~~~
[.20.3.30]
It had been too bright for Max, too late in the day when he woke up again, this time at 4:11—the afternoon light had made him realize only one little thing, that he had slept in. It felt good. Normalizing. No headache. No Marlowe. Not even an unwanted urge circulated through his body, only the best parts stood strong despite the long night—and he thanked his mind for the peacefulness of it all.
"You shouldn't be sleeping this late." André announced leaning on the frame of his door. A bowl of cereal in one hand, his cocky demeanor in the other. "However, I'll let it slide."
Getting from off his bed, Max made his way to the bathroom. He was about to ask André why he was here but then he remembered. "You know, you are very hectic when you're drunk, right?" He engaged back as André followed, eating a spoonful of Lucky Charms. "I thought you died last night, you know?"
"Could say the same about you, you know."
"Fair enough." In the half bathroom, Max brought white toothpaste to his teeth and brushed in such a boyish way no one would see the problem unless that someone was a mother. André scooped another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. Max's brain put one and two together. "I have cereal here? I don't remember the last time I ate it, honestly. That might have expired some time ago."
"That could explain why the milk was a bit churred." André said, dropping the spoon into the empty bowl of milk.
"There's no way...you're disgusting." Max laughed, wiping his face. "If you throw it up all right now, I'll forgive you."
"Whatever."
"I'm serious." He said coming out toward the kitchen.
"I'm fine." André protested dumping the milk down the sink. "No one can survive with coffee and stale toast anyway." He joked.
"That's why you're tagging along." Max said putting the coffee mugs from last night in the sink. "To the store."
"Hell no, I'm busy."
"Doing what? Bullshit."
"No."
"Nice try." Max mocked coming over to the living room space to fix up the couch. "Get ready."
"If I get ready, wear something cool. After we take the groceries back, we'll go out later."
"Later, where?"
"I don't know, out? You need a shot or two."
"There's plenty of liquor here."
"Not the same, I'll roll one maybe two for us."
Max turned back to look at André. There was no getting away from this. Perhaps the thought of getting high with him peaked his interest for a bit. "If I say okay, you'll get ready?"
"Yeah."
"Here's my answer, get dress."
~~~
It takes four hours of André carelessly dropping chips, cookies, sodas and boxes of cereal into the cart without Max's consent, for them to finally be done shopping. Max had spent 208$ on food and half of it was from Dré's snacks he so desperately had to have according to him.
Opening a bag of Hot Cheetos, André waited for Max to be done with the cashier —it wouldn't take much but the swipe of that black card; however just as he stepped outside, a small impact hit his left leg leading to his chips to be scattered on the ground. André nearly lost his mind and was about to curse the guy out until he looked down and saw a little girl instead.
She was small. A toddler around 4 years old and wore a vivid colored sparkling shirt of pink and purple. Her hair threaded in clear beads and her cute earrings were shaped like rainbows.
Bending down, André picked her up. "Hey, baby girl, you okay?" He asked, she said nothing. He had been confused, normally kids would be shouting and causing a distasteful scene, she was quiet and clung onto André as if she was scared. Alarmed, because of this he looked around, no one rose suspicion they were looking for the child. He looked back at her, tears reflected in her eyes as he wiped her face. "Don't cry, I'm here. Do you have a name, my name is André." He chimed just as Max came through the automatic doors of the store.
Turning to face him, André spoke hastily. "Listen man, we have a problem."
Max looked at André and then at the little girl. "Yeah, who's kid?" He asked and maybe for two misleading minutes of his life Max had thought André looked so astonishing holding the little girl that it gave him hope of André being a wonderful father one day.
"I don't know. She's lost, on the verge of crying and doesn't want to leave my side. Something must have happened." He replied just as Max noticed a few details André may have brushed over. The girl had bruises and cuts around her legs and she seemed equally hurt as she was quiet.
"We'll find out. Let's take her to the car." He urged for he didn't think anything good would come if someone tried to show up and harm the girl again. Once he put the groceries away, he bent down to look inside the car. He noticed she had a colorful book bag on so he told André to look inside to see if there was any identification to the missing child.
"The only thing in here is a pair of clothes, a toy bear," He paused, giving the bear to the girl. "a coloring book and, holy shit!"
"Jesus, don't cuss in front of—What?" Max blurred out trying to be content.
"I think this kid is related to Wallace." André started giving Max a small keychain with the girl and Teddy together.
Within ten seconds, the lost girl held more meaning to Max than before. He told André her name was Dove and Teddy had briefly talked about her to him. Still, they didn't know the true reason why she was left alone and frightened so just as André buckled her seatbelt, Max called Teddy.
She didn't answer. He called again, still the same reply. "Come on, Wallace! Don't be stupid now." André urged as Max pulled out of the parking lot. "Do you know where she lives?"
"Yeah." He answered just as a ring to Max's phone went off. Halting the car, he picked up. He didn't even let her voice greet him before the important message escaped his lips. "Teddy, we found Dove."
~~~
A bundle of cop cars sat outside Teddy's street, new models and even newer rims as the door to the townhouse opened and a bundle of hands hugged Dove. Two police officers came from out the house to inspect Dove as Aunt Macy and Faye went up to Max and André.
"Thank you so, so, so much!" The lady who Max assumed was Aunt Macy spoke.
"Truly it was no problem," Max smiled before eyeing André, his arms folded against his chest as he stood only looking at Dove from afar. His eyes sincere and earnest. "however, you should give all of your wishes to my friend, André. He found her and stayed with her. I was just a bystander in this."
"Son, is this true?" Aunt Macy asked her eyes on the verge of tears.
"Yes, ma'am." He replied just as Faye gave him a tight hug, her cluster of bracelets stabbing the back of his neck.
