Page 29 of Xavier

He thinks about for a moment, and then nods.

“Fut!” he yells, beaming proudly at both winning the negotiation and getting to curse without repercussion.

"Now, no more, okay? Mom doesn't like us saying naughty words. That was the deal."

He nods, willing to respect the sanctity of his given word.

"Where are we going, Xavier?” Hamish, the youngest of us all, asks.

"You'll see. Now hurry up."

As we half-walk, half-run through the abandoned school yard, I pray that she hasn't left. She's becoming like air. And I'm addicted to the high that breathing her gives me.

I spot the back of her skirt billowing in the wind as we round the corner and into the basketball court, and the tension I didn’t know I was holding in my chest relaxes.

"Oooh, are we going to play basketball?" Brian shouts.

"Um, yup. You want me to teach you, so here we are,” I say, half-truth that it is.

"YAY!" The three of them cheer. The sound of their voices drifts across the court and she turns around, scissors and glue gun in hand.

"Hey! I didn't know if you were going to make it!" she says as we walk up to her.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to..." I gesture my head to the six eyes staring at her unblinking. "Um, guys, this is my friend, Malynda."

"Hey guys! Nice to meet you!" She shoots them all one of her 1000-watt smiles.

For once in their lives, they're completely mute. I don't blame them. I was like that for the first week of knowing her.

"Guys! Stop staring! Why don't you go over to that hoop and start throwing the ball around and I'll be right there,” I urge.

They stare at her for another moment, before Brian finally regains function of his brain and breaks the silence by bouncing the ball. In an instant they're off and running, one in each direction, yelling each other's names.

"Sorry," I say again, shrugging, not wanting to add more to the explanation of why I have three in tow today.

"Aw, shush. Don’t worry, I was actually here early anyway, I couldn't sleep. I laid awake thinking about what I wanted to add."

I laid awake in bed thinking of you stroking me, I wanted to say, but don’t.

"Okay, well, I'll be here. Keeping guard. And keeping them alive. You create.”

She just gives me a bright smile in response.

It takes a toddler yelling out my name to tear myself away from her and to stop myself from pulling her into my arms like I'd dreamed this morning.

Almost two hours later, she turns around to see the four of us walk back from the court to her.

“Hungry?” she asks.

"Starving!" I say, throwing the ball to Brian.

"Who won?"

"We did!" Michael yells out, lifting his arms into the air.

"Well, it was the three of you against me,” I clarify.

"Yeah? Can I play next time?" Malynda asks.