Gamble For Love

Chapter 36: Cloud nine

Chapter thirty-six: Cloud nine (Ellie's POV)

"See, told you they'd say yes," he smirked while backing out of my driveway. 

"If you were so confident then why didn't you just ask them yourself?" I retorted smugly. He rolled his eyes at me with a contradicting smile on his lips. He glanced at me and when we turned to the front, I almost screamed while he halted the car immediately. 

There was a group of kids running around in what seemed panic. 

"What is going on?" I asked while looking at him in confusion. 

"I have no idea," he mumbled before we both got out cautiously, looking around. There was a group of what seemed to be kids around the ages three to six who were all running around screaming. It was terrifying. 

We got out and both of us grabbed a hold of the first kids we saw. He seemed horrified. 

"Are you all right?" I asked, scanning his face and body for any injuries. "What's your name, honey?" I questioned while placing my hand under his chin, tilting it up slightly. 

"O-Owen," he stammered. 

"Okay, Owen. Can you tell me what happened and why you're all running?" I asked. 

"There was a fire!" one of the kids screamed from the group. There were about six kids out here total, all running in havoc and panic. 

"Was there a fire?" I questioned while pulling out my phone to dial nine-one-one. Owen nodded. "Okay, that's okay. You'll be all right. Do you need some water?" I asked while pressing the phone to my ear before grabbing a water bottle from the car and handing it to him. 

The kids slowly began walking over to us and we didn't have enough water for all of them so we didn't know what to do. I explained to the operator that we had found a bunch of kids, all running saying that there was a fire and we weren't sure what to do. Zach had a little girl in his lap that told him where the house was. I then told the operator the address and then we filed all the kids in the car, four of them sitting at the back. 

I had Owen sitting in my lap and Zach still had the little girl sitting in his, even as he drove. 

"There!" We looked up and saw smoke coming out of one of the houses. 

"Who lives there?" I asked while we got out of the car. 

"My dad," Owen mumbled. 

"Just your dad?" I asked and he nodded numbly. "Can you tell me how the fire started?" I asked while a fire truck had shown up and the entire neighborhood gathered to watch as if it were a show. 

"I don't know," he replied. 

"Where were you?" Zach asked as we stood between the kids, making sure they were all okay while the fire was being put out. 

"We were at Zach's house." 

"Yeah, and then his mom left to get some pizza for us." 

"And then when we went to the lawn we saw smoke." 

"And then we ran." 

It seemed as if all the kids were living in this neighborhood because their parents came and began taking them and eventually, we were left with Owen and the little girl who's name I learned was Gabriella. 

"Where's your mom, Gabriella?" Zach asked. 

"She went with Zach's mom. We were having a sleepover," she answered while sniffling. She began crying and once that happened, Owen started crying too. Zach and I looked at each other before we seated them on the hood of the car and tried our best to calm them down.