The next day, a Saturday morning, Aleyah awoke in a good mood. And though this mention seemed unnotable, it was very significant for the girl, who usually found herself lingering in a neutral emotion range, often alternating closer to sadness than happiness. 

But that morning was different. The girl was strangely elated for reasons she wasn't able to understand nor did she feel the need to do so. For the first time in a long time, she was functioning with her worries cast so far aside that she couldn't remember what they were. Aleyah didn't get many days like this and she knew not to take it for granted, especially with the knowledge that the day could easily be flipped around for the worse.

So with that tone set, she decided to extend her joy to her younger brother by taking him to the park for a couple of hours so he could run around for a bit. The young boy desperately needed a breath of fresh air as being constantly cooped up in their tiny home was far from benefiting to him, especially since he was always seemingly filled up with energy. Additionally, the change in scenery wouldn't hurt Aleyah either.

As the two left their home, Aleyah glanced at the nearby house where Lucas resided, the thought of inviting him to the little adventure crossing her mind. But she quickly dismissed the idea as their last conversation made its way to the forefront of her thoughts. She then thought of asking for Jude's company so that she wouldn't be alone as August played, but she also shot down that notion due to the fact that she didn't have enough courage to reach out to him.

Having gone through all of her few options for company, Aleyah decided just to leave it as a sibling date even though most of her time would be spent watching her brother run around aimlessly. So with that in mind, the two set off for the public garden.

Enclave Park was a hidden gem in the city of Birmingham. It had beautiful neat greenery, a couple of playgrounds, and well-structured benches with shelters above them, suited for the country's alternating weather. And above all, it was quiet and peaceful, owing to the fact that not many people knew about this location. Aleyah herself, despite living not even 20 minutes away from the place, wouldn't have known about it if she hadn't gotten lost on her way home a few months ago and somehow ended up in the park.

As usual, the park was partially empty, safe for the few joggers passing through, and some couples coddled up on the benches. Aleyah situated herself on one of the seats across the playground after giving August the go-ahead to head to the play area. She watched with a smile as the boy sprinted away, dragging the toy more than half his height along with him. Despite only having the item for a day, August refused to put it down for more than 5 minutes at a time. 

The thought then reminded Aleyah to send the boy an appreciation text for the gifts, which she had forgotten to do the day prior. It would also act as an excuse to start a conversation with the football player. However, just as she dug out her phone from her bag, a ping sounded from the device, the boy beating her at texting first.

Jude

Morning, Leya :)
You have any plans today?
And say hi to my favorite child for me.

Aleyah

Hey, Jude :)
We're at the park rn

Jude
Which one?

Aleyah

Enclave

Jude

Alr, cool. I'll be there in like 30 minutes

Aleyah

I don't remember sending an invite

Jude

You sent your location

Aleyah

And?

Jude

That's basically begging for my presence

Aleyah

I just didn't want you to think I was kidnapped or smth

 Lord knows you're dramatic

Jude

Dramatic is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?

Aleyah

Oh, yeah, sorry

I meant over-dramatic

Excuse my mistake

Jude 

Hahahahahahaha, you're so funny.

I'm dead.

Literally crying rn.

Aleyah

Wasn't a joke but ok

Jude

Then it must have been the thought of your face that made me laugh so hard

Aleyah

The same face you're driving to come see?

Jude

Unfortunately, yes

I've always had questionable taste in girls

Aleyah

Or maybe you're just a questionable person

Jude

See what I mean? What even was that response? 

Aleyah

Leave me alone
it made sense in my head

Jude

And that's worrisome

Aleyah

Okay Mr 'Mexican is a language' 

Jude 

You've been doing research on me?

Aleyah

Shouldn't you be driving?

Jude

I am

Aleyah

You're driving and texting???

Jude

Nah, I was kidding

But I am in my car now so I do have to cut this conversation short

Aleyah

Good riddance

Jude 

I can't wait to see you too

Aleyah turned off the screen of her phone and sat up with the goofiest smile on her face. Her eyes instinctively landed on the playground to make sure that her brother was still there and when she saw his small figure going down the slide, she leaned back against the bench. She then grabbed her phone again,  resisting the urge to re-read the previous conversation, and instead chose to scroll aimlessly as she waited for the Birmingham boy to make his appearance, occasionally glancing up to check on the little boy.

True to his word, Jude arrived in around half an hour, immediately spotting the girl as he made his entrance into the quiet park. He watched her play around on her phone for a bit before making his way towards her, internally cursing himself for not getting her flowers or something of that sort.

The sound of Jude's footsteps reached the girl before he did, making her look up to see his figure approaching. And for a reason Aleyah couldn't give, she stood up from her position to greet him, mentally face-palming herself for the action. Jude, however, took this opportunity to reach over and give her a hug as a greeting. 

