Minds in a Knot (Updating)

XIV, Deceive

A cloudless night was filled with the low croaks of toads and the shrieking chirps of crickets, the sound of rubber being dragged on bitumen slowly, the drivers cautiously obeying the speed limit set on a narrow but cozy pedestrian area, the echo of footfalls by the walkways diffracted by the varying meticulously decorated hedges from different front yards. The smell of moist grass, rusted metal from the railings and pungent flower-scented humidity, probably from Rosie's cologne filled the air. Tranquility was easily achieved and acquired. Being illegal and young and at a limited-availability-and-unlimited-restrictions age, the pack had no choice but to briskly walk (except for Nathan, who was barely walking) over to Abby's house.

Fedora took the lead, she knew the direction to Abby's place by heart, and she hummed the tunes of a typical todler's music box set that parents hang above the baby's face with small plushies, rotating like the propeller of a wind turbine placed in an area where the air barely flows.

"How much longer do I have to suffer these extreme conditions?" Nathan sighed. "My soul will leave my body if we don't stop now." Another frustrating exhale.

"Just two more turns and we'll be able to see her house, hang in there!" Rosie gave Nathan a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which he took as a disguised encouragement in the nicest way possible to smack it on him to not be a wimp.

Flynn cringed, the look of agitation and annoyance drawn on his face at the very sight of it. He was being an over-sensitively jealous fellow. Every single time Rosie is near a presence of another guy, he does this sour expression and when Rosie touches them, you could see his smile flipping into a frown, and his two thick eyebrows converging to the middle, making it look like a flying black-furred falcon or those double upside down elongated U's we used to draw as kids which were meant to be birds, near the cropped Sun that we usually decided to draw at the corner of the paper. He didn't have the guts to tell Rosie however he felt, but for the guys, it had always been obvious, ever since he had gone completely lunatic to Izzy that time. And he had only managed to say, "Toughen up, pancake."

Things weren't getting bad for those two either, instead, they became closer. Flynn had the chance to spill his true thoughts about Rosie to Izzy in the form of enclosed knuckles, and Izzy, being the one who usually receives secrets from basically anyone he talks to, well...received another one, just a slightly less smoother than the usual. But this lead them into gaining acceptance from each other, their trust increasing with every tale told.

Rosie squeaked, almost inaudible for the human ear, making Nathan's grunts more grunti-er and Fedora's humming coming to a halt, looking at Rosie. She had her fingers curled and her shoulders slouched and eyes wide open in excitement. Across the street were two, adorable looking kids, too short for their age, walking and eyes hovering everywhere, curious of their surroundings like bothered cats. The father was quite good looking, his jawline sharp and his eyes distinctly attractive. He smiled politely to them, the kids following up with a wave.

The crotch kid. And his sidekick. And his irresistibly handsome father, at least to Rosie.

"I'm looking at some well conserved piece of heaven, don't mind me drooling." Rosie was hiding behind a lamp post, her stalking skills weak. She was under a dimly lit area, her stance resembling a murderer with the shades from the illumination.

Fedora half-piggy-backed her, looking at the same direction, enlightened with a smile. "I know right! The kids are so cute!"

Nathan and Flynn nodded. Nathan was thinking, maybe it is true that kids bring us joy.

Flynn enlarged his eyes, somehow enraged. He was looking at Nathan, he sternly mentioned, with his voice full of vengeance and hate, "My nephew."

Okay, maybe not. Nathan thought. He recalled how he had gotten his phone's screen cracked. How his ex-favorite jeans had a big hole that spelled 'lose some weight you lazy ass' right between his thighs. How he missed a few episodes of his show during his hangout session at Flynn's because he couldn't get the TV's controller. How he couldn't even get a sip from Flynn's mouth watering homemade Milo shake. All of these occurrences were interconnected, in a single day, and all because of Flynn's damned nephew, Little Danny. Or as Nathan liked to call him, Krazy Klutz.