Chapter Five

Giatta

“You having fun so far?” Adam asked Giatta. “Yeah I am, although we’ve only been to one shop on the beach.” Then she laughed. “That’s true. There is a carnival opening tonight, how bout we say we go?”

“Alright. How bout we do.” She said. Giatta and Adam walked around the beach until it was time to get headed towards the carnival. Adam even bought Giatta some new clothes, including a light blue dress, above knee length, that had some floral pattern on it. He also bought her new shoes to go with the dress. “It’s almost 10; we can leave now to go to the carnival if you’re ready.” He told Giatta. They went to get in his truck then drove off down the street to the carnival. It was only 10 minutes away. They had a huge Ferris-wheel, swinging ships, a drop tower, and other rides and attractions, and the place was filled with food stands. Adam lead her around the place, searching for a food stand. “What do you want?” Adam asked her. “To eat?” Giatta asked. Adam had this “well-obviously” look on his face. Giatta answered “Of course 'what do I want to eat.' I’ll have one of those hotdogs. Oh and a small coke.” Adam ordered a hotdog, small coke, a double thick bacon cheese burger for himself, and a large orange soda. “Do you want drizzled cheese on your hotdog?” The guy asked with a lousy “I-really-don’t-wanna-be-here” voice. “Uhmm sure.” Giatta said. When they slid down to the next open window, they handed out their food. A huge cup came through the window, it was filled with coke.

“I think they got your order wrong, Adam. This coke is a large.” Adam laughed like Giatta was stupid. “No, that’s the small.” If this big cup was the small, she couldn’t imagine what the large looked like. When it came out, it was ultra huge. Adam asked Giatta if she would hold it for him why he took the change for the refreshments. She could barely hold it with one hand, she had to grab it with both of them. Adam took his drink and picked up his burger as they headed towards the humungous Ferris-wheel. They got in the long line and saw a sign that read “NO FOOD ALLOWED!” “Well there goes us eating on the ride. We’ll catch it when we’re done.” Giatta said. “Well that’s one big bag you carry around your shoulder.” Adam said. Giatta knew what he was up to. She opened up her bag and they put the wrapped up food in her bag. “Now what about the drinks?” She asked Adam. “Those are not going in my bag.” She told him. “We put them in there, until we get on the ride. Just keep the bag still enough so they won’t move around.” Adam suggested. She did what he said and got it in there with no problem.

Her dark black bag that she carried around her shoulder, made it look like there weren’t even any cups in there. They got away with it and hopped on a seat. The Ferris-wheel shook when it started going up. As they were half way to the top, they took out the food and drinks and started eating. All the way at the top, the Ferris-wheel got stuck. Giatta and Adam would see almost all over Fletcher city and all over the beach. It was beautiful. All the city lights and houses lit up in the back yards with parties going on. Giatta turned around to see what was behind her. More lights and big buildings, people walking on the beach, and the ocean going on forever and ever. The breeze was a little chilly at the top but it was fine. “So what am I to you?” Giatta asked Adam after she bit into her hotdog. “Like, I know we aren’t any more than friends but am I just another girl you hang around for a while, and then take off when someone else comes along? I mean come on, you’re good looking to be honest, and I know you aren’t gonna be all on your own when I can only imagine girls throwing themselves at you.”

“Well you sure get straight to the point.” Adam said. “No point in wasting time.” Giatta answered. Adam opened his mouth, about to answer her question, but nothing came out. Giatta looked at him waiting on his answer. “I had a whole bunch of girlfriends. Slept with a few of them. I was never too serious about any of them, except one. She went off with some other guy though. I recently bumped into one of the girls I slept with. One night we were at a party on the beach. We barely even talked around the fire pit where everyone was drinking but she came over to sit by me and we chatted for a little bit. We were both wasted when we decided to go back to my truck and do each other. I only knew her for not even 2 hours. That was about 3 weeks ago. Since then I haven’t had much to do with girls except the ones I’ve been with before, they keep calling me.” Giatta wasn’t so surprised to hear something like that. Then Adam added, “And I don’t hang around girls until some other one comes along, just to let you know. I plan to have one friend who sticks around. So far I haven’t had much of those.” Giatta knew exactly what he was talking about. Though she hadn’t slept around like Adam had, she knows how hard it is to find a good friend who sticks around. “I get that, and I promise you, I’ve been through dealing with people who turn their back. And it always end up happening when you’re going through one of the toughest situations in your life. I can also promise you that, as much as I can help it, I will be here for you. There’s gotta be a reason you went off with that one girl you barely knew.”

