From the diary of Griselda Vargas-Beilschmidt

22

There's another reference, just so you know :) also, back to Griselda's POV

Stupid Gabriel. Stupid spicy sauce. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Gabriel Fernandez-Carriedo," the nurse calls.

Uncle Spain and Gabriel stand up and walk over to the doctor's office, Gabe being uncharasterically nervous. He doesen't like hospitals. But it's his own fault we had to go here, so he has to man up!

Well. That left me and Uncle Romano in the waiting room, in between younger and older children, some crying, some talking, some quiet, some playing, some bored. I'm in the last cathegory.

"How long will it take?" I ask.

"I don't know," Uncle says back, uncaring about my boredom. His mind is now occupied by the thoughts of having his child back soon, I can't blame him.

So, to kill some time, I take a chocolate bar out of my pocket and tear the wrapper. I hope I didn't squash it, I think, but it still tastes good and calms me down, squashed or not.

A girl about five years old takes a notice of this and scoots forward, apparently interested in the food. I protectively hide the chocolate behind my back and glare at her. She keeps looking at me and coming closer.

"Honey, you can't do that! That's her chocolate, not yours!" Her mama interrupts and lifts her. I'm glad because if she'd actually touched my chocolate, I wouldn't be responsible of what would happen next. The girl starts bawling and pointing at me, so I keep glaring until they're far enough.

Was I like this too? I ask myself and furrow my brow. No, I don't think so. I was shy around strangers, so I stuck to my family and was fine. I can recall a time Papa needed to go pee in a hospital where were we on some routine check-up, and I was so stubborn I held to his leg the whole time. The WHOLE TIME.

I guess I'm just like that. Gabe is not like that, but he hates strangers more than I ever did. Whenever he's out in public without someone he knows, like shopping or something, he quickly grabs what he needs, pays and sprints out in record time. And they wonder why has he no friends except the ODADTA club and me. Not even our dogs, he doesen't like them much (the last visit he was like "AW HELL NO" and sat on Uncle Spain's shoulders and stayed there the whole time). He prefers pigs for... some reason.

Anyway, we both don't particularly like hospitals, no matter how brightly the walls are painted. When I was younger and broke my leg playing football, my Vati was probably even more freaked out then I was, even though he tried to calm me down, which was sweet. Papa was just really pissed at the boy who knocked me down, but that's a different story.

We wait. And wait. And wait.

I notice I still have some drops of his blood on my hand and knuckles, so I inconspicuously wipe it off on my skirt, which is black anyway, so I don't think anyone will notice.

Finally, finally they appear, Gabi holding a bloody tissue over his nose.

"All done!" says Uncle Spain, "he was a brave boy!" and he ruffles Gabe's hair. Gabriel just groans and swats his hand away, muttering something about "I'm twelve, damnit!"

Romano just hugs him. Both being a bit socially awkward, they stand there for whole two minutes, before Romano asks "Enough?" and Gabe agrees.

Uncle Spain turns to me.

"Okay, did you apologize already, Gris?"

"For what? He knows what he did to deserve this."

Spain's eyes grew wide. He turns to Gabe. "You do?"

He nods.

"Well, I hope you won't ever repeat that."

"Depends," I retort. I look Gabe straight in the eye and say "If you ever read my diary and write in it without my permission again, I'll have to break your nose again. Clear?"

Gabriel actually smiles a tiny bit while saying "As day, Commander!" in a bit mocking tone, but that's enough.

I smile back at him and we highfive.