𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 - p. jackson [₃]

𝒕𝒘𝒐.

--

𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐎 𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐄.

he looked at the letter, then back at the cradle, then again at the letter. 

something moved in the cradle, causing him to jump back.

standing on his tiptoes, alejandro — alex — peered over in the cradle, eyes widening at the sight of a baby. an actual baby. not just any baby, it was his baby.

he was a dad?

"oh no," alex muttered, stepping back to slam the door shut.

he was only nineteen, there was no way he was a dad. there was some mistake. someone was pulling a prank on him. there was no other explanation.

alex peered through the peephole, sighing in relief when the floating cradle was gone.

maybe he'd imagined the whole thing.

he turned around, stifling a yelp at the floating cradle — now in his apartment. he blinked twice, wondering what the hell was happening. the cradle leaned forward, almost as if urging him to take the child out.

alex did not want to.

he skirted around the cradle, moving back to the living room. the cradle followed him, settling down near him.

"what the hell is going on?" he dropped his head in his hands.

"hey, enzo," alex greeted his friend on the other end of the line. "listen, i need you to do me a favour."

lorenzo sighed, already knowing what was going to happen, "you need me to watch aurora for a bit?"

"yeah," alex nodded, unaware of his friend's disapproving tone. "well, actually you can just drop her off to my parents' house. naya's picking me up, and you know she doesn't like keeping the car seat in her car, so we can't take her. if you could just swing by and drop aurora off at my parents' place for the weekend, i'd really appreciate it, man."

lorenzo pursed his lips, not really wanting to leave aurora with her grandparents. even if she was only three years old, they never failed to make her feel unwanted, like it was a sin that she was even born.

if it was anyone besides alex, lorenzo would have no problem speaking out and putting them in their place. but this was alejandro, his best friend ever since he was seven years old. lorenzo couldn't say anything.

"i'll take her," he told alex. "i don't have anything planned for the weekend, and your parents' house is all the way in the other direction for me. i'll just take her back to my place. it'll give me an excuse to eat waffles for breakfast tomorrow."

"you sure?" alex asked his friend. "i don't want her to bother you and stuff."

enzo resisted the urge to tell alex that aurora wasn't a bother, and if that's how he saw her, then maybe he should've given her to somebody who would care for her. he still could, it wasn't too late.

"i'm sure," was all enzo said. "i'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"cool, cool," alex said, cutting the phone.

enzo merged onto the don valley parkway, making his way towards downtown, toronto — where alex lived. enzo worked in north york and lived in east york, which meant he had to go out of the way whenever he went downtown for alex.