The peace quiet was rather suddenly and rudely shattered as a black haired Italian boy came exploding out of a door into the open street. He half ran, half outright sprinted down the street, only to screech to a halt to wheel back and lock the door to the apartment complex before tearing back off down the street, the back of his shirt flapping wildly where it is too big for him and he had forgotten to tuck him in. It wasn't exactly his own fault that he was in such a rush, absolutely anyone could have slept through twelve alarms after sleeping for nearly that exact same time. It was a honest mistake to make and one that was entirely blameless and utterly one that deserved him being let off on.
Of course if he really believed that then he wouldn't be running down the street to work. It was times like this that he deeply wished he could simply drive to work again and then not have to worry about things like how much his legs were on fire trying to run down a simple cobbled Vatican road. He wasn't built for all this physical exertion god damnit, nobody should have to run so fast that their face was half melting with sweat. He both looked and felt absolutely terrible as he huffed and puffed and silently swore at the stitch in his side as he barrelled down the street, narrowly missing running into a group of soldiers who were busy running the opposite direction. He cursed whoever it was that didn't let him own even a simple push bike, the ground was flat! Why did he have to bust his lungs just trying to run halfway across the small city.
Eventually and thankfully he finally managed to reach the short office building that he was supposed to report to every morning. Taking the short flight of stairs up to the door two at a time it was hardly a surprise when his foot caught on the last step, his momentum carrying him forwards and only a panicking outreached hand stopped him from crashing face first into a glass door. Instead he simply fell forwards and promptly crashed down onto his face just inside the lobby of the office, breathing though what felt like every orifice in his body.
"Oversleep again?" Came a chirpy voice from behind a counter far above where he lay sprawled on the floor. He could only illicit a pained and tired groan in response before he dragged himself to his feet, clinging onto the reception desk for both physical and emotional support.
"
I.... Ah... I am not built for this.... Madre Maria." He gasped and groaned as he painfully managed to finally bring himself up onto his feet with all the difficulty of a sleeping titan. The girl behind the desk, a pretty girl not much older than he was and likely only doing the job because it paid well and because if there was ever going to be a chance to bag a hot boyfriend then surely working around a lot of muscular men wasn't too bad of an idea. It was shame, the skinny Italian boy thought, that he didn't think he was her type, she was really rather pretty and pretty funny too.
"What's this? Third time this week?" She smiled up at him as she passed a paper cup of water over the desk to him, clearly she had been expecting him to come barrelling into office with all the enthusiasm of a headless chicken. He didn't even hesitate in grabbing up the cup and practically inhaling the water, the whole cup being drained in record time and with such ferocity that half of it came back up with a stifled burp.
"
Thank you for that... Fourth time actually... God in Heaven why do I keep putting myself through this? How do I look?" He smiled at her, opening his arms and flashing a charming grin.
"Like death warmed up with a side order of sweaty."
"
Bene, that's the look I'm always going for." He said with a chuckle before lob shotting the paper cup towards the office bin and missing rather badly when he failed to factor in the fact that paper cups don't exactly throw very well and it quickly spiralled straight down to crash land on the desk.
With a lot more embarrassment than before he quickly quick stepped away from the laugh of the receptionist. He had been working here for months now and he still hadn't actually learned her name, he was almost always in such a hurry because of the fact he was usually still asleep when they page for him to come in. This time however, as he finally reached his bosses door he didn't really have that excuse, seeing as he had gotten an email two days ago to be here on time. He braced himself before knocking and stepping inside.
His boss was sat behind his own desk, surrounded by paperwork that seemed to be a jumbled mess even for him. He was a short and squat Greek man that had a disapproving look in his eye whenever he seemed to notice the Italian was ever around and that look certainly was not absent right now.
"Bonito Frate, late yet again." He sighed, looking up from his computer before gesturing for him to come inside. "You're over an hour late, what's the excuse this time."
"
I uuuuh.... I overslept?" He tried smiling as if it would make things any better, sadly however it just seemed to annoy the man even more.
"Overslept again. You need to get another alarm clock, one with a hammer preferably so it will make sure you wake up."
Bonito kept silent as his boss began to sift through the mess of sheets and other assorted office supplies until he managed to dig out a clipboard that also seemed to be overloaded with paper. "Seeing as you finally decided to show up, here's you assignment. Seems you're being attached to a small group of students, have fun driving them all over Italy. You'll find the list of names and faces in there, plus where you're first driving them to. Stick to them like glue and for Gods sake do not fall asleep when they need you to get them somewhere."
"
Si si, I am trying, honestly."
"Well try harder otherwise you'll be out of a job at this rate." There was a heavy pause as his boss gave him a withering stare before pushing a set of keys over the top of the mound of paperwork. "You're driving bus seven, try not to crash it. Now hurry up, you're just going to be more and more late."