"Hey," The boy spoke as he pulled away from the short embrace.

"Hi," Aleyah responded curtly, slightly dazed at his initiation of contact as his scent lingered in the air around her.

"Where's August?" Jude asked, sitting down with a smirk growing on his face which made Aleyah believe he knew exactly how his presence affected her ability to function.

"Hm? Oh, he's on the playground." She gestured to where the boy was now conversing with another child near the swings. Aleyah then took a seat beside Jude, leaving a considerable amount of distance between them, which meant she was practically over the edge of the bench since the boy had sat in the middle of the seat.

"His wrist is better?" Jude asked, glancing away from the boy and back to her.

Aleyah had to quickly wipe away the look of surprise that made its way onto her face before responding. "Yeah, he doesn't feel pain any pain anymore." She answered, still a bit bewildered by his concern.

"Good," Jude replied. He then gave her a once-over before another smile broke out on his face, "I'm not going to bite you. You can move closer." He gestured to the way her body was positioned in a manner that was clearly fairly uncomfortable.

"I know," Aleyah started, feeling her cheeks rise in temperature. "I just wanted to let you have your personal space." She shifted away from the edge moving a bit closer to the boy staring at her with humor.

"If I didn't want you in my personal space I wouldn't have sat in the middle of the bench."

"Oh," The girl replied quietly but made no motion to adjust her seating. 

Jude eyed her with amusement for a bit before speaking. "So are you gonna move closer now? Or do I need to drag you?" 

"Oh, yeah," Aleyah awkwardly shuffled closer to the boy. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm so nervous." She said, fully aware of his body heat reaching her skin. 

"Don't apologize, I would be nervous around me too." Jude grinned, inciting a roll of the eyes from Aleyah.

"That was actually so terrible." Aleyah shook her head but still chuckled lightly at the joke.

"I personally thought that was great, but I guess we all can't be blessed with good humor." The boy shrugged. Aleyah let out a sigh of feigned disapproval but made no move to add anything else to the conversation so the boy spoke again. "Let's play 20 questions. I still have questions about you."

"Alright, sure." She agreed easily.

"You start."

Aleyah thought for a moment before speaking, "Uh- I don't know what to ask. We already covered the basics on our first date." She wasn't sure why it was suddenly so difficult to talk to Jude when she'd had no problems doing so prior. But if she had to guess, she would pin it on the fact this was the furthest she'd ever gone with a boy and she was terrified of messing it up.

"Alright, I'll start." Jude wasn't the most perceptive person but when it came to Aleyah his senses somehow got sharper. The boy was able to read her body language to depict her discomfort, luckily he was also able to pick up that it wasn't him causing it but the situation instead.

"Go ahead."

"So what's your relationship with Lucas like?" 

"That's the question you want to start with?" Aleyah quirked her eyebrow as she turned to face him, forgetting all about her nerves due to the absurdity of the question.

"I want to know more about your life and since he's in your life, I want to know about him." Jude reasoned easily, despite knowing that his lie was more than noticeable.

"Really? That's the only reason?" She inquired, not buying into his excuse. There was a smile creeping onto her face as he nodded firmly to support his lie.

"Yeah, of course. Also, I don't like him." Jude let out with a simple shrug. Aleyah's eyes widened at his bluntness, not expecting him to confess so easily.

"How don't you like Lucas? You've met him once." The girl pressed more, enjoying where the conversation was heading.

"And that once was more than enough for me to assess his character." Jude stubbornly responded.

Aleyah snorted with laughter. "His character?" She asked once her chuckles died down. The girl couldn't even be bothered about how weird her laughter sounded as she was too preoccupied with the boy's words.

"He's very unlikeable." Jude continued, internally feeling pride at how he was able to relax the girl beside him.

"You know what I think?" Aleyah asked.

"Hm?"

"I think you're jealous." She gave a teasing smile that the boy couldn't help but grin at. 

"Of Lucas? He has nothing on me." He replied with an air of confidence that made Aleyah pause for a bit just to take him in. Jude, noticing the stop in her teasing, angled himself to look down at her as well, also using the opportunity to take her in.

Once the two eventually made eye contact, the girl was quick to break it, clearing her throat as she did so. "Really? You're not jealous?" Aleyah asked after looking away, hoping to ease the building tension between them.

"Nope," Jude answered, not bothering to take his eyes off of her despite her turning away. 

Aleyah swallowed as she could still feel his heavy gaze on her figure. "Even if I told you that we used to be more than friendly with one another?" She said in an attempt to distract him from her.

It worked.

