Please, please, please
Wednesday, Nicky’s first day being suspended. Agatha could not, for the life of her, find a babysitter for her son. Jen was teaching, so was Alice and Lilia. Sharon was… Agatha wasn’t really sure, but she couldn’t get a hold of her. She looked online for a little bit but really couldn’t bring herself to give her son to a stranger for a day, and unfortunately for her, Wanda is her co-worker and also can’t take care of Nicky.
Agatha finally came to terms with the fact that she’d have to bring Nicky with her to the highschool for the day. It wasn’t her first time doing this, The last time was quite a while ago, though. She, of course, made sure it was okay with Lilia for Nicky to come in, who agreed with the condition that he didn’t disrupt other classes.
Agatha held Nicky’s hand as she led him into the school. For a kid with a freshly broken arm he sure seemed to be excited. “Mama! Will I see Billy today?” Nicky’s excitement to see his cousin was always so sweet. “If Billy is here today, then yeah, you will.” Agatha smiled at Nicky, squeezing his hand. Nicky giggled and squeezed back.
They entered the school, Nicky rather eager to get to the staff room, that was always his favourite place when he came to the school. Mostly because of the snacks, and probably because all the teachers adore him and always spoil him just a little.
Nicky basically dragged Agatha to the staff room once they got near it, Agatha smiled at his antics, always a ball of energy. The door was pushed open by Nicky, who immediately let go of his mother’s hand when he saw Alice making herself a cup of coffee with the barely-working machine on the counter.
“Nicky! Hey buddy.” Alice greets when she feels a kid run into her legs. “Auntie Alice! Do you wanna sign my cast? Please?” Nicky points to his broken arm, Alice looks a little concerned but grins anyways. “Of course, you wanna tell me what happened while I do?” Nicky nods excitedly and pulls his favourite purple/green double sided marker from his pockets. “Use this!” He held out the marker for Alice, who knelt down and uncapped the marker to write.
Nicky goes on a rant about how he broke his arm, explaining how he also bit the kid in retaliation and is now off school for a couple days while Alice writes her name on Nicky’s cast in neat handwriting with a little face at the end. Agatha watches them fondly while making herself a cup of coffee from the leftover coffee in the pot Alice had made.
Agatha watched Nicky and Alice chat for the couple of minutes it took her to finish her coffee, the two exchanged stories and facts, talking about nothing and everything. Nicky kept the attention on him, he always managed to do that with others.
“Alright, Nicky, let’s go to my classroom, yeah?” Agatha placed the empty coffee cup on the counter next to the sink. She made her way over to Nicky, who grabbed her hand after responding with an excited “okay!”
They made their way to Agatha’s classroom within a minute since the staff room was extremely close to it. Nicky ran into the classroom and immediately plopped himself on the wobbly chair Agatha kept in there, excitedly talking about something Agatha couldn’t quite keep up with as he spun around on the chair.
Nicky could chat for hours, Agatha knew that. He spoke all while Agatha set up for the day, talking about whatever had interested him even the slightest bit— cars, worms, even some stick he’d seen that looked like a sword. Eventually, his time got cut short by the bell, indicating the beginning of classes.
——
The classes went by quickly, Agatha’s first class had Billy in it, Nicky was ecstatic about that. He may have distracted Agatha’s first two classes, and he may have caused a small disruption of another class, but Agatha wouldn’t trade him for the world.
By the time lunch had rolled around Nicky had about twenty signatures on his cast, each one in either purple, green, blue, or pink.
Within five minutes of the bell ringing, Alice had made her way down to Agatha’s classroom, almost immediately offering to take Nicky off her hands during lunch, let him walk around the school— get more signatures and drawings for his cast. At this rate the cast would have too little space for his school friends to write on.
Agatha begrudgingly let Alice take Nicky, only for fifteen minutes, she couldn’t bring herself to be separated from Nicky for too long. Especially injured.
Nicky ran down the halls, giggling at his light-up avenger shoes as he ran across the hall to the language department.
He stopped as he saw a lady, probably in her thirties? Arms covered in tattoos up to her shoulders.
“Hi miss! Do you wanna sign my cast?” Nicky tugged on the ladys shirt, holding his green and purple marker in the same hand.
The woman smiled at the boy. She seemed familiar to Nicky, he wasn’t sure why. “Of course! How’d you break this?” She knelt down and held his cast with a gentle grip as she began drawing what Nicky thought to be a flower.
“Well, at school I got in trouble because I bit a kid. He pushed me off the playground and this happened!” He beamed as if it was the coolest thing ever.
“Really? Did you win?” Nicky nodded eagerly as he watched as the woman drew on his cast, the tattoos on her arms entrapped him. “You have drawings— like Mami!”
“Kiddo, your mom doesn’t have any tattoos.” Alice interrupted before Rio could speak, confused and surprised.
“No! Not momma, Mami! From when I was this many.” He held up his free hand to Alice, three fingers stuck up. Rio watched with a twinge of hurt, she wondered if her son would have been anything like this.
“How old are you, buddy?” Rio asked softly. This kid really reminded her of her son.
“I’m eight today! It’s my birthday.” The boy beamed with excitement, bouncing happily.
