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“Why did you call me so suddenly?”
When Faith turns around, Gabi is two meters away with a baby carriage and a little boy sitting in it. The toddler must be around two or three years old, and is oddly similar to the Braun boy. Both of them share the same auburn hair, although Gabi obviously has it longer.
In fact, Faith has recently noticed how he has been putting his hair up in a small, messy ponytail. Just as he has it now, with some locks interfering in his face. Handsome despite being untidy, with a band t-shirt and baggy jeans.
For a moment, Faith forgets to answer, too caught up on hiding her blush. Only after the boy makes an annoyed noise is when she reacts, remembering the reason why she has called him on a Sunday afternoon.
“Whatever you have to say, it better be important. I’ve got Troy to take care of today.” The Braun speaks up again, getting more impatient as seconds go by.
Blinking, the girl finally opens her mouth. “Oh- uh, yeah. I really need your help with something.” Faith doesn’t let him reply, because she continues. “But I have to show you first.”
With a skeptical glare, he accepts. “Lead the way.”
The walk is short. The location is only five minutes away from the park they agreed to meet, in the suburbs. The only noise that alleviates the silence is the babbling sounds the toddler makes. Troy, as Faith heard. One part of her wants to ask Gabi about him, but she decides to stay silent for the best. I have already bothered him too much by asking him to come.
However, Gabi was the only person she could rely on for this matter. Udo would not have enough strength, and Zofia is busy with extracurricular classes. And in no way Faith was going to ask for help from Colt. She would die of embarrassment before even trying.
When they arrive, they are in front of an abandoned small house — it is a one-room house, though, so an extremely small one. Probably a former concierge’s office that lost utility. It lacks windows and a door, and the ceiling is half torn down. Not to mention the graffitis. Despite all its defects, Gani can make out a — sort of — resting space inside. The small building is at the end of a street, in a corner, with apartment buildings at its sides.
“Is this what has you so worked up? A shack?” Rocking the baby carriage, Gabi’s voice sounds incredulous. To Faith, it’s like a punch in the guts.
“It is not a shack, Gabi! It’s a place to rest!”
“Why on Earth would someone choose that to rest?”
Puffing her cheeks, Faith stays silent. “Just forget about its purpose, alright?” Without waiting for an answer or a complaint, she continues. “I brought you here because the entrance is jammed. Some part of the ceiling fell and blocked the door.”
Taking the hint, Gabi states. “And you want me to unblock it.”
As she nods, the blond answers. “Yes.”
“Why don’t you ask your brother? He’d help you out.” Frowning, the boy crossed his arms.
That question makes her cheeks bloom red. “It would be embarrassing. He’s always fussing over how I’m not a kid, and asking him for something…” Faith chooses her next words carefully “… childish would worsen his overbearing mother hens. You know the drill, ‘ you are a teenager now, Faith’ and all that.”
Watching Faith’s blushing face made Gabi’s insides twist. Over all the things he could find cute or pretty, he hadn’t imagined that would be the top one. Or perhaps yes, taking into consideration how he has tried to avoid his feelings towards the Grice. It was terrifying noticing how his heartbeat fastened whenever she was near him — either with her/their friends or doing a school project.
He can obviously tell she is sheepish by the way she avoids his gaze, opting to look at her left. Gabi also finds that endearing.
When he realized his feelings towards Faith, he could not believe it. Among all the beautiful girls in his class, the Grice. Out of everyone, her. The not-so-outstanding Faith. The tryhard Faith. The girl that always managed to not get him into trouble. The girl that is always besides him at every moment: when he fucks up and when he doesn’t. The Braun may be as thick as a brick at times, but he can tell when someone sees a person as something special.
Therefore, pushing the baby carriage to her and consequently leaving Troy in her hands, Gabi sighs. “Alright, I’ll do it. In the meantime, take care of Troy. It might take some time.”
The girl smiles and almost starts walking. “Sure, I’ll wait over there.”
“With Troy.” Gabi caps.
“With Troy” the blond sighs.
“Doy, abi. Doy!” The toddler laughs.
With that, the Braun grabs the wee boy in his arms and hands it to Faith, who holds it as if he were to break. Despite her nervousness, Troy smiles. Managing to grab some, he fidgets with her dress pattern, and the blond goes to sit down on a bench near the pavement. Faith has her back towards the small house, so she can’t see Gabi nor the progress he is making.
