"Mother" of the Year

“Dad, please tell me that you now just woke up.”

Kyle walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bagel from the cabinet and putting into the toaster.
I sighed.

“As much as I would like to sound like an awesome dad that follows the work rules his son set for him, I did not just wake up.”

I’m sure he could tell anyway from my tired eyes or the fact that exams were scattered all over the dining table.

“Come on, Dad. You’re supposed to be on break. I know you have exams to grade, but that was supposed to be done in moderation.”

I could only sink into the chair a little as he scolded me – ironic, huh?

“How many did you get graded this time?”
“A hundred.”
His eyes widened, but they quickly returned to normal.

“A-Alright. Fifty more left. So, no grading for two days, and no more binge-grading!”
“Excuse me. Last time I checked, I was the parent in this household.”

“Yeah, well the parent needs some rest.”
“…You got a point there, I guess.”

But the reason I graded all of those papers last night is because I didn’t want to rest.

Between going to a Gentlemen’s nightclub and almost fucking an employee in one of the rooms – only to find out that it was Aaron – and the returning nightmares that I haven’t had since my senior year in college, sleep just wasn’t an option.

But it was mainly the nightmares that kept me awake.

The rejection. The ridicule.
The beatings from family members and students alike.

The fact that my best friend found me unconscious and bleeding out from my wrist in the dorm bathroom.

I feared to relive that last one in any form.

“Dad?”
Kyle’s voice snapped me from my thoughts.

“Hm?”
“Are you okay…?”

“Y-Yeah. I’m fine…I’m going for a walk. Some fresh air will wake me up. Are you going to be okay by yourself?”
He nodded, still giving me a concerned look.

“I’m fine. I promise.”
“Whatever you say, Dad.”

| x | x | x |

The air was freezing and there was another layer of snow added on the ground from Christmas.
That still didn’t stop some people – and me – from walking, running, or just relaxing around the park.

Relaxing wasn’t an option though – too much was on my mind.

Kyle goes back to school in a week.
He’s going to tell a kid named Jason that he has a crush on him.

He’s going to out himself as a bisexual even more and I can only fear the worst.

I sighed.

“But Mikael said not to worry…” I mumbled to myself.

Then my thoughts trail to what happened three nights ago.

How drunk was I to allow Mikael to convince me to go through with it?
I made out with Aaron and almost fucked him, thinking he was someone else.

I still remembered everything that he told me that night.

He has been through so much.
He’s still hurting, yet he’s afraid to let people in to help him.

What the hell was I thinking giving him my number?
It’s not like he’s going to call me.

I still hope that he would at least attempt to though.
I want to help him. I really want to help him.

Another sigh.

I think I’m falling for him.

I stopped walking.

What kind of thought was that?!
I’ve only met him seven days ago!

What the fuck, Alec?!

I tried to shake off the thought as I sat down onto a bench that was near a small playground.

But still, the thought was in my head.

What the actual—

I felt two small hands pat at my leg, looking down to see a small girl with ginger, curly hair smiling up at me.

…Isn’t this Aaron’s daughter?

“Um…Hello?”
“Hi~!”
She continued to pat my leg.

“Didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?” – or to pat their leg nonstop?
“But you’re not a stranger. You’re a friend of my mommy!”

I wouldn’t exactly use the word “friend” at this moment.

Speaking of him…

“Where is your mother?”
She shrugged her shoulders.

Great.

“I dropped my lucky marble that Daddy gave me on the playground. I went to go get it back, but I didn’t want to tell Mommy because I don’t want him to be mad at me. Wanna see?”

She didn’t wait for me to answer as she dug into the pocket of her coat, pulling out a small marble that was the same color as her hair.

“My brother has one too, but we never get ours mixed up.”
She put it back into her pocket before she tugs on my hand.

“What are you doing…?”
“We have to go find Mommy, before he gets sadder.”

“Why are you bringing me though?” – other than the fact that it’s dangerous for a little girl to venture by herself.

“Because he’ll be happy when he sees that I brought a friend to see him!”

I’m pretty sure that I would get the opposite reaction from him.

But still, I couldn’t let a child search a vast park all by herself.
So we started down the sidewalk, with her having a firm grip on my hand as we walked.

We searched and asked almost everyone there if they’ve seen him – sometimes receiving some confused looks at the mention that the mother was a guy, but that was beside the point – but no luck.

I decided that we’d take a break and bought her a hot chocolate from a vendor in the park.

“Do you have a lucky charm?” She asks me before taking a sip from her drink.

I shook my head.

“Why?” – a typical five-year-old question.

“I just…I never really thought about it. I never had an object bring me good luck.”

I couldn’t tell a five-year-old that my life was a series of unlucky events, could I?

She dug into the pocket of her coat again.

“You can borrow my lucky marble.”
She held it out towards me with a large smile.

“It’ll give you good luck! And maybe we can find Mommy with it!”

I hesitated, but I held out my hand for her to place the marble in it.
She grabbed a hold of my free hand again and started tugging me along.

We continued to ask more people if they’ve seen him, and finally one woman told us where she saw him.

“Yay! Lucky marble!”

The girl didn’t hesitate to start running towards the direction the woman pointed, with me being tugged along of course.

And soon enough, he was there, frantically speaking with the park manager in tears.

“Mommy!”
She finally let go of my hand and ran towards him, wrapping her arms around his legs.

“Scarlett?! Oh thank God, you’re okay!”
He picked her up and hugged her tightly in his arms.

He looked up and I froze when his eyes met mine.

“Alec?”

Scarlett looked up and followed his stare as the manager took his leave.

“I found a friend of yours! He helped me find you, Mommy!”

I gave him a nervous smile as I scratched the back of my head.
He bit down on his lip.

“I…Thank you.”
“I-It’s no problem at all.”

A moment of silence.

“Oh…! Here.”
I held out Scarlett’s marble towards her and she took it back with a large smile.

“I told you the lucky marble would work!”
“Yeah, you did.” I returned her smile before looking at Aaron.

“…It was nice to see you again, Aaron.”

I turned to leave.

“W-Wait…!”
I looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I…I’m sorry…about the way I acted before. Um…Maybe we could…we could grab a cup of coffee and just sit and talk sometime soon…? Maybe Wednesday?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah. That sounds nice.”
“O-Okay…”

“I’ll see you later, then?”
“Y-Yeah…!”

I turned again and started walking away.

“Mommy…you’re blushing again.”
“I-It’s just the cold again, Scarlett…!”

I let out a small laugh, but they were too far away to hear me.

I finally made it back home, organizing the mess of papers that I left on the dining table.

“How was your walk? Are you feeling better?”
Kyle peeked over the edge of the stairwell, still giving me a concerned look.

I gave him a reassuring smile.

“It was…interesting. And yes, I feel a little better.”
“Interesting how?”

He was now rushing down the stairs.

“I’ll tell you later.”
“No ‘later’! What happened? Did you fight a bad guy?”

I shook my head.

“Did you win a free lifetime supply of coffee?”
“Stop trying to guess!”

“Did you meet someone?”
I didn’t answer him, but I gave him a smirk as I walked into the kitchen.

“Dad…? Did you?! C’mon! Tell meeeee!”

“Wednesday. That’s all I’m going to say.”