The next two days are about as equally as stressful as the first. The only plus is that Elliott is almost never home. I'm learning that each of the kids have little quirks about them that make it very difficult to control them. Ethan has his hiding thing. Crystal refuses to play any games that involve dice. Rose always leaves the faucet on. Jonas is obsessed with Cheerios.
"Where are my Cheerios?" Jonas asks as he walks downstairs in the morning and looks through the cabinets.
I glance over him and drop the handful of Cheerios I was holding for Beth. "Uh, I can go to the store and-"
"Oh my gosh," he whispers quietly to himself. "We don't have any Cheerios? I'm going to die."
"I said I can go to the store," I say and fix Beth's bib. "Do you mind having the pancakes I made for breakfast?"
He starts laughing intensely and changes his voice to mimic me, "do you mind having the pancakes I made for breakfast?" Becoming serious, he yells, "no!"
"Come on," I plead, "it's just one breakfast. They taste good."
"I don't care how they taste, Ivy," he spits. "I have eaten Cheerios for breakfast my entire life."
I raise an eyebrow. "That seems a little unlikely. I'm sure you had one breakfast that wasn't-"
"My entire life!" he repeats much louder, causing Beth to start crying. "Yeah, you go ahead and cry, you Cheerios stealer!"
"Jonas," I scold and try to comfort Beth. "I'll go to the store now, but you have to watch the kids. Addison went out to brunch with some of her friends from school, so you're in charge."
"That's not a good idea," he says. "I'm not really the best person to put in charge. I panic very easily. Oh! And I faint at the sight of blood."
"Elliott's still upstairs sleeping, so if anything horrible happens-- nothing will happen-- then he'll be here."
Jonas looks at me like I've lost my mind. "You think having Elliott here does me any good? If I were to fall and crack my head open, Elliott would just hand me a bandaid.. if that! If this house were on fire, Elliott would take his autographed photo of Jessica Alba and bolt, leaving us all to die in the flames! If an earthquake were to happen, Elliot would throw me into the crack and-"
"You're just being dramatic, Jonas. I'll be gone for no more than twenty minutes at the store. I think you can handle twenty minutes."
"Nope," he says firmly. "I can't even handle five minutes. One time, my mom and Addison went to water our neighbor's flowers and I was left in charge and I accidentally fed Beth a turkey leg and she almost died."
I bite my tongue and nod. "Okay, well, I believe you're mature enough to handle it this time." I pick the keys off the ledge and head for the garage. "I'll be back in twenty minutes."
"Don't do this, Ivy," he cries, falling to the floor and clutching onto my left leg. "Don't leave me to die!"
I shake my leg, but the kid won't give it up. "Jonas, let go!"
As I am trying to break my leg free, Elliott walks into the kitchen. He glances at me and then down to Jonas with a smirk.
"Ah!" Jonas screams. "The beast has awaken! Now you definitely have to stay!"
"Could you help me?" I ask Elliott hopefully, kicking my leg back and forth.
"Shoot, I totally would," he says with fake kindness. "It's just.. I left all the shits I give about this on my non-existent nightstand." Sending me a wink, Elliott grabs his own set of keys and heads out the backdoor.
As soon as the door closes, Jonas stands up and dusts off his shirt. "That was a close one. You can go now."
"You were just waiting for him to leave?"
"Yeah," he answers as if it was obvious. "Ivy, I sprained his hand a few days ago. He hasn't done anything to me yet, which is so out of the norm. My theory is he won't do anything when you're around. As soon as you're gone, it's bye-bye-Jonas."
I roll my eyes. "Look, I've already had a talk to him and he agreed to leave you guys out of harms way. You didn't purposely sprain his hand anyway."
"I didn't purposely scratch his car last summer either, but that didn't stop him from hanging me by my underwear from our balcony."
~~
Immediately after returning from the grocery store with five boxes of Cheerios, I'm bombarded with questions.
"Can we go to the park?"
"What's for lunch?"
"Was the milk expired?"
"Can I go to the pool?"
"Where's Ethan?"
"Did you get any fruit snacks at the grocery store?"
"I repeat, was the milk expired?"
Before I can answer any of the questions, Jonas throws up on the kitchen floor. "The milk was expired," he mumbles and leaves to go upstairs.
I stare at the throw up in disgust, going to the sink to wet a towel to clean up the mess. As I'm wetting the towel, Rose and Crystal continue to pull at my shirt and ask me questions.
"Please, go find Ethan and then we can make a plan for the day," I say and kneel on the floor to clean up the mess.
The girls do as I say and run off to find their brother. Sighing, I clean the floor until it's spotless. As I search for a towel to dry the floor, Addison walks in through the back and slips on the wet tile. She cuts her hand from trying to hold onto one of the cabinet doors to keep her from falling.
As if things couldn't get any worse, Jonas comes back downstairs, sees the blood on Addison's hand, and passes out.
I smack the side of my face and rush around the kitchen to find a bandaid. Addison goes to the sink to clean her hand and tells me to deal with Jonas. I rush over to the boy and fan him with my hand, having no idea how to deal with this.
"We found Ethan in between the couch cushions," Crystal reports back to me with her hand holding onto Ethan's.
"Can we go to the park now?" Rose asks and then kicks at Jonas. "Why is he sleeping? Wake up, Jo!"
