Mario's invitation to spend time at the spring festival seemed to come at the right moment while her siblings were meeting Devin. Her friend was in charge of babysitting her little sister and asked Bellandra for help.
Lately the two were spending a lot of time together and the boy knew her enough to realize that something wasn't okay.
"Something is happening to you. It's making you... not sad exactly but..."
Even with her eyes closed, Bellandra could feel his gaze caressing her face. In such a short time Mario had become someone important to her that she could implicitly trust.
"It's about my father." She said, still with closed eyes.
"Oh." Was Mario eloquent answer.
Bellandra turned her eyes to the ground just as some drops of rain began to fall, her gaze followed one, observing how it was losing itself on the lines of the tiles.
"Ramira and Franco began asking about him a couple of days ago." She whispered.
He looked at her with a sad smile and it was enough to start telling him everything that had happened since the day her siblings had asked for her help.
"They're meeting him right now and I don't know what to think, what to do." All the feelings that she had contained within her began to pour like the rain that was falling on them. "I want to meet him but at the same time I don't want to. And I know it's not his fault, that he didn't know about us but... I just want to go back to a couple of weeks ago, just want the things to be the same as always."
"But it's never going to be the same." He said in a tender voice.
"I know."
Silence accompanied the following minutes, until Mario understood that Bell didn't want to continue talking. At least for now.
"I don't think this rain is good for my little sis. There's a toddler area here at the park, we could leave her indoors while we watch her from the dance floor."
"I'm dacing under the rain, I'm dancing under the rain." Mario started to sing, out of tune.
Her own laugh surprised Bellandra. "You know the song is singing in the rain, right?"
"Well, it's similar." He said shaking his hand, shrugging it off. "Although technically now I could say I'm singing in the rain."
"If that's what you want to call it." She said without malice, looking at him tenderly.
"Oh, you wound me."
She laughed again, he's alwaing making her laugh.
"Thank you." She took his hands when the music changed to something slow.
For the first time in the afternoon, Mario was speechless.
But words were not necessary while they continued dancing in the rain.
Some songs later, Mario invited her to watch the stars.
"In bridgeport and with a sky covered in rain clouds?" Bellandra questioned the boy's logic but sat down next to her friend anyway.
"Oh hush you, I'm trying something here."
"Yeah?"
"Yes, if it's okay with you."
"It is."
***
A few hours later, Bellandra arrived at her home in a better spirit than she had left in the morning.
The babysitter was taking one of his mother's drinks, so, as kind as possible, she asked him to leave. She would have to talk to her mother about who she hired.
The twins were sitting down to eat, so with some hesitation she joined them.
She debated with herself whether or not to ask how everything had turned out. But no matter how much she denied it, it wasn't something she could avoid forever.
"So? Had a good time?"
And that was enough question for both of them to start talking about Devin.
"He's an actor." It was the first thing Franco said. "And he promised me that he'll take me to Plumbob Pictures and we going to meet some of the actors! It's so cool!"
"His apartment is not very big, I thought he was going to live in a huge place. But I like it." Ramira said at the same time.
Bellandra smiled, in spite of everything, it was nice to see her siblings excited.
"He's nice. He asked a lot of things about all of us." Franco spoke tentatively. "About you."
"And he looks a lot like you, Bell!" Ramira added suddenly.
Franco rolled his eyes and glared at his twin.
Bellandra felt uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation. Her younger brother began to cry at the same time so the teen put the fork on the plate.
"I'll see what Bruno needs. We'll keep talking later."
Franco saw his older sister walk away before turning to Ramira.
"You had to ruin it, right?" He said a little exasperated.
"I'm sorry! I didn't think.
Bellandra put Bruno to sleep while thinking about what her sibling said about Devin.
"So he seems to be a good person." She said to herself. She knew that she wasn't ready to meet him, not yet, but maybe starting to know about him isn't a bad idea. Maybe with time...
Her life had changed, no matter how much she denied it. It's never going to be the same again, but maybe, just maybe, that doesn't mean it's not going to be better.
This chapter cost me a lot, there were a lot of things I didn't know how to express, things that come out naturally in Spanish but I don't know how to express them in English. But I'm happy with the result. Finally, after so many months. :)