Chapter 5

GABRIELA

It didn't take us long to get home and as soon as we did, I said goodbye to Marcos. When my siblings and I came in, my mother was feeding my grandmother. My siblings go to their rooms to leave things while I go to where my mom is, because it was weird she's feeding her now.

"Hi Mom. Do you want me to help you with grandma?" I asked, "Hello Gabriela, no, you don't need to help me." she assured "Come on woman, let me feed her." I insisted taking the spoon she had in hand "You don't really need to; you must have to do other things."

"But I have time for that," I replied, and I started to feed her, it was the least I could do to help her. "Hey, why are you feeding Grandma at this time?" I asked, because normally, Grandma ate before us and then we put her to bed. "We went to the doctor"

"And what did they say?" I asked without taking my eyes off my grandmother "Well, nothing, it keeps moving forward and they don't know how to slow it down." I replied "Well, I'm sure they'll find a way to slow it down a little bit at least." I said even though I don't think they were going to get it "I hope so, but now I'm going to start making food."

"Mom, it's not necessary, I'll do it when I've finished feeding her." I protested "You must be tired Gabriela, I'm not going to let you do it." she said, and I shook my head "Yes, you're going to do it, you must be tired too. Let me do it please," I asked and listened as she sighed, "Okay, but only this once."

It didn't take me long to finish feeding her and after that, I started to make food. While the water was boiling, my mother and I went to change my grandmother and put her to bed for a nap. I could see mom is tired and I'm also a little tired, but at this moment I didn't care at all, it was the least of it I was tired.

"Hey mom, if you want to go to sleep you can go, I'll call you when the food is done." I said, "Don't worry about it Gabriela, I'm fine." she assured, and I rolled my eyes, because they always said I was the stubborn one "You look tired, you should go rest for a while, even if it's just that."

"I'll do it later." she said, "Of course, I'll take care of that." I finished doing lunch and called my siblings to eat. Then when we finished my siblings cleared the table, I told my mother to go to sleep for a while and then I cleaned everything so my mother wouldn't have to do it later.

As soon as I finished cleaning, I started studying for a while until my father arrived. It was five o'clock in the afternoon and it was time for my grandmother's snack, so we went to get her up to give her the snack and the pills she had to take.

"Gabriela, leave this to me, go out for a while, you need it." said my father and I shook my head "No need dad, I'm fine." I said and now it was him who denied "I know, but I'm asking you to go out for a walk. I'm sure Marcos will be happy to go out."

"Yes, it can be." I said, "Come on, go out for a while, it will do you good." he assured "But I don't want to leave you to do everything as far as grandma is concerned." I insisted "I know, but you must get out, this isn't something that affects you directly." he replied, and I shook my head, because it did "Of course it affects me, Mom is tired, you're tired of working. I can help."

"Your siblings can too," he said "They don't need to, they're too young to have to put up with this, dad." I said "You're young too, go out and enjoy the day. It's half-past six. Your mother and I will take care of your grandmother, don't worry." he assured "It's fine, but if you need anything you call me."

"I'll do it, don't worry, now go." he insisted "Ok, by the way, Mom is sleeping, I'll bring her some water before I leave." I said, taking a glass from the cupboard "I'll take it to her." he said and rolled my eyes "It's not a bother dad." 

"Gabriela..." I started and raised my hands in the air, "Ok, I'm leaving," I replied laughing, "Have fun." he said smiling and nodded, "I will." I left the house and started walking to the park about ten minutes from my house and sent Alex a message telling him where I was going to be. When I arrived, I sat down in the bleachers and stared into nothingness. A few minutes later Alex arrived with a big smile on his face, which made me forget about all the mess in my house about my grandmother.

"Hey beautiful, how are you?" he asked. "Just like the morning." I assured, because nothing had changed at least "Are you still thinking about what you and Marcos talked about?" he inquired and nodded, "Partly, but I meant I'm fine."

"Oh okay, it makes sense. But what did you talk about, that left you so thoughtful?" My boyfriend questioned "Let's see, you know Marcos loves Clara and well..." I started, but he turned away from me a little with a funny face I must admit "Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? Does Marcos love Clara?"

"Yes, didn't you know?" I asked with a smile trying to appear on my face. "Why would I know? What do you plan to do?" He asked, still confused, "Well, he doesn't know what to do to let Clara know and he's about to be unable to take what he's feeling anymore."

"Oh, okay. But that's easy, let him tell her and that's it." he said, and I shook my head "It's not easy, Alex." I replied, "For me it was in a way, Clara won't react to the way you did." he assured, and I rolled my eyes "Of course not, I had my reasons, but what Marcos is afraid of is spoiling the friendship between them." I said "Well, he doesn't need to worry about it, I don't see Clara getting upset about that."

"I know, but that's what I was going for, I have to help him anyway." I insisted "And what are you going to do?" he asked "I came up with several plans, but could you help me with that? Marcos doesn't want me to help him."

"Why?" he asked, "Because he wants to tell him, that's why." I replied, "But you're not going to tell her, are you?" he asked, and I refused, because Marcos had asked me to, and I wouldn't spoil Marcos wishes. "Okay, so what did you come up with?" he asked, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him.

I spent an hour telling him everything that had come up and we decided the first one we were going to do was the first one I mentioned. If it didn't work, we would all go out, including Dani so Sara would notice him.

When we finished sorting out the order of the plans, we were talking about everything and nothing at once until it was time to go home, and not because my father called or anything like that, just I wanted to help my mother with my grandmother. We walked to my house, but I prevented him from approaching in case someone came out, I didn't want to give my siblings any more reasons to distrust what was happening to me, the risk of them seeing us on college is enough for them to suspect something. I don't want them telling my parents anything.

"Well, my queen, now that the holidays have begun, what are we going to do? Will we ever meet?" he asked, and I nodded, "Of course we will." I couldn't imagine not seeing him on all the holidays, "Do you think if tomorrow we do that marathon, we promised?"

"I really want it," I admitted, "Then I'll pick you up tomorrow," he said, and I shook my head. "You're not going to stop at my house." I said, "But I want to come and get you," he insisted, and I shook my head again, "And you can, but you won't come to my house."

"Okay, I'll wait for you wherever you want." he finally said "Next to the bus stop that's a little below my house, on the street you have to take to get to your house." I replied "Okay, I'll wait for you there, what time do you want me to pick you up? If you want, we can spend all day watching TV, there's not going to be anyone in my house."

"Okay, but I'm not going to get up early," I said, the last thing I wanted to do was get up early. "I'm not telling you to get up early, you just tell me the time and I'll be there." he said, "Okay, about half past ten, do you think?" I asked and he nodded "I think it's great, my queen. Until then, I will miss you."

"Me too, I love you, my love," I said with a big smile, "I love you beautiful, more than anything in this life." We kissed and I went home. When I walked in, my mother was giving my grandmother dinner, so I arrived just in time to help her.

While she was giving her dinner I was talking to my father, and I found out he would be leaving in a couple of hours, as he was sent to work in Barcelona. My father worked in construction and my mother in a shopping mall, so now that we had holidays she could go to work in the morning while I took care of grandma, she could even go all day now that I could take care of grandma.

It didn't take long for my mother to finish giving her dinner and my grandmother was already falling asleep because of the sleeping pill, they gave it to her mostly to make her sleep better. We took her to her room, put on her pyjamas, and left. For my part, it didn't take me long to go to sleep, because honestly, I was sleepy, so I said goodbye to everyone and went to sleep.