One More Time ( Becky x Freen )

Chapter 4

It had been an hour since Mario had been fixing things at the store and he finally managed to convinced Freen to let him take Finn to that "video game store" he's been talking about.

When they got to the park, they could see her sitting on the bench, alone, clearly waiting for him, her right leg moving up and down. She looked so alone sitting there, so small, fragile and helpless, with a paper bag in her hand.

Finn looked at Mario, and he nodded before whispering, "Go..."

Finn silently walked over to the girl sitting on the bench. The girl still staring at the floor, her brown hair looking so familiar, her presence so calm. When Finn sat on the bench next to her, the girl turned to look at him and excitedly began to clap.

"Finn!" She exclaimed.

"Becbec!" Finn smiled happily, taking part in the excitement.

She looked much better than when he had last seen her, now she was very well dressed. Mario watched them interact from afar, he seemed intrigued by the scene.

"I thought you would never come to see me here again, I know I am weird... nobody wants to be my friend. But I really like you, you are funny. You make me laugh, nobody does that for me." The girl's voice broke a little. She stopped, as if she had finished, but started again without looking Finn in the eyes. "I used to play with my daddy at his house, but he is not with me anymore. Mommy said he went to heaven, to see the angels. I was so angry with him! He should have taken me there with him, but no, he left me with my mommy. I don't like being with mommy, she always cries."

Finn could hear the girl's voice falter a little. "I'm sorry, Becbec... I..."

"Mai... it's okay ka. She said she can't take care of me properly when she goes to work. So I told her I don't need her to take care of me. I can make spaghetti on toast. I can use the washing machine. And she said I need to be taken care of. But I don't like that, that's why I left home. I don't like P'Heidi."

"Who's P'Heidi, phi?"

"My babysitter. I don't like it when mommy leaves me with P'Heidi! She doesn't do anything, she just watches TV and is always on her phone, and I'm not sure she likes me either because I'm not very good at talking and I think she thinks I'm weird. I told her about you."

"Really? And what did she say, phi?"

"She said I shouldn't bother you, she says I'm just bothering you and that it's not natural to have friends your age. But I don't understand, you're seven too, right?"

Finn nodded and sighed silently.

"She said that you probably feel sorry for me and think that I'm strange..."

Finn stood up from the bench and stood in front of the girl, not very tall from the level that the girl was sitting on. His small hands reached for the girl's face so that she would look at him. "Don't listen to them, Becbec. You're not weird or strange na. You're my friend and I'm not going anywhere. It doesn't matter how old you are or what you look like, but I would still be your friend even if you were eighty-eight or four, okay?"

The girl nodded again, smiling weakly, she touched Finn's hands that were both covering her cheeks as he continued to speak. "I like you too, and I want you to be my BFF! Do you want to be my BFF, Becbec?"

The girl timidly nodded again, smiling, her brown eyes shining with great excitement.

"It settle then!" The boy said, standing on his tiptoes and softly kissed the girl's forehead, and lowered her hands from her face. The girl's heart twisted, although she didn't even understand what she was feeling at that moment.

"Sorry I'm late na, Mae punished me. But uncle Mario helped me, he's here to meet you. Do you want to see him?"

"Uncle Mario... the PF? Is he good?"

"He's B.F, phi. Cai ka, he is good." Finn gestured for Mario to come over to where they were sitting. Mario walked over and soon in front of them. Finn glanced at the girl who was biting her lower lip.

"Becbec, this is uncle Mario. Uncle, this is my BFF, Becbec!" Finn introduced them excitedly.

"Sawadee kub, nong Becbec. Call me P'Mario na... I've heard a lot about you from this little guy here. Nice to finally meet you na kub. How are you?"

The girl looked at Finn and Mario, and quickly replied. " Watdee... I.. I'm fine.. and you?"

"Me too. Now... what are you up to, nong?"

"I don't know... um, I made sandwiches." The girl said with a smile. "But I only made two... I didn't know Finn would bring a friend." She took the sandwiches out of the paper bag. "But I don't mind sharing, I can share with Finn. You can have one, I know the older ones eat more than us." She offered Mario.

"Okay kub, nong can have one and Finn another. I ate a lot at lunch." Mario said, smiling amused, by the girl's reaction. "Listen, I need to go back to the store.. why aren't you two coming with me na? Finn, can you play with Becbec while I work, okay kub?"

"Okay! Becbec, let's go!"

Finn took the girl's hand and led her to Mario's store that was a five minute walk from the park. Mario couldn't hold the smile that came out of his face when he saw how happy the boy was with his "special friend".

Both "children" spent about two hours in Mario's office inside the store when the girl finally decided to go home. Mario offered to drive her home, but she insisted that she could walk, said she only lived a few blocks from the store.

She was hoping to come back. Then Finn said, "Come back tomorrow and we can play again, okay?"

Finn went back to his Mae's salon which was two blocks from Mario's store. Then, they would take their usual route home after Freen closed the salon. Freen asked how school was and if he had any homework that day, and Finn told her that he had already done it at Mario's store.

That was strange, Freen thought.

Finn only did his homework when she asked him to, and that was when they got home and Freen would help him finish it and after they finished they would eat and go to bed. Freen was somewhat satisfied because she thought Mario had told him to do his homework at the store, which meant that it helped Finn go to bed much earlier than he usually did because of an unfinished task at that time.

Little did she know, Finn had only finished his homework because he wanted to show his Becbec that he was good at it. He always wanted to show the girl that he was good at everything, and he just wanted to impress her.

To be continued.