She drained the chocolate milkshake within a minute. Her eyes full of light and happiness, yet the pain of a brain freeze stood out in her expression.
"So, Jackie.. How about I tell you a little about myself? It would make things more fun if you know me a little."
Jackie looked up at me and smiled as she bounced slightly in her seat. I smiled back, enjoying the sight of an excited little girl, "Alright. My name is Sean, but you can call me Jack."
"Jack? Like Jackie!" She was so fucking cute. Jesus. The smile on her face made me feel happy, which wasn't a normal thing for me anymore.
"My real name is Jackyln, but mother calls me Jackie."
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Jackie," I chuckled. She simply squealed with joy as she ran over to my side and hugged me, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Father never takes me out. I'm so glad you are!"
She nodded and sat back down, this time next to me. She looked around at the trees that shaded us before she finally said, "I am six years old. I love the music mother plays on her radio.. It's really cool sounding guitar. And.. I can play some piano."
"A music lover, aye? I couldn't agree more." I smiled when a thought popped into my head.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Jackie laughing a distance away. My eyes shot in her direction to see her climbing a tree.
I shot up out of my seat to run up behind her, ready to catch her if she fell, "Be careful, okay? I don't want your mom to beat me if you cane back bruised."
"It's okay. I fall all the time. Mother says I'm really clumsy.."
"Heh.. I know that feeling.." Clumsy. Reminded me if the first day I met Y/n.. I was an idiot for almost hitting her and not to mention clumsy as hell. If it weren't for my reflexes kicking in, I would've hit her while trying to brake. I also fell down the stairs twice this week. Oops..
"Well, I don't know where you want to go... There's a Target down the road... A GameStop.. An arcade-"
"Ooh! Arcade! I've never been to one before! Can we go?"
I nodded, "Yeah. I have ten dollars so I can go to the machine in the store to get some quarters."
She jumped up and ran ahead of me to my car. I couldn't help but smile. It was a good thing I liked video games and stupid quarter machine games.
I remembered the old days when my mom would take me to arcades and I would play hours on end with my allowance. I would play every game in the arcade and eventually I had a high score on all of them. It was one of the things I was proud of back then.
She hopped into the backseat and waited patiently for me to get in and head for the arcade.
×××
I sat for the first hour at one of the tables near the section she was in. She was obsessed with some platformer game. She had been playing it almost the entire time and she was working her way up to the top high scores.
I simply watched in silence as I began to take her in. I wasn't sure if I'd ever see this girl again.
Her hair had this straight dark hair and bushy dark eyebrows. Her eyes were a crystal blue with long eye lashes. She had dimples on either side of lips which were a pale pink. Then she wore a lime green sweatshirt that was almost like a dress on her with black tights and sneakers.
"Green, huh?" I said to her, catching her attention. She giggled and nodded, "I love green. Not as much as I love the color red though. Red is my favorite."
I smiled back at her as she went back to her game, putting in another quarter. Just as she paid, two teenaged boys walked over. One of the them, being the taller and more built one, pushed her away from the console and started playing instead, "Ha! Go cry to mommy little baby!"
She laid on the ground, her expression unreadable. I growled in anger, shooting up out of my seat to deal with him when he was suddenly holding his knee falling to the ground. Jackie got on him and was... Threatening him?!
"Don't touch me again! Or I'll hit you!" She snarled. I ran over as an employee did. I picked her up as the employee growled at us, "What do you think you're doing letting this girl do that?"
"I'm sorry, but this boy was the one who pushed her."
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he shoved me back, which only angered me more. "Sir, I think you better rethink what you just did."
"What? This?" He shoved me again, this time he laughed. Before I could even think, my fist connected with his cheek and he stumbled back, blood spewing from his mouth. The two boys gasped and backed away. Jackie seemed to only be cheering me on.
Such a violent child...
So much....
Like me..
For a six year old..
It clicked in my mind and at that moment, I took Jackie's hand and pulled her along.
"Where are we going?"
I started off into space, thinking before I said, "Let's give mom a visit, shall we?"
