Chapter 4
2072 Words
3 YEARS LATER
“Come on, Rita, walk a little faster," Jamie pleaded to her roommate, who was fully making it known that she was mad at her.
She took a few steps forward and turned back again, only to find out that Rita was even further backwards.
"Rita!" she shouted, uncaring that she was in the middle of the freaking road. “At least hand the key over.”
The girl only glared at her, and then she continued walking at that snail speed with her attention on her phone.
“s**t,” she groaned, hefting Lewis further in her arms. He’d fallen asleep in the store, and as broke as she was, she had to carry him all the way back. Along with four of the six bags of groceries they’d finally agreed on.
She tapped her feet repeatedly on the ground as she waited on the lady. Ideally, she could have kept walking and waited for her at the door of the house, but they lived in a part of town where, if one wasn’t careful, they could steal your hands right in front of you. With the weight of her two-year-old in her arms, there was no way she could watch their belongings and carry him at the same time. So, she was stuck in the middle of the road, waiting for her selfish roommate to get off her high horse and hand her her own set of keys.
“What?” Rita asked as soon as she got to her front, “Did I tell you I can’t find my way home?”
She sighed, swallowing the names that came to mind. “Could you give me your keys if you’re going to take this long?” She asked sweetly.
“No”
“Come on, Rita. My arms hurt, and you’re not exactly being helpful here.”
“And why should that bother me? Find your own damn keys.”
She hefted her son higher and tried to stretch her cramping wrists. “Please, Rita. I swear, I’ll find mine. I didn’t even know I dropped it.”
“That’s your business, then. Stop bothering me,” the 19-year-old said and left.
She bit back with a watery sigh. Apart from her hormones during her pregnancy, she didn’t usually burst into tears at the drop of a hat. But she was just so exhausted. She’d spent the last two nights trying to lower her son’s temperature and keep him from crying out during the night, and the day juggling her jobs as a restaurant server and a host in the bar.
She sniffed and couldn’t prevent the next sigh. She didn’t even have a hand free to wipe the trail of tears that had gone down her cheeks.
Wiping her face with the shoulder of her clothes, she saw a bench and made a detour. There was no way she’d make it home in her condition, and odds were high that even if she dragged herself the rest of the way, she’d still pass Rita on the way.
Dropping the bags beside her, she sat down gently, praying that Lewis didn’t wake up. From the moment she’d had him, he rested better when he was in someone’s arms. No matter the tips and tricks she’d tried to get him to sleep well, she had to hold him in her arms even while lying down before he settled. She breathed out a sigh of relief when he shifted in her arms, but thankfully fell back asleep without so much as a whimper.
Exhausted and frustrated, she sat there, trying not to think about how she'd gotten to where she was. The ‘what ifs’ still came through. What if she had gone back home that fateful day? What if she'd had the good sense to tell Lucas that she was a virgin and not some experienced w***e like he assumed? What if she'd not gotten pregnant?
And then the painful questions plagued her: What if she'd never left? The doctors had told her from the start that her inability to take care of herself well would put her baby at risk, but she hadn't expected this. In his two years of life, she doubted he'd been healthy for up to half of it. The doctors didn't have a response for it, and there was nothing she could do. She tried all she could to feed him well and make sure he was always covered and not exposed to the environment, but no matter what, he seemed to catch every bug that went around.
She sighed again and wiped her face. She'd cried more since she had her son than she had her whole life.
“Is this seat taken?” A deep voice startled her out of her reverie.
Sniffing for the last time and stylishly cleaning her face, she turned towards the voice with a smile.
“It's public”
"Oh," he said with a smile before he sat.
From the corner of her eyes, she observed him. His hair was dyed green and tied at his nape in a ponytail, and his light green eyes looked unnatural.
She didn't know when she started, but being on her own with a child had instilled some negative behaviors. Where before she’d been uninterested in the male gender until Lucas, recently she found herself staring at men with dollar signs on their heads. Not that she was jumping into bed with them—they once taught her a lesson—but instead she was putting more effort into building a relationship with guys that looked dependable.
Lewis needed a father, and she needed someone she could depend on. She'd been alone for too long.
As if the man could feel her gaze, he turned to her with a questioning smile and asked, “Do I have something in my hair?”
Her cheeks reddened. That was one thing that hadn't changed. She still blushed at the slightest provocation, a fact that endeared her to the men who visited the club. She wasn't going to take any of them up on their offer, though. She needed someone she could depend on, not someone she'd spend her whole life worrying about.
