The Friend I Needed

Two.

Two.

“I don’t like having companions, so you can just leave.” Henry said not even meeting Oddie’s eyes, who happen to not really care.

“I think I already told you that I won’t give this up, I signed up in this companion thing for a good reason and it also can help you improve your social skills which I’ve noticed you lack off.” She mocked with a sweet smile on her lips making the man frown annoyed.

“Don’t worry I won’t stay long today, I’m just here to introduce myself to the staff and to yourself, so you can know who will be with you.” He just stared at her, she was indeed an intriguing and interesting woman.

He had to agree that it was something impressive to find people like her nowadays, but he was not going to say it out loud. He had a reputation to maintain.

“Then I want to assume that you want to tell me something else than just an introduction, right?”

“Indeed,” she grabbed a small notebook from her purse that got his attention. Its cover was made from brown leather and the pages had a light brown color, unusual agenda for a woman her age. “I want you to agree to my schedule as it’s not a very easy one to deal with, so allow me please to get started.”

She fixed her glasses on her nose reading through the pages and then sharing a look with Henry who just nodded annoyed. It was not as if he could do anything about it.

“Alright then, I have work from Monday to Thursday from 8:15am to 2:30pm, but sometimes as today being Wednesday I get out late either be for meetings, late projects and what not,” she made an annoyed face remembering the men who work with her boss who are not exactly pleasant to talk to. “But that’s not a usual, and Friday I only work for a few hours, since 9:00am to 11:00am. So I’ll be visiting you four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.”

“I’m thrilled,” he replayed sarcastically rolling his eyes, he just wanted to try and enjoy a day outside but this woman talked to much for his liking.

“And Sundays as well, but that day you’ll have to bear with me for more than half the day.”

“What? Why for so long?” He asked confused.

“Because that’s the only day I can stay with you for more time.”

“How long will you stay with me the other week days?”

“From 4:30pm to 6:00pm,” she put her agenda into her purse then looked at him with a cute smile.

“So, why so little time?” She smirked mockingly at the question, she was going to enjoy answering that.

“Oh, you’re missing me already?” He was annoyed by her sudden sarcasm. Before he could angrily answer back, a young kid with a blue ballcap came running to her side holding her free hand and hiding his face on her side. “You ok there, pumpkin?”

“It’s getting late,” he said moving his head to the side smiling at her slightly, he was kinda quiet when some other people were around.

“Oh, right.” She smiled at him holding his hand tighter and then looking back at a very aggravated old Henry, “I’ll see you on Sunday, that’s when we’ll start all this.”

“Whatever,” he just took a hold of a book next to him on the bench and opened it putting his glasses on top of his nose reading in silence ignoring the presence of her and Gabriel. “You’re not my friend, so you won’t know a lot about me easily,” she nodded turning to leave before saying her goodbye when he suddenly looked at her and asked.

“By the way, who’s the kid?” She stopped with Gabriel and looked at him with slight sadness that she covered with a playful smirk.

“You won’t know that much about me easily,” her smirked went wider and a wicked glint appeared on her light eyes. “You’re not my friend… yet,” she mocked with the last part making him frown.

How dare she use his own words against him?

 He would never know, but he could be sure that this woman was going to give him hell.

Oddie and Gabe left the nursing home and got into the car, he was messing with the radio as she drove to their house smiling slightly. That Henry man was clearly a very lonely elder with a very bad attitude towards people who tried to get close, maybe she could help him brake those walls and make him smile again as it was obvious by the old wrinkles on the side of his mouth that he used to smile and laugh a lot in his youthful days.

When they arrived home, Gabriel grabbed his backpack from the trunk of the car and took a hold of Oddie’s heavy suitcase, he was a little cute gentleman after all when it came to woman.

“Honey, you don’t need to do that it’s heavy.” She looked at him frowning, she was very aware of how much stuff she had there, but he just shrugged his shoulders pulling the suitcase behind him, thankfully that thing had wheels.

Oddie just smiled watching his body heading to the front door, she was happy that she had done good with him.

“Here, let me open,” she put the keys out of her bag and the moment she opened the door a huge brown and black body with very long ears and strong paws jumped on her making loose balance.

“Come on, Luca.” Gabriel smiled widely at the dog that kept his paws at Oddie’s abdomen not letting her walk further. “We missed you too,” the moment Luca heard him, he ran howling excited as he knew it was time to play. Oddie just smiled at her bloodhound´s odd behavior.

“Can you feed him, pumpkin? I’ll just go change,” he nodded closing the door, putting his backpack and suitcase near the door before walking to the kitchen to get Luca’s food. “And get changed when you’re done!” She called from the stairway.

“Alright!”

