TW/ Hints or Descriptions pertaining to Child Abuse
"You're stealing someone's child. You do understand that right?" Ryan asked me for the millionth time through the phone. I'm sitting in the back parking lot of the daycare. The daycare is across the street from a supermarket so a lot of people tend to park in this area even though they're not supposed to simply because there may not be any space in the original designated area.
I'm wearing a black jacket with black sunglasses with the lenses tinted darker. the back parking lot also gave is a very nice view of the park that the kids playing. it's really just one large jungle gym. There's a swing set, there is a slide or two they use this as a way to get exercise for the days since most of the time they do spend it indoors.
Whenever Giovanni came out here he would always ask me to come along with him but I always made up some excuse.
I've never had a younger brother. That's probably why I feel obligated to take Giovanni out to see some kid movie. There's something about Giovanni's innocence and personality that has drawn me to him and I can't really understand why. But I guess that he reminds me of myself.
Not only that but I would like to talk to him in private without worrying about Karma or some other volunteer getting in my business or hearing whatever it is that Giovanni has to say because I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure no one has taken into account the bruises that were on Giovanni's arms. And I would like to know why they're there.
There are so many kids in the daycare. A 2-hour movie will not make a difference of them knowing whether he's there or not.
Is it creepy? Yes. I'll be the one to say what everyone else is thinking. Yes I know it's creepy. But I know why I'm doing it.
I chose to come today because I know that Karma isn't here yet. She told me that she would be coming late so she suggested that I shouldn't show up.
I don't listen.
She's the only volunteer that actually cares about Giovanni's whereabouts. Especially since he's already made it known how he supposedly feels about her she makes sure to check on him more than any other child. Her being late is only a plus because she won't know that he was here by the time she comes after she's done playing teacher's pet for a day.
Speaking of her playing teacher's pet, I'm still watching Mr.Pedo.
I've noticed that when the kids are outside, the volunteers take this as a time to not do their job. So they typically go on their phones to the point that they stare down at them for too long without ever looking back up to check on what's going on. So there aren't any adults outside.
I watch as Giovanni continues to be his overly cocky and confident self when he takes both of his hands and spreads his fingers placing his thumbs against his temples and wiggling his hands back and forth almost as if he's mocking the other kid that he's with as he seemingly has won a game of Hide and Seek.
I can't help but chuckle at the look of triumph on his face as he smiles wide almost arrogantly at the other kids.
Yep. A Mini-Me.
"Idiot. Are you still there? I thought I talked to you about your short attention span." I hear Ryan nag in my ear again. I must have forgotten to respond as I was looking at Gio.
Sucking my teeth in annoyance, I say to him, "It's not stealing when the kid knows who you are."
"And if that's the case why don't you talk to the kid's parents? That's right. They don't freaking know you!" he argues back as I hear him scrounging around the house and I hear things slamming closed. Causing me to become a bit more interested in whatever is going on around him.
Curiously I asked, "What are you doing?"
I hear as he stops quickly and the sound becomes quiet, "I thought I put myself on mute after I was done talking."
"Why would you need to put yourself on mute when we're having a conversation?" I asked with a raised eyebrow although he couldn't see me I was very much suspicious now that he had gotten very quiet.
"Kind of busy right now." he says
"You're busy right now doing what?" I press on wondering why he's not answering the question that I asked originally not taking my eyes off of Giovanni as he's now continuing to take his turn on the swing. watching as he ascends higher into this guy kicking his legs back and forth.
"Well, I uh--" his voice gets cut off when I hear a higher more feminine voice in the background say something like, 'have you found any yet?'
I know you're fucking kidding me.
"Ryan where are you?" I asked again. "And what are you looking for?"
He coughs slowly into the receiver and I recognize that as something that he does when he's nervous, "I'm sort of kind of maybe um... in your room."
I sigh loudly in an attempt to calm myself from getting angry because he knows that I don't like when people are in my room without me being there myself, "And what exactly are you doing in there?"
"I just came to get something. That's all."
He continues to stutter in an attempt to not answer my question. If there's anything I hate, it's definitely when people do not get to the point and would rather beat around the bush about their answers so I know that he knows I'm frustrated when I tell him to spit it out.
