edited 10-5-25

Karma

We eventually pulled up to the house, and I glanced back to see Dante staring out the window, his eyes wide.

 "We're here," he looked up at me, confused. "You sure?" Oh, I am so close to punching him in his beautiful face.

When I got out, I realized that Dante was still inside, so I opened the back door. "Hurry, I don't have all night," I growled out

 "Ok," lazily, he got out of the car.

Looking around, the confusion never left his face, "holy shit," he muttered, 

"What?" I asked skeptically. 

"You have a mansion?" he stuttered out weakly 

"Yeah, I guess," shrugging, I walked ahead of him

 "Come with me," I said after a few moments of him gawking at my home

 "Oh yeah sure," his voice was barely audible even for me. I started towards the house with the man hot on my trail. And opening the front door, I was tackled immediately. “Oof”

"Your home!" My little sister yelled as she hugged me. I chuckled and hugged her back 

"Ciao, where is everyone else?" I asked with a smile 

"They're scattered," she said with a joy-filled voice

 "Hey, pinetree? Could you go tell papà I have a guest and that we will be in my room studying?" I asked her sweetly,

 "Sure," she said, giggling as she ran off to find our dad. 

"Oh? What's this? Back home already? I didn't expect you to come home tonight," my mom said while coming down the stairs 

"Ciao mammi," I said with a small smile as I walked towards her and kissed her forehead. She smiled back and looked over to Dante. "And who are you?" my mom asked.

"Oh! My name is Dante!... miss?" he said nervously 

"I'll be tutoring him for a bit," I chuckled out

 "Oh! Well, you can call me Rosetta," she said politely. 

"Why don't you and my son go up and start studying while I get you some snacks?" she said happily 

"Ok ma, will do,"  “oh and son make sure you have everything you need before the party!” her voice echoed loudly from the kitchen. motioning for Dante to follow me to my room, "A party?" Dante asked, already back to his cocky attitude from before, "Just a stupid party that my family hosts every year," I mumbled as we walked into my room.

As I closed my bedroom door, he just stood there awkwardly, so I walked over to my desk and pulled out all of my textbooks. I glanced back over to see that he was still just standing there. I waved him towards my bed. He jumped but obeyed quickly. My room was big, the second biggest in fact. It was inspired by the Renaissance in France and Italy, so very castle-like, which is probably why he’s looking around so much. I sat down beside Dante 

“So what is it you're struggling with the most?”  "Huh? Oh, uh, probably English. It's a bit hard for me to grasp things when reading," he said absent-mindedly

  “Do you know why?” I question hesitantly. He looked up

 "Well, probably because English isn't my first language, im fine with speech, but reading and writing are where I struggle," he said nonchalantly, and then his eyes widened

 “You can not tell ANYONE about this, you got it?” he looked at me as if I just kicked a dog, and then he got physical again and grabbed my shirt.

“Dante. Let go of me. Now please,” I said calmly 

He let go of my shirt as if it burned him.

"Sorry..force of habit," he said quietly. I just nodded, “It's ok that it's not your first language, if anything, it will help me teach you even more.”  “Why?”  “Because it's my 3rd language, and I do great in English,” he looked at me as if I'd grown a third head, but agreed, so I started to help him study the way I'd been taught.

We had been studying in  awkward silence for about thirty minutes when there was a knock on the door, I glanced up and told whoever was there to come in, and so in came my petite and very pregnant mother with a tray of meats, cheese, bread, fruits, and crackers along with a knife and utensils waddling towards us very clearly out of breath “Mammi!” I shouted as she stumbled, Dante jumped up to grab the tray for her, " Ma'am, let me!" Taking the heavy plate of food from her, she smiled and thanked him, then waddled back out of the room. I laughed hysterically, finally breaking the excruciating silence as Dante carefully put down the food. "Jeez, I wasn't expecting your mom to come up here with that much, especially because she's so pregnant." Dante sighed while sitting down, "Neither did I. If my dad knew, he would lock her away in their bedroom." I chuckled out

"Say, you seem to have an accent, but what is it? very obviously Russian, so what's the deal there?" Dante asked suddenly 

"my dad's Italian, and I got a lot of his traits, including me picking up the accent and language. I also lived there for a bit with my grandfather for a good chunk of my life,"  I smiled at him and took off my glasses, rubbing my nose where they sat

"Do you need those?" Dante asked as I put them in a drawer. I looked at him and shook my head "They're fake," I said 

“Huh,”

We sat in silence. “I'm sorry.” Dante suddenly said I looked at him, shocked

 “For what?” I asked hesitantly 

"for being a jerk to you and hurting you...  I'm sorry for being a bully. The only reason I do it is that the group I'm with is the only one at that school who isn't afraid of me, they're the only ones who WANT anything to do with me... I don't enjoy hurting people, I promise."

 He looked down at his hands after he finished talking. I stared at him and then smiled 

"It's ok, man, I get it. Our high school is a stereotype; once people form their cliques, they  pretty much never interact with anyone else, so I forgive you, plus it's not like you even left a mark on me."

 I put my hand on his back, and as soon as I did, he straightened up his face as red as a cherry,

 “I um. I didn't expect you to forgive me so easily,” he said, fiddling with his fingers nervously. 

Huh, I didn't expect him to be so cute.