Stay For Me - Megan Smith Page 0,56

ask as she climbs onto one of the kitchen chairs.

“Ice cream.”

I turn around and she’s looking at me with puppy dog eyes. “I’m not falling for that. Your sister would kill me.”

She pouts and crosses her arms. This is not the way I wanted to start out my morning. I thought getting her breakfast would be easy. I open up the cabinets and start rooting through them hoping I’d find something. I shove the oatmeal aside, then the cereal bars and behind them are ice cream sundae flavored Pop-Tarts.

“Okay, I have a compromise.” I set the box on the table in front of her and point to the ice cream. “You get your ice cream and I get to see tomorrow. Deal?”

Her eyes wide she nods. “Deal.”

I open the package and set them down in front of her. While she’s eating I run back up to my room and change my clothes. I sit down on the bed and tie my shoes, grab my wallet and keys and head back downstairs.

“You ready?” I ask.

Fallon tosses the last bite into her mouth and chews it up, then she tosses her napkin in the trash and puts her coat on. We walk out to the car, I buckle her in the back seat and then we’re on our way. That new song Animals by Maroon Five comes on. Fallon is in the back seat bobbing her head to the song. The girl can sing it word for word.

“Ready, Eli?” she asks just as the tempo of the song slows a bit.

“Ready.”

“Ow…” We both sing as Adam Levine belts out the verse. It’s Fallon’s favorite part of the whole song. I look in the rear view mirror and she’s got the biggest smile on her face. She looks so much like Layla, she’s so beautiful.

The rest of the ride to school is us singing to the songs on the radio. We pull up about twenty minutes later. I park my car so I can walk Fallon in. I don’t have too but Fallon likes it. I open the door as Fallon climbs out, I reach into the car and grab her book bag. I turn and hold it out so she can put her arms in but she’s staring straight ahead with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.

“Fallon?”

She doesn’t budge. I turn to see what the matter is and when I do I’m stunned. Her mother is standing near the front doors of the school.

“Shit.” I mumble.

Before I can even figure out what to do, Mrs. Del Luca is walking towards us. She is the spitting image of the girls. There is no denying that she’s their mother. The pictures that I’ve seen of her are nothing compared to what she looks like now. Before she looked so old, so worn, now she’s the opposite. Her hair that was stringy and greasy in the pictures is tied up in some bun looking thing nicely done, her cheeks are filled out and not sunken in, she’s even wearing make-up and has gained some weight.

When she approaches she gets about ten feet from us, bends down on her knees and opens her arms. Fallon grips on to my hand tightly and I feel the tremble in them.

“Fallon, it’s okay, baby.” Mrs. Del Luca says.

This lady is off her rocker. Doesn’t she understand that she’s scaring the ever loving shit out of her? When Fallon doesn’t move she glances up at me.

I work my jaw back and forth holding my tongue. How dare she do this to her? Where the fuck has she been for months while she left her daughters to fend for themselves?

A car door shuts in the distance. I need to get Fallon in school before her mother causes a scene. “Um, I really need to get her into school before class starts.”

“Who are you?” She asks with distaste in her mouth.

“Eli.” I say curtly.

“Layla’s boyfriend.” Fallon speaks up surprising me as much as her mother.

“Ah, Layla has a new boyfriend.” She nods looking me up and down. “I guess that explains why my girls weren’t in the apartment anymore.”

I drop Fallon’s book bag and cover her ears. “They aren’t in that shithole anymore because of you.” I snap. “How could you fucking do that to them?”

She gawks. I guess she wasn’t expecting that from me.

I reach down, grab Fallon’s book bag and then her hand. “Come on, Fallon, we’ve got to get you to class.”

Fallon follows right along but watches her