"More than-what do you mean?"  Jude suddenly straightened, his eyes widening in question. Aleyah then spared a glance at him, instantly finding humor in his stupor.

"Hooking up, Jude. We used to hook up." She deadpanned, trying her very best not to let any hint of amusement show on her face. 

The boy's mouth then opened and closed repeatedly, similar to the actions of a fish, as he tried to find his words. Aleyah had to turn away and bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. "You're not being serious." He finally spoke after a good amount of time. 

"You wanted to know more about my relationship with him." The girl shrugged once she composed herself, making sure to glance at him to solidify her words.

"Wait, you're being for real? And you're still friends?" Jude genuinely sounded horrified at the revelation and Aleyah had to turn away once more to let out a breath of laughter that she disguised as a cough.

"Yeah, he spent the night over just the other day." She added salt to the wound. The poor boy, believing everything that came out of her mouth, raised his hand to his forehead, constantly glancing between her and their surroundings seemingly getting lost in thought. His eyebrows were so close to his hairline that Aleyah couldn't contain her laughter this time. "Relax, Jude, I was kidding." She confessed after her joy died down.

"Nah, that's not funny." Jude visibly relaxed as he shook his head disapprovingly, though the small smile breaking onto his face revealed he did find the situation partially amusing.

"You should have seen your face, it was hilarious." Aleyah continued to tease once she spotted his growing grin.

"Nope." He denied quickly, despite his smile increasing in magnitude with every passing second.

"C'mon, you've gotta admit it was funny." Jude shook his head once more. "Even just a little," Aleyah unconsciously leaned in with her pointer finger and thumb making a pinching motion directly in his vision. Jude's eyes darkened as he reached out to lower her hand that was in his face, their eyes locking as he did so. The girl's smile slowly faded as the atmosphere around them shifted into blurry nothingness.  

Jude then leaned in slightly, making her eyes widen in alarm but she made no motion to increase the distance between them. As the boy got closer, the girl swallowed with anticipation, also unconsciously moving to towards him. And right when they were mere inches apart, August yelled out.

"Aye! Look how fast I can slide down!" The young boy shouted, breaking the couple out of their daze. The two both shifted away from each other, feeling immensely awkward at the situation before turning to look at the child.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Aleyah yelled back, perfectly feigning enough admiration to satisfy August as he then went on to do something else.

"So you and Lucas?" Jude wasted no time jumping back into the conversation, leaving no room for the awkwardness to settle in.

"Strictly platonic." The girl replied fast, feeling immensely grateful that they weren't going to address what had just happened, or what nearly happened.

"Ah." He nodded in understanding, trying to rack his brain for anything else to occupy the silence.

"He's been my friend for like forever. We were neighbors back in London when we were children. Then he moved to Birmingham a few months after my mum died. Then when August and I came here, we ran into him and now here we are." Aleyah explained further, strangely feeling comfortable enough to do so.

"Your mum passed?" The boy inquired, all hints of playfulness gone as he asked the question.

"Yeah, lung cancer." 

"I'm sorry." He replied, unable to find better words to use for the situation. 

"Nah, don't be. I'm not." She shrugged lazily, lacking the usual melancholy that went with the topic of death. In fact, there was a poorly hidden hint of resentment weaved within her words that the boy no doubt managed to catch.

"Oh."  He replied, feeling unsure of how else to go about the situation.

It was then the girl realized how the atmosphere had drastically changed into a serious one and she internally cringed for causing it. "Shit, sorry, I didn't realize I was trauma dumping. I don't want to dampen the mood."

"You're alright, I want to hear about your life," Jude spoke earnestly with a friendly smile, carefully choosing his next words.  "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what about your dad?" 

"Mine or August's?"

"You have different dads?"

"Yeah, I don't even know why I asked. They both skipped out a while ago." She shrugged nonchalantly once more.

"Shit."

"Yeah." Aleyah agreed calmly despite having relayed something so heavy. The girl knew that the topic should have at least been difficult, if not emotional, to talk about but seeing as she had encountered and gone through much worse in her short eighteen years, this was the part of her life that seemed the least depressing and therefore, the easiest to share. Additionally, she'd come to terms with the whole of it years prior so it wasn't like she was going through the struggles of being abandoned anymore. At least that's how she saw it.

"I don't really remember my dad much. He wasn't really around during my childhood but he'd pop up every once in a while then he'd just randomly stopped one day. No note. No explanation. No goodbye. Nothing. It was just like he'd disappeared into thin air." The girl paused, glancing at Jude to make sure he wasn't feeling uncomfortable with what she was saying. But when he'd smiled lightly and nodded his head in reassurance that she wasn't scaring him off, she went on.

