Chapter Text
It’s fair to say that it hadn’t been easy for Martino to convince his mom to let him go on vacation with the boys, but she finally caved in, after several conversations and one long speech from Gio exposing the different benefits of a friends’ gateway to the beach. It’s not that Martino’s mom didn’t trust Martino or the boys to be on their own, it’s mostly that she didn’t like the idea of being alone in the house for days. Martino knew that, which is why he convinced her to take this opportunity to visit her sister for a few days, this way it would be a nice getaway for them both. And of course, Martino would call her everyday to tell her all about their trip.
A month prior, Gio had proposed to go camping during the summer break, just the four of them together, Elia, Luchino and Marti. Gio had broken up with Sofia not so long before, which might be what prompted the idea of the getaway. Turned out all four boys could use some clean coastal air and to just chill under the sun for a few days. Their fourth year of high school had been exhausting for all of them, and one thing that’s for sure is that their fifth and final year wouldn't be any easier. They might as well enjoy themselves while they could. Martino was particularly grateful for this opportunity to be a careless teenager for a few days, to be completely rid of any responsibilities. As much as he loved his mom, with her good and bad days, he did have to put on adult shoes more so than the average teenager which tended to be tiresome. Martino and his mom had managed to find a balance, they’d learned how to live without his dad by now and their relationship was now stronger than ever before, but even so Martino sometimes felt like there was a huge weight on his shoulders.
The boys decided on Fregene for their trip as it’s a short train ride away from Rome, is known to attract many young Italians due to its many bars and clubs, and on top of it is a relatively cheap destination for poor high schoolers like them. And as Luchino said: “I’m sure it’s full of pretty girls. We’ll have the time of our lives guys”. Even though Martino couldn’t care less if there were pretty girls there or not, he sure was looking forward to those few days at the beach with his friends.
The thing is that Martino had come to terms with the fact that he was attracted to boys, and boys only, a few months prior. He just couldn’t lie to himself anymore, not when it took everything for him to try and pretend that he was even remotely attracted to Emma. No really, he just decided there was no point in putting up this façade for himself anymore. That’s the conclusion he came to after taking a quiz to assess his gayness (the results were complete bullshit by the way) – turns out if you take a quiz to know if you’re gay, there is a 99.9% chance that you’re gay, or bi, or pan, or anything else that isn’t straight. Just deal with it. Martino dealt with it, in fact he felt pretty good about it, even better now that his feelings for Gio seemed to be a memory of the past. He hadn't told any of the boys yet though, he hadn’t told anyone for that matter. He was too afraid of what their reaction might be, and he valued their friendship way too much to risk losing them. He didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t get to spend most of his useless afternoons with his three best friends.
This was the exact thought that crossed Martino’s mind while he looked at his friends on the train to Fregene. Gio was telling a story excitedly with his hands, while Luchino laughed loudly at all of his jokes and interrupted him with dumb questions which meant Gio had to tell the story from the beginning again since apparently Luchino didn’t understand any of it. Elia was looking at them both and shaking his head at their antics. As for Martino, he was thinking about how grateful he was that these three were in his life. Gio noticed that Martino was staring at them without saying anything, he looked back at him with a question in his eyes, probably wondering what waq in Marti’s mind like the mom friend he was. Martino tried to convey through his eyes that he was fine, that he was just glad to be going on this trip with them and taking his mind off things. The curly haired boy seemed satisfied with the response in Martino’s eyes and resumed babbling about some adventure he had. After an hour and a half spent talking, listening to music, playing games, they arrived to their destination. It was near midday when they checked into the campsite and set up their tent. The campsite seemed pretty chill, it had a pool, a snack bar and basically everything you would expect from the place. They decided not to lose any time and went straight to the beach as soon as they were done setting up. The four boys wore huge smiles on top of their light shirts, swimming trunks, flip flops and sunglasses. When they stepped foot on the sand, Martino's first instinct was to take a deep breath, the smell of iodine and sun cream invading his nostrils. They all looked around them, at the people lying around sunbathing, at the people playing beach games, at the sun rays hitting the sea creating millions of crystalline reflections. They then looked at each other and grinned widely, summer vacation was officially on.
“Alright let’s find a spot to lay down and show off our athletic bodies guys!” taunted Elia.
