IT’S REALLY LATE. they’ve been sipping a lot of different things ( probably not the best idea ! ) luca, elia, gio – went to sleep in the room – marti at least owed them that because of last time, which left marti and nico talking for hours in the living room, occasionally bringing up who was sleeping on the couch. the floor. nico wouldn’t let him sleep on the floor, and marti continuously told him he wouldn’t ; except that he would because he’d sleep on the floor just so nico was comfortable. marti has been sitting there. on the wood floor, lined up next to the sofa nico was dozing off on, playing with his hair, while he sipped a drink. they’re back at gio’s cabin , but it’s a different time. after just weeks, it felt like it had been so long ago; and part of that was terrifying in itself. the hour, past hours feel like a dream – he knows he could be buzzed, it could be the silence that’s flooding into every corner. it’s only a few more moments before he hears someone waking up, sliding carefully down the hall. grabbing another drink off the counter, now visible. marti can’t question what gio does, but by the look of him it doesn’t seem like he slept at all. ‘ we order different drinks at the same bar , ‘ it makes him think of a lot of things at once, it could be anything. mean anything. it’s just so vague that he kind of laughs. so vague, and he’s tired. marti is listening, looking at gio as he stands to his feet – grabbing two blankets to place onto nico before gesturing to the back deck.
so much could not be said in the next few moments, they could just sit in silence and drown themselves in beer – they could talk about how what gio had said made his stomach turn, nearly sick – when he places it in comparison with the shit of politics, with everything. there’s nothing but the sound of pushing water by the lake, clinking glass bottles, wind through trees. “ so that’s what you meant to say when you said you’d be right back,” he’s clearing his throat, joking because the other had been gone for at least an hour when he said ‘ i’ll be right back. ‘ though he knows there’s something more no matter how vague gio sounds with that. he can feel gio staring at him, not forgetting about incidents with covitti – the ones that marti wants to not care about. “ la società è fottuta spazzatura–– fanculo,“ marti says the last part entirely to himself – like he was able to yell at the world like the several times before when it seemed too real. no one was going to tell him he couldn’t be with nico. the silence returns and it’s not unbearable. not when he can speak into the silence, into existence: “ i love him, you know– “ never an afterthought – it didn’t matter that it was the second time he’s says this, it was the first time gio heard it. and it means more every single time.