When he was done eating he walked along with Gabriel to his room so he could change into more comfortable clothes. Ten minutes later, Oddie came down the stairs in sports clothing and tying her hair in a low ponytail fixing her sports bra and the black off-shoulder t-shirt she had on.

“You ready, pumpkin?” He smiled grabbing Luca’s leash tying it to his harness, the three of them left the house having a huge dog in the backseat sitting there like a good boy.

They arrived to an old gym parking in their usual spot, the owner of the gym was an old friend of Oddie’s father, so he allowed them to have Luca in there as he was indeed a good boy.

He just sat or lay down chewing a bone while watching everyone around and he was also a relaxing source to be around as the other people working out and training got close to pet him and spoil the lucky dog who loved the attention and enjoyed it as a king.

“Hey there, Roy.” Oddie called out to a beast like man who smiled brightly at her.

“Well, didn’t it take you long enough to come?” He mocked setting his crossed arms on top of his chest making it look bigger and stronger than it already was.

 Roy Wright was a retired MMA Canadian fighter and a good old friend of her father for many years, so he held the young woman close to his heart.

“How was work today, sweetheart?” He smiled at her softly, smiling back at him she set her gym bag on her usual bench while Gabriel took Luca to the back yard to run with him and one of the staff members who worked with Roy, called Carter, was with him as the sky was getting darker and she didn’t like him being alone in the dark.

“It was tiring, had a meeting that ended at 4:00pm I think.”

She sighed grabbing her wraps to fix them on her hands and getting bigger ones to wrap around her belly as it helped her when she trained; Roy walked closer to her side with a concerned look.

“You shouldn’t be working that much, sweetheart.” He frowned at her smiling face. “You already get paid good enough and I know you have all your time managed so you can always do everything you want and more, but I feel like you´re overdoing yourself. Now more with you signing up to that companion thing.”

She looked at him rising an eyebrow confused, she didn’t remember telling him about that just yet, he smiled knowingly at her, “I keep you on my watch, sweetie. I promised to take care of you as much as I could and I’m not going to mess it up.”

“Yeah, yeah I know Mr. Bad old boy.”

“I’ll ignore the old part,” they both chuckled as she finished wrapping herself with the help of Roy to tie the wrappings on her abdomen. “Now get to warm up, I’ll find you a partner to fight with as that stupid redhead hasn’t arrived. I swear I’m going to make him sweat and cry if he comes late to training again,” she chuckled loudly at that as she took a skipping rope to start the warm up.

“You always say that and never have I seen you be that rough on him, and even if you get rough, he won’t cry. You know he enjoys a good challenge and has a very fit body,” she said starting to jump slowly then going faster. “He’s been training the same amount of time as I have.”

“Yeah, and still he hasn’t learned to come on f*****g time.”

“Do you really have to curse?” She said with an annoyed face turning her eyes slightly to the kid who was coming back inside with Luca on his side and Carter.

“Fine,” he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “He hasn’t learned to come on ducking time.”

“Quack, quack.” Some of the guys training, Zack, mocked him making his face go all red.

“Zachary!” The guy paled, he knew he was going to pay for mocking him and more because he caused others in the gym, to laugh hard. “Ring. Now.”

The poor boy gulped, this was his end and Oddie just smiled still jumping for a little while until Nick arrived running to her side to warm up as well. Ten minutes later they were both sparring in the ring as Zachary was tied up in the corner with ropes as punishment for mocking the boss.

…

Gabriel was sitting down on the kitchen’s cherry wood stool next to the island eating cream of wheat with three different kinds of berries while watching the news in the small TV that was right next to the coffee maker. He was watching with curiosity how the city’s firefighters were putting a fire out in a*****e downtown.

Oddie was like crazy making lunch for both of them, she never had time to eat and she had promised Gabriel that she was going to take better care of her health.

“Look, the firefighters are being heroes again,” he said after he swallowed the cream and fruit he was chewing, Oddie smiled at him softly walking towards him to put his lunch in front of him and kissing his head making him smile. “When will you take me to see the fire station?” He had a fascination for them, so much that he wanted to become one in a future.

“Soon, pumpkin.” She went to grab a term to fill it with coffee. “Now finish your wheat and drink your juice.”

“And go brush my teeth, I know.” He stood up from the stool and with a small smile he placed his forehead on her ribcage on her side before proceeding to put his dishes on the dishwasher. “I already fed Luca, by the way!” He yelled from the top of the stairs.

“Thank you, pumpkin!” She walked to the living room to grab her stuff and stopped on her tracks in front of a picture frame on top of the maroon brick chimney and smiled at the guy who mirrored her calm face.

“I’m doing my best to raise him as you wanted, but I need you here. Please come back.” She felt a tear run down her cheek.

