Sempre (Sempre 1)

Tess gave him the middle finger before storming off, but Dominic stood there, for once not following.

“That was interesting,” Dia said. “You’re not really banging the girl, are you?”

Dominic chimed in. “They don’t even get along.”

“It’s not that we don’t get along,” Carmine said. “It’s just she runs every time I come near her.”

Dia laughed. “If you’d relax, I’m sure she’d come around.”

“You’ve never met her,” Carmine said. “Hell, you didn’t know she existed until a minute ago. You aren’t exactly an expert on the subject.”

“She’s just some girl, right? We’re not that complicated. Besides, I’m not saying you should bang her, but there’s nothing wrong with making friends.”

Carmine rolled his eyes. “No one says banging anymore, Dia. The nineties are over. People fuck.”

“Not always,” she said. “Sometimes they make love.”

“Not me.”

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, Carmine was strolling through the school’s corridor toward his second-period class when he spotted his brother in the library. Dominic sat at a computer, furiously typing away at the keys. Curiosity grabbed Carmine and he slipped through the glass doors into the room.

“Christ, it’s bright in here.” Carmine shielded his eyes as his voice echoed through the silent room, but no one was around to scold him.

“First time in the library?” Dominic asked.

“I’ve been in here for English class,” he said defensively. “I even checked out a book once.”

“Which book?”

“The Count of Monte Cristo. I had to do a report last year.”

“So you actually read it?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I read the first page before I rented the movie.”

Dominic laughed but said nothing, too busy pulling up files on the computer. Carmine leaned against the desk beside him, trying to decipher what all the coding meant. “What are you doing?”

“Changing your grades for you, bro.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“No, but I did look at them. You’ll never make it out of high school at the rate you’re going.”

Carmine shook his head. “You have some nerve hacking the school’s servers and going through people’s records like this shit isn’t illegal. And they say I’m the one who’s gonna turn out like Dad.”

“I don’t intentionally hurt people, so you still have me there,” Dominic said. “Besides, have you seen your disciplinary record?”

“I think the better question is have you seen it, Dom.”

“You’re damn right I have. It was like reading a true-crime novella. Your permanent high school record is longer than Uncle Corrado’s arrest record, and that’s saying a lot.”

Their aunt Celia’s husband, Corrado Moretti, had been arrested more times in his life than he had had birthdays, but none of the charges ever stuck. Whether it was a missing witness, a dirty judge, or a bribed juror, Corrado always found a way out of trouble.

A reporter once dubbed him the Kevlar Killer. No matter what he was hit with, he came out unscathed.

“Uncle Corrado’s the Man of Steel,” Dominic said. “Faster than a speeding bullet.”