“It isn’t that anything was wrong with me. I was totally wasted.” Giatta laughed, “Wasted. Wasted huh? ‘Oh I was wasted’ that’s your excuse? I know it’s a little harder to control things when you’re under that but come on. Some control can happen.” She said. “This is true,” Adam started, “But it’s harder than you think. But you really wanna know why I was always out drinking and getting into things I know I shouldn’t have gotten into?” Giatta then nodded. “I thought I was perfect. I had everything. I played football for the school, my dad made a lot of money, my mom was the coolest mom ever, and they let me do just about anything I wanted. My sister was married, had kids, I had the greatest nephews. I had the most perfect girlfriend ever. She was gorgeous, she was smart, she was the perfect size, and she had these blue eyes. These killer blue eyes. She was Korean mixed with white so she had perfect straight black hair. We were always together, always going out, always attending each others big events in our lives, always talking on the phone when we weren’t together, and people thought nothing wrong between us would ever happen. We were crazy freshmen in love, so we thought. When she turned 15, she told me she was pregnant. It was definitely mine.” He stopped there but Giatta wanted him to keep on going.

She stared at him and nudged his shoulder for him to keep on going. He looked away from Giatta as if he didn’t want her to see him. It looked like he had tears slowly coming to his eyes. “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Giatta said. “No, you asked. So I’ll finish my story.” He cleared his throat and only let a couple tears come out. “I was scared. I couldn’t be a dad at 15. I had my football career, I had all the friends, I had this awesome relationship with my whole family, and I couldn’t let it go to waste just because I had a baby to take care of. So I didn’t take care of it. I left my girlfriend. I told her I wasn’t gonna be the dad cause it wasn’t even mine. I knew the baby was mine, but I just couldn’t do it. She got so mad at me, she stopped talking to me trying to contact me for 5 months. I’ve tried talking to her for the past year. All I want to do is see my kid. I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl. She won’t let me in. She’s answered the phone once and hung up when she found out it was me. Ever since then, I’ve been messed up about it. I’ve just been out; doing a couple girls I’ve picked up along the way, and wasted my time with nothing but alcohol and football. Football is the only thing keeping me up right now.” Giatta knew his life was a little twisted but never knew it was this bad. “I wanna help.” Was the first thing that came out of her mouth. “You wanna help? I don’t think there is anything you can do.”

“Yes there is. I’m gonna help find your ex girlfriend and get you to see your baby. Well he, or she is about 2 now so I think it’s been long enough. Your old girlfriend, she still lives here in town right?” Adam nodded, “As far as I know. When I called her home phone, she was at home. I called about 3 months ago. You don’t have to do this. I can do it all on my own.” Giatta still wanted to help. “Oh I think you’ve done enough on your own. Let me help. I’m gonna help. You can’t put me out of this situation now even though it isn’t any of my business.” She said. Giatta almost forgot about her food, she was so caught up in Adam’s story. She continued eating her luke warm hotdog sipping on her coke through her long straw. “I’m only letting you do this because I wanna see that baby. My baby.”

They were both silent and eating their food. The Ferris-wheel was still stuck and they were still at the very top. “You know, it’s been hard with just my mom and me.” Giatta said. “I used to have all these friends when I was little, they all had dad’s, and I was always wondering if I had one. I never knew every kid had a dad out there somewhere. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. I know I hate him though. I hate the fact that he left my mom all on her own. I hate the fact that I grew up with no male role in my life. The closest thing I got to that was all my mom’s boyfriends and sometimes when we went to Germany, my grandpa.”

“You have grandparents in Germany?” Adam asked. “Yes, my mom’s parents. They’re German.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“People like me. Guys who leave when they can’t handle it. Even if they can afford it, could take care of it, and would be okay with it. We still left. And now she won’t even let me see her.” Then Giatta asked, “How do you know it’s a girl?”

“I have a feeling it’s a girl.” Another silence swept through with neither one of them speaking. “I know I screwed it up but I’m gonna be one of those dad’s who go back and stay.” Giatta was half convinced. “Just promise me one thing.” Giatta said. “Anything.”

“Don’t give up looking for her. And once you find her, don’t you ever let her go. I’m just saying this because I know that’s all I need sometimes.” Adam nodded, agreeing to what she was saying. “I promise.” He said, “Oh yeah, back at the house last night, you said you had boyfriend drama. What’s with it with you and your boyfriend?”

“Oh, he isn’t my boyfriend. He used to be. Back in Virginia we went out. Then my mom and I moved here less than a month ago and we just kind of split. We had our hard times even before I moved but it’s even worse now. We haven’t talked in a couple days. But it’s not really something I wanna get into right now.” It was silent between the two of them. Adam broke it by saying,

“So it’s supposed to rain tonight. Not until late but it’s almost 11. I hope we don’t get stuck up here in rain, or miss that party by midnight.” He said. “If we’re still up here in the rain, I’m some how using you as a cover.”