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Buzz.. Buzz..

Carla's eyes flickered open and shut repeatedly before finally closing, trying to act as if there wasn't a blatantly obvious ringing noise blaring a metre away from her.

Buzz. Buzz.

The latina groaned and threw her extra pillow over the alarm in a lame attempt to silence it.

BUZZ BUZZ!!

"Okay I get it!!" She practically shouted before jolting upright and aggressively picking up her phone and looking at her home screen, before realising it wasn't an old alarm going off when she saw a familiar name staring directly at her.

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽 is calling...

She scowled in confusion and picked up, "Hello?" She said half-asleep

A familiar voice answered, "Took you long enough to pick up." He remarked snarlingly.

"It's.. eight am?! What do you want from me?" She answered groggily.

"Have I woke you up?" The boy asked concerningly.

"No, idiot, clearly I sound like I have no voice all the time, also it's EIGHT am?? Who gets up at this time??" She angrily snared.

"Haha, relax! I'd expected you'd be an early riser." He giggled childishly at the brunette's remark.

"What, did you ring me for." Carla answered annoyed, if he had no real answer she was going to scold this boy.

"Calm down, I was just going to ask if you wanted to go to the park?"

"At EIGHT AM??" Her mouth dropped, who the hell goes to the park at eight in the morning apart from almond moms and gym bros??

"Is that a no then?" His tone had a twang of disappointment threaded in there, amongst cheekiness and hope.

"..." Carla hesitated, "Be outside mine at 10."

"Done." You could hear this boy's smile from over the phone.

"See you in 10." Carla put the phone down and let out a small smile, before realising and shaking it away.

She jumped out of bed and began to pick out an outfit. Eventually, she settled on a red t-shirt splattered with black tie-dye she had done last summer; when her and Billy got bored in her backyard. After throwing half her wardrobe out, she finally found her favourite black baggy ripped jeans that were buried at the bottom of her wardrobe. She put her curly brown hair in a half up half down before grabbing her house keys and falling back onto her bed to scroll for the remaining time it would take for Monty to arrive.

As soon as her phone buzzed she knew who it was. She bolted down the stairs, gave her little brother a kiss, and shouted a frantic goodbye to her dad before practically running out the front door.

Carla opened the passenger side door and jumped in turning to a grinning Monty, who looked surprisingly REALLY attractive whilst clutching the steering wheel.

"Hey trouble." He looked over and grinned his infamous grin before handing a cup to her, "I got you coffee since you sounded.. slightly exhausted when I called."

"Slightly is an understatement, you try being up with your toddler brother for majority of the night because he insists of one more episode of Thomas the Tank Engine," She sighs and giggles at the image of her little brother in her head, replacing the earlier image of Monty's hands swiftly as she was sure he caught her staring, "Thank you for this much needed coffee, how much do I owe you?" She picks up the dunkin cup and sips before smiling at the taste.

"Hey, I've offered to help with Antonio and the others multiple times, and don't be stupid, the coffee's on me." He furrowed his eyebrows at the mere suggestion of Carla paying him.

"I know but honestly, you don't want to, he can be a little nightmare sometimes," She groaned and slouched back slightly, "You act like you have Felix money, this is like the third time you've paid for my drink."

"I'm good with kids, I adopted a robot for heaven's sake!" He chortled, "Maybe I do have Felix money stashed away just to spend on you, you'll never know." He grinned before starting the car.

"You are a good dad to Penny, I'll give you that, however I am the cooler mom," She smirked at his gasp, "If you have Felix money honestly it wouldn't shock me because that boy pays you to do everything for him, you're practically his servant."

"Firstly, when did you decide you were mom? Secondly, I'm VERY cool thank you. Thirdly, to be honest I'm basically his butler at this point." He giggled once more.

Finally they arrived at their designated meeting spot and got out the car as they walked to the swings where both of them took a seat, side by side.

"I don't know when I decided to be mum but that role isn't taken, is it?" Carla smirked.

"The role is very much open, but who says you have the qualifications to have it? Where's your CV madame?" Monty joked.

"I'll have you know I'm the best candidate for this job because she's my best friend and I have 5 brothers. Oh, and my CV's up your ass, have fun fishing it out if you need to fact check anything." She retorted and cackled after that last sentence.

"Fair enough, I suppose you can have it, if you agree that we're finally not mortal enemies anymore. I think I'll pass on the fact checking part." He laughed just as loudly.

"Hm, you drive a hard bargain." She sat and pondered over this deal, the two had resented eachother for years at this point, younger Carla would be shaking her head in pure disappointment and rage. However, parental rights sound pretty fun at the moment, what was another kid to add to her supervision?

"Fine, I accept. But your business still rivals with mine." She scowled.

"Fair play, maybe one day we'll join together." He suggested.

"Ha! In your dreams, I make triple what you make in a day." She laughed at his pretentious remark.

The two began to bicker back and forth over their businesses, before reaching a mutual agreement and letting a comfortable silence fall over the two.

"Was there any reason you asked me to meet today?" Carla asked eventually.

"If i'm honest I'm worried about you," He looked at her, deep in her eyes, "You have a lot going on, and I know the bear-attack-scare didn't help and I didn't want you rotting away in your bed whilst trying to tackle taking care of your brothers. I don't want you wasting your weekend away. I figured you could use a break is all."

Carla widened her eyes in surprise, how did he practically read her in seconds?

It's true, it did get tiring taking care of her brothers, and yes the bear-attack-scare did worry her massively and kind of throw her into a spiral of worry and depression. She needed an excuse to get out of bed today, and he somehow knew that.

"I'm fine Monty, honest-"

"Carla, don't bullshit me. I can see right through that shitty lie."

Carla shut her mouth in defeat before she let out a small giggle, which was reciprocated by the boy.

