In the coming few weeks, Donatella and Doppio continued their conversations as they would walk through the streets of Sardinia, slowly becoming better friends. Donatella was smart, and she began to suspect that Doppio was not normal, the odd things he did, his strange habits, something about him was just... sad, as if he was hiding something that he didn't even know. Her intuition told her something was a little off, why he never introduced her to his friends, not to mention how many phone calls he made, it was as if he was wrapped up in something too much for him to understand.

He was cute, and feminine, he never spoke about liking girls or having a girlfriend, Donatella was curious if he even was the type who liked girls,

"The other day I met a friend of yours," Donatella said,

"Who was it?" he asked,

"His name is Diavolo, we met two days ago, at sunset," she told him. Doppio was surprised, this was the first time in the years he had known him, that Diavolo had been talked about by anyone else, he always did a great job hiding himself from the other people, he was strange for wanting it that way,

"Really?" Doppio said with amazement,

"Why do you seem so shocked?" Donatella asked,

"Oh, nothing, its just... he just usually doesn't like meeting people, he's strange, something bad must have happened to him to make him this way, but he usually keeps to himself. What'd you talk about with him?" Doppio wondered why Diavolo would care to talk to Donatella, and why he hadn't told him,

"Nothing really, just smalltalk, we didn't talk for long. I just thought it interesting to meet one of your friends," she sighed,

"Did he do anything peculiar?" Doppio was very curious about this encounter,

"Not really," she said after a pause,

"He seems like the type to keep to himself, he wasn't overly friendly, we only talked for a few minutes," she told,

"He was so handsome though... it's embarrassing to say, but I blushed the whole time talking to him!" she admitted. Doppio laughed a little, that day he was going to see Diavolo, he'd ask him about Donatella there.

That afternoon Doppio was sitting in the grass by the sand, he closed his eyes for a few moments, listening to the sounds of the ocean, when he opened them, he saw Diavolo a few feet away from him,

"Oh! You startled me," Doppio laughed. Diavolo smiled sideways and sat down next to him. Doppio sat up straighter, trying to make their height difference less,

"Has anything notable happened to you?" Diavolo asked calmly, such a weird thing to say, it was like he wanted to talk about anything other than himself, he was always that way,

"Hey! Here's something, a tourist girl I happen to know, Donatella Una, told me she met with you the other day," Doppio wanted to know the story there,

"Oh, yes, that's true, I did see Donatella," he started, realizing an explanation was due, seeing as he had never done that kind of thing before,

"I'd seen her from afar before, and wanted to meet her," he continued,

"why?"

"Well, Donatella has caught my eye, and you know I do not like people knowing who I am, but I had the urge to meet her in person, if you know what I mean" Diavolo knew that he and Doppio were the same age technically, but he thought of himself as much older than sixteen, and Doppio as much younger, so something about the way he felt towards Donatella seemed far too... mature to tell Doppio, he couldn't quite explain why, other than that it was uncomfortable,

"Donatella is kind, and she has a nice sense of humor, but why is it that you chose to see her of all people?" Doppio asked with genuine curiosity,

"You see, I have romantic feelings for Donatella," he had to spell it out,

"You get it??" he said, annoyed that he had to say it like that,

"That's the reason I went to meet her. She's pretty, and I masturbated to a picture of her after the encounter," he saw no point in hiding the details from Doppio, he might as well finally grow up after hearing that. Still annoyed at Doppio's ignorance, he rested his head on his hand and looked at the sunset.

Doppio felt throbbing in his lower stomach, he felt hot and uncomfortable thinking about Diavolo doing that, he paused before speaking, knowing he would stutter and stumble,

"O-oh, I see," his voice cracked, again he pictured the last scene described to him and felt tingles all over,

"Well, what are you planning to do?" Doppio asked,

"Not really anything, maybe I'll sleep with her before she leaves in a month. I'll probably lose interest by then," Diavolo said truthfully,

"But... don't you love her?" This depressing take on the situation confused Doppio. There was a long pause before an answer,

"There is no such thing as love. Love isn't real, I'm attracted to Donatella, that's biology, not magic. I know it's a rather gloomy thing to say, but it's just the truth," he sighed, and closed his eyes. Doppio did not reply, he just thought about what his friend had said, wondering if there was truth to it.

He thought about the wedding bands that would wash up on the shore, silver and gold bands, lost by couples on honeymoons. The pawn shop was filled with little metal rings like that, scuffed and bent from the waves and sand, each one a forgotten memory of what's supposed to be love. Love wasn't real, love is pulled out to sea, and lovers drift away in the waves, leaving only the forgotten memories.