Bonito wasted no time in snatching up the key and scurrying out of the office, taking the back way out since it came out right next to the garage. It was down two flights of stairs, a quick walk and then a card swipe through another back door and he was in. He was incredibly aware of the sound of his footsteps against the concrete floor. There was something about this place that for some reason reminded him of the opening scene of The Highlander. He picked up his pace, not exactly wanting to find out if there was an angry immortal lurking around a corner somewhere nearby.
It wasn't hard to find the coach he was looking for, it was more of a minibus really than anything, with an embarrassingly large number seven painted on the side. Thankfully it seemed, as he was busy unlocking the bus, nobody seemed to be here yet. For once he wasn't the one that was late! Perhaps today wasn't going to be as bad as he thought it would be. Hopping inside he turned on the bus for a moment, all looked pretty good, a full tank and not a single failure light was blinking up at him. He had to admit the mechanics were surprisingly good at their jobs here. Everything seemed to work like clockwork, not that he was complaining for a second.
Whilst he had a moment he decided he might as well leaf through the paperwork he had been given. It seemed he was going to be stuck driving eight students around, plus two actual staff members. Pretty standard fare, though why he was being assigned to them permanently seemed to be beyond him. It made less sense when he had been made to move to a small and cramped shared apartment so that he could get to work at a moments notice. Whoever these people were they were clearly pretty important.
Another piece of paper had the coordinates for the satnav which he quickly fished out from the glove-box. He had to frown, there must be some mistake here because instead of sending him to some compound or the usual kind of thing that he seemed to be ferrying people to and from the satnav was pointing him to some empty field in the middle of nowhere. There might be some kind of mistake there that would look bad on him for even trying to go there, but on the other hand it could very well be the case that he was supposed to go here to somewhere that was hidden from the map. Shrugging as he put the small box onto the dashboard, all would be made clear eventually he supposed.
He was distracted by a buzzing at his hip. Somehow he had forgotten his phone was still in his pocket, somehow he had managed to grab that in his mad dash out of the apartment even if he had entirely missed to grab any food. Pulling his phone out he had a message from Emilio, one of his friends he had made at some club a few weeks ago. He had to admit he had a bit of a crush on the slightly older guy, his green eyes and small brown locks just made him feel giddy, especially when they tried to have a staring contest, Bonito lost and also sadly had to buy a round a drinks.
Hey man, you coming out tonight?
Can't sorry, works dragging me around to the middle of nowhereFerrying people around I guess? It's usually something stupid like thatAny good looking ones ferryman?
He couldn't help but smile to himself at the bluntness, it was no small secret that Emilio was part of the infamous hook-up community. It was actually because of this which annoyed him most, Emilio wasn't exactly too picky with the people he slept with yet it seemed that he had absolutely no interest in him. He had to wonder if he was perhaps being too subtle about it all. Flipping through the paper work he found a sheet of mugshots, some of which looked more like they had been stolen from Facebook rather than taken professionally. He had to admit to himself more than one of them were actually really rather good looking, maybe he wouldn't mind working with them either.
Why don't you come find out for yourself :pAw come on man, that's not fair
Says the one who's going to be partying t up tonight whilst I'm stuck in the woods."
-our.. lovely driver" Bonito jolted in his seat as he realised where he was again, he quickly peered outside of the window to see there was a small amount of people gathered outside of his bus.
Gotta dash, work calls.He quickly pocketed his phone and pressed the button to open the bus doors. Somehow though in his panicked haste, a direct result of figuratively being caught with his pants down whilst he was busy texting Emilio, he managed to accidentally turn on the radio. Whoever had been driving the bus last must have been listening to some classic rock channel as perhaps the worst possible song came on just as the doors were starting to hiss open. Naturally the world would kick him in the gut by having the one radio station in all of Rome playing Careless Whisper have it just start as the doors opened. He must have looked like a total sleaze as that saxophone intro came blaring out of the bus as he revealed himself before he could cut it off.
With just a tiny bit more embarrassment than he had needed to deal with he quickly stepped from the bus, half bouncing down the steps, clipboard in hand.
"
I... Uh.... Sorry about that, didn't mean for that to happen." His accent made his voice light and bouncy His eyes quickly darted across the gathered people, not lingering on anyone as he gave them a cursory glance to see if they were all here. Pulling a pen from a pocket a put a small cross next to the names of Caius and Vesper, who seemed to not turned up. Wasn't really his problem, people didn't turn up all the time, they would just have to find their own way to the middle of nowhere. "
I'm Bonito by the way, Bonito Frate. I'll be your guys driver so I'll be around if you need me." He gave another quick glance along with a smile, though this time he only looked at the students, something about the two staff members just didn't feel right to him. He couldn't exactly put his finger on it but it was like there was something inherently inhuman about them that made him want to get as far away from them as he could.
Sadly the best he could do was get back onto his bus and hope and prey neither of them tried to sit on his dashboard and just stare at him the whole journey or something. Although that would probably be better than George Micheal.