DOOMED ATTRACTION

FIVE

Ayla let out her breath in bursts."Kayla." She let out another puff of air. " You scared me, Kayla."

She dropped the pan she'd clenched in one fist on the island and staggered. " Eat without me", she said, going up to her room.

I looked over to Baron, only to see him watching his mom with concern rank in his eyes. " What's the matter?", I managed to say, my voice coming out hoarse and rough.

He whipped his head to stare at me. "What's the bloody matter, you think to ask me?"

" Don't ever. Ever, scare me like that again Green."

His voice became a weird mix of wobbly and angry. "I mean it."

"You get scared?", I bit out, making towards the meatball dressed plate, before I felt his hand tug me into the crevice of his arms.

" What the hell do you think you're doing?", I shot, ready to push him far away from me before I felt him tremble against me.

" It was just a freak accident, Baron", I soothed, rubbing gentle circles with the pad of my fingertips across his back.

The only reply I got was this little stifling sound right before I felt some moisture on my neck.

Shit.

" Baron?" I tried pulling away to look at his face, but he held on tighter.

" Wait."

"Hey now!", I protested, " you're still a s**t head, don't order me..", I managed to get out before he cut me off. " Please", he mumbled in my neck.

Baron, rarely apologized.

To me.

And he'd just done so, in the most sincere voice I'd ever heard him use while he was with me.

" I suppose I can do that", I murmur, resting my head in the crook of his neck.

"I was scared Kayla." He sounded so much like a little boy. " You know. Ava."

Who is that?

He froze in the crook of my arms. "You do know Ava, yes?"

" Sure", I bluffed, " sure I do."

" So, Ava. What's up with Ava?"

" That's the name of the new girl also? Damn Baron, haven't I told you to stay clear of girls with names of relatives?", I prattle on.

"Doesn't that feel a bit weird to you?"

He freed himself from my arms, leveling me with a look that was meant to be serious. But for some reason, his red nose and ruffled hair just made him look like an overgrown child who'd been out in the snow.

Awfully cute.

"Stop bullshitting Kayla." His voice, though was the farthest from being awfully cute.

" I'm sorry. I don't remember you ever mentioning an Ava to me", I reply, avoiding his probing eyes.

" Do you ever listen to me? Even once?",he sighed, going over to the stove and turning it off.

" I do." He simply walked past me to the china cabinet.

" Really! Didn't I stop choking?", I ask, an impish grin blooming on my lips.

He smiled, looked up in the direction of Ayla's room. " Don't joke about that, you idiot."

" Ava was mum's distant cousin. She died choking on a marble."

A jolt of pain flashed through me . What the f**k?Aunt Avery? " She's dead?"

" Yeah, didn't I tell you?"

" Baron, the only thing you told me if I remember correctly was ' Aunt Avery isn't coming anymore'."

" That's what I thought then, that's what mum told me." He moved the pot into the holder on the table. I'd long since removed the flowers that normally sat at the middle of the table.

" That sucks." Aunt Avery was a delight. An absolute joy to be around, only if you had some your homework.

" How old were we when she got me that large Lego set?", I ask Baron.

" Just five."

" And she died when?"

" About seven months after", I answer my own question.

We settle into a silence, me remembering bits and pieces of the time I'd continually asked after Aunt Avery when she missed a playdate she had promised us.

Mum had yelled at me not to be a nosy child.

She knew.

"A marble? She was how old?"

"Twenty eight, and pregnant."

" f**k", I groan,setting down my fork, " I'm sorry, I didn't know."

" I know", he sent me a saucy smile, " even if you did, there wasn't anything you could do about you choking."

I look up the stairs from the vantage position I have." I've got to apologize to Ayla."

" No, you don't", Baron looked up to me and saw where my gaze was fixed on, " just give her time."

He went back to his plate. " She'll eventually forget about it."

I dropped my fork and stared at him. "But, how?"

His c****d brow simply asked, ' How what?'

" Why...the pebble?"

" She was pregnant, and had pica", he wiped off the sauce from his mouth.

And I simply sat and let him tell me the story of a woman who'd made our childhood stinking fun with her goofiness and absolute interest in whatever childish nonsense we had to babble to her.

" She just started putting in random things in her mouth..", he said, "..it didn't make any sense. Stones, smooth pebbles, nail clippers.. everything."

" Although, smooth pebbles were her favorite. She mistakenly coughed one day while a pebble was in her mouth, and that was the end."

"Franco was out, no one was there."

" He came home, hands laden with groceries she had made him buy after work because she was feeling too hyper to leave the house, to meet the body of his pregnant wife sprawled in the nursery room, her phone resting on the tiny drawer playing the recordings of the sonogram they'd taken before."

" He'd lost it."

" He'd really lost it."

I watched him snap out of the trance. " He packed out of the neighborhood less than two weeks after she died in the house."

I couldn't do anything for him. So I kept on eating, making sure to chew my food pretty well.

He looked me, and smiled. " You don't have to do that."

My mouth filled with food, I mouthed, " What?"

" That", he pointed to my pouting mouth, "eat so slowly."

" It's weird seeing it, when I always see you shoveling food in your mouth."

I gulped down the remaining food in my mouth. " I'm sorry I didn't know, and instead.."

" Don't complete it."

" You weren't the only person who lost someone that day."

" I also lost a second dad that day, so please don't say it's a burden because you let me know how you're truly feeling."

" I want to know. I feel like s**t too", he revealed, averting his eyes from mine.

My lips wobble and I sniffle."I miss him." The marathon we both have whenever it gets close to the day long forgotten.

He did the dishes, and went over to the living room, switching on the DVD of cartoons we had watched together with my dad. "I do too."

" Come over."