen one minute, invisible the next. You know, when they get really into each other. I’m getting used to it.”

“You don’t get jealous?” Cosmo asked.

Marco shrugged. “Boyfriends are overrated,” he mumbled, staring at the pine needle-strewn paving stones in a distant sort of way. “Better off without.”

Nice defence strategy there, kid. I’ve had a few myself. Pity it isn’t working.

It wasn’t that Cosmo was particularly empathic by nature. It was just that he’d been around for long enough to know a broken heart when he saw one. When Marco was around Giacomo and Daniele, it came off him in waves… particularly when he looked at the blond one.

You’re brave to keep hanging out with them anyway. It sucks to be the one that falls off the triangle.

…but maybe it was even worse to be completely alone.

“How about you?” Marco asked. “How did the big day out with Vincenzo go? You seemed so excited when we texted this morning.”

As Marco spoke, the man himself appeared from the tunnel that led out to the main Naples road, where he had presumably just parked his Ferrari. They tracked the young man with their eyes as he sauntered past the colourful flowerbeds at the old stone gatehouse to the Villa Rufolo gardens then turned into a little side street lined with ceramics shops. Vincenzo paused by one of the colourful outside displays, then disappeared inside.

“What’s he going into tourist shops for?” Marco muttered, looking a little askance. “Weird.”

“We had an awesome time,” Cosmo replied. Looking at Marco’s furrowed brow, he hesitated. “You don’t like him, do you? What’s the deal?”

Marco shrugged again. “I don’t know him. I just…” seeming to flounder, he shook his head. “Are you sure he’s the right guy?”

Cosmo sighed in frustration. “Don’t you have eyes? Look at him!”

“Sure, he’s kinda… hot, I guess.” Marco replied reluctantly, seeming to squirm in embarrassment at the very thought of it. “But… what’s he like on the inside?”

“I don’t know yet, kid,” Cosmo replied, keeping his delivery utterly deadpan. “We haven’t even made it to first base.”

There was a moment’s confused silence, filled only by the gentle hum of conversation and the insistent scraping of the cicadas, then Marco cringed away, his cool grey eyes registering frank horror.

“Ugh, Cosmo, that’s gross!”

Cosmo snickered. “Yeah, but you walked right into it.”

“I am so done with this conversation.” Marco got shakily to his feet, made as if to leave, then glanced back over his shoulder. “Want to walk with me for a bit?”

Cosmo nodded. “Sure.”

Marco set off across the stone-paved space, stepping deftly aside to make way for a small group of local children who were streaming into the square armed with a football. Cosmo followed, happy to let the younger boy lead the way.

Their feet took them into a shady lane in the corner of the square between the gatehouse and the tunnel, and the mingled sounds of chinking glasses and conversation receded a little. They wandered slowly between high stone walls, Marco gazing distractedly up into the canopies of the trees above their heads.

“Where are we going?” Cosmo asked, as much for the sake of making conversation as anything else. In truth, it didn’t matter very much to him where they ended up.

“Dunno really,” Marco murmured. “Somewhere we can kill some time.”

He glanced vaguely to the left and right, then he turned through an archway on the left and they began to climb.

The quiet, leafy stairway, which was known locally as the Bishop’s Way, was a little-used back route up to the Toro, the prestigious part of town above the cathedral where fancy hotels and grand old palazzi jockeyed for position with a few smaller houses. Marco lived there with his two foster fathers, in a small townhouse tucked into a tiny courtyard sandwiched between the larger buildings that dominated the ridge line.

The Bishop’s Way was well shaded, and little tufts of vegetation grew out of the cracks and fissures in the stonework to either side. Cosmo ran his fingers along one of the stone walls, pausing now and then to tweak one of the little plants out of the wall and send it tumbling to the ground.

“Why do you do that?” Marco asked as Cosmo sent a third or fourth seedling to a dusty concrete grave.

Cosmo paused to examine his dirty fingers. In truth, he hadn’t even been thinking about what he was doing.

“Dunno, really,” he replied. “My old foster carers always said I was a rebel without a cause.”