"So when I was a bit older, I'd started pressing my mom for answers but she didn't like talking about him so that was hard to do. Eventually, she gave in and told me that he had another family and didn't want the responsibility of taking care of two families so he'd chosen the one more important to him. And hearing that just kind of discouraged me from asking about him anymore."

Aleyah let out a breathy sigh, looking away from the boy and focusing on a nearby tree, her throat feeling dry all of a sudden. She didn't anticipate the ache building in her chest, a clear indication she wasn't as over the situation as she'd convinced herself she was.

Jude, after being still for a bit, leaned over and rested a hand on her shoulder, slowly beginning to rub small circles with his thumb in an attempt to comfort her. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. It's okay." His voice was level, gentle, and consoling but not radiating any level of pity. Just enough feeling to show he genuinely cared.

Aleyah thought for a moment and considered taking his leeway out of the situation. To say it was tempting was an understatement. Especially for someone like her who had spent a significant amount of time learning how not to get attached to anything, much less a person, as they had a tendency of leaving in one way or another. It was easier for her to ask him to forget about the situation and move on to a more lighter and meaningless topic.

But she also had to admit that in some way, it was comforting to have a person to talk to about this. Someone who didn't stare at her like she'd break down and cry at any given moment or coddled her until the point of suffocation, but instead tried to acknowledge that she wasn't as breakable as she was expected to be but at the same time not as tough as she seemed either. Someone who listened. Someone like Jude.

So with that in mind, she carried on. "Then around thirteen, my mom started dating this other guy, August's dad. And he was cool, I guess. Became my father figure for a year so then he suddenly disappeared too. And not long after, my mom found out she was gonna have August. I don't think she'd ever told him though." The girl shrugged lightly. "Maybe if she did, he would've been part of his life. Or not, who knows with these things anyway?" Aleyah never broke eye contact with the tree throughout her speech and Jude never stopped rubbing shapes into her shoulder either.

"But anyway, my mom was an only child too so no aunts or uncles there, and I wouldn't even know where to begin If I wanted to search for the fathers, so it's just me and Auggie." She finished easily, expecting some sort of words of consolation to fall from his mouth but after a minute of silence, she broke her star

ing contestant with the tree and turned to face him.

Jude was still silent even after meeting her gaze. His expression was so serious and yet soft as he took her in. He didn't rush to fill the silence nor did he stumble over his words as he simply said, " I understand." And he did. It all finally made sense to him why she was always on and off regarding his affections.  Why she was always so inviting yet pushed him away whenever he'd try to take the opportunity to get to know her.

Having the people who are meant to love and care for you constantly disappear from your life with little to no explanation had to have been heartbreakingly painful, especially for someone as young as they were. It was no wonder it took a toll on how she viewed relationships and all things alike.

And to top it off, having to raise a child all on your own too. Though she'd never said it, Jude was able to tell how exhausted she constantly was, how even when relaxed, her mind was always running, no doubt worrying about the young boy.

Even now as he observed her on the bench, he noticed how her eyes glanced at the boy every minute or so. Whether she was trying to convince herself that she was doing a good job with him, or if she was trying to assess what the next step in raising him was, Jude wasn't sure. All he knew was that it must have been difficult for her to lug around a burden as big as this all on her own.

So as he peered down at her form beside him, as he took her in, he made a promise, though not outwardly. It was a vow more to himself than to her in actuality. Jude made an oath that he would show her that she was worth caring for, worth sticking around for, and worth loving. And even if it took his entire lifetime, he would make sure that she saw herself the same way he did, a beautiful complexity.

"Thank you for trusting me."  He finished, solidifying the promise he'd made internally. Though short and simple, the girl couldn't help but feel the words were perfect for her. And so, she leaned into him, accepting his non-verbal support as they fell into a comfortable silence.

A/N

I'm still alive guys!

So Aleyah's finally opened up a bit! I decided to sort of rush the story a bit so that more can be told with fewer chapters because then I'll be done writing earlier. And therefore if the story seems to be moving a bit faster than before, that's the reason. I really want to finish this story so this seems like the most efficient way for me. But I promise not to rush things so much that it feels so strange for the characters, I'm just gonna be cutting down on a few filler plot points. 

Onto more pending things!

I know it's becoming a pattern for me not to update for months on end and I apologize for that but like there's really nothing I can do about it honestly. When I experience writer's block, it lasts for so long and the motivation to do anything literally just flies out the window, especially since I work on more than one story at a time.

But with the euros in session, I've been re-inspired to write so let's just all hope for more than one chapter. And for those still waiting on the Musiala story, please be patient, I'm just a girl with commitment issues and poor planning skills. But it'll come soon, I promise(maybe).

And also thank you so much for the love guys!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

NB: This chapter is unedited.

See you in the future (maybe)! 

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