“He’ll be back soon.” She looked up at Gabriel who was standing next to the door frame between the hallway that lead to both the principal entrance and stairway. “He knows we need him, so dad will be back soon.”

“You’re right, baby.” She smiled at him at him cleaning her tears and walking up to her with Luca on her side looking at them both with sad eyes.

“Oh no sir, that look won’t work this time.”

He whined looking at Gabriel who just nodded ‘no’ to him, Luca was always like this whenever they had to leave to school and work. But as much as they wanted to, they couldn’t take him with them.

“We’ll be back soon, Luca.” She gave him a toy bone that he gladly took and went to take his place in the sofa as if he was a king.

In their way to school, they saw the fire trucks going back to the station, that only meant they had been successful on their mission to turn the fire off and Gabriel couldn’t be happier to know that as he smiled at the sight of three trucks.

After a few minutes they arrived at school and right before Oddie raced to her office, Sally called out for her.

“Oddie, wait!”

At this she turned off the car and got out fixing her navy blue pencil skirt that was adorned with a thin gold chain on the hips as a belt, she was looking prettier than ever with her outfit and the male teachers that were outside waiting for the kids to arrive didn’t ignored the fact that a pretty parent was in sight.

She was wearing a white button-up dress shirt that was a little bit of see-through with a nude bra that hid what needed to be hidden and also a pair of navy blue pumps with small golden chains as anklets, her hair in a neat bun with some strands of hair falling on the side of her face and her thin glasses on.

Oddie walked up to her friend, hugging each other with a smile.

“Thank goodness, I need to speak to you.”

“Good morning to you too, Sally.” She mocked looking at her beautiful friend.

Sally wore a white sundress with small blue and green details on the bottom of the skirt and a jean jacket on top, the weather was getting slightly colder considering autumn was just starting. She wore a pair of turquoise blue pumps and her hair falling in thick ringlets gently on her back.

“Is there something wrong?”

Oddie looked at her confused since Gabriel was the most well-behaved kid of all as per, he never liked the idea of getting in trouble, he found that kind of situations annoying. She remembered perfectly well what he told her about that a few years back.

.

.

“How is it that you’re the only kid who’s not a nerd or preppy boy that hasn’t gotten in a fight in school?” She had asked him out of curiosity after a day in school and he just shrugged his shoulders.

“I find school fights quite annoying. What’s the point in fighting others in school halls? If you want that kind of attention just go and get into the fighting club or something, but don’t go around making a fool of yourself in front of everyone. They just look pathetic.”

.

.

Yeah, he was no normal kid at all.

“The school wants to take some classes to a field trip to the fire station this Friday at 9:00am until 12:30pm, the busses have already been told to be prepared and they’ll need lunch and a bottle of water. Oh, and the permission of the parent or guardian.” Sally talked so fast that it was hard to understand what she said but, after knowing each other for years, Oddie had learned to catch words as fast as they were spoke.

“It’s fine by me, you already know he has my permission.” Oddie smiled at the kid who was waiting in the door not moving his eyes from her, he had friends of course but he needed to make sure that she left safe and sound to her office. “Gabriel has been waiting for me to take him to see the station, but if you guys are doing the field trip there, then he’s more than free to go.”

“That’s not the point of why I wanted to speak to you. Today we’ll be sending a permission letter for the parents to sign if they agree with the trip.” Oddie nodded at her friend encouraging her to continue, she needed to get to the office on time. “The thing is that we need a teacher and a parent per class.”

“How many classes are going?”

“This week, two.” Sally said smiling with guilt making her brunette friend frown slightly crossing her arms under her perky breast. “My class and Mr. Peterson’s class.”

She pointed to the bald guy with nerdy clothes that was staring at both girls with desire and licked his lips making them both want to gag.

“He already has a parent to accompany him, but I don’t.” She said sheepishly at her friend who frowned.

“Fine, I’ll ask my boss to give me Friday off.” Before she could say anything else, Sally squealed excited throwing her arms around Oddie’s neck almost knocking her off making both Oddie and Gabriel yelp surprised. “Woah there, don’t get all romantic here. Some other might be jelly.” She joked hugging her friend back.

“Thank you so much! I won’t survive there alone with that creep.” The blonde pointed slightly to Mr. Peterson who kept staring at them gaining himself a dirty look from Gabriel.

“It’s alright. But who is he taking with him?”

“A mother of his group, rumor has it that he’s her lover.” She whispered the last part making her friend frown.

“Eww.” That was something she did not wanted to imagine.

Mr. Peterson was not a handsome man, sure she had seen young bald men who were sexy as hell like that British action actor, but this guy wasn’t either young or a handsome bald guy.

