Broken Faith ✓

Chapter 11: Falling

"What are you humming?"

"Huh?"

"What song are you humming?" Arlo asked.

"I'm humming?"

"Yeah, I just don't know which song it is"

"I don't know either. I didn't even know I was humming"

"You've started humming a lot. Whenever you make us dinner you do it but I like it" he commented so casually while doing his homework.

Of course, I was humming and of course I didn't even realise it.

But suddenly I had a rather playful idea. "So you like my humming?"

"Yes, it sounds like a happy song"

I slowly crept closer to where Arlo was completing his homework on the coffee table while sitting on the floor. His head was bent down in concentration.

"You still like it?" I asked while I ran towards him and started humming as loud as I could in his ear while he clutched his ear and started laughing. I took the pencil from his tiny hands and placed it on the coffee table as I started humming even louder in both his ears. All that could be heard was my humming and his guffaws of laughter which was the happiest sound I had ever known.

"You still like my humming huh?" I asked as I picked him up, dumped him on the sofa and started tickling him. He was laughing uncontrollably and I couldn't help but laugh too.

"But" he tried to say in between his gasps and laughter.

"But" I repeated.

"You"

"always"

"say"

"to"

"finish"

"homework"

"first" he managed to vocalise in between much laughter causing me to stop my tickling.

"That's true, but sometimes you need to have fun in between too. Not always, but sometimes" I said as I wagged my index finger in front of him teasingly. That managed to cause him to tense up in anticipation and laugh again even though I hadn't began to tickle him.

As I began to tickle him again and the sounds of his laughter began to echo through the house again the emotion riding through me was so uncharacteristic but undisputable; happiness.

***

As I approached my table the boys were fretting and whispering. Rory cleared his throat as I pulled out my seat to sit on it. Something was definitely up.

"Guys?" Leo looked like he was going to start crying any minute now. I looked at each one of them slowly to dissect what was going on but they tried to avoid my gaze and Rory had turned red.

"What is going on? Why are you all acting weird?"

"Well, see the matter is....Ryder has something to tell you." Rory added rather quickly and suddenly dropped his head.

I turned to Ryder expectantly "Well?"

He was scratching the back of his head and his face was contorted in a weird expression. Gone was his smiley, irritating but friendly smile.

"I kinda lost the essay" he said in a timid voice while he glanced at me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I had typed it all up and saved it on my laptop but when I went to print it this morning it was gone. I don't know how because I swear I saved it but it was gone. I looked everywhere, even the recycle bin." I could see the strain etched on his face and the shadow of tiredness that loomed over it. Anyone could see he had really tried and that this wasn't his fault. If I didn't see all that I might have gotten angry.