Page 36 of Salvation

“Some people are into that shit.”

“Just… shut up. You’ve made this weird when all I wanted to do was—”

“Imade it weird?!” I interrupted.

“Look. Can I just… I want to… you know…” he made a pushing motion with his hands.

“You want to push the pram? Why didn’t you just say that?” I asked, stepping away so he could take over.

“I dunno… I’ve never pushed one before. I was nervous, okay? So sue me.”

I laughed out loud at his confession, and then laughed even harder as he tested the limits of the pram.

“What do I do here?”

“You push the pram!”

“But do I like… push the pram? Or do I walk and the pram pushes itself?” He eyed the pram as though it were about to transform into Optimus Prime.

“You’re overthinking this.”

“If I push the pram, there’s every chance I’m going to hurl the poor kid at a wall.”

“Perhaps don’t push it that hard, then! It’s not that difficult. You hold on to the handles and the pram pushes itself!” He just looked even more confused, so I tried another technique. “Think of it like a motorbike. When you’re pushing that, do you push it—”

“Yes,” he blinked, looking utterly perplexed. “It takes a lot of strength, actually.”

“Right, but once the wheels start going, they sort of move on their own, and you keep it going with your movements. Your hands are just there to steer.”

“I—”

“Put your fucking hands on the pram and push it, Vienna!” I snapped, finally losing my patience.

“Hey,” he grinned as he gave an experimental push. “Hey this isn’t so bad.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered under my breath and then shook my head as Vienna began running around, steering Axel left, then a sharp turn right, making stupid motorbike noises as he did so. Axel squealed with delight, especially when Vienna nearly ran someone over and yelled “beep, beep” at them, which Axel promptly copied with his own garbled “bip-bip”.

“Jenna’s!” I yelled as loud as I could, hoping he heard me over the sound of his own deranged laughter as I started making my way towards Jenna’s house.

“That was more fun than I thought it would be,” Vienna breathed when he caught up to me.

“Hardly surprising when you have the mind of a child yourself,” I smiled back. He handed the pram back to me and carried on walking at my side. “Has Dante instructed you to babysit me?”

“You followed me, remember? You’re obsessed with me. You’ve always stalked me.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Beard Boy.”

“Besides… Even if he had, I wouldn’t tell you. You’d only go snitching to the lawyer and have the contract declared null and void.”

Excellent point.

“So, why are you following me?”

“To prove a point,” he said firmly.

“To Dante?”

“Not everything is about you and Dante, hair buddy. I have a life outside of you two, you know. Quite a fun one, actually. It might surprise you to know I even have a sex life that doesn’t involve you two.”

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