"How'd the meeting go with the mayor?" Jensen asks an hour later.
Ollie and Lucas are busy doing some math problem on the table. Nerds. Lucas is Jensen's younger brother, and a year younger than Ollie. He goes into a private school at the other side of the town.
"It was okay." I say.
"That's it?" he asks.
"The mayor offered mom a job at the town's hall."
"Really? That's a great opportunity for your mom." he says.
I drag my attention to Ollie, whose eyes lit up whenever he works on numbers. "I guess."
"Are you guys done?" I ask.
The two move their head towards me, "About to." Ollie says.
"Hey."
"Hey." he says, standing up. He walk towards me leaving Lucas on the table.
"It was fun solving math problems with you Lucas." Ollies says, smiling widely at the kid.
"Thank you for helping me out. Would you like to come over again sometime?" he asks, hoping.
Ollie look at me with a pleading eyes. I chuckle and nod. "Yes." he says, smiling as if he won the lottery or something.
We bid goodbye to them and thanked Jensen for looking after Ollie for me when I was gone, after all he was my obligation.
We walk to my car and buckle up.
"Now what?" I say.
He focus his attention to me with his head a little tilt like a puppy. Cute. I pat his head and he pouts. "What would you like to do?" I ask.
"Ice skating." he says, eyes pleading like Lucas did earlier. They really have their own ways.
"Ice skating it is." I say and pull down to the road.
"Are you nice because you're nicer or you're nice because you need something. Tell me if you need someone who can play the part." I sing with the song on the speakers.
"You have a great voice." Ollie says smiling proudly.
"Thanks." I say and smiled back.
What if I started falling for him? Or what if I told him that I like him more than I thought?
A scrawny kid crying on the floor, his nose bleeding.
I shake my thoughts away.
● ● ●
We paid the tickets and grab two ice skating shoes from the person-in-charge. "Thanks."
If I don't play basketball, I might be doing ice skating. This is much as competative as basketball but not as much fun but also basketball gives me so much joy.
I learned to ice skate when I was a kid. I think it's mandatory on how to skate on the ice since we live in a rainy and snowy side of the country.
I study Ollie as he glides gracefully on the ice. I tread lightly because I want to watch him play. The boy got serious talent. I admire from afar. He only smiles and his demeanor seems to bloom whenever his working on a math or sciency stuffs and ice skating as well. I mentally noted of those little things.
I glide towards and catching up to him, we hold hands while gliding through the thick ice. Maybe I should ask him to skate at the frozen lake sometimes. He would love it.
There's like only few people currently on the ice rink. Mostly teen-agers; in-couples. Probably dating. I smile.
I'm glad he offered to go ice skating, I haven't did this for a long time. I'm suprised I still know how to use my feet against a sleepery floor.
"I think we should grab some food." I say.
"Yeah I'm hungry."
Fuck. I forgot it was lunch when I left him with Jensen. Way to freaking go Rafael.
We glide to the exit and give back the shoes. "Thanks for coming, we hope you enjoyed. Come again." the attedant says.
We walk to the nearest food stall and order. Since I already ate, I checks out a slurpy and a small fries. Ollie on the other hand, orders chicken nuggets and a huge burger. I grimace to myself and feeling disappointed, I made him starve.
Once I paid our orders we sit on the table, waiting.
"Sorry, I made you wait for me and starve in the process." I apologize.
"No worries. I had fun back there. Besides Jensen and Lucas were generous to take me in for the mean time." he says.
Our order came in and we eat silently. The buzzing of the crowd nearby sets as our background noise.
I fish out my phone and take a selfie. He looks up to the phone and smile. I copy him and presses the shutter button. I might post it on my facebook later.
● ● ●
I drive him back to his house after we had some fun in the town. We totally ditched my mom and my siblings. But I told them I'm going to hang out separately with Ollie. Mom agreed, Alex and Connie whined about it saying I am hogging Ollie to myself. Well, I met him first.
"Would you like to come in for a minute and hang out?" he says.
I didn't think for a second and walk inside to his door.
I guess this won't hurt.
"Where's your dad?" I ask.
"I guess he's still running some errands." he says frowning.
Before his mood will even sunk further, I pull him on the couch. "Let's watch some really old movie." I say smiling, trying to cheer him up.
His family is going on a rough patch right now, pulling Ollie to a maximum emotional stress. Divorce has never been easy especially in the part of their children.
Were you proud of me dad?
Are you proud of me?
We sit on the couch pulling the thin cover to us. This set up have been pretty normal at this point for us. Neither of us says anything about it.
The movie starts rolling in on the screen. So old that I can barely see the faces. I stare down at Ollie who's cozied up on my lap. His hair touching my face, the slight apple scent flows through my nose giving me a feeling of satisfaction and warm feelings. I smile and place my chin on the top of his head.
When I notice that Ollie fell asleep on my care, his dad came in. He saw us in the living room on the same position as before. He smile at me and mouthed a thank you before going to his room. I nod as an understanding. The movie has long gone finish when I felt him clutch to my body for a cuddle. Not that I didn't mind. I pull him towards me and put my arms around his waist. He need to eat more and put some muscles to his thin bones. I can't help but to feel concern about his well-being.
It was around seven in the evening when he woke up. He kept on apologizing to me for sleeping on me and that keeping me from getting home. I told him that I didn't mind all of it at all. As an apologize he promised me that we'll take a tutorial lesson on weekend. Which I begrudgingly groaned. He laughed at me then I drove home.
Now settled on my own living room, texting Jensen and the others from the team. The tournament will start tomorrow. Preliminaries were carried out last month prior to the final on Friday. I can say I'm excited to the least because Ollie says he will be there — cheering me up.
I trot down to my room after feeling exhausted. Without further ado, exhaustion takes over me.
Do I dream? Probably. A smile crept to my face.