Leo
“Are we going out again? This is the second time we’ve gone out this month. I like that.” Mina declares when we get on the bus. We find a seat and get comfortable; we have a two-bus ride ahead of us to get to Zach’s house. This first one is the shortest and the second one will get us a short distance from his house so we’ll have to walk there. And if I remember correctly is a long way, hopefully these two stay excited enough to not notice the distance.
I know Mina will be fine; it’s Jon I’m nervous about. He isn’t a great traveler. He gets cranky and wants to go home.
“I guess you could say this is an outing. We’re going to Zach’s birthday party.” I say explaining to them where we’re going. I didn’t tell them why we had to wake up early today, because we had to take the bus we had to leave earlier than usual. Mina seems to be game for the unknown.
Since the trip we took with Zach and Golden Mina has demanded we go out at least once a month. I know I could have said no to her demand but that day with them made me realize I need to give them opportunities to be kids. They need to get out of that apartment complex and see the outside world. My life is all about, school, work, and raising them. Sometimes I forget to have fun. So I said yes to one outing a month with them.
It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or over the top. A simple day in the park does the trick.
Now I can’t see it’s been easy to balance this new agreement with Mina and my schedule but I try to make it work. That means I take fewer overtime shifts and I have to watch my spending but it’s worth it if it means they get to have a great time
I’m not happy that I had to give up a shift to go to Zach’s birthday but I know it’s worth it. He’s a great friend and if my being there makes him happy, then I will do that. And besides the kids get to play around with other kids, eat cake, and have fun. Everyone wins; I’ll pick up an extra shift another time.
“Here’s our stop,” I tell them when the first stop comes up; we get up and get off the bus. I start walking us to the next stop up the road and Jon stops walking suddenly.
“How far are we going?” Jon asks already over the idea of travelling. Where Mina takes all of this like an adventure, Jon just doesn’t like it. He would much rather stay home and play in the apartment play area.
“We have to walk up there to that stop and then ride another bus for about 35 minutes,” I say and he makes a tortured face. I know exactly what he feels like. When I said yes to going to Zach’s shindig I dreaded this exact moment.
I hate riding the bus if I’m not going to work or coming back from school but we already left the house. Everyone is committed now; I just hope he doesn’t start crying.
“35 minutes? That’s my whole life.” He says whining. I smile at him trying to give him comfort. I know he’ll be fine as soon as we get to the party but I feel his frustration. Taking the bus is not his idea of a good time.
“I have an idea. How about you sleep through the whole ride there? That way when you get there you won’t feel so tired.” I say and watch him think it over. His little face scrunching as he really thinks about it.
“Can I put my head on your arm?” He asks and I nod yes. “Okay.” He says and starts walking to the bus stop. Mina and I walk behind him silently grateful he’s willing to power through the trip.
We take the last bus to Zach’s house without any event. Once we’re on the bus Jon is so excited he doesn’t even sleep. He and Mina look out the window the whole time, watching cars zoom by. I sigh grateful he decided not to cry, He doesn’t have meltdowns often but when he does they are epic.
And thankfully the walk from the bus stop to Zach’s house is shorter than I remember. I haven’t been here in over seven years. I would visit him almost every weekend; we would play, eat, and have fun together from morning until late afternoon.
My mother was never home most of the time so I would stay until I had to take the last bus home. But when Mina was born all of that changed. My mother would make me babysit her most of the day when I wasn’t in school, so I couldn’t go out and be with my friends.
And then one day when I was 12 she left and never came back. I looked for her for a whole year. Mr Brown helped me out with my daily upkeep and looking for her. She did come back though, but she didn’t stay long. She gave birth to Jon and then left 11 months later.
Overnight I had two babies to take care of. There have been so many people who helped me out in my life. I don’t think my siblings would be alive today if it wasn’t for Mr Brown and Sofia.
Sometimes I wonder how I survived those days, I was so young. I was barely a teenager myself but here we are surviving I guess.
