Sua Farfalla

Lazy Pick

Jenna's POV:

Walking up inside the building, I make my way towards my office while greeting a few employees here and there.

Yep, I'm killing it.

After I arrived in California five years ago, I started working at a casino as a waitress. To say the tips were huge is an understatement. 

Picture this, drunk people everywhere with chips that look like toys on their hands that are actually money. Truly, only one smile their way and they'd already be tipping me over a hundred bucks worth of chips.

Anyways, after working there for three whole years, I made enough money to start my own company "Lazy pick".

It basically consisted of an app with the same name, where people could ask us to go buy or pick anything up for them, and take it to their homes.

You need pads, chocolate, clothes you left at you dry cleaner, something from the drug store...? 

But, are you too lazy to go fetch it yourself?

Well worry not, we'll do it for you, you just gotta click a few buttons and one of our workers will take care of your request.

Convenient, isn't it?

Actually, our motto is 'why do something when someone else can do it for you?', and boy was that accurate.

Even though we're not such a big company yet, we already have a bunch of offices and a total of seventy two 'pickers' working for the company.

As I sat behind my comfortable desk, I realized there isn't much paperwork to do anymore, given the fact that I had already done it all.

The five year deal I had with Alonzo was about to come to an end, and as the date approached I immersed myself in work in order to distract my mind from getting all insecure and anxious about his arrival.

I can't even count the amount of times I thought about calling the prison to see if he had been released yet, but the fear of being found by my adoptive family always seemed to stop me from doing so.

After sitting on my chair, spinning it nonstop for over forty minutes, I decided to make myself useful by becoming a 'picker' for the day and carry out orders from the app.

Grabbing my phone and logging in on my account, I waited a few seconds for an order to pop out, only to be rewarded with one that was labeled as 'needed as soon as possible'.

After making sure I had my purse and my car keys, I started walking out of the building, waving at a few people on my way to the door.

Once in my car, I read the order I had to deliver only to realize it was a shopping list. 

After a quick ten minute ride, I got to the closest supermarket,  started adding the items specified into the cart.

-Four bags of diapers. 

-Two cartons of milk. 

-One pacifier. 

-Unscented baby wipes. 

-Baby oil. 

-Eight bags of ramen. 

-A jar of Nutella.

After buying all of these items, I load them into the car and read the direction to which they needed to be delivered, only after letting the client know I was already on my way with his stuff.

Once I reached my destination, I grabbed both bags in each hand and locked my car. 

I stare at the big apartment building and make my way to its entrance, pressing the button that read 'apartment 18'.

Without so much of a second to spare, a beeping sound met my ears, indicating the owner was letting me in.

Fortunately for me, I only had to go to the second floor, given I was taking the stairs cause that was the only type of exercise I was willing to do.

Knocking on the door as Anna did on 'Frozen', I waited for the door to be opened while humming the rest of the song.

And so, the door opened.

The bags felt like weights hanging from my hands, my mouth opened like those in cartoons when a hot girl appeared, and my mind exploded a little internally after seeing who was standing in front of me.

We both stayed immobile for a few minutes until he seemed to pop out of his daze and wrapped his arms around me, sobbing loudly against my neck.

Realization suddenly dawned on me and I instantly shared the gesture, hugging him as strongly as the bags on my hands allowed me.

I couldn't speak, I couldn't cry, I couldn't breath. 

My mind was completely blank, not truly understanding what the heck was going on here.

He then softly pulled back and brought his hands towards my face, touching me lightly as if he couldn't believe I was real.

The sight of some tears pouring down his face broke my heart in a million pieces, causing a few to shred from my eyes as well.

"After all this time", he began whispering. "God Jenna, I finally found you".

"Well technically, I came to you, so I found you"

A chuckle I've been missing for the past seven years escaped his lips, his eyes wrinkling because of the huge smile adorning his lips.

"Still an annoying smartass I see", he commented in a kicking matter.

"Still without manners I see", I spoke back. "Aren't you gonna invite me in, brother?"

The smile on my face betrayed me and ruined my chances to sound frustrated, but I just couldn't help feel like a huge weight was taken from my shoulders.

He's alive, he's here... we're together again.

Realization hit him and I was soon being pulled inside by my hand. 

The bags were taken from me and set on top of the kitchen counter, and I was soon towered over by my step brother again, being crashed in yet another hug, this time lifting me in the air while turning in circles in a cliché way.

"Look how big you are little sis!" He said while jumping with me still in his arms.

Chuckling over his childish ways, I pulled back to see his face and traced my hand over his cheek.

"Same to you big bro"

With an awkwardly cute smile, he looked down at his hands and started rubbing them against his jeans.

"Wow, my hands are shaking", he spoke embarrassedly. "I'm just so happy Jenna..."

Reaching my hand towards him, I softly grabbed his cheek and stroked it gently, our eyes never parting. 

The pad of my thumb felt tingly while rubbing his well cared skin, relishing on how it felt to be able to do this after so long.

It was our thing, me touching his cheek and him...

With another delicate and nostalgic smile thrown my way, he brought his body closer to mine and kissed my forehead ever so gently I thought a fairy was doing so.

Staring into each other's eyes, a sudden look of worry crossed his face. "Where have you been sis? You have no idea how hard I tried to track you down".

"Where was I? Where were you Austin? You just took off and never said goodbye. Did something happen to you?", I asked exasperatedly, truly wanting to know what he's been going through for the last seven years.

"Jenna, I know, and I'm sorry for the way things turned out, but I swear I can explain everything if you just let m-... s**t!".

He's words were interrupted by the last noise I'd expected to hear, making him turn around and quickly make his way into a room at the far left corner of the room.

My mind went blank.

A baby was crying.