"Thank you," She screamed in his ear, her loving soul bypassing André's cold aura. "We must thank them. Macy, shall we have them stay for dinner, please stay for dinner!"
"We'd love to." Max said, slanging an arm around André as he nearly flinched at the idea of being around Teddy more than he'd like. "We really do appreciate this."
"Then it's settled, as soon as the police leave we'll cook and Teddy will help us." Aunt Macy announced turning around to go back in the house, her swindle of curls catching light with the sun just as Teddy walked over to them.
"The police will want to talk to both of you for your statements. André you'll go first." She said.
"I'll walk him in!" Faye gladly replied while pulling André inside the house to talk to the chief of the unit. Just as they went, Teddy walked over to Max's side. He had been leaning on his car, his appearance still as bold and pristine as if he was at the academy only a bit laid back. Street Style. She liked it. He wore a jean jacket over some over-priced cargo pants and slapped on a pair of Nikes.
His mop-full of hair not slicked back nor tapered but semi-hidden under a cap. His gold watch matching leather bands around his wrist. He somehow stood grander like this, all city scented and Dolce Gabbana.
She breathed slowly coming closer to him.
She thought about what to say because even though it had seemed sunny, the drought of pain would surely follow after. Never in her life did she want to be perceived as weak but more along the lines of strong, she hated how real life was at this moment. Still, not wanting to hold a fake conversation, she decided to lead with her appreciation. "You know I can't tell you the amount of pressure you just lifted off my aunts' shoulders."
"I can't imagine but you should be given all of your wishes to André, he was the one who found her and stuck with her instead of letting her wonder. Who knows where she could've been by now."
"I will. I'm just tired of going head to head with him. I shouldn't have to, Max."
"I know y'all have this tension but he really is a sincere guy and I'm not saying this because he's my friend. I'm saying this because I hope both of you can agree for once on something. I know he's unpredictable, rude and has a bad tongue but, he is one of the last things I have, Theodora."
"I know—" She admitted but it seemed that there was a double meaning behind this unfinished phrase, Max was keen to pick this up.
"It's just you're worried about something else?" He questioned, her thoughts deceiving her mouth yet again. "You're going to get through this." I am going to get through this, too.
There was a silence with the weight of almost love attached to his words as Teddy looked away watching the many figures roam the row house and some part of Max wanted to know more of this disturbing story but he waited another moment to start up a different conversation instead of engaging. He felt if Teddy wanted to share, she would've done it already.
Smirking, he thought of a compliment to start off the conversation. "Like you, your aunts seem very nice."
"Yeah, they are." She smiled. "You're gonna love them by the time they're done with you."
"So, you're implying I can come back again." Max chirped in such a stubborn and almost needy tone that Teddy looked down at her sandals not wanting to see his smile. She hated how direct Maxwell could be, still he had cheered her up.
When she did look back up, she noticed Max's eyes begged for attention in the same way a lost puppy would. Hitting his shoulder she jokingly shook her head. "Come on, let's go inside."
~~~
Because Teddy knew that Macy and Faye could not cook to save their lives, she ordered food. It was an array of wings, pizza and cheesesteak subs from a local restaurant not too far from where she lived. They sat around a wooden dining table eating and sharing fast food and as Max sipped a can of Sprite, he thought about how meaningful it was to be around a real family like Teddy's household.
Within the hours there, he came to know Faye as hyper and loving and everything but cruel. She graduated from law school and had been taking a year off to paint for an artist downtown, her studio hadn't been far from where he lived and she valued having fun.
Dove, although quiet had a knack for coloring and seemed to love the stars at night. She was smart and brave and Max thought he couldn't agree with them anymore.
Aunt Macy on the other hand was dedicated about her line of work in urban development, kindhearted and cherished her old love for 70's music. Max appreciated them more as time ticked away and he found himself in the kitchen of the crazy-designed row house of loving people.
Throwing away trash, he wiped the stove and counter-tops just as Teddy came in. "They're about to play Uno, wanna play?" He heard her from behind him.
Rinsing the cloth, he turns around. "I'll sit this one out."
"Hmm," She hummed before stacking plates. "I told them the same thing." She added. "And you don't have to clean, you're a guest."
"I know but let me." He replied finishing off his task as Teddy sat down at a small table by the back door.
"Yo, Max come play with us." André's voice comes into the kitchen. "Stop fooling around, you just don't want to get beat!" He remarked after noticing Teddy sitting at the table. Max can see blindly what André is doing so he feels that this is his cue to leave.
"Okay, okay I'm going to go set up." He nodded to André and for the first time in forever Teddy had been left along with a boy who didn't know the concept of constraint. She watched as he slid his way into the chair closest to her, his presence electric as his eyes locked with hers.
André can't help but catch her soft gaze turning serious, she was preparing herself for what he might say. "Look, André I want to start off first by saying I'm beyond grateful for what you did today. Thank you."
"You're welcome." He replied, the gold cross around his neck glistened hard as he continued. "And I shouldn't have called you out of your name. I get that I'm me and I've got some learning to do," He paused or maybe he didn't, Teddy didn't know. All she knew was that for a slight heartbeat of time, she caught André off guard. She had seen it. Or maybe she didn't, she really couldn't be sure if she saw him fumble with his hands—an act of nervousness, because what did that mean? She wondered but her chaotic thoughts were caught off with the end of his sentence. "—but these aren't excuses."
Teddy took him in for what felt like the hundredth time since they encountered each other. His eyes still were pools of death but they seemed much more shallow than they were when she first met him, she could no longer drown in them. His words dipped themselves into her blood and she wanted to breathe but she couldn't, not yet.
"André, thank you." She decided to say again as he stood up and patted her shoulder, looking up she asked. "So, we're cool?"
"Yea, we cool."
~~~
- TABLEAUXVIVID