“We’re here,”Jon says when he sees all the balloons at Zach’s gate. His smile says it all. I open the gate for them and they go in, in awe of all the decorations.
“Please don’t run,” I say when I see the front door open and Mina almost bolting toward Zach’s mom.
“Hi Leo, it’s so good to see you. You’re all grown up. Wow.” Zach’s mother says smiling at me when we get to the door.
“Hi, it’s good to see you too. Thank you for having us.” I say pointing to my siblings. I’m nervous, I don’t know if they’ll be welcome or not. I don’t like taking them to people’s houses because not everyone is kind. I know Zach’s mom is cool but I haven’t seen her in a long time. People change.
“Oh yes, of’ course, we’re happy to have you here. I’m Zach’s mom.” She says to Jon and I watch them introduce themselves to her with no fear.
She lets us into the house and out the back where I find Zach in the bouncy house playing with a whole lot of kids. He screams and waves at me when he sees me. I wave back at him smiling like a kid. He looks so happy in that bouncy thing. I guess getting older does that to some people.
“Can we go play?” Mina asks me beaming too. I nod yes and they take off their shoes heading for the bouncy house too.
I have to admit I want to get in there too but I think I’ll wait until there is a little less traffic.
I watch My siblings get in and bounce around laughing. Jon waves at me and I wave back so proud of him. I’m glad he braved the two bus rides. It was all so worth it. He’s having the time of his life.
“They look like they’re having a great time,” Golden says standing next to me. I didn’t hear her walk next to me. My heart is doing that thing it does whenever she’s near.
I curse Zach for not telling me He’s inviting her, I would have been better prepared to see her and talk to her. You what if he had told me I wouldn’t have shown up, that would have been great too.
“They’re in their element.” I say looking at her. She smiles waving at Mina and Jon; they wave excitedly back at her. “How are you?” She asks looking at me, she’s smiling at me. I wonder if she knows how beautiful her smile is. “I’m alright and you?” I say taken aback by how beautiful she looks. She’s wearing a yellow top and blue jeans. The yellow makes her skin glow in a mesmerizing way. Her long braids framing her face beautifully, they go all the way to her bum giving her a soft look. “I’m good.” She says and starts walking to a table behind us to sit down in a chair. I join her at the table sitting across from her. She looks at me saying nothing. I look away trying to gather my thoughts. What do we talk about now? I never know what to say when she looks at me like that. “Would you like a drink?” I ask her after a long silence. Being next to her always makes my brain switch of. It’s like I can’t think beyond her beauty. Do I sound pathetic? I feel like I sound pathetic. “I
“May we please have some cake? My heart is broken.” Zach says looking up at his mom still lying on the ground. “If you get up from there you’ll get up cake.” She says laughing at him. She knows Zach hates losing and the fact I won; beating the two of them has him pained. “I just want to say that you won by luck.” He says to me, I raise my arms not disputing that fact. If he hadn’t tripped I was going down. There’s no way I would have won against the two of them. Lady luck was on my side. “But a win is a win my friend.” I say and he grunts in disapproval, he gets up and goes into the house. He needs a moment to process his loss and that’s okay. “If everyone would sit down so we can all have some cake.” His mother says and we all find a seat. I welcome the opportunity to sit down because I’m tired. All that running around has me breathing hard. This may be a party game but I think it’s also a sneaky way for parents to get kids to exercise. Golden joins me and my siblings at our tab
“Golden really did a good job. Did you say thank you?” He asks his little sister and comes closer to her inspecting my handy work. He’s wearing and all brown pant and t-shirt combo. The t-shirt has a logo on it; Mr. Brown’s. He smells so good; this is the first time we’ve stood this close to each other. I guess he showed while I was doing Mina’s hair. “Thank you.” Mina says appreciating all the attention her brother is showering her with. I don’t blame her he’s looking at her like she’s the best thing in the world. They make me smile. “You’re welcome.” I say smiling too. Leo looks at me smiling and mouths thank you to me. His smile makes my heart beat ten times faster. I look away trying to catch my breath, he smiles so rarely that every time he does I get all the feels. I’m not supposed am I? I’m confused. “Go and put your shoes on so we can go to Sofia’s.” He says to Mina and helps her get off the chair. Her little feet tap on the flooring as she walks to the bedroom to put her s
