Guarding My Faith

six

“No way!” I gasp. “When?”

    He shrugs, smiling. “A year ago, most likely,” he answers. “When did you—?”

    “It’s been around eight months now. How did you—?”

    “Through a friend,” he answers. He slips his hand into his brown hair and fixes the stray strands, looking at himself through the car’s front mirror.

    The police car pulls up in front of Sara’s house. Out the door comes running Yasmine and as soon as Daniel helps me out of the car, she crashes into me, burying her face into my stomach. I run a hand through her soft dark hair, bending down to kiss it. Sara steps out of the house and when she sees me, her face breaks into that expression whenever she knows something has happened.

Worry.

    “What happened, Alexis? I tried to call but I couldn't reach you,” she says worriedly. She notices Daniel standing right beside me, wondering where she'd seen him before. Her face suddenly turns hard and she looks coldly up at him, considering how tiny she is. “What are you doing here? Did you fix Adam’s car scratch again?”

    Daniel blushes and shakes his head in embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ll repay you back,” he says.

    “You’d better,” Sara says with a look of annoyance. I notice the front door opens again, expecting it to be Sara’s parents but Adam walks out.

    “What’s all the noise—” he stops when he sees me standing there.

    “Alexis,” he calls. I turn to him curiously,  he rarely calls me by my name.

“Why’d you send me those weird text messages?”

    I suddenly feel anger and hatred towards Adam. I sent all those texts to someone who didn’t even bother coming to save me. If it wasn’t for Daniel, would anyone have saved me? I could still be in that house, surviving on only the little food mom gave me. Who knows what the hell could have happened especially since I'm a young woman and Daniel, as nice as he might seem, could have took advantage of that.

    I stare at him long and hard.

What a mistake.

    I turn to Daniel who’s still standing next to me awkwardly. Yasmine lets go of me but clings onto my arm. I pull off the blue gloves from my hands and hand it back to him. “Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, my parents wouldn’t have been put into jail,” I say. He smiles and opens his mouth to say something but I stop him. “I seriously owe you.”

    “Then… hang out with me for a bit,” he says. Then he winks and laughs, pulling his gloves back on his fingers. “Later.”

    My lips part open in surprise but before I can say anything, Adam steps up and glares at him. “Who’s hanging out with who? The only people she’ll be hanging out with will be us,” he says, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind him.

    I pull my arm away from his grasp, rubbing it from how hard he was holding it, and roll my eyes. “At least he helped me, unlike you. You should just worry about your kid,” I cruelly say back to him.

    He slowly turns around and cocks his head to the side. The gesture almost makes me forget my anger at him. “My… kid?”

    “Yes, your kid,” I repeat, annoyed.

    “What kid?” he asks.

    He stares at me with those dark eyes, making me shift on my spot uncomfortably under his intense stare. “Didn’t you know?” I ignore Sara’s glare and hand motions. “Jenny’s pregnant with your child.”