Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Claudia accepted them with a "thanks," and wiped her face and neck dry.

Mary asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said calmly, but it didn't sound too convincing.

"Claudia, I know you don't want us to get involved," Ben started to say, but was cut off.

"I said, it's fine," she spat at him. "Can we just go?" It was clear she didn't want to remain in the girls' line of sight by trying to avoid eye contact with them through the window.

"It's not fine, Claudia. Those girls can't get away with treating a person like that," he argued.

But Claudia insisted on letting it go. When Ben gave in and turned around to drive forward, Kimmy heard her swear under her breath about wanting to do something herself. It didn't seem like no one else had heard, though.

Mary told Miguel to pass the popcorn to Claudia, but she declined when he held it out in front of Kimmy's face.

At home, with the older girls taking control of the TV as usual, Kimmy retreated to her room for what was supposed to be the rest of the afternoon until dinner. But Miguel came looking for her and asked if she would play with him. It surprised her the boy still wanted to play with her after what happened last weekend, which Kimmy had almost forgotten about. Remembering the incident helped her decide to say yes, and followed Miguel to his room.

Kimmy wasn't familiar with Bluey as she was with Paw Patrol, but accepted when Miguel handed him the toy of the blue dog and told her Chase would rescue her. Kimmy played along with whatever scenario Miguel came up with, combining the two cartoons into a crossover. Like Lucy, he explained what the dogs did on their cartoon and came up with either Chase having to rescue Bluey or Bluey assisting on a rescue mission.

They played until Quiet Hour. Since Kimmy didn't have homework, Miguel asked if she wanted to color with him and followed Miguel downstairs to the arts and craft closet. Kimmy grabbed the coloring books while he grabbed the crayons, and the two set everything up on the front living room floor.

Among the coloring books, Kimmy found drawing paper, which gave her an idea. She wrote a short note on one of them and timidly made her way over to where Ben was working on the computer while also fighting the urge to chicken out. So far, he hadn't snapped at anyone when asked a question or favor.

Ben looked over when she came into his side view. "Need something, kiddo?"

Kimmy froze on the spot upon being acknowledged. She held the paper in her hands, trying to force herself to meet his gaze. His words from last night came to mind when he told her there was no pressure in talking and she thought about how he always seemed to apologize.

Ben broke her thoughts when he asked, "Are you wanting to show me something?"

Kimmy chewed on her lip, looking at what she had written: Shhh. Can you surch the Paw Patrol dog on Google? I want to draw Megell a pickure.

He reached out for the paper in her hand and Kimmy released her grip when Ben had a hold of it. Her heart was racing and her chest tightened.

Please don't read it out loud! She thought when Ben looked at the paper. To her relief, he read the note to himself. It only took five seconds, but to Kimmy, the five seconds seemed to last five hours as she continued to stand frozen. Her mind raced, wondering how he was gonna respond.

Afterwards, Ben looked over to where Miguel was lying on his stomach, coloring. He looked back at Kimmy and smiled. "Of course, kiddo," was all he said and turned back to the computer, where he opened a new tab, bringing up Google's homepage and searched for Paw Patrol images. When Ben found one of Chase, he clicked print and handed the picture to Kimmy, along with the note.