thirty-one

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height


Pt.1 / 2

Trigger Warning ⚠️
Hints or signs of  abuse

"Do you have any eights?" Giovanni asks me before dropping his cards in his hands, face-up laying flat on the table as he reaches over to his right grabbing the yogurt cup filled with M&M's and lifting the spoon to his mouth licking it clean.

I don't think he realized he just showed me his cards, literally, as we're playing a riveting game of go-fish.

It's our third round and I've been letting him win simply because I know he's a sore loser when he doesn't win the games or competitions he's in. I have no time to deal with anyone's tears.

He takes his time when he drops the yogurt cup and then grabs his Hi-C juice box, sipping from his straw for a few seconds and then dropping it back on the table and releasing a burp and I can't help but laugh quietly to myself at his crudeness. He lifts up his cards and begins to shield them away from me but I've already committed them to memory

"No. I don't." I say truthfully. I can't decide whether or not I want to cheat but I think I just want to shake him up a bit because he's acting a little too cocky of my liking. "Go fish." and he sighs grabbing another card from the deck

"Do you have any three's," I smirk knowingly and watch as he looks up at me underneath his eyelashes and groans

"Yes. I do." he grabs the card and hands it to me and I reach for it placing it to the side taking the matching card out of my own deck.

He sighs saying, "Do you have any seven's?" he asks and the game continues like this to the point that Gio's hand of cards is almost nonexistent because I'd rather not cheat in a game for kids as I play against a literal child.

A few minutes letter we both feel a presence hovering over us and the table, we both look up to see Karma whos grinning down at us, mainly Gio as he stares up at her in awe as he does every day.

I'd hate to see what he'd look like if he found out that his little girlfriend is cheating on him with me.

"Do you guys need another player?" she asks and I'm about to say that the game is almost done before Gio beats me to it

"Sure!" he then reaches over to the deck and grabs some cards, he then hands me 3 extra ones and gives Karma her own deck all without looking at the cards. I can't help but look at him in astonishment.

"Gio, you could've waited until you won the ga--" he cuts me off

"Karma wants to play." he pauses before looking at her with stars in his eyes, "I wanna be fair." he smiles at her and she just ruffles his hair preparing to sit down before her name is called by another volunteer.

I turn my head to see the same girl that was hitting on me when I first started coming here, "Karma, do you know where other legos are? Katie says she needs more to finish her castle." she says doing quotation marks around the word castle. I look at the 'castle' and notice that it really doesn't look like anything besides lumps of blocks just laying on top of each other.

They're not even connected in the way they're supposed to be.

"That's not even a castle!" Gio whines saying what everyone was thinking and I put a fist to my mouth trying to disguise my laughter again

Karma looks at him, trying to reprimand him for being rude as the Katie girl begins to cry. Loudly, might I add.

Karma begins to stand up and I watch as his face drops sadness when she abruptly leaves the new game before she even started as she walks towards a closet opening it and looking for legos. She's most likely not going to come back and I make this assumption as Gio and I watch her sit and help Katie with building her castle.

Gio sighs and says, "We're playing another round." He grabs the entire deck, his own cards, and mine and attempts to shuffle by grabbing the cards at the top of the deck and moving them to the bottom or sliding it in the middle of the deck.

After giving me a set of new cards against my will we continue to play up until it's time for the kid's parents to pick them up. As usual, Gio is one of the last few to leave.

He shuffles the deck when we finish our last round and decide to call it a day. I begin to notice something underneath the sleeves of his red hoodie. I call his name and he looks up at me and I say, "What's that thing on your arm?" I ask and I watch as his eyes quickly widen before it goes back to normal size and he shakes his head saying, "Nothing."

If he genuinely expects me to believe that the purple bruise right below his palm, hidden underneath his hoodie isn't there when I see it clearly right before my eyes.

But I have to remember he's a child and I shouldn't grill him over it because if my assumptions are correct, he's going to feel too afraid to tell me the truth. Understandably so.

Leaning back in my chair, I sit quietly as I've come to notice how uncomfortable I seemed to have made Gio so I decide to give him space.

For now.

Who the fuck would put their hands on their son to the point that he now has a bruise forming?

Whoever it was must've drilled into his mind that it would be bad if he told anyone and that's probably why he won't even tell me. I doubt any of the volunteers have seen that.

A few minutes later the same tall gentleman wearing a black coat and a black hoodie underneath, the hoodie covering his face.

I've seen him so many times and I have no idea what he looks like if I were to see him on the straight because he also wears sunglasses. And I always thought that was weird but after seeing that he's bruised I'm beginning to get concerned and I'm even more concerned that the volunteers don't see anything weird about this.

Than is currently standing next to Karma as she hands him a clipboard and he goes to sign his signature, signing Gio out.

He motions over at Gio telling him to go over to him and Gio nods getting up slowly.