Settling the toddler in her lap, Faith does her best at trying to entertain the little boy. After a while — probably ten minutes — the girl believes she is running out of baby songs to sing to Troy. At this pace, she will have to repeat some of them. Luckily Troy is a great crowd: he always giggles as she sings and claps with his little hands. When the Grice finishes her gig, Troy reaches to grab her hand and she complies. For the third time, the blond sings ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and the toddler happily screams.
Just as she is finishing the song, Faith sees an old woman approaching them, walking on the pavement. The blond’s heart skips a beat as she remembers a fact to take into consideration: from other’s point of view, what Gabi is currently is considered vandalism. And by the way the old lady is coming at their direction with a frown on her face, it is most likely that she has seen them.
Taking matters into her own hands, Faith stands up and tries to distract the lady. Walking to her with Troy on one arm and settled on her hip, the blond tries to talk to her. Thinking hard, she finds a conversation topic to entertain the old woman.
“Ma… ma.” The toddler says. He doesn’t know he is playing a dangerous game.
“E-excuse me miss, do you know any songs for children? I have been trying to calm this little one, but it’s hopeless.” Almost bumping into her, Faith speaks, faking being desperate. Summing up to the act, she also starts rocking Troy. The perfect thing would have been him starting to cry or whine, but that doesn’t happen.
She speaks loudly so that Gabi can take the hint and stop, but Faith knows she must make time for him to either escape or pretend he wasn’t doing anything.
The elder woman looks bothered, and attempts to continue walking towards Gabi as she dismisses Faith mumbling a negative. Faith, however, doesn’t give up and doesn’t cease her petitions, each one louder than the previous one. Troy seems to catch up on the act, because his eyes start watering and his lower lip wobbles. Within all the havoc, the old woman stops her track and faces the Grice. The latter continues rocking the toddler, and the lady sighs annoyed.
“You’re holding him wrong. If you're not careful enough he will fall and break his neck.” The lady chastises Faith. Despite the Grice’s attempts to continue a conversation, the elder continues her path towards the ‘shack’ with renewed speed.
This is when the blond starts panicking. Now she is at the verge of screaming, trailing after the old lady that is approaching the small house, and who — by the way — is not even looking at Faith. As soon as the elder arrives next to the ‘shack’, she is able to witness Gabi putting down a big rock, and she looks angry.
With a speed that both teenagers don’t know an old lady can have, she corners Gabi against the wall, pointing up a finger to him. The boy looks sort of scared, but holds her gaze.
“You little twat, I saw you from my balcony! You think you’re rugged just by besmirching our street?”
“Ma’am, I was just-” Gabi tries to defend himself, but it is all for naught.
“Don’t play innocent, young man! I will call the cops on you and tell on your mom!” Scoffing, the lady continues. “Vandalising my neighbourhood, over my dead body!”
With all this scandal, Faith admires the strength Troy has to not cry, looking with worry at the Braun. She intervenes in his favour.
“But, miss! He was just improving the house, the ceiling fell down!” Continuing to rock the toddler, the Grice feels Troy hug her by the neck and hide his face there, pulling his small body towards hers.
Finally, the old lady bothers to properly look at her, and her eyes widen. Looking back and forth between Gabi and Faith, the lady puts a hand over her mouth, looking horrified at best.
“It can’t be possible! What will become of us?!” Now stroking her own hair, the old lady keeps on lamenting. “You are just kids! What kind of education will you give this little angel if you already take him out on your… things!”
Just as she finishes her bellowings, a neighbour leans out on one balcony, shouting. “What is happening, Mary?”
“I caught these two fooling around…”
“The girl seems familiar to me.” Cries out another voice from another balcony.
“I haven’t seem the boy, but the girl usually comes here.” Yells again another voice, now a man who is sticking out his head from a window.
“What’s up with all these voices?” Shouts yet another voice from the highest balconies.
There are already 6 neighbours leaning out from their balconies and windows. The old lady, Mary, explains at the tops of her lungs how Gabi and Faith are a couple of irresponsible yobs ruining the neighbourhood’s property and setting a depraved example to their child. Someone mentions that the old house could be improved by Gabi, and the cops are mentioned again. Troy begins to cry inconsolably.
“What’s the matter, little man?” Mary approaches Faith to console the toddler. “I sense someone may be hungry.” Frowning again.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Faith speaks. “I haven’t brought with us his feeding bottle. I guess we will have to go now!”
“Irresponsibles!” The old lady tells off again, sending an angry glance to the Braun. “Come on, I always have some at home when my grandchildren come to visit.”
Gabi tries to refute. “Er, no thanks. We can arrive soon at our home…”
“No way! Do you want him to have a headache? Get going!”
