Status: Fin <3

Origins

Mm hot Italian for...lunch

I awake in the morning; Annie curled up against me and look at the clock, it saying in glow in the dark watch hands what it is about 7:05am. I gently stir Anna awake and tell her that she needs to get up from school, I hear Archer down the hall moving around and getting him self ready. Anna gives me a mournful look as she leaves my room and I think nothing of it as I fall back asleep.

*

My eyes blink open and I look at the clock, it’s now 12:53pm and I can hear Izack downstairs. I wander down in my singlet and underwear to see what he is doing. Instead of seeing Izack I see Georgiou the boy just a little older than me who lives down the road. I frown at him when I spot him in the kitchen making a sandwich and see the TV on, I grab a pair of pants from off the top of the ironing pile and pull them on before announcing that I am there.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him my voice still croaky with sleep.

“Your dad took Izack to work with him today so that they could do something…I don’t know, I just know Izack isn’t here so I’m here to look after you until whenever,” Georgiou stutters.

“Oh, okay then, what you making?” I ask him and look at the food spread out on the bench.

“Ham, cheese, avocado and mayonnaise on soy and linseed bread, its for you I was about to come up and wake you, Izack said you have to be up by 12:30 and I decided to let you sleep a half hour more,” Georgiou admits with a slight blush on his tanned cheeks. Georgiou is Italian and he and his two twin little brothers, Christos and Emanuel live down the road from me, the three of them hang out with Staci, her brother Wezley, Archer, Anna and I. Georgiou fits the Italian stereotype perfectly, he’s tanned, tall and godly handsome, he even has an Italian accent which he got from spending so much time with his family who all talk with heavy Italian accents.

“Aww you’re too kind Georgie,” I smile and hug him, he grins when I use my nickname for him, everyone else calls him Georgiou even his family, I’m the only person he knows that doesn’t.

“Anything for you Bella,” Georgiou smiles and cuts the sandwich into triangles before handing it to me. In case you don’t know ‘Bella’ means beautiful in Italian. I offer Georgiou some of my sandwich and as always he declines. I finish my sandwich and then accept the apple juice he hands me.

“I’m going to go get dressed Georgie, I’ll be back down in a few minutes,” I smile and hug him then head upstairs. I dress in a blue top and leave on the three quarter denims that I’m already wearing, I put my hair up in a loose ponytail and brush my teeth. I walk back downstairs and see Georgiou stacking the dishwasher, “Georgie I’ll do that you’re not meant to do anything other than sit on the couch and make sure I don’t fall over or something,” I tell him taking the plate from him.

“But Frances I want to help you, I want to do this for you, I want you to sit and watch TV or read a magazine and relax, you’re body is making a baby and you need all the rest and relaxation you can get,” Georgiou tells me taking the plate back from me and putting it in the dishwasher.

“But Georgie I want to do this, the dishwasher is my job,” I tell him taking a plate from the pile and going to stack it.

“No Frances, you go sit down I will do this,” Georgiou tells me taking the plate from me and giving me a strong look warning me to go sit down.

“Fine, but you’re coming and painting with me today, I hope you have on clothes that can get paint on them,” I tell him and chuckle as I walk upstairs, “Come meet me up in the baby’s room when you’re ready.”

*

Five minutes later Georgiou is with me in the baby’s room. We finish all the walls in about an hour and then paint the ceiling in the same colour as the walls. After we have afternoon tea and when the paint is dry I stencil out clouds onto the ceiling, I hand Georgiou a paintbrush and tin of white paint and he gets on his ladder. I step up onto mine and begin painting the clouds, I texture it and paint it so that they look like real clouds. It takes a whole hour to paint all of the clouds and when we have finished our necks are sore from looking up. I look at my watch and see that it is only 5:30pm and means that my Mum and Dad won’t be home for another hour with Anna and Archer. I ask Georgiou if he wants to help me stencil on the toys and blocks and things onto the wall for us to paint tomorrow. He says that he does so I get the drawing that I had done and find the old projector, we project the drawing onto the bottom half of the wall and start drawing it on in soft easy to rub out pencil.

*

We step back to look at the wall and make sure that we hadn’t missed any parts of the drawing. We haven’t and I turn off the projector so that we can see the pencil drawn giant teddy bear surrounded by little toys and blocks. It looks almost life like drawn onto the wall and I grin at Georgiou.

“Thank-you for helping today Georgie,” I hug him and we walk out of the room.

“It’s no problem Frances and if you want I can come help paint again tomorrow,” Georgiou offers.

“I would love it if you come and paint with me again tomorrow, I had a lot of fun today,” I smile at him and we walk into the bathroom downstairs to clean the paint off of our fingers and faces. Once we’re clean of paint we walk into the lounge room and I see Scott asleep with his arm over his eyes. I smile and Georgiou says that now that someone else is here he should probably go.

“I will see you tomorrow to paint with you again Frances,” He tells me at the front door as he puts his shoes on.

“Definitely will Georgie, I’ll talk to you then,” I smile and hug him good-bye. He walks out the door and down the road to his house. I return to where Scott is asleep on the couch and smile, I push him over a bit and lye next to him, my back against his front. He moves back a little more to give me more room and I move with him, he lies on his side now and wraps an arm around my bulging stomach and we both fall asleep his grease covered body curled up against my paint covered one. That is how they found us when they arrived home a half hour later, and that is how they left us until we woke well after dinner when everyone was already in bed because my mobile was buzzing with the news that one of my closest friends, Harley had died in a car accident.