He runs past me towards the man and I sigh getting my phone out of my pocket but before I turn it on, I stop as I feel two tiny arms wrap around my neck from behind, I look down at them to see the sleeves of a familiar red hoodie. I use my right hand to rub his left arm that's hanging around my neck without turning around to look at him, "I'll see you in a few days, Gio."

"Bye, Jesse." his equally tiny voice says back to me as he runs behind me again to the front door as my back is facing the front entrance.

----------------------

Karma goes to the glass front door and lowers the curtain over it. Walking back over to me as I sit on top of the table, sliding into the space between my legs, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to properly beat your ass in Go-Fish," she says and I throw my head back with a laugh as she runs her hands through my hair, lightly scratching the back of my neck as she always does.

"It's not me you have to apologize to. Gio was the one who wanted you to play." I say reaching up and taking one of her braids curling them around my fingers

"Ugh." she puts her hand on her face shielding it away from me. "He told you about his little crush on me," she states and I have no choice but to nod in amusement as she laughs softly to herself

"Yeah. I mean if I'm holding you back from being with him or anything, it's ok. I'll fall back and let you--Ow!" she cuts me off by hitting me on the arm as she glares at me silently. "So I'll take that as a no?"

"You can it take it as a hell no." she giggles loudly and that's probably one of the few times I've heard her laugh this loud.

Can you get some kind of a high off of listening to a person laugh all day?

That's a theory that I wouldn't mind trying as long as I get to hear that sound of joy over and over again.

I laugh as I wrap my arms around her waist pulling her close enough for our chests to touch, smirking up at her not caring if I'm staring a little bit longer than I should.

Snapping out of my trance, remember what I need to bring to her attention I say, "Have you looked at Gio recently? Like really looked at him?" I ask and she twists her face in confusion saying

"No?" she trails off, "Why?"

I shrug and say, "I think something might be going on at home that he's not telling anyone. I mean it's not my business but it's not every day I see a kid with a bruised inner arm." I say as her jaw drops in shock saying, "A bruised inner arm?" I nod in confirmation

"Well, I don't know I can't really file a report on that until I see for myself but I'll bring it to the boss's attention," she says and I look at her blankly a bit relieved that he'll be getting some sort of attention.

Luckily I wasn't abused physically as a child but I knew people who were. His behavior was a sign that I didn't want to ignore.

"Hey, why don't we ever go to your place again?" I ask with this thought just coming to mind and she looks at me weirdly before answering

"Well. I can't exactly have a 6 foot, broodingly obnoxious, heavily sarcastic, equally heavily tattooed man come to my house when I have African parents that will do nothing but scrutinize you for looking...well...like you." I chuckle, "Then they'd criticize me for even having you as a friend."

Everything else she said seemed irrelevant but that last part catches my attention, "Oh. So I'm a friend to you? I've made it that far, huh?" I poke her sides and she squirms away from me laughing before slapping my hands away unsuccessfully

"What do you want to be my acquaintance?" she asks jokingly

"I can think of something else." I run my hands up and down her back softly and watch as her breath falters at that. My eyes never leaving hers waiting for her to respond. I'm thoroughly enjoying how nervous she looks.

She shifts her weight on her feet a few times and it's silently between us

All of a sudden we hear banging on the door and we both look towards it as she looks back at me in confusion. She's about to head towards the door before I grab her wrist and pull her back to sit on the table where I was. The banging continues as I stand up to walk towards the door.

I'm halfway there until I hear someone say, "Jesse! Open this fucking door! I know you're in there!"

The anger in that person's voice sounds an awful lot like Cyrus and I roll my eyes walking faster towards the door, about to cuss him out and ask him how the hell we found me.

Opening the door just a crack, shielding whoever it was from seeing Karma, I see Cyrus fuming on the other side as he stands in the darkness outside. I can practically see the smoke coming out of his ears as he says, "You don't know how to turn that expensive ass phone of yours, rich boy?"

Rolling my eyes, I say, "Stop with the hysterics. I put it on Do Not Disturb how did you even find me?"

"That's not even important right now fool. I want to know why you're in a fucking daycare--" he pauses, looking at me as I stand in the doorway and he says, "Who's in there?"

"Don't worry about that."

"I'll worry about whatever I want to worry about and I wanna know who you're hiding in there?" he says crossing his arms. "What? Don't tell me you're with that girl, Jesse."

"I said don't worry about that," I say in a calm voice

"Nah, see that just told me everything I wanted to know." he shakes his head, "So while our best friend is out there for fighting for his life in a damn hospital, you're out here fucking some girl in a daycare of all place--" I cut him off in confusion

"What do you mean 'fighting for his life'? Who's fighting for their life?" I ask

His face twists in anger again as he stares at me.

"Ryan got shot."

--------------------------

I-

Well wasn't that quite the plot twist?

This is a 2 part chapter and the next part is already uploaded

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net