“You mean show off our belly rolls,” Gio laughed back, “Boccia was right, we should have been more dedicated in PE. Woah, I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I almost miss the guy.”
“Me too honestly, bro. We should have brought him and his husband with us, they could help us get into shape,” Marti added.
“Wait why are we talking about Boccia right now?” Luchino Interrupted. “Let’s go find that spot, we’re not allowed to talk about anything related to school, that’s the rule!”
“There aren’t any rules Luchi, we’re just joking,” Gio retorted. “Actually, the only rule is that there aren’t any rules.”
“That’s fine by me. Let’s go” concluded Elia. They started walking as one after taking off their flip flops and soon realized the sand was painfully hot for their bare feet. They put their flip flops back on as fast as they could when their feet couldn't take the scorching heat anymore and headed off again.
They ended up spreading their beach towels near a cabin that sold drinks and snacks, and just in front of a net where you could play beach volley. It was the perfect spot for their starving stomachs, and also for people-watching (because who doesn’t people-watch at the beach – people who are blind that’s who). Luchino didn’t waste one second before rushing to the snack bar to get food into his craving belly. The three boys followed suit not long after. They were eating their snacks on their towels, shirts off, fan-shaped feet, when a group of boys approached the beach volley court. They were a group of four guys who seemed to be around the same age as them. One of them was dark-skinned and super athletic, looking like the type of guy that goes to the gym several times a week and likes to preach the virtues of maintaining a healthy body. The one next to him was much less built, sporting what looked like a bad sunburn on his upper back. He had brown hair and wore prescription glasses which gave him a bit of a nerdy look. The third one seemed super chill while looking quite confident, his posture indicating that one would have to try really hard for him to get riled up. But the one that caught Marti’s attention the most was the fourth one, a dark-haired boy with a blinding smile. Seriously he’d never seen a smile so wide and bright in his life. And…oh well, the boy also happened to be ripped so there was that. But Martino couldn't help but staring at his face, his smile, his green eyes, his curls that fell over his eyes. Martino suddenly realized that he’d been staring for far too long and tried to snap out of it. He looked over at the boys next to him, who were also staring at the group of boys in front of them. Martino dared to glance one more time at wide smile boy, which confirmed to him he was just as beautiful and breathtaking as he first thought. Martino was well aware he shouldn’t let himself get too invested into a stranger who was most likely straight, but at this moment all his mind was telling him was that there was nothing wrong with a little bit of harmless staring from afar. Suddenly a voice broke his reverie:
“It would be cool to play some beach volley while we’re here, what do you think guys? Get our bodies moving a little bit?” Elia asked.
“Yeah maybe,” replied Gio, looking a little bit bothered.
“All I can think of right now is how I wished it were girls playing in front of us,” Luchino interjected.
Martino realized that girls volleyball players had to be the last thing Gio wanted to think about in this instant. “Hey Luchino, stop being a perv will you, we could play after they’re done.”
Gio looked at him surprised, seeming invigorated again, “sounds like a good idea Marti, I’m proud of you for actually agreeing to get up and move your body to play real life sports. You like to brag about how you’re winning me in FIFA, but you won’t be bragging for long when it comes to this.”
Elia and Luchino snickered while Martino rolled his eyes at that comment. Then, Elia's face lit up, “wait, why don’t we ask the boys if we can play with them, they’re only four, we could play four to four, that’s much better.”
Luchino didn't seem convinced, “did you look at them? Two of them look like they could be fitness coaches, like it shouldn’t be legal to be this ripped, we would get crashed in seconds.”
“Well yeah with you in our team that’s for sure,” retorted Gio, “but come on, it’ll be fun, and muscles don’t mean anything when it comes to volley, maybe they suck at it as bad as us”. Right as Gio finished his sentence, a ball rolled to Martino’s feet. Looks like the boys had started playing while they were chatting. The dark-skinned boy picked up the ball and looked over at them - they probably looked like deers caught in flashlights.
“Ciao,” the guy greeted, “sorry for the ball.”