First of all, he smelled bad, he didn’t used any kind of cologne and he was always getting dressed worse than an old nerdy man from the 50’s, he wasn’t that tall, and he had a beer belly.

You could see his chest hairs trying to escape the neck of his dress shirts that he always had three to four undone buttons and the V-neck of his vest sweater that always had horrible patterns, also he was not a very clean person as he cleaned his nose in front of others with his hands and then brushed his hands on his clothes.

Not attractive.

“Exactly my thoughts.” Sally said sighing in despair. “You better not let me go alone to a place that’ll be filled with hot sexy guys with a creep like him and his lover.”

“I’m not a bad human being, of course you won’t go alone.” Before she could say anything else, Gabriel caught her attention letting her know it was getting late and she paled. “I gotta go, but call me tonight.”

Sally nodded smiling thankfully, Oddie said her goodbyes to her and then kissed Gabriel on his cheek earning a cute smile on the kids face, he was again wearing a baseball cap but this time the color changed from blue to black.

“Love you, pumpkin.”

“Love you more, witch.” Gabriel and Sally saw how she got in the car and drove off like a mad woman, both sighing with smiles. “Can I go inside already, Miss Mitchell?”

“Yes darling, I’ll be with the class in a minute.” He nodded entering the building making a bee line to his classroom.

…

“You’re just in time, sweetheart.” Maya smiled at the poor young woman who had ran all the way to her desk in the reception to check in. “Good morning to you too, babe.”

“Morning, Maya.” Oddie smiled brightly at the woman receiving a chuckle from her. “Sorry, Gabe’s teacher needed to speak to me about something.”

“Oh, was it important?” Maya asked as she watched Oddie signing the schedule folder and putting her finger tip on the digital check-in machine.

“First field trip of this year.”

“Very important indeed.”

“Important enough to make me go talk to the boss right about now. I need to ask him to have Friday off, the teacher needs a parent to tag along and help with the kids and I was the chosen one.” Oddie grabbed her handbag, huge binder and wheeled suitcase never dropping her smile. “Wish me luck, Maya.”

She started walkingunning towards the elevators.

“Good luck, sweetheart!” She smiled at the young woman, she saw her as a daughter loving her dearly.

“Oh, by the way,” she turned around right before the elevator door closed, “lunch with me today? My treat.” Maya smiled at this nodding her head in agreement. “Great, see you then.”

The door closed and she tapped on the floor with her high heels, she needed to get to her boss as fast as possible to be able to talk to him about Friday, it was Tuesday so she had to ask fast.

She walked as fast as she could to her office door unlocking it and getting inside putting all her stuff on her desk and beside the same one turning on her computer and turning one of her pumpkin candles on. As she was getting ready for today’s work someone knocked on her door, without looking up she called for them to enter.

“You just barely entered the office and are already working.” A male voice exclaimed amused. “You’re a workaholic, I swear.”

A dark chocolate skinned young man about four years older than her stood before her desk with a smile covered by soft padlock beard and a cute small gap between his front teeth that made him oddly handsome.

“Good morning to you as well, Jack.”

She looked up smiling at him, they were not life-long friends but had been knowing each other since she started working in A&D Co. a few years back, he was an architect in chief and had turned to be a great friend of hers when they realized that their birthdays where only a day away, since then they decided to celebrate in the office sharing a cake both days.

“Good morning, Oddie.” He sat down on the chair in front of her desk smiling. “So, care to share why you came all the way to the office running like hell almost tripping on your heels?”

He had grabbed the rubber band ball she had on her desk to play with it.

“School things.” She tipped away on the keyboard looking intently at the screen.

“I don’t believe Gabriel got in trouble, it’s too ‘annoying to deal with’ I believe were his words.” He laughed at the memory making Oddie to smile.

“That’d be the last reason for me to have to talk to his teacher.”

She sent a mail and looked at her office best friend, the other one being Maya, she only spoke outside of work to them both as they were the less annoying ass-kissing workers.

“There’s going to be a field trip on Friday and Sally wants me to be the parent that comes along to take care of the kids.”

“Well that’s something worth talking about. You’ll ask the boss today?”

“Yup, so let me go to the door of hell and see how it goes.” She stood up as well as he did putting the ball back on her desk and fixing his dark gray coat over a white dress shirt with a black and gray tie with diagonal stripes, gift from Oddie.

“That so needs to be talked about with me.” She chuckled at his statement grabbing her binder and walking to the door with him following suit.

“Lunch with Maya and me?” She asked as she started walking to the boss’ office.

“Duh, even the question is insulting.” He gently grabbed her elbow reassuring her that the boss will allow her to have Friday off and winked. “See you at lunch.”

“See ya.” She knocked on the door and after a few seconds the voice of her boss called her in. “Alright, here goes nothing.”