evolve// 5SOS

1

Luke

"I'm home!"

"I'm right here,"

"You're doing yoga without me?"

"No... I was totally waiting for you," Gabi said, quickly rolling out my mat, "See?"

"Mhm. Give me two minutes,"

"1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi,"

"Hey!"

I dropped my bag and went upstairs to my room, changing from my scrubs to shorts and a tank top, rushing back down to the living room.

"125 Mississippi, 126 Mississippi,"

"Oh get lost," I laughed, "What are we doing today?"

"Well you will be doing the child's pose and then falling to sleep," 

"And you will be falling over any time you try and stand on one leg,"

"Precisely,"

She turned the dvd on and chose the one she wanted, then put her waterbottle down and we both began to follow the instructor.

Gabi was my 17 year old daughter. She was fierce, intelligent, and had an extremely beautiful soul that was treasured by those around her.

She was a social butterfly, and always knew how to cheer you up after a bad day; often I wondered how on earth I brought up such a wonderful person.

And it had just been me. When her mum first became pregnant I had this whole idea of what it was going to be like, and when I first held my Gabriella in my arms, my life instantly changed for the better.

But her mum also changed, for the worst, and it got dangerous for Gabi and I very quickly.

Suddenly it became my nightmare, and I was caught in custody battle for my sweet one year old. Winning was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

Not long after we had settled in a small apartment, with just enough money since I was fresh out of med school, Gabi got sick.

Really sick. Like, I was asked to consider plans for if she died.

But like I said, she was fierce, and still is. To this day we're dealing with the knock on effects, particularly Chronic Kidney disease, but we did our best.

"So, how was school?"

"Good. Henry got a new horse, he said I could have a go riding,"

"Oh right,"

"And look, Maja got us all matching bracelets,"

"By all you mean?"

"Me, her, Henry, Maddox, April, and Julian,"

"Nice,"

I did send Gabi to a private school. I'd worked my way up the ladder as a haematologist , and we lived a comfortable life. One thing I had always vowed was that I would give my kid the best opportunities I could, and this was the big investment we had both made, for she also worked extremely hard for a scholarship which brought the cost down.

She lived with me at home still- some people boarded- but they were so good at keeping her up to speed if she missed class for appointments, and had really blossomed her talent for both academics and extra curriculars.

We often found she sometimes didn't quite relate to a few of her friends because we lived a normal- ish life here, but she really loved it there and had found herself; I was so grateful for the chance to provide my daughter with this.