His Lovely Delinquent *EDITING*

17. Eli

 “My momma said not to tell people my name.” Huh. So he could say a full sentence that didn’t include the letter ‘r’.

 Okay…so cute.

 “I’m not people, I’m  a person, a single human being.” I smile. “I don’t bite.”

 His expression immediately turned into horror. “Y-you bite?!”

 “No, kid, I don’t.” I chuckle. “Didn’t I already say that?”

He shook his head. “I am Eli.”

I smile. “Well, Eli, how old are you?” I asked, watching the grin on his face.

 His grin grew even larger at my question. “I’m this many yeaws old!” Eli raised three fingers up at me, his grin showing me his perfect pair of perfectly pearly white teeth, no gaps whatsoever. Damn this kid had good teeth!

 I began to focus on Eli. For a three year old he seemed pretty tall, healthy as well which was always a good thing. He had ash brown hair, just a few shades darker than mine which flopped at his forehead, cut perfectly to fit his round face. Even if his face was round, however, you could see the squareness in his jaw, a trying strength in them. He had full lips, a straight nose and high cheekbones.

 This kid looked really familiar.

“Hey, Eli?” I ask, feeling slightly unnerved.

 “Yes, Noah?” He asks in the same tone that it forms another smile in my face. This kid was so…adorable.

 “Why did you fall on me?” at my question, tears began to form on his eyes yet again and I immediately regretted asking him. “No, I’m not asking cause I’m upset…I’m just wondering…where are your parents?”

 “My momma…” He whispers, eyes looking faraway. I then realize that he didn’t mention a thing of a father and from the beginning only mentioned his ‘momma’ so he must only just have a mom. Poor kid. Every child deserves a father to look up to. Just ask Sam.

 “And where might your momma be, Eli?” I ask softly.

“I lost my momma.” He said simply.

 I raised  a brow at him. “Lost?”

 “I was hungwy.” He said.

“You were hungry?”

 He nods. “And I saw food and wanted it and wan to it.”

 Now I understood. He was hungry. He ran away. He lost his mom. Poor kid. I sighed. “Where did you lose her? I’ll help you find her.” I offered. Hell, even if I didn’t offer, I’d help him, even if the words were unsaid, I’d help him.

 He pointed to a faraway place and when I stood up, he held his hand out. Surprisingly, I took it and we both walked off. I took my phone out and decided on texting Sam to tell her that I was helping a lost three year old find his mother and put my phone back in my pocket with Eli beside me and looking around frantically.

 We were like that for about three hours.

 He cried then, after we scoured the whole park and said: “I’m newer gonna find my momma!”

 I sighed. One thing I was never able to handle was crying—from anyone. I got down on one knee, as if to tell him everything was alright and opened my mouth to speak but something stopped me. A familiar female voice that chimed and shouted frantically.