Twenty years ago


"Gabriela, what are you doing?" Romulus appeared from inside his house to find his lovely five year-old daughter drawing on the sidewalk with chalk with the little boy from across the street. She looked behind her and her eyes brightened to see her father out of bed. She jumped up and ran to give her papa a hug.

"Papa Papa! Me and David found some chalk lying around and I was showing him how to draw, we were drawing bunnies and his had big feet and cute little tails. He says it looks bad but its super good and I like it a lot! He invited me to have dinner with his mama and papa but I told him we were having pasta tonight so I couldn't go, but I told him I could come over for dinner tomorrow, is that ok? If not it's ok but you see I wanted to-" Romulus scooped up her daughter and put her on his shoulders. His laugh was big and loud and sounded like thunder to little David's ears. His blond hair stock up in fear. Gabriela's dad was big and scary, even though he was always nice to him; but he just scared David so much.

"I'm sorry son, I'm afraid you can't take my daughter tomorrow, she has big plans for tomorrow." He tried to sound happy and silly but he could taste the sadness in his mouth. They both said their good-bye's to David as he ran to his mother calling for him.

"Big plans? Like an Adventure? Are we going on an Adventure?"

Romulus picked his daughter from his shoulders and placed her on the kitchen counter where a big pot of pasta was boiling. Her Little green dress was dirty from the chalk, and she even had some in her ear. She looked into her papa's eyes and smiled a big smile. This, however, made his heart hurt even more.

"We aren't, but you are. Mama is coming tomorrow to visit."

"Mama! Mama's coming! Is mama going to stay? I haven't seen mama in a long time!"

"Well, you're staying with her, at her house in Hungary,"

"Are you coming with us?"

"No, sweetie, Papa has to stay back in Rome."

Realization swept through Gabriela's eyes, she would never see her papa again. This was why he had made the pasta; they only had pasta on important days like birthdays.

"NO! Don't leave me Papa! I'll miss you!"

She jumped into her Papa's arms and started to cry buckets and buckets of tears. He had dreaded telling her this since he found out that Elizabeth, Gabriela's mother, had won the custody battle. He had been heart broken for the past three days and couldn't even bring himself to get out of bed. For a while he was just in shock, he had been perfect, his house was clean, he hadn't had a drink since Gabriela was born, and he even quit his job in the army to become a working father. But he knew exactly why she won, the reason why se won full custody.

She slept with every living man in the world, and she was the queen of blackmail and manipulation.

"It's ok Gabby; everything is going to be ok,"

"No! No it's not! I'm not going to see you, and mama's house smells funny!" She cried these words between sobs as her grip oh her papa's neck only tightened.

And even if Elizabeth did blackmail the judge, how could she blackmail the female mediator, who had seen the living conditions Gabby would have to be in. Her house smelled like marijuana smoke and death. The carpet, the rooms, even the dishes, were all filthy. Romulus shuddered as he rocked his daughter back and forth to calm her down. And after twenties minuets of loud sobs and screaming, Gabriela had finally fallen asleep, her eyes still full of tears.

Romulus sighed.

"I guess we'll have pasta for breakfast instead."

He carried her to her room, put her into her nightgown, and was about to tuck her in when he noticed she had mindlessly grabbed his ring finger. He then thought back to when he first held his daughter in the nursery at the hospital. He was only nineteen at the time but he felt like it was just the other day. He had fed her and was just rocking her back and forth in the rocking chair as she slept soundly. When he was sure she was fast asleep he tried to put her back in her bed, but only to find she had grabbed onto his finger, with much force he recalled, just as she did tonight. He blinked back tears as he picked up his little girl and brought her to his bed instead. He laid there with his little girl sleeping on his chest, for the last time. He had no hope now and all that he could do was sleep.

The morning came too quickly for both Gabriela and Romulus. They had just laid there for as long as they could, just talking, talking about His past, about what she wanted to be when she grew up, until Gabby's stomach sounded like it was about to eat itself. They both laughed and ran down to eat the cold pasta that was meant to be dinner last night. It didn't matter that it was cold, it was amazing for her and that was all that mattered. They tried to act like it was just another Friday, they picked out a dress for Gabriela, they laughed at the daily comics. But this could only last till five o'clock, and five o'clock just came too quickly for either one of them.

A knock at the door signaled their long dreaded good-byes. Romulus opened the door to find his ex-wife leaning on the door jam smocking a cigarette. Her long, wavy, brown hair was pined back into a messy bun and a small pink clip that looked like little flowers made it seem like she was delicate and pretty, but Romulus knew she was just like that pin, little, dirty, and pitiful. She stood strait as she threw her bud into the grass and plastered on a fake smile.

"Hey baby! How are you doing sweetie? Did you miss me?"

"No," Gabriela looked at her little red slippers, she knew if she looked at her mama she would start crying again.

"Gabriela! Sorry, Elizabeth, she's just as shocked about this as I am." Romulus made it sound as small talkieish and meaningless as he possibly could, but they both silently knew if Gabriela wasn't standing right there, he would have yelled at the top of his lungs how disgusted he was in her. Elizabeth loved making this man squirm and feel awful like she had felt when she had to choose between having a kid at sixteen, or going agents the churches wishes. She didn't care about the kid; she just wanted to make Romulus feel like dirt.

"It's alright! Hey baby, how about you go get in the car? me and papa have to talk a little, ok?"

"Ok," Gabriele walked slowly to the little, broken-down, beetle.

"What the hell are you getting from this Elizabeth?"

"What? Well I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid with me!" Romulus hated this woman, but he knew he would just be proving her point he punched her, so he took his anger out on the nearby wall.

"Wow! Such violence! This is why I wanted to get my daughter out of here as soon as possible, who knows how long it would have been before you took out all that violence out on my little girl." She used My and Her like a knife and lodged it into his heart, again and again. He couldn't take it anymore, his knees gave out from underneath him and he feel to the floor.

"Just go,"

"Huh? Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"GET OUT!"

"Oh! Gladly," She turned as walked away like a black cat after a kill. He had lost, and there was no way he could redeem himself. He herd the engine roll away, and with it, his pride and joy, his light, his reason for getting up in the morning. His baby girl, gone.

"It'll be ok Mr. Rome,"

A small hand laid itself on Romulus's shoulder. It was little David, his deep blue eyes were red and he was swollen from crying as well. How could such a small child be able to make such a strong man cry like a baby.

"It will only be ok when my baby girl is back here, were she belongs."


Heck yeah! 12:15! I'm going to go sleep for the rest of forever now! lol no no, this story is actually based on a song by paramore called "The Only Exception" Great song and I would recommend it to anyone! OK time to go to bed before I start rambling. Love you guys and hope you enjoy!