evolve// 5SOS

4

Luke

"You're seriously curling your hair?"

"We are going out for lunch, aren't we?"

"Ohhhh, you wanna go somewhere fancy huh?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Well you don't let me have fast food,"

"That's not true, you just can't eat half the menu,"

"Sorry,"

"You know better than to apologise. Can we leave in 20 minutes?"

"Maybe,"

I shut her door and went downstairs, taking the trash out from the night before. While I was there, I cleaned out the fridge of old food, then Gabi came downstairs and I washed my hands.

She wore light blue jeans and a pink jumper that my mum had knit for her, slipping on her vans at the door. Her curled hair did look beautiful.

Honestly, I had always wished she had curly hair. She was a spitting image of me with everything other than her hair and figure, and it was selfish of me to think, but I didn't want her to look like her mum.

"You look nice,"

"Thank you. You could've tried harder,"

I nudged her arm and she giggled, following me out to the car. I offered her the car keys, but she shook her head and got in the passenger seat, so I drove instead.

On the way, we sang to our favourite songs together, including when we were in the busy car park, then we headed down into town to choose a restaurant.

We didn't eat out too often as I did try to keep our lifestyle very home-orientated, but it was always a nice treat.

"I wanna eat here,"

"Sounds good to me,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's see if they have space,"

We got put in the corner on a two seated table and ordered our drinks, then both stacked our phones in the middle of the table and rested our chins on our hand; our mannerisms sometimes made us laugh because they were the same.

"So, how was school this week?"

"It was okay. Friends, great. School, stressful,"

"Well don't overwork yourself, you can achieve what you want,"

"I need to work more, if only I could stay awake,"

"Well we have that blood test next week that should help, we will get you sorted. I am proud of you for going to school,"

"Thanks, dad,"

"Speaking of friends, you really don't want Maddox over... you can tell me anything, you know that right?"

"I know, there's nothing to tell,"

Maddox and Gabi were more than friends. Not only was it obvious to me by the way she spoke about her, but I had also seen them kissing in their mate's car.

I'd never touched on the topic really, something about relationships made her uncomfortable when it came to telling me. Perhaps I had been a little stand offish in the past.

Gabi had never formally 'come out' to me, but she never really hid liking girls as well as boys, and I never bugged her about. It was always a thing, even as a little kid, she'd have fake weddings with everyone and anyone at school, and play mums and mums as well as mums and dads.

"Why do you keep bringing it up? I wanna spend time with you but apparently that has to be an interrogation so maybe we should just get home,"

"Hey, lets not jump to that. I just... you know- I want you to know that people you care about are welcome into our home, and I don't care who they are. If they make you happy then I am happy,"

"Okay,"

"Okay?"

"Yeah. What are you gonna order?"

She was very good at just cutting things short and changing topic. It was a bad habit I had a while ago, but now Gabi did it and I hated it.

"I am probably having a burger,"

"Can I?"

"You can have whatever you like,"

"Okay,"

"Fancy taking Petunia on a hike tomorrow?"

"I have tons of work," she said dryly.

"Gabi, I am sorry for prodding,"

She shrugged and twisted her fork round on the napkin, ripping it slightly.

"You get weird about everything I do, and I know it's cos you love me, but I am almost an adult. Two weeks,"

"I know, I know. I am sorry,"

"I forgive you,"

I took the fork from her hand, then went back to my drink.

"I would like to take a hike tomorrow if I feel okay in the morning,"

"Great!"

Our food arrived, so we ate that, then headed to the cinema for our movie. I got us some popcorn and then we found our seats, her head hitting my shoulder.

At the end of the day, she was still my little girl.

After the film, and devouring most of the popcorn, we left the cinema and walked past a few shops.

But it never stayed just walking past, we obviously had to shop. The pair of us were terrible for it.

"Dad, this is a nice jumper,"

"I do like that,"

"You should get it,"

"Should I?"

"Yes!"

"Maybe,"

She grabbed one and put it over the clothes already on my arm, moving on with accomplishment painted on their face. She knew I liked to spend money on her, not myself.

We picked out some new jeans for her, and a couple of dresses, but she kept picking up things Mike had got her for her birthday so I had to steer her away from it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Achey,"

"Do you have much homework we need to get done?"

"There's no 'we' in this,"

"I thought I could help,"

"I'm achey, not dumb,"

"Needing help doesn't make you dumb,"

She shrugged and we went to pay for her items. Obviously, she was tired and that either made her get super clingy, or super snarky. Today we got the latter and it wasn't pleasant, but she went through a lot everyday.

I called shopping off after paying, then took her back to the car, where she fell asleep in the passenger seat after about two minutes.

Not wanting to wake her, I decided to drive around for an hour and let her sleep, knowing she'd wake up instantly at home.

Sleep was a time for her to have no pain, no stresses, and her body got to rest, so I didn't care how much fuel I was wasting- I'd honestly do anything for my daughter .