Sunday I woke up feeling good this morning. I’m glad I started my self-care last night. After my shower, face mask and the music. I had time to analyze my feelings. I started with my situation with Cole; it’s been over two months since we started our “break.” The first week felt like death, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was sad, lonely and lost. I didn’t think I would miss him as much as I did, there were days when I wanted to go beg him to take me back. It felt like I wouldn’t get through it. It is the main reason I didn’t tell the girls about the breakup. I knew that if I talked about it, I would cry. But eventually I found my footing. Before I knew it I didn’t miss him as much. I started to figure out my own way without him. And last night I realized the biggest part of this whole situation; I don’t care about him anymore. Of ‘course I don’t mean I don’t care about him as a human but I mean I don’t care what he thinks about me. As a matter of fact I don’t care what h
It’s Monday morning that means I get to see Golden. I’m nervous; the last time we were in contact she sent me that text. It took me by surprise; I didn’t expect her to do that. Now I don’t know how to react when I see her; does this mean that we can be friendly now? Pumping into her at the shop or at Zach’s party is way different from a text. A text is more personal.I don’t know how other people see it but to me, when you start texting someone. It means you’re friends, it means you wave at each other when you walk down the school hallway. But I don’t want to overstep, she may be cool with me when we’re outside of the school grounds but I don’t know how she feels about people knowing she and I are cool like that.Life at school is a different beast, there’s a hierarchy here. Golden is at the top and I don’t even rank on the scale. A fact that I was okay with before she became all friend
“Let’s put the kid’s School address in the GPS.” Golden says handing me her phone. I do as she says and she starts the car. I can’t believe I’m in her car at school, with all these people around. Today is weird day, unlikely things are happening and this is one of them.During lunch Golden offered drive me home and Zach agreed is with her. They ganged up teamed up to convince me that’s it’s a great idea. I told them multiple times that it’s a very bad idea. I tried to state all the reasons why it’s unnecessary but Zach said how it would save me the hassle of taking the bus and then having to walk home with Mina and Jon. He said he would do it but he doesn’t drive his car to school.Golden used that opportunity to let me know that she has her car and my apartment is on her way home. A fact that’s not true but they didn’t want to hear me
LibraryI slide a note to Golden from across the table. She picks it up and looks at it.I would like to make it up to you for what happened yesterday.If you’d let me.P.S: I text/write in full sentences because you texted me in full sentences the first time. She smiles and looks at me. She reads the note again, turns the note over and then writes a reply.She slides the note back to me. I pick it up.I’ll agree to your offer on one condition:If you let me drive you to and from school everyday.P.S: I like the full sentences.I frown at her. She shrugs at me like; take it or leave it.I write a reply in the little corner of the note.I won’t lie to you and say I’m comfortable with you driving me but if it means you accept my apology then we have a deal.I’ll buy you
“Are you in hurry to go somewhere?” I ask Golden when we leave the restaurant. I really enjoyed having breakfast with her. I had to convince her why I’m paying for our meal but other than that everything went better than I expected.“Not really, did you have something in mind?” She asks already smiling.“I thought we would take a walk. I want to show you something.” I say and she nods. We walk up further the street and turn right. Its late morning now and a lot of people are out now.The street we’re on now is quite busy, we can’t walk leisurely side by side so I offer her my hand and she takes it without hesitation.I guide her down the street. We walk for about a minute until we get to a backyard with a small gate. I open it and lead her inside. We walk down a small path into this incredible lily garden. The garden is filled with lilies, it’s like a carpet of yellow, pink, white, purple a