It appears that his girlfriend seems to have more balls than he does because she loudly exposed to both of them when she said, "Are you really looking for condoms in Jesse's room?"
"Ew. I don't want anything from Jesse's room. They could all be contaminated or infected. I don't want something that he's touched inside me, that could be a box of STDs waiting to happen!"
I groan loudly in disgust at the fact that they're actually planning to do that in the house. I don't care if he does as long as it's in his room. I just don't like that it's with her.
Getting ready to hang up I say into the phone sparkly, "Well it takes a walking STD to know a walking STD. I'm not telling you where it is, my advice for you both with this whole situation would be to go through the back entrance. I'm not trying to become an uncle."
Before Ryan or Paola, I can respond, I hang up quickly and look around checking my surroundings seeing the coast is clear and that Giovanni is still on the swing when I honk my horn and this caused him to look up at me quickly. I drop my glasses so that he can tell that it's me.
I watch a smile grow on his face and I laugh when I see the spaces of missing teeth on his bottom row as I curl my fingers in a motion that tells him to come over as I get out of the car, closing the door behind me and leaning against the side of my truck.
I watch as he runs over to me hugging my legs really quickly before pulling away. I bent down to make eye contact with him grabbing him by the shoulders with a wide smile on my face inevitably matching his.
"What are you doing here? Do you want to play with me on the swings? Nicholas took my spot but I can get it back if I push him off." he says to me in all seriousness as he turns around to go look at the boy whose name I've learned is Nicholas probably plotting ways to get Nicholas off of the song.
Chuckling to myself at how aggressive he sounded, I try to get him to look back at me. When he finally gives me his attention I look at him and say, "You ready to go see that movie?"
He tilts his head to the side in confusion before a look of recognition passes between his eyes, "We're going to see Tom and Jerry?" A glint in his eyes becomes become more noticeable as they start to widen and his smile brightens even more. I didn't even know that was possible.
A grin spreads across my face, "Get in the car, the movie starts in a couple of minutes." I say to him as I grab him and throw him over my shoulder hearing him laugh in glee as I began carrying him over to the back seat of the car leading him on the right side and placing the seatbelt on him.
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Three Hours Later
The movie wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be but it certainly looked different from when I would watch the cartoons as a kid.
He was shoving popcorn into his mouth as we sat in the parking lot of the movie theater. I look at him through the mirror as he's sitting in the backseat getting lost in his own world as we sit here in silence.
I had seen that the small bruises on his arms were beginning to fade while we were watching the movie but I still couldn't fathom what monster would do something like that to their son.
I hear his little voice calling my name, shaking me out of my thoughts causing me to turn around to look at him as he shoveled another handful into his mouth.
"Mom said I'm supposed to say thank you when someone does something nice for me. Thank you, Jesse." I grin when I notice that he doesn't even look me in the eyes when he says this but he traces the name on the outside of the popcorn bucket which seemed to grab his attention more.
"Your mom sounds really nice. You care about her a lot don't you?" He nods his head in agreeance. Since I've known him he's always said little comments pertaining to how his mom raised him. I get a sense of adoration from him when he talks about her. This would be part of the reason why I see so much of myself in him because I loved my mother the same way.
"You know, you never really talk about your dad though," I say and my eyes widen a bit when I notice that he stiffened at my mention of his father and that just told me what I needed to know.
He responds to me in a voice so low that I almost missed it, "I don't like to." he says as he's now discarded the popcorn bucket, placing it onto the floor next to his legs, playing with his hands.
"Why?" my voice matching his tone because I was almost scared to ask him not wanting to invoke any more fear in him than he already seems to have.
The car becomes eerily silent again, the only thing that can be heard is some sound coming from outside of the cars as we watch other kids screaming in glee as they head into the movie theater probably to go see the same film but my mind choose to block that out when I hear a small sniffle come from the backseat of the car.
"I can't tell you or he'll do it again." he hiccups and I turn back around to face him again looking at how distraught his face looks even though he's staring down at his palms, refusing to look back up at me, "He said I can't be a snitch if I want to go into the family business." he coughs into his elbow and I raise an eyebrow at the last part.
