Taste of Italy

C H A P T E R e i g h t

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    Kelly laid back, having her elbows and part of her forearms touch the stone. "This place is really beautiful."

The three women sat on one of the staircases at the Spanish Steps, looking out to the horizon and the buildings in front of them. They weren't at the actual top, but did sit on the third staircase, at the bottom of it. In the front stood a stone railing, that looked over the bottom of the stairs.

"Obviously this place is beautiful," Iris said, wondering why Kelly would add the "really" part. Maybe she wanted it for emphasis? Trying to show how amazing the Spanish Steps were? Whatever the case, everyone knew how beautiful it was. It probably became a reason why the steps were a tourist attraction, why there were so many people surrounding them.

But when they came, the fact that there weren't so many people as she thought, shocked her. Most of them were at the top of the steps or at the bottom, taking photos of the fountain or sitting on the stairs. Some people walked or stood on the staircase. But there weren't as many people as she thought. Perhaps the Spanish Steps weren't as popular as everything else? Or was it just a slow day?

There were pictures she saw long ago, and each was different. Some pictures had visitors that crowded the area, where most people were shoulder-to-shoulder. Other pictures were like this day, that didn't have as many people as the other photos. There were probably—in the photos and at that moment—at least a couple hundred. But when cramped, there had to have been more than two hundred people.

"So you done taking pictures, K?" Iris asked. Twiddling her fingers became boring quite fast. How much longer did she have to look at her thumbs and realize that her boredom couldn't leave her body? Kelly became too invested in taking her photography that she must have took ten photos of the same thing.

"Yeah, I think I'm done." Taking out her phone from her pocket, inside her jean shorts, Kelly held it out. "But let's take a selfie!" The enthusiasm in Kelly's voice it made Iris sick to her stomach.

"God, don't say 'selfie.' I hate that word. I wish to slaughter whoever created it!" Iris said, waving her hands around. She got close to Jane, while Jane got close to Kelly; she stretched her arm out even longer and took a picture.

"Whoa, there's the dark spirited chick we all know and love," Jane joked, laughing along with Kelly. "But seriously though, why is your vagina stuck in a bunch?"

"Ha ha, yeah, really. Calm your tits, Is." Kelly laughed harder, and so did Jane.

Iris couldn't hold it in.

The edge of her lips curled into a smile and the derisive came into play. "You're gonna be usin' my line, now?"

A few folks passed by and gave them a weird look like the girls were strange for laughing.

"Maybe? It's fun to say. Now I can see why you say it a lot. Calm your tits," Kelly continued.

"Calm your titties!" Jane's eyes peered over to Iris and all she could think about was to destroy her sister. The term wasn't really meant to be funny, or to be taken seriously, but Iris couldn't stop using it. For some reason, it was just a fun way to try and calm someone down. Especially if they didn't calm down too easily. "Calm your tits" was the go-to phrase like, "take a chill pill." But it had more spice to it.

"Would you people just shut up?" Iris's laughing stopped as it wasn't funny anymore. She knew they weren't insulting her, but the way how they played around with the word made it seem like it.