“No,” she muttered in response, keeping her face firmly on her son's.
"Oh,” his lips twitched in a small smile. He nodded at the child in her lap. “Your son?”
“Yeah”
He nodded again with that same ‘Oh’.
She stared at him curiously. “I’m not going to like the next question you want to ask, right?”
His lips widened. "Nope.”
“Then don’t ask, and goodbye.” She stood up, adjusted her son in her arms, and picked up all four of the bags.
“Woah!” he exclaimed, standing up. “You don’t plan to carry all that, do you?”
She shook her head and ignored him. What a stupid question.
He ran in front of her with his arms outstretched. “No, ma’am. That won’t do.”
She sighed and adjusted the load in her hands. “Now what is it?”
“Let me help you to the bus station at least.”
A part of her wanted to insist on ‘no’, but she really needed the help. "Fine," she sighed, and she dropped two of the bags.
“Oh no, you don't,” he said, collecting all four of them, leaving her with just the child in her arms.
She huffed and started walking. When they’d gone a few steps, he spoke again: “We’re not going in the direction of the bus station, are we?”
She hid a smile. She’d been waiting for that. “Nope”
He gave a loud sigh. “Can I ask where we’re going?”
“Just a few minutes from here. You can drop the bags when we get there; I know you’re probably busy.”
“Me, busy? Of course not, ma’am. Let’s go”
When they’d gone another few feet, he spoke again: “When you said a few minutes, you weren’t talking about three minutes, were you?”
She smiled and said, “Not exactly.”
“Seven minutes?” he asked hopefully, and she chuckled.
“Something like that.”
“Fifteen minutes?”
“Close”
“Oh my God,” he groaned and moved so he was once again standing in front of her. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, my good lady, but you wouldn't mind terribly if we used a car, would you?”
She laughed. “I don’t have a car.”
He wiggled her brows. “Well, I do. Yes, right? You didn’t say no. "It couldn’t have been easy to clasp his palms together with the bags, but he managed it. “I’m safe, I promise. No kidnapping or anything.”
Lewis shifted in her arms, and she started patting him on the back. “Now that you mentioned that...”
He dropped two of the bags at his feet and mimed zipping his lips, “Forget I said anything,” then he nodded at her son, whose movements had gotten more erratic. “I might not know much about kids, but won’t he be more comfortable in your home?” he asked with a wide smile when Lewis started crying.
“Fine,” she finally agreed, walking from side to side to settle her son.
“I’ll go get the car," he announced immediately, rushing back in the direction they’d come from.
Lewis was fully awake now. He pushed his head into the crook of her shoulder, and she could feel him trembling.
“What is it, love?” she whispered, but he only shook his head and burrowed further into her. She sighed. Even without looking at his face, she could tell that he was still crying, though it was silent now. She felt like crying, too. His temperature was still higher than usual, but he did this sometimes. For some reason she couldn’t understand, he just started shuddering and crying until his body gave out on him and he went back to sleep.
Doctors had found it strange, but the strangest part was that whenever he got like that, he didn’t want anyone other than his mom near him. More than once, she’d had to give permission for Lia, a friend she dropped him off with whenever she couldn’t get away with him at work, to knock him out with a sleeping pill. It was not exactly the best mothering instinct, but it was difficult for her to hear him asking for her on the phone without being able to go to him. And if she could choose between his being in pain or the chance that he’d grow resistant to the drug, she’d choose the pain every time. She didn’t know how she knew the crying and shuddering was a sign of pain, but she just knew.
A car honked beside her, and she looked up to find the stranger from earlier smiling and beckoning her to come in. Even near tears, she had to scoff. There was no way she was going back to her home in a car like his. He likely would get robbed before he’d gone past the entrance of the hood.
She shook her head with a small smile, and he quickly came down.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” he whined, looking puzzled.
“Where I stay, your car would be a prime cry for attention.”
“That’s good, right?” he asked, still looking clueless
“Not exactly. They’d be more interested in getting the car for themselves,” she clarified, looking him up and down. “Even your clothes wouldn’t survive the scuffle.”
He snorted: “Why, thank you, darling, but I’m sure I can handle myself.”
“But…” she began to protest.
Lewis’ shuddering got more violent, and panic filled her body.
“Fine, don’t say I didn’t warn you," she conceded, getting into the back seat.
He looked at them strangely before he shrugged and carried the bags. dropped the bags on the seat beside her. “Shall we?” he asked, a hint of wariness in his voice.
She nodded, and he got back into the driver’s seat and drove off.
- Writer
