B A B Y

Baby sat as still as he could, seemingly emotionless despite the myriad of thoughts racing through his head. He had to keep up the act. Stay stoic, stay neutral. The man in front of him had a point, clearly, but he had learned years ago not to let his expression give away his thoughts. Life tended to be a lot more dangerous when people understood, especially in his business. He let a few beats pass, then gave a subtle nod.

WORK HAD ALWAYS BEEN    a bother because time could be better spent with Miles but she didn’t mind it much because for once since she started working at Bo’s when she requested to be able to let him sit in the diner during mornings before school they agreed     .     So that had been how every morning went since day one of his schooling and today was just another day     .     Although slightly stressful already having dropped a few things or made a small mess   .    Hair falling in front of her face as someones coffee mug was refilled before seeing Miles making his way over to her      .            Turning and grabbing a glass orange juice was poured into it before placing it on the counter space closest to where she would be for the rest of her shift     .     Only a few more minutes      .

If anything she was going to help instead of actually working because that would be much more relaxing    ,    he was always the saving grace of the day     . 

   ❛   What is it Baby     ?    I’m guessin’ you need some help with your math homework again right        ?        ❜        

“Sorry.” He nodded, unintentionally averting his eyes for split second. Miles’ dad had strong opinions about helping with homework, especially math. He should get it already, stop spending so much time with his stupid MP3 and just get it already. He knew his mom wasn’t the same, but a grownup was a grownup.

He held the paper up so she could see the problem. Someone gave away a few cookies and now how many do they have? He already didn’t care for math, but now they expected him to care about someone dumb enough to give away cookies too? School was impossible.

“You know, you should really learn to pay attention. If you don’t people  will keep doing mean things to do,” she commented. Maybe he would  take her advice, or maybe he wouldn’t. She would never know.

Charlotte sighed as she looked out at the road.  “If only we could drive cars, or get enough money to get on a bus,” she continued. It made sense that the boy didn’t really talk much, but it was getting harder  and harder to keep the conversation going. Nevertheless, she tried her best to get to know him.

“What kind of music do you like?”

“I don’t mind.” He replied easily, though it wasn’t totally true. Sometimes, when he really wanted to, he could pay attention and know more than anyone else in the room. Here though, he couldn’t care less about most of the people. It tended to bite him in the ass.

“I drive.” Miles said like this was a well known fact in the house. As if he would readily admit to the people who lived with him that he routinely stole cars and led police on high speed chases around the city at night with his headlights out and breaks cut. He moved on quickly, almost hoping she didn’t notice.

              ❛  VROOM  VROOM,  huh  ?  pretty  cliche  if  you  ask  me.   ❜    opinion  was  given  in  a  sing  song  tune,  climbing  a  melody  as  she  continued  to  delicately  chew  down  on  the  gum  that  had  long  since  lost  it’s  flavour.

❛  what  about  now  ?  no  dreams  of  a  sunflower  farm  in  the  middle  of  nebraska  with  someone  pretty  ?  ❜

“ Yeah, well - “ Baby responded with a small shrug. He hoped she wouldn’t continue - He never really wanted to connect with any of the crew, he just wanted to pay Doc back and return to his life; these people were criminals after all - but he knew she would. Being the only other person in a room with Darling was proving to be dangerous.

Miles sat a booth that he could only just fit in - finally tall enough to not need the booster seat - where his father told him to stay hours before. He had homework spread out on the table and a half eaten stack of pancakes next to the mess. The usual setup normally worked for him. He got all of his homework done pretty quickly - first graders didn’t tend to get too much - then he would listen to music and wait for his mom to get off work or for his dad to pick him up, whichever came first. Today though, he couldn’t for the life of him understand what was written on the pages. ‘ Simple math ‘ is what his teacher had called it. It was going right over his head. 

He slid off his seat, grabbed the headache his teachers insisted was called homework, and ambled to the counter. 

*holds out arms* HIT ME WITH ALL THE SOBS AND EMOTIONS WE ARE HERE FOR IT