Gio was the first one to recover, “hey no problem, actually we were talking of joining you guys for a match, what do you think?” With all of this Martino had almost forgotten of wide smile boy, almost being the key word. He was conflicted between wanting to be as far from him as possible so as not to embarrass himself and wanting to get to know the person behind the warm smile. Truthfully, he didn’t think showing off his non-existent real life sports skills would play in his favor as a first introduction, but it was too late to back off now.
Dark skinned boy now had a name, Amir, he seemed really nice, and he introduced them to the other three boys: Aurelio (the laid-back one), Stefano (the one with glasses) and… Niccolò. Niccolò was the name of the most beautiful boy Martino had laid his eyes on. Martino greeted him as calmly as he could manage, trying not to show how affected he was by the boy. He was caught off guard by the way Niccolò looked back at him, his smile seemingly even wider, even brighter, and there was something in his eyes that Martino couldn’t decipher. Martino tried to reign his expression in, however, he was pretty sure he didn’t manage to prevent the blush from creeping up his cheeks. Martino averted his eyes to try to focus on the situation at hand. Beach volley. The ball. The net. The contrabbandieri next to him. Four friendly boys on the other side of the net. Martino reminded himself not to make a big deal out of this situation, it was just a game and nothing was at stake. Just let it go, this is what this vacation is about remember?
“So, we’ll just pass the ball around at first, we’ll start counting the points once we’re warmed up, what do you say?” Amir proposed.
“Well as you probably figured out we do need a bit of a warm up, so let’s do that,” Gio replied sarcastically.
“We may look inexperienced but that’s just a trick. We’re actually going to smash you guys” added Elia. The four boys in front of them laughing in response.
“Well we’ll see about that” said Niccolò, and as he said that he turned his head to look at Martino, who wished he could be anywhere but here in this moment. He was beginning to think that agreeing to play with them was the worst idea of the century.
They started playing and admittedly they weren’t as bad as he’d thought. Amir and Aurelio were respectively strong and fast, but overall both teams were relatively even. Martino was finally able to loosen up a little, cracking jokes with the boys in between passes. He sometimes felt like there were eyes on him, but he didn’t know if it was his mind playing tricks or if it was indeed the case. Niccolò was jumping around excitedly, his smile never seeming to falter even when he missed the ball. The fact that he was a bit shorter than the other tree boys of his team was the most endearing thing. They ended up face to face at some point, looking at each other from across the net, and again his body was reacting in a way that he couldn’t control. Gio threw the ball to the other side, prompting Niccolò to jump to reception it, setting his body in motion. Martino made a mental note to thank Gio for this moment, because he was in first row to witness the way Niccolò’s muscles contracted and expanded. He got a full view of his torso, his arms, his baby blue shorts that hung low on his stomach and gave way to his sharp hip bones, his legs, his face of concentration, and… The ball that came crashing down on Martino’s face. Well he was way too engrossed into everything Niccolò to see this one coming.
“Hey Marti, are you sleeping or what??” mocked Gio, “you know you have to catch the ball with your hands, not your head, right?”
“Ahaha thank you for the reminder Gio.”
“Marti you ok? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” for the first time since Martino laid his eyes on him, Niccolò wore an expression of worry on his face, his usual excited demeanor gone. And wait… did he just call him “Marti”??
Martino reassured him right away, “No don’t worry, I’m fine”. They changed positions and Martino tried not to die from embarrassment.
The two boy squads chatted in between passes, hitting it off almost immediately. Naturally it wasn’t long before they realized they all came from Rome. Aurelio, Stefano and Amir went to university there, while Niccolò just graduated from high school and was about to start his first year of uni in September. It was clear that Niccolò didn’t want to get into the details of why he was one year behind the boys even though they were the same age. They chatted about everything and anything, mostly about the differences between high school and university, as well as their reason for being in Fregene. The boys arrived the day before to spend a few days on the beach as Aurelio happened to have a cousin who lived here, where they were staying. In just the little time that they’d known the four boys, it was evident how strong their friendship was, the bond that united them akin to the one of the contrabbandieri. It was quite obvious in the way that they shared looks, holding silent conversations, in the way that they teased each other endlessly with affectionate eyes. Even though the four boys had very distinct personalities from that of Martino, Gio, Elia and Luca, their similar dynamics was what made them click instantly, what made them feel comfortable around each other.
