connected 연결된 s.m.

t w e n t y - f i v e

"Darling, hurry. You're gonna be late!" Shawn shouted from the front door as Ronnie was barely slipping on her shoes. "Dad I'm not ten." She laughed.

"You're right, you're eleven." Shawn did jazz hands, the biggest grin plastered on his face as Ronnie came up to him and gave him the biggest hug. Shawn enveloped her 5'4 figure, rocking her in place. "You're a dork, dad."

They went out to the car, side by side laughing as they talked about what they wanted to do after school. "Hey dad, can I ask you something?"

   "Anything." He smiles innocently.

   "Why can't I be friends with that boy?"

   Shawn bit his lip. Was now the time to tell her the truth? It was. "Ronnie, that boy's mum... I dated her once. She hurt me. So I left. You'll eventually put the pieces as to why I really don't want you to be friends with that boy." He fixed his tie, starting the engine to the car.

   Her eyes dropped to her lap as the car flew past other vehicles in the small town. She wondered what Gage was like. Was he tall like her? Mud brown eyes like hers?

   Shawn pulled up to her school, dropping her off at the front of the school so she'd beat the bell to class. "Have a good day, darling." He pecked her cheek sloppily, paying her good-byes before he drove off, only to have her on his mind as he went off to work.

-

   "I'm gage." He smiled, sitting next to Ronnie under the naked tree. He was exactly how she pictured him; tall, brown eyes, brown fluffy hair. She even had the thought that he looked a bit like her dad.

   "R-Ronnie." She smiled, shaking his hand. She noticed his full smile and felt insecure about hers, she stopped smiling. "You have a nice smile." She complimented, he said the exact same to her.

"Thank you." Scribbling onto her hand with a pink ballpoint pen. "You're pretty." He said purposefully, picking the petals off a four leafed clover. He blew the petals off his hand, getting up as his mom pulled up by the gate, Shawn's car following a moment after.

From inside the car, Shawn clenched his fists on the steering wheel as he seen Ronnie with a boy, then seeing felicity.

Both parents storm out of their cars, racing to their children, pulling them away from each other. Shawn tosses Ronnie over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, seething at both Gage and Felicity, "stay away from my baby."