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh."

"No, you're right. It was a shit lie."

She murmured a small thank you which Monty nodded to confirm he heard it before they began to stare at eachother in silence once more.

"Soo, any reason you accepted my invite to hang out?" The ginger's tone was playful and inviting, which made Carla smile widely.

"Well you don't have any other friends, I didn't want your customers see you playing at a children's park by yourself and therefore it ruining you and your business' reputation." She smiled and earned a piercing glare from Monty.

"I thought you would want that, it would give your business more revenue if my customers saw me in a.. vulnerable state like that?" He smirked, knowing he found a loophole in her statement.

She widened her eyes and tried to think of a rebuttal but Monty interjected before she could get a word in.

"Or is the real reason, that you're also worried about me, Carla?" He leaned closer, raising his eyebrows in a feeble attempt to intimidate the Latina next to him.

Carla sat there, dumbfounded, how can this boy read her mind?? Truthfully, he had been plaguing her mind for a few days now. She often found herself wondering how and what he was doing, if he was managing Penny on his own alright, if his business was still doing good whilst school was off etc etc. However, most importantly, she'd been worrying about him himself. If he had been getting enough sleep, if he was eating properly and so on. She knew he was pretty much a grown man but still these thoughts began to stick in her mind. Though was she going to tell him that? Ha! As if, she couldn't risk his ego going any higher than it already was.

"Actually, I was just wondering how we were going to move forward with Penny." She smiled innocently.

Monty sat and stared for a bit longer whilst Carla smiled and drank more of her coffee he bought her, he knew full well that was the biggest lie she's ever told, both of them did.

"So there's no worry there at all?" He pretended to be sad, pouting his lips like a little boy who's mom wont let him get the newest action-figure.

"Where on earth would you get that idea from, Montgomery?" She teased and poked his arm.

"I'm hurt, Dominguez." He frowned before smiling once more, "Regarding Penny, you could always come over to mine and spend time with her, or us three could go out and do some activities to entertain her during the days off school and to get her mind off the bear attack? It'll get you out the house and away from your brothers. Just a little break every now and then." He suggested.

"That sounds amazing, actually." How does this man think of everything? She questions the existence of this boy even being real.

"Plus, Penny could do with having a solid female figure in her life, my mum's always busy with work away on business trips so she barely sees Penny." He added.

"Well lucky for you and her, you're stuck with me now." She grinned.

"That's not the worst possible thing, you're always welcome to crash at my place, it's usually just me and Penn anyway." He gestured.

"Perfect, I'll be coming round everyday. Not at eight am though, that's despicable." She joked and they both giggled in-sync

As they were deep in conversation about Penny, Carla felt her pockets and sighed, "I left my lighter at home, do you have one?"

"Again? Dominguez, I swear you don't even have a lighter at this point." He chuckled and produced a small cheap lighter from his pocket and handed it over.

"You're a lifesaver, you want one?" She pulled out a cig and passed it to him, he accepted and put it in his mouth.

Carla edged closer to him, until they were face to face. Monty was incredibly confused, he felt his face begin to grow redder and redder with every inch she ushered further before he caught on to what she was doing, she lit his cigarette with hers, although the entire time she seemed to notice his flustered expression as she had a large smirk plastered on her face.

The two smoked their cigarettes and spoke about life some more as they watched the sun go down and the nearby children start to go inside their houses for their dinner.

"It's late, you want me to drive you back?" He checked his phone at the time, seven thirty eight pm.

"Late?" She chuckled. "It's practically midday."

"Midday?!" He exclaimed, "I'm ready for bed at this time usually."

"Aww does your mommy set you a bedtime?" She cooed and pouted in a similar way to how Monty did earlier.

"Shut up." He glared and hit her lightly on the arm.

"WOW! ABUSE?" She screamed and clutched her arm is desperation, practically falling of her swing whilst deep in her acting.

"I LIGHTLY TAPPED YOU?!" His mouth dropped once more as she ran into the shop nearby and he bolted after her, both of them manically laughing.

Once they returned to Monty's car after their little squabble in the shop, they finally set off to Carla's home.

"You know we don't have to go back." She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips and shrugged.

"Your dad will be worried." Monty wouldn't break his focus off the road.

"God, you're no fun." She crossed her arms and sulked.

"It's nine o'clock Carla. We've hung out practically all day," He laughed, "Are you gonna miss me?" He teased.

"Okay, you're in waaay too over your head kid." She laughed.

"Whatever you say."

As he up to her doorstep, he finally met her gaze.

"Well, thank you very much for the riveting day out. And for picking me up, oh and the coffee." She grinned before picking up her keys.

"And the lighter." He chuckled.

"Oh you wont let me forget anything." She rolled her eyes before waving goodbye and walking into her house and straight up to her room whilst getting undressed immediately into her pajamas and breathing a sign of relief.

As she climbed into bed, she pulled out her phone and messaged him.

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽

Me: Thank you for today, I enjoyed it. Also coffee's on me next time :)

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: You're welcome, thanks for not leaving me by myself. Should do it again sometime soon :)

Me: Couldn't risk your reputation like that could I? Definitely, will be my call though.

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: Assuming not at 8am?

Me: Definitely not. Maybe 11 if you're lucky ;)

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: Half of my day is gone by then lmao

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: Also, can you hear this rain?!

Me: Okay early bird 🙄 and what, you scared of the rain Montgomery?

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: Shut up, acting like you're not scared of spiders.

Me: Acting like you aren't either?

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽:

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽: You win.

Me: Easy W

Ginger dweeb 🖕🏽 is calling...

'He really can't leave me alone.' Carla smiles to herself before pressing the green answer button.

"Missing me already, Montgomery?" The brunette teased.

"Don't push your luck, Dominguez."