The neighbours don’t take their eyes off them. Regrettably, both teenagers end up following Mary to her home, with the boy taking the baby carriage. When they are about to turn a corner, Gabi approaches closely the Grice, whispering to her ear. If it weren’t for the complicated sotuation they are now, the blond would have blushed hardly. Or perhaps she is blushing.
“As soon as we turn that corner, we dash off.”
Faith nods with her head.
Mary walks slowly, patting her pockets looking for her keys. While she does that, she is singing a children song. Hypocrite. The girl is prone to think. You said you didn’t know any.
“Now!” Gabi shouts.
They both run as though they were being chased by real cops. Faith has trouble keeping the same pace as Gabi, despite him carrying the baby carriage. She has Troy in her arms, though; who is very happily giggling by the speed the Grice reaches. When they go through over 8 streets, Faith forces herself to stop.
“I can’t anymore!” She moans, using the remaining breath she has in her lungs to speak. The blond stops completely and holds one arm onto a pole next to a bus stop. The brunette also stops, going beside her.
“Ma! Mo! Ma!” Troy does not appreciate the change of speed, as he protests.
In the bust stop there is a bench. Almost limping, Faith walks towards it and drops in, leaning her head on the glass. Gabi does the same, pulling the baby carriage to his side and sitting next to the Grice. His chest goes up and down due to the heavy breathing. Not surprisingly, Faith finds herself going over his side profile. Some hair locks have fallen out of the messy ponytail and ended up adorning his forehead and face, and his Adam’s apple and jawline look more pronounced. Moreover, his eyes seem to shine brighter.
When the girl realises she may have been staring for way too long, she adverts to Troy, who has started crying because there is no more running.
“Mo! Ma! Ma!”
The Braun sighs. “Our son is a real pain.” He declares, looking at Faith with a serious expression.
He keeps on one, two, three seconds until the Grice cracks a laugh. Gabi proceeds to also laugh, looking both like a couple of maniacs.
The boy is happy. He didn’t expect the hang out to end up this way, but he is not complaining. Not when he’s got the girl of his dreams laughing to the point tears fall off her eyes and go down her red cheeks. Not when he has the warm feeling inside his heart that warns him he is falling in love. Or that he has already fallen. Whatever it is, he doesn’t care. Not now. All he cares about now is the pretty pattern of her blue dress and the way it rides up due to the wind, allowing him to savor her pretty legs.
Their hands touch. They are not intertwined, but they are touching. With all the laughing, one would think neither of them have noticed, but they have. Playing dumb, they pretend nothing happens as they continue laughing. Their own laughter has rubbed off on Troy, who has ceased to cry and now looks curiously at them.
When the laughter ends, they keep eye contact as though they were competing in who holds eye contact the longest. At this short distance, Gabi can make out her eyelashes and properly appreciate her greenish eyes. In the end and regrettably, she is the one to break eye contact.
“We have dodged a bullet.” Faith speaks. “Imagine if the old Mary had actually called the cops on us.”
The Braun groans, hitting his head with the back of the bench. “I don’t want to think about it. And with Troy! Bella would pull my head off my body.”
“Who is Bella?”
“His mother.” Gabi points at Troy as he speaks, who is now calm and playing with the Grice’s hair. “My aunt from my father’s side.”
Fidgeting with her fingers, the girl is troubled. “I’m sorry for involving you in this… nonsense.”
“No trouble at all.”
The remaining evening is spent there, sitting on the bus stop while watching vehicles come and go endlessly. The sun hours come to an end and so do conversations. After talking about almost everything possible, the cold penetrates Faith’s bones. Shivering, she timidly rubs her hands on her arms to no avail while Troy is deep asleep on her arms with his head hidden on her neck.
Noticing her discomfort, Gabi almost offers her a jacket forgetting that he had not brought one. Mentally smacking himself, the brunette stands up and grabs the baby carriage. The Grice looks up at him and raises a brow, but Gabi just leans half of his body on the baby carriage.
“We should get going. It’s getting dark and our moms will be worried. Especially Bella about this dwarf.” Pointing at Troy, the boy speaks. At his offer, Faith nods and also stands up, setting forth on. Still smoothly rocking Troy, she walks by Gabi’s side.
At some point on the walk, the blond rests her hand on the handlebars of the carriage, close to Gabi’s. Playing fool, he moves his hand closer to hers, making contact. If Faith puts hers on top of him, it doesn’t matter. Neither the feeling of happiness that both share. Nor the comfort they feel until the track ends, or the accomplice glances they give the other when they part ways, now Gabi holding the sleeping toddler as he watches Faith enter her home.