Trust me, babe

Chapter 3

Kathryn

"Kathryn!" Bernard squealed, running to hug me as soon as I stepped over the threshold at Persimmon's dad's house.

"Hi, there," I greeted him. Someone being so happy to see me seriously warmed my heart. Especially when it came with the innocence of a five-year-old.

"You're honestly the best friend in the world to be ready to bear this burden together with me," Persiomme whispered in my ear as Bernard threw himself in my arms.

I had eventually agreed to come babysit him together with Persimmon. I had figured that being busy with a child and having Persimmon as company might after all be the perfect distraction. At least a lot better than watching Netflix where basically every show had a character that for one reason or another reminded me of Mikey, causing my stomach to churn in hurt, and another character that reminded me of Sasha or Kenzie, causing my eyes to wet from missing them.

So, after leaving work, I had grabbed some food from a McDonald's nearby and headed home to eat and get changed into some more comfy clothes before heading over to Persimmon's. It was a little past six o'clock now and Persimmon's dad and Theresa had just left, waving at me from the car window as I had arrived. I had been here a couple of times before so they knew who I was.

"What are we going to do now?" Bernard asked, staring at us expectantly, his bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Er," I said, glancing at Persimmon. "Maybe we could play a game?"

"Yes!" Bernard squealed. "A game! Let's play!"

He ran out of the hall, disappearing somewhere. I figured he'd gone to fetch a game for us to play. After a while he came running back. "Let's play this one!" he squealed, lifting a box towards my face.

"Oh, not that one!" Persimmon groaned.

"It's my favorite but no one ever plays it with me," Bernard complained, looking so sad that I couldn't do anything but to agree to play it.

"Yayyyy!" he shouted, jumping up and down. "You're the best!"

We went into the living room and sat on the floor together. I observed Bernard as he eagerly arranged the board and the cards for us to play, explaining the rules and choosing which color each of us should be.

I was wondering what he would be like when he grew up to be my age. For now he was a sweet boy, so young and so innocent. He was still too young to have broken anyone's heart. He was young enough that I could feel safe around him even though he was a boy. He hadn't yet had time to grow up to be unreliable and egoistic like Adam and Mikey.

The sheer thought of them made my stomach churn and I quickly pushed them out of my mind. Being with Bernard and Persimmon was meant to distract me.

"Okay," Bernard said. "I'll start. And I'm going to win."

Everything went well for as long as we kept agreeing to play the game, round after round. But once Persimmon eventually told Bernarnd it was time to eat supper and head to bed, things started going downhill.

We managed to get him to the kitchen and Persimmon warmed him some food Theresa had left for him in the fridge, but getting him to actually eat it wasn't that easy. First he complained it was too cold, then it was too hot, then he told us he wasn't even hungry. And by the time we had eventually gotten him to eat enough to be able to start putting him to bed he had managed to make quite a mess on the kitchen table and the floor around his seat.