After over an hour of playing beach volley, Stefano shouted: “the last one in the water is the real loser”, prompting all eight boys to rush to the sea. None of the boys wanted to make the race easy for anyone, barring the way, kicking, pushing - it was a mess of legs, arms and laughter. Just as Martino was reaching the water, he felt arms enveloping him from behind preventing him from going any further. The arms that were around him felt both strong and soft on his skin, almost like their first intent were to hold rather than constrict. Not forgetting of the race, Martino managed to wiggle himself out of the grip to keep on running, almost immediately missing the sensation of the arms surrounding him. Once he was in the water, he turned around to see that the arms that enveloped him belonged to Niccolò. He was smiling his signature sunshine smile, only it was so big now it was threatening to break his face. Which would be an absolute shame considering its statuesque beauty. And he was laughing, a low and sweet sound. Martino wanted to slap himself for being so infatuated with every little thing Niccolò did.
“What exactly did you want to do Niccolò?” asked Martino with what was left of his bravery, he hoped his smile wasn’t too big, “just accept that you lost.”
“Well it was worth trying, and by the way I didn’t lose! Luca was the last one!” Niccolò replied smugly.
“I’m sorry but if you arrive second to last, the last being Luchino, that means you lost. It’s just a fact,” teased Martino.
“Oh, okay I see how it is. I didn’t see you as the merciless type Martino. It’s not like you won either,” Niccolò teased back with the cutest headshake.
“No, it’s true but…” And it’s right at that moment that Gio decided to come up behind him without making a sound and to drown him. When Martino came back to the surface he wanted nothing but to murder Gio. He went after him to try and drown him as a reprisal, but he was stronger than him and managed to drown him a second time. Martino came back up again, his hair all over the place, chocking on the sea water he swallowed. He finally dared to glance at Niccolò who looked like he was having the time of his life. Gio looked between Martino and Niccolò with a questioning look, probably wondering if he interrupted something.
“Hey Nico, don’t let those Bambi eyes of his fool you ok? He’s far from being innocent himself, trust me,” Gio told him. Martino wished he would just shut his mouth and stop embarrassing him even further. Martino was managing this well enough on this own anyway.
“Bambi eyes?” Asked Niccolò, approaching to look intensely at his eyes. “Ah yes Bambi really suits you actually,” he agreed, looking pleased with himself.
Martino felt his cheeks turning red, but still managed to get out a “don’t listen to what Gio says, I’m definitely not a Bambi.”
“I beg to differ,” responded Niccolò, looking smug yet again.
Gio was silently laughing next to Marti and then said to Nico, “I feel like we’re going to get along just well you and me.”
Martino couldn’t take it anymore, “I’m going to drown the both of you if you don’t stop talking bullshit.”
“I’d like to see you try,” challenged Niccolò. And try he did. He doesn’t know what force spurred him towards Nico and made him brave enough to try and drown him. He was touching his skin. His naked wet skin. It was a mess of limbs, legs, arms intertwined, so that Martino couldn’t register which part of Nico he was touching. But he was touching him. Holy shit. At some point Martino’s face ended up really close to Niccolò’s, and for a slip second their eyes met, it was such a short moment and yet so intense. Nico finally gave out under his weight and was swallowed whole by the water. When he came back up his hair messily covered his eyes and he was giggling like he couldn’t be bothered. He pushed his hair back to reveal his eyes again. Martino was mesmerized by their color, a peculiar shade of green, almost like they couldn't decide between hazel, green and blue. Martino shouldn’t be so entranced only by a pair of eyes, but he couldn’t help himself. Next to them, the rest of the boys, whom Gio had gone back to, were being loud and messy, splashing water in all directions, shouting and laughing like they had no care in the world. Martino could hear them, but it was faint, like he was hearing them from inside a secluded place. Niccolò was looking straight into his eyes and Martino wasn’t sure he knew how to speak anymore. Thankfully Niccolò was the first one to break the silence.
“For the record I could have drown you so easily, I just decided to let you do it. I didn’t want to offend Bambi,” he said mockingly, his smile never faltering, even for a second.
