Sempre (Sempre 1)

Carmine leaned against his black Mazda in the spot beside her. “There’s nothing to get. It is what it is.”

“What is it?”

“Sex,” he said, laughing at the bewildered expression on Dia’s face. Her blue eyes were hidden beneath layers of dark makeup, and she’d added some pink and purple streaks to her short blonde hair since yesterday. She defined eccentric in her mismatched clothes, her new bulky camera hanging by a strap around her neck. Nothing about Dia conformed, which was what had drawn Carmine to her in the first place. Although he was popular, there weren’t many people he considered friends. He felt there were two types of people in the small town of Durante, North Carolina, where they lived—those who wanted him, and those who wished they could be him. Dia was different, though. She was honest and, living in a world surrounded by nothing but lies, Carmine appreciated that.

“But why Lisa?” Dia asked, refusing to drop the subject.

Carmine looked across the parking lot at where a group of girls had gathered and shrugged when he spotted Lisa Donovan. She had long blonde hair, her body slim and skin darkly tanned. She looked like every other girl in school—nothing to write home about.

Not that there was anyone at his home who gave a shit about his life . . .

“She’s quick to get naked. Less work for me.”

“Gross.” Dia wrinkled her nose. “You need a decent girl to straighten you out.”

“I don’t need straightened out,” Carmine said. “Why drown in love when you can have so much fun swimming around in lust?”

“But her?” Dia pressed. “Out of everyone in this school, you pick Moanin’ Lisa.”

Carmine chuckled, tugging on a chunk of Dia’s colorful hair. “Looks like you’re the painting today, Warhol.”

“Hey, I’ll take it,” she said. “Andy Warhol was one of the best.”

“He was crazy.”

“Maybe, but he was still a genius.” She nodded toward the group of girls. “Which Moanin’ Lisa, clearly, is not. I don’t think she can even string together a sentence. Have you tried to have an intelligent conversation with her? It’s like talking to a brick wall.”

“No, we don’t do a lot of talking,” he said. “She’s not so bad from behind with her face shoved into a mattress, though.”

Dia shook her head as Carmine laughed again. He had no real interest in Lisa, or any other girl for that matter. But while a relationship was the furthest thing from his mind, he’d realized there were benefits to keeping female company. They might not have been intellectually stimulating, but they did stimulate another part of him . . . often.

A silver Audi whipped into the parking lot then, coming to a stop beside them. Dominic hopped out from behind the wheel and Tess, his girlfriend, climbed from the passenger seat. Tess was Dia’s twin sister, but the two couldn’t have been more opposite.

They’d all known one another since they moved to the area in elementary school, but the relationship between Dominic and Tess was new. It was strange—the life Carmine had left wasn’t the same one he’d returned to, and he had a hard time adjusting to the change.

“What are y’all up to?” Dominic asked.

“Trying to get Carmine to see the error of his ways when it comes to Lisa,” Dia said. “It’s not working.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Tess said. “No girl with an ounce of self-respect would want him.”

“I’m not that bad. I’m rich, popular. I have a sense of humor. I’m good looking, and not to mention I have a really big—” They all groaned loudly before he could finish. He shrugged, thinking he’d summed himself up nicely. “Besides, it’s not like I plan to date her. The only time you’ll catch me asking a girl out is after I’m done with her, and I’m asking her to get out.”

“See, that’s why you’ll always be alone,” Tess said. “You only think about yourself.”

“So says the vainest bitch alive,” he said. “You better be careful throwing stones in your glass house, Tess. You’re liable to get cut.”

“Enough, you two,” Dominic said, stepping between them. “Carmine’s free to do whatever—or whomever—he wants, so get off his back. But, bro, you better watch yourself, threatening my girl.”

“I didn’t threaten her. I warned her. She ought to thank me.”

Rolling her eyes, Tess stalked off, and Dominic followed behind, calling her name. The routine happened daily: Tess gets mad, stomps away, and Dominic chases her like a dog.

Carmine didn’t see the appeal. “He’s pathetic.”

“He’s in love.”

“If that’s what love does to you, you can definitely count me out.” He couldn’t imagine spending every waking moment of every day with the same person, doing the same shit they did the day before. “That has to be boring.”