Rio finished off the drawing, a tiger lily in a pot. “There.” She smiled at the boy. “Come on bud, Your mom said fifteen minutes we should get back to her.” The girl with red stripes in her hair— Alice? Jen had introduced them the day before, took the kids hand and led him away. Rio watched with a sad smile, tears pricking at her eyes. What if she had been a better mother? A better wife? Would her Nicky be alive? Would she have worked through that with Agatha?
——
September, 2018.
“Rio, please, you need to come to the hospital please! Our son needs us.” The voice came through the phone, broken and desperate, her wife pleading with her.
“Aggie, I— I can’t. They need me on call, this is important for me, for us. We need to be able to pay the bills once he’s better…” Rio heard a sob through the phone.
“I don’t care about that! Please, my love… He needs you, I need you.”
“I know, I’m sorry mi vida… I wish I could be there.” Rio whispered into the phone, her breathing shaky. “I love you.” The phone beeped a couple times before Rio could even finish speaking, Agatha hung up on her.
Rio let out a shaky sigh as she slumped forward with a quiet sob. She knew she should go, help Agatha, support her, but she couldn’t, she had to work.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
——
Fifteen minutes passed quickly and Nicky was back with Agatha, now eating the lunch Agatha had packed for the day while rambling about his small time with Alice.
“Oh! I met this pretty lady, She was super tall! Taller than Alice, and she had a bunch of drawings on her arms— like Mami did!”
It hurt to hear Nicky talk about Rio. She missed her like crazy but at the same time, she really wouldn’t mind never seeing her again.
“I miss Mami.” Nicky broke Agatha out of her thoughts. “She was super cool! And she sometimes brought me candy when you fell asleep at the doctor's place!”
“That— I didn’t know she did that.” Agatha smiled at the thought of it, Rio stopping by after work to check up on them.
“When will Mami be back?” He asked.
Agatha paused eating, how would she explain this to him? She didn’t want Nicky to hate Rio, that would be cruel. “Well— You see, Nicky…” She tapped the desk nervously, trying to think. “Well, Mami and I… no, uhm.”
“Your Mami is, well, I don’t know if she will come back.” Agatha explained. “No, no. Your Mami isn’t going to come back. We, I, decided it would be better like this, okay?” Agatha’s voice was shaky, she felt like crying.
“Oh. I won’t see Mami again?” Nicky whispered, looking up at Agatha with big, sad eyes.
“Well, no, you can see her when you’re older.”
“Really?
“Really.
“Okay!”
Agatha let out a relieved sigh, it was one thing to deal with an excited Nicky, it was a whole other thing to deal with a sad Nicky. Plus, Agatha was a little more than relieved to stray the topic from Rio.
A knock sounded at the door of her class and Nicky quickly bounded over to open it. When he saw who it was, he waved excitedly. “Hi doodle lady!” He beamed. “Hey bud, you dropped this.”
Agatha knew that voice. Agatha could identify that voice in a crowd of people screaming.
She froze, her movements steeling, she’s pretty sure her breathing stopped, too. speak of death and she may appear
“Mama! This is the lady that reminds me of Mami!” Nicky said excitedly. Agatha remained quiet.
Rio tilted her head up to speak to this kids mother, she opened her mouth to speak before her eyes landed on her.
Agatha looked as pretty as the day she met her, even after five years of no contact.
“Agatha…”
“No, no, get out.” Agatha stood abruptly from her desk.
“Agatha, please?” Rio pleaded, she honestly wasn’t sure what she was even asking for. She slipped inside the classroom before either people could close it on her.
Agatha took a deep breath and glanced at Nicky, who seemed extremely concerned as to why Agatha seemed so upset with this woman. “Nicky, uhm, Why don’t you go see Auntie Jen and Auntie Alice, okay? I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.” She gave her son a reassuring smile.
“Okay momma!” The boy grinned and almost immediately ran off. Rio gazed at the boy with sorrow.
“He’s… I thought he was dead.” She whispered after the door shut behind him.
“No, he… he’s all clear. He’s okay.” Agatha said.
Rio turned her gaze to Agatha, staring into the gaze that seemed to bore into her soul, full of anger and grief. “Aggie, I’m—“ “Don’t.” Agatha cut her off.
“Please, don’t, it makes it so much harder.” Her voice wavered, she looked at Rio with so much longing.
I love you. Please stay this time.
“Agatha, I want to be in your life again, please. I want to be Nicky’s mami again.” Rio pleaded, she took a step forward, Agatha didn’t budge. She tested another step, only a foot or so in front of Agatha.
“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea, Rio…” Agatha was quiet now, her voice cracking as she spoke. Rio took another step forward, now directly in front of Agatha. Tentatively, she brought her hands to cup the brunette’s cheeks. “Please, Aggie? I still love you.” She whispered. “I never stopped.” Her breath ghosted over Agatha’s lips, igniting feelings she’d forgotten. Her hands gripped Rio’s wrists, one hand coming up to hold the hand cupping her cheek. Their lips barely touched when the door opened, Agatha immediately shoving Rio away from herself.
“I can’t do this right now.” She spoke in her normal voice, harsher now than usual.
“Agatha…”