“Oh really? I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You’re so tiny, you wouldn’t be able to drown me.” Oh, he hadn’t lost his capacity to speak, that’s great. But did he just say that Niccolò was tiny?? He was regretting ever opening his mouth. Technically Niccolò wasn’t tiny, he was built and had defined muscles, while Martino was toned but not as built and muscly. He was however taller and broader than Niccolò who had narrow shoulders and hips. Physicality aside, his whole demeanor oozed tiny, there was no denying that. Martino didn’t mean to say it out loud though, he’d rather keep this for himself. But it was too late now and Niccolò was looking at him indignantly.
“I’m sorry what? Tiny? Me? I’ll let you know I’m the master of drowning. I just didn’t want to outshine you,” he retorted.
“Is that so? ‘Cause it sounds a lot like something a tiny person would say,” and there he said it again, why couldn’t he shut his mouth?
At that moment the bubble they were in was burst by the boys coming into their vision. Aurelio and Amir started messing with Niccolò, ruffling his hair and then trying to drown him. Niccolò tried to resist but the “master” of drowning couldn’t do much against these two. Once they were done with him, Niccolò went after Amir to retaliate. He did manage to drown him after some dazzling efforts.
Martino was now surrounded by Gio, Elia and Luca who were observing the commotion. The momentum Niccolò and Martino shared was definitely lost. That’s when Luchi’s stomach decided to intervene: “hey guys I’m starving, don’t you want to get something to eat?”. They all ended up going back to their towels. Martino glanced at Niccolò who was a few steps away, engrossed in a conversation with Amir. He was looking like a Roman God gracefully making his way out of the water, with droplets on his torso and his shorts plastered on his legs. It was all too much that Martino couldn’t stare at him for too long. The group of boys settled their beach towels next to the contrabbandieri’s. There was some sort of silent agreement that the two boy squads had adopted each other and didn’t want to go their separate ways. Martino was laying down on his towel, face up, when his eyes caught those of Niccolò’s who was still standing. They stared at each other for a few seconds longer than socially acceptable. Martino recalled their moment in the water and started wondering if there might be more to it than friendly banter, but he knew he was venturing into dangerous territory and tried to drown the thought as soon as it emerged, the same way he had physically drowned Niccolò, without much of a second thought.
“Hey, do you guys like to smoke? We brought some good weed that we could share,” Aurelio proposed.
“Ahh yes, you’re saving us, we didn’t bring any,” responded Elia. Gio and Luca looked at Aurelio like Christmas came early.
“Well we thought we’d celebrate as it’s just us boys you know. No girls on our backs telling us what to do and all that,” added Aurelio.
“Yeah, no Maddalena in sight,” Stefano snickered. His three best friends looked at him with a knowing look. It seemed to be an inside joke, and it got Martino curious.
“Who’s Maddalena?” he asked.
“My ex-girlfriend,” Niccolò answered straight away in a stern voice. He wasn’t looking at Martino when he said it. When he finally did there was something foreign in his eyes, a distance that Martino had never seen before. It took him a while to register the information. An ex-girlfriend. A girlfriend. A girl. Of course, girls would be into Niccolò. Of course, Niccolò would be into girls. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to Martino, but it still stung him in a way that wasn’t comfortable. That’s what Martino gets for letting his guard down, for thinking for even a second that Niccolò could be into him. Martino hadn’t learnt his lesson apparently and he felt so very stupid for falling for a straight guy on his first day of vacation.
“We’re also completely girls free, so we can celebrate together. What about we hang out on the beach tonight then?” asked Gio to the group, breaking the awkward silence that followed Niccolò’s revelation, “we could play some games, play music and all that, what do you say?”
“Yeah sounds good! Let's meet up here again after diner,” responded eagerly Amir.
“That’s a deal!” concluded Gio, clapping his hands.
All boys looked enthusiastic at the idea. It was almost seven when the two groups of boys collected their stuff and went their separate ways, the contrabbandieri to the campsite, and the other boys to Aurelio’s cousin’s. Martino hadn’t dared look at Niccolò again. On the way to their tent, Gio looked over at Martino, who didn’t have it in him to feign being cheerful. Gio knew him too well anyway, so there was no point in pretending. Gio didn’t say anything but it was clear he noticed. Martino knew Gio would ask about it later, but for now all Martino wanted to do was take a shower and try to get a certain pair of green eyes out of his mind.