“That sounds like a dumb thing to say,” Marco said. “All the same, leave the plants alone, okay?”

He turned and kept on climbing.

Wow… Luca would be proud of you!

Before long, they had arrived among the grand old buildings of the Toro. Rendered in warm tones of salmon and cream, they climbed up a broad, gently curving, crazy-paved street that vanished through an archway at the top of the hill. Mounted to the palazzi were crude metal brackets from which traditional square lanterns hung on chains. To the left, a wide, gently sloping stairway lined with lush oleander bushes led back down towards the square. The oleanders, which had been trained to look like little trees, were at their summer best, a confusion of glossy green foliage and pale pink and magenta flowers. The distant slopes of Scala could just be seen above the terracotta rooftops of the town.

Just beyond the stairway stood the colourful gardens of the Municipio, or town hall, which were dominated by a tall umbrella pine surrounded by a ring of small lime trees. It looked invitingly cool and shady. Marco veered off the street and flopped down on the grass.

Cosmo followed. “Dio,” he remarked ironically. “That was the longest walk ever.”

Marco’s cool grey eyes found him for a moment and regarded him uncertainly, as if the younger boy was trying to work out whether he was being mocked, but then he managed a faint smile.

“I just didn’t want to get you out of breath.”

Cosmo snorted. “You wanna race me? I’ll show you a thing or two.”

This time, Marco didn’t hesitate. “Don’t be so sure. I’m faster than I look.”

Cosmo smirked. “Keep dreaming, squirt.”

“Squirt?” Marco repeated incredulously. “Jesus, you’re such a charmer. I’m so glad I met you.” He lay back and stared at the sky with his hands behind his head.

Cosmo snickered. Idly, he picked up a small pinecone and tossed it into one of the borders, sending a cluster of red blooms nodding. A fading flower head broke free and tumbled down onto the soil.

“You’re right, I should stop doing stuff like that,” he murmured. “My lil’ bro wouldn’t approve.”

“You two getting on okay?” Marco asked, casting a curious glance in his direction.

Cosmo shrugged. “I’m still not sure he wants me here.”

Marco sat up again, frowning thoughtfully. “He knows why you cosied up to your parents when you were little, right? You wanted to keep Luca out of all the bad stuff they were doing. You thought if they had you to corrupt, they’d leave him out of it.”

Cosmo nodded. “He says he does, but I don’t think he always believes it.”

“I believe you.” Marco glanced at the ground, plucking thoughtfully at a few blades of grass. “Luca’s stubborn, I’ve seen that for myself. But he’ll come round in the end. You’re his family.”

Cosmo looked at him evenly. “That’s not always enough, though, is it?”

Marco flashed him an injured sort of look.

“Don’t bring my birth parents into this. That’s not fair.”

“Sorry.”

Marco shook his head. “Gianni and Angelo are my parents now. I feel safe with them.” He glanced over his shoulder, craning his neck up the street to where the entrance to his courtyard was just visible. “I’m finally somewhere I can be myself.”

“Yourself is a pretty cool guy,” Cosmo offered.

Marco gave him a doubtful smile. “Thanks, but I’m no great catch.”

Cosmo gave the other boy a sympathetic look.

Wow, low self-esteem really is a way of life for you, isn’t it? It’s okay, man… I can relate.

They lapsed into silence for a while, listening to the distant sounds of voices and quiet music floating up from the square.

* * *

The evening sun had dipped behind the mountain above Scala, casting Ravello into an early dusk, by the time Cosmo arrived home. It was a long climb up several flights of steep, winding stairs to reach Monte, and if there was one thing he hated, it was arriving home hot and sweaty just before bedtime… although, this time, he thought he might take a shower anyway.

Gotta try harder. Vincenzo wouldn’t want me to look such a mess.

Turning off the stairway just before it joined the mountain road, he let himself into the little, terracotta-paved courtyard. Through force of habit, he glanced up at Vincenzo’s balcony, but of course there was nobody there.

The front door opened on the main upstairs living area. Cosmo shed his shoes in the little porch, took a deep breath and stepped inside to face the music.