"What family business?" I ask and it seems like me asking this has only made the situation worse as his hiccups get louder and I watch in horror as his chest rises up and down harshly forcing me to get out of the car and rush into the backseat, sliding in next to Gio, removing his hands off his face when he begins sobbing. I bring him onto my lap, his legs hanging off my own as he sits sideways, pushing his face into my chest, muffling the sounds of his cries.
We sit like this for the next twenty minutes, in silence. He calms down as I rub his back softly, my chin resting on top of his head.
He begins to cough a bit here in there most likely in a reaction to how harshly he had been breathing during his panic attack. He says something into my chest and I don't hear it very well so I pull his body away from mine a bit to look him in the eyes asking him to repeat himself.
"He didn't tell me. My mommy never told me."
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We get back to the daycare and I want to groan at the sight of police cars that were in the lot and I just knew they were for Gio.
When I pull up slowly into the parking lot, my eyes spot Karma immediately as she stands along with all the volunteers at the daycare who seem to be distraught as they all have tears running down their face as they're huddled together talking to two police officers.
As if she felt my gaze, her head turns to look at me, her eyes widening and her face holding a look of relief at the sight of me but as quickly as that look of relief came, it dropped just as fast as I watch it twist into a look of anger and I realize that she spotted Gio sitting behind me, sounds of small snores from the backseat alerting me that he's asleep.
Another volunteer looks at her with a look of confusion before she follows Karma's gaze and her jaw drops when she appears to look into the backseat and she points at my car frantically tapping a police officer to turn around.
...well I guess this is my cue.
I rush out of the driver's side of the car and try to grab Gio out of the backseat, carefully removing the seatbelt off of him and brushing hair out of his face that had fallen into his eyes.
I pull him out and he's quick to wrap his legs around my waist and his arms around my neck, placing his head in the crook of it. I'm ready to shut the door but my plans are interrupted before I can close it, I feel a hand grab my shoulder and turn me around, pushing me into the door, my back closing it. The impact being so hard, I'm quick to place my hand on Gio's back making sure he didn't hit his head or anything before I curse out whoever the fuck just attacked me.
My breath is knocked out of me when I look up to stare at someone I wouldn't ever expect to see.
My Godfather?
"Joseph?" I say wondering why he was even here and he gives me a look of shock as his eyes look from me to Gio and then back to me.
All of this excitement inevitably woke up Gio who was shifting around in my arms before he removed his head out my neck and shook his little head softly before looking at me and turning his head to make eye contact with Joseph who was staring at me with his eyed widened.
"Hi, Daddy," he says with a small voice before placing his head in my neck again and my eyes widen in shock as I choke on air.
Joseph was Gio's father?
I adjust Gio in my arms as he begins to slip a bit, trying to collect my thoughts on how this would even be possible.
We're both brought back to earth as we hear the police officers rushing over to us and I don't miss the frantic sound of Karma's voice as one of the volunteers rush over and pull Gio out my arms beginning to check him and ask him if he was alright but all he can do is stare back in confusion.
Joseph backs away from and the next thing I know, I'm being turned around and placed against my car with my hands behind my back, the familiar feel of metal being slapped around my wrists.
"Mr.Rossi, I am so sorry. My boyfriend and Giovanni have gotten very close within the last couple of weeks, I guess he just wanted to hang out with him outside of the daycare. If I knew, this wouldn't have happened. I'm so sorry." I hear Karma plead to my Godfather who hasn't stopped looking at me in confusion since he saw me with his son.
I'm being led to the back of the cop car, wanting to tell Karma to stop and that it'll be fine. Yet, I can't find the words to speak.
Does that make Gio my Godbrother?
I sit in the car, with the door closed not being able to hear either of them but I watch as Joseph places a hand up silencing her pleading as he walks away from her and to the cop car, speaking to one of the police officers.
They speak for some time before one of the officers comes towards me and leads me out of the car, turning me around and removing the handcuffs from around my wrist.
I turn back around to look at Joseph and I watch as he shakes his head and walks towards Gio who was being hugged by one of the volunteers. He grabs him, placing Gio on his hip before leading him to to the back seat of Joseph's Matte Black Cadillac.
I look at Gio from where he is in the back seat and I watch as his hand forms into a small wave at me, and I mimic as action, mouthing the words, see you soon
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This chapter was gonna be two parts but oh well
3000+ words all for youuuuu
Thanks for reading :)
(Not Edited)