Promise you won't leave...(Nick and Jojo)

Part 10

Jojo pov:
The next morning, Nick woke me up as he stroked through my hair. 'Wake up sleepyhead.', he whispered next to my ear as he kneed next to the couch. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I was still exhausted. 'I really don't want to go to school. I don't want them to kick my shoulder.', I mumbled. 'I won't let them get close to you. Plus it's friday, Jojo. No school the next two days. That's something you can look forward to, right?' I smiled mildly,'How do you do that? How can you always see the positive side of everything? I don't get it.' 'I don't know. I just do, I guess.', he smiled too. He still had his hand in my hair and played with it. We just looked into each others eyes until little Aileen wanted us to notice her. She was apparently hungry again. I attempted to sit up, but Nick carefully pushed me back,'I got it.', he smiled and took Aileen out of the 'bed'. He fed her and dressed her up.I got up and got ready for school, too. Nick told me that he had to go get some food before school and since I has to bring Aileen to the nursey anyway, we went separate ways. The school day went pretty shitty, Tyler got to me in every break. I left school at the end of the day with a blue eye and some bruises on my chest and arms. Nick waited for me in front of the school. 'I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you.', he said when he noticed my blue eye. He really seemed like he meant it. I really don't deserve him. As we started walking to the nursery, I answered,'It's fine, you don't have to always look out for me.' 'But I want to protect you. I feel so guilty.' 'It's fine, really. I've gotten used to it.' 'But you shouldn't have to get used to them hurting you everyday.' 'It doesn't matter. A lot of other people would do it if they wouldn't.' 'Jojo...',he said desperately. Does he really care? Or is he just planning to use my trust to hurt me more than everyone else? I mean, there's a reason they say 'Friends have the easiest access to stab you in the back', right? Nick and me with little Aileen in my arms entered Nick's flat. 'Man, I am so hungry. What do you wanna have to eat?' I was hungry as shit and had felt very weak today. I wanted to answer but I hesitated. 'You're so fat. You want to get even fatter than you are, asshole?', my thoughts stopped me. So I just said,'I'm not really hungry, but thanks for offering.' 'Are you sure? Jojo, you haven't eaten anything since yesterday.', he said worried. Actually since monday, but I won't tell him. 'Yeah, I am sure, Nick.' Oh man, why is this boy just so adorable and caring. 'Alright then, so...what do you plan to do tomorrow?' 'Well,I gotta get some money so I work as a babysitter every weekend. I know, it's ironic since I can't be there for my own child on the weekends but I have to get money to keep Aileen alive. I've been doing this every weekend since I turned  fifteen.' 'Aw that's sad, I thought maybe we could do something together.' 'Just because I work as a babysitter doesn't mean that I am gone all weekend. I'm usually working from like 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.. But it depends on my clients. Tomorrow I'll leave at 3:30 p.m. and come back at 11 p.m. On Sunday I'll leave at 4 p.m. and return at 1 a.m on Monday.' 'Man, sounds like a hard job to do, if you ask me. Where's Aileen going to be while you're gone?' 'Well, I usually locked her in my room since the nursery closes at 6 p.m. but sometimes, I take her with me.' 'Well, Aileen can stay with me while you're gone. It goes without saying that I'll look after her when you can't.' 'You know that you don't have to do it. I can just take her with me. I won't make you stay at home just because of me.' 'Jojo, I will take care of Aileen. If you haven't noticed by now, you two really mean a lot to me. I wouldn't have helped you if I didn't care about you. And to be honest, I usually don't care about anyone else but myself. But you were just so different than everyone else.' 'Thank you so much, Nick, for everything.' 'You're more than welcome, really.' Nick went away from the pan he was making ham&eggs in, went over to me and put his arms around me. I felt so save in his arms. After a few seconds, he let go of me again and went back to making ham&eggs.

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