The whitewashed, rough-plastered room, which was paved with ceramic tiles in a traditional local pattern of white, yellow and blue, was designed to make the best of the panoramic view down the valley. Nearest to the front door there was a neat, modern kitchen area. At the far side, the room opened out into a covered terrace glazed with large picture windows, with a family dining table at one end and a snug arrangement of sofas and chairs at the other that encircled a small television.

Right now, the room bore the fading, savoury aroma of what had probably been a tasty pasta dinner. Luisa and Mario were both in the snug area, watching the television with the sound down low. They looked up as Cosmo entered, and Luisa breathed a visible sigh of relief.

“There you are, Cosmo,” she said. “We were starting to worry.” She was in her late forties, unremarkable to look at, in Cosmo’s opinion, with long black hair containing a few strands of grey and faint crow’s feet about her eyes, but she always had a kindly manner about her.

Cosmo fished his phone out of his pocket and waved it at her as patiently as he could. “You can always call me, you know.”

“We don’t like to bother you, son,” Mario replied. He had a tired and careworn look about him, as he often did after a long day in the virtual office: working through the lockdown had taken its toll. However, there was no irritation in his voice.

“There’s a bowl of penne all’arrabbiata keeping warm in the oven,” Luisa offered, “but it’s probably dried out by now.”

“I don’t mind,” Cosmo replied. “I’ll have it when I’ve had a shower. Sorry I missed dinner.”

“That’s all right,” Luisa sighed, “but I wish you’d let us know when you’re going to be out late.”

Cosmo shrugged. “I’ll try to do better. Where’s Luca?”

“Downstairs, I think,” Mario replied vaguely. “Emilia was here too, earlier. I… don’t think she’s left yet?”

Cosmo set off down the stairs to the lower floor. As he walked along the downstairs hallway, he heard soft voices coming from the doorway at the far end, which opened onto bedroom he shared with Luca. So, Luisa and Mario were right: his brother still had company.

The quiet conversation stopped as Cosmo walked in. Luca and Emilia were perched together on the side of Luca’s bed. Emilia looked down awkwardly, pushing her carefully brushed brown hair back behind her ears and examining her neatly cut fingernails. Luca, however, only had eyes for Cosmo.

Much as it pained him, Cosmo had to agree with Marta Rossi that his kid brother was ‘handsome’. At fifteen and a half, Luca’s frame was wiry but strong. His wavy, mid-length brown hair accentuated a pair of fine cheekbones, but his vivid green eyes – something they both had in common – were currently staring at Cosmo with a furious energy.

“You missed dinner. Again.”

Emilia glanced unhappily at Luca and then returned her gaze to her fingernails.

“I was busy,” Cosmo protested, but the younger boy was having none of it.

“Why couldn’t you just make an effort? Mum and Dad did, and they’ve been working all day. All you had to do was turn up.”

Now Cosmo could feel his own temper rising. Who was his kid brother to teach him manners?

“They’re not my Mum and Dad,” he groused.

Luca got to his feet and squared up to Cosmo, his eyes blazing furiously.

“And I’ve never been so glad of it,” he spat. “You’re such a selfish ass, Cosmo. I don’t know why Marco hangs out with you. Being locked down with you was the worst three months of my life.”

Cosmo glared back at him. “Maybe Marco has a bit less of a stick lodged up his…”

But now Emilia, too, got to her feet, cutting him off in mid-flow.

“Come on, Luca,” she said gently, tugging her boyfriend on the arm. “It’s time I was going, anyway.”

Luca simmered down a little. “Yeah. Okay, ’milia. I’ll walk you home.” His eyes found Cosmo for one last parting shot. “I could use some fresh air.”

They left together. Cosmo, suddenly deprived of the focus of his anger, was left staring foolishly at an empty room, feeling strangely hot and hollow. He sagged down on the side of his own bed, running his hands up into his straggly hair.

No boyfriend, a dead-end job, a disappointment to my foster family and sharing a bedroom with a brother who hates me.

He sighed raggedly, rubbing his hair into even more of an untidy mess.

Someone get me out of this hell!