I should have stayed home. Hell, I wish I could, but at this point in time, I can't, I think to myself as I dreadfully walk towards gate 42, flight A to Florence, Italy from Chicago's International airport. 

Now, I know most people would be excited to take a trip to Italy, more or less any trip at all especially in Europe, but it wasn't the fact that I was going to Italy. It was the fact that it was four in the morning and that I was going to meet my mom's boyfriend Antonio, some guy she met while she took a business trip to Italy a few months ago. Apparently, he was quite the charmer. 

I had met him a couple of months ago when he flew to Chicago and stayed with us for a week before heading back home to Italy to work. I mean, he's a very successful man,  he spoke five different languages, owned his own business, had a lot of money and lived in a mansion. 

Luckily, the only good thing about the trip was that I got to take one of my best friends with me, Sarah. Cane had to take his own summer vacation with his family to Vancouver. 

My mom decided to let Sarah tag alone in hopes to keep me happy while being unhappy meeting the man that "stole" her heart. I'm not trying to be a sour pus or anything and I'm not one of those kids who say, "My mom and my dad should be together, my life is over, blah blah blah" I mean let's face it, I love my dad but he was not a great father figure or at least not to me and my younger twin brother and sister, Ryan and Riley, but I hope he is to his two kids he has with his new wife Karen.

 "Rayne, would you hurry up!" I pop out of my mind conversation to see Sarah rushing me to take my seat next to this man who not only took my window seat but looked as if he was not capable nor worthy of having a seating partner.

 I miserably sat down in the 2nd chair and got a whiff of his B.O. Yeah, I was right. 

"Why do you get to sit in the first seat?" I whisper to Sarah annoyed. 

"You took too long. If you would have gotten to the seats before I did, you could be the one with the fresh air while I sat next to sir stinks a lot." she smiles brightly. 

I glare at her and think about what I did to deserve this, all because my mom found love. 

I look across the aisle to see my mom trying to get the twins to settle down. 

"You both are nine years old! You two are too big to be acting this way!"  I smirk a bit and shake my head at the scene that was going on across from me.

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Twelve hours later, I awaken to a very rough landing on the airport grounds of Florence, Italy and a major headache due to the unworthy man's B.O.

 We grab our luggage and head to the main entrance, where we see a man dressed in a nice suit with a sign that read, The Di Stefano family and Sarah. 

"How cute, he gave us his last name." My mom coos.

 We walk towards him and he nicely introduces himself, "Ciao. I'm Antonio's driver, Bastille and it's very nice to meet you all. Welcome to Florence, Italy. I will be escorting you all to the Di Stefano mansion. Right this way."

 We follow him to this black and really shiny Mercedes Benz.

  "Hmm. Why not a Fiat?" Sarah asks. 

My mom and I laugh as we hop into the backseat of the Mercedes. 

We arrive at the mansion and it was huge. It had dark brown bricks for the roof. It was, of course, two stories high. It had a balcony that lead to the outside in the upstairs master bedroom. It had lantern like lights by the doors and the front door. It was definitely Italian like but you can also tell he spent money on this place. It even had concrete or marble like stones on the ground and the whole place looked like it was made out of marble. It had nice greenery in the front of the mansion as well. It was insanely beautiful.

"This is awesome!" Sarah yells excitedly while Antonio chuckles as he walks down to greet us.

  "Benvenuto!" he greets us as he reaches for my mom and kisses her. 

I wanted to make a grossed out face but decided not to when I saw how happy my mom looked. 

Gosh. I didn't want to spoil this time here for her. I want to be this happy with someone one day, find love.

I decided that I was going to be happy and enjoy this journey in Italy and actually try to get to know Antonio. I mean, I was 17. I was almost an adult, I need to start acting like one. 

"So, why don't you all go pick out a room for you to stay in," Antonio smiles. 

"All right!" The twins say simultaneously and run inside the house. 

"Go follow them," my mom mouthed with a "worried" look on her face. 

I nod and nicely say, "Thank you, Antonio" before I head toward the front entrance. 

"Whoa, that was weird. You were actually nice," Sarah teases.

"Uhh, yeah. I decided to just be nice to him. What's the point of me acting childish and bratty? My mom looked really happy back there and I don't want to spoil this for her so I'm going to use this time to get to know him and enjoy my time exploring in Italy. I mean, we're here for the whole summer might as well," I say with a sly smile. 

"I'm proud of you, girly." Sarah smiles back. 

A long flight of stairs and six rooms later, we finally found the twins jumping on the bed in a very big room for two.

"So, I'm guessing you've found your room," I say. 

"You bet and it's awesome!" Ryan says. 

"Totally awesome!" Riley agrees. 

"Well, I think I found mine too," I agree. 

"You know, you two can have a room to yourself, right?" Sarah speaks. 

They nod and say simultaneously, "Duh! But we're twins. We do everything together and we share everything together."

 "For now," Sarah responds and walks out the room.

 I follow Sarah out but not before telling the twins, "My room is three doors down from the left and Sarah's is the fourth room down, one to left of mine, if you need anything, come to one of those rooms. Meet us downstairs in fifteen minutes, okay?" 

"Kay!" They say as they nod and continue jumping. 

Sarah and I head to our separate rooms to unpack. Sarah then met up in my room to rest for a little while before meeting everyone else downstairs.