"Wake up!" Ethan says and jumps directly on Jonas' stomach.
I widen my eyes and pull Ethan off of his brother. "He's not sleeping. He fainted."
"Here," Addison says and leans over to dab a wet towel on Jonas' face. She slaps his cheeks lightly until he slowly opens his eyes.
"Are you okay, buddy?" I ask and rub his arm.
"God? Is that you?" he asks and lifts his head to look around. "Did Elliott kill me for spraining his hand?"
I smile. "No, you just fainted at the sight of blood."
"My belly hurts," he mumbles and holds his stomach. "Was that milk expired?" He throws up again.
This time, I pass out.
~~
"Is she dead?" I hear Ethan whisper.
Looking around, I see Addison hovering over me with a wet cloth and Ethan by her side. I'm now in the guest bed, rather than on the kitchen floor. How they managed to carry me upstairs is beyond me.
"Hey, Ivy," Addison says sweetly. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," I respond and sit up in the bed. "I'm sorry for fainting on you guys. What time is it?"
"Five."
My eyes widen. "Five?" It was only twelve when I returned from the grocery store. "Have I been out that long?"
"Don't worry about it. I fed everyone lunch and we watched some television for the time being. Jonas is sick from that milk, so he's been sleeping too."
I nod and rub a hand over my face. "Thank you, Addison. You're doing a much better job at my job than I am."
She laughs. "It's only your third day, Ivy. I've been living with this family for fourteen years."
I smile and move to get out of the bed, my head feeling heavy. "I'll get dinner started."
Downstairs, Crystal and Rose are playing with their dolls in the family room while a cartoon plays. They don't even notice me when I walk past, completely invested in their make-believe world.
Once I get into the kitchen, I'm slightly taken aback to see Elliott standing there with a friend to his right. A beautiful, chiseled friend, might I add. His name is Flynn. I recognize him from school.
Flynn McClean has quite the reputation in our town. And, no, not a reputation similar to Elliott's. Flynn McClean is a golden boy. He was our class president, star of the basketball team, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised to learn he's an Abercrombie model.
What the hell is he doing with Elliott Kennedy?
At a loss for better words, I say, "hey."
"Hey, Ivy. I'm Flynn," he introduces and waves.
"I know," I reply without thinking things through, annoyed by how lame I sounded.
Flynn smiles politely before turning to Elliott. "Alright, dude, I'll see you tomorrow night."
"Yeah, man," Elliott says and gives his friend a head nod.
Flynn turns and waves goodbye to me before walking to the front of the house and saying goodbye to the twins. As I hear the front door close shut, I head to the refrigerator to see what I can make for dinner.
Elliott pushes himself up to sit on the counter. "So, I'm throwing a party here tomorrow night."
"Hm, I don't think so," I say and pull out a packet of frozen chicken nuggets.
"I wasn't asking you," he mutters. "I'm just letting you know. Maybe you could take the kids to a movie or-"
"No," I cut him off. "You're not allowed to have a party here."
"You're not in charge of me."
"But I am in charge of this house and this family. I don't want this house to be full of drunk or high kids and I don't want the police to show up here at two in the morning when the rest of your family is trying to sleep. I don't care about what you do with your life, but don't do it here."
He gives me a blank stare before hoping off the counter. "I'm having the party here."
"Elliott, did you hear what I just said?" I ask and stop him from walking out of the kitchen by grabbing his arm. "I asked you to treat me with respect and-"
I gasp as he pulls his arm out of my grip and pins me against the counter, his hands on either side of my hips. "Did you hear what I just said?" He lowers his lips until they're brushing against my ear. In a slow voice he repeats, "I'm having the party."
Before I have the chance to respond, he storms upstairs and slams his bedroom door shut. I bite my tongue, mortified at how I reacted.
"What's up with Liott?" Addison asks as she walks into the kitchen with Beth in her arms.
I shake my head. "Nothing." I read the label on the chicken to see how long it'll take to cook. "How long has he been friends with Flynn McClean? I've never seen them together at school."
"Oh, Elliott and Flynn have been best friends since before I was even living here," she says. "They're nothing alike, so they hang out in different crowds at school, I think. Seems dumb not to hang out with your best friend to me."
"Yeah," I agree. "That's weird."
"Boys," she sighs.
I preheat the oven and sprawl the chicken nuggets out on a pan. Addison helps by pouring the drinks and setting the table. Once the oven beeps, I put the pan in and wait for them to cook.
"Dinner will be in about twenty minutes," I say to the twins as I join them in the family room.
Ethan jumps to sit next to me on the couch. "What's dinner?"
"Chicken nuggets," I answer with a smile. "But don't worry, bud. I picked up some soup at the grocery store for you."
"I like chicken nuggets," he says.
"You do?" I ask in confusion. "I thought you only liked liquids."
"Chicken nuggets too."
I nod. "Duly noted."
Elliott comes down the stairs, his car keys jingling in his hands at each step. He glances at me briefly before opening the front door and slamming it shut. Ethan gasps at the loudness of the slam. Rose and Crystal stop playing with their dolls, their smiles fading to frowns.
I put a smile on my face. "So, what do you guys want to do tomorrow night? We can go out for a movie and ice cream or go bowling or.. whatever you want!"
As much as I don't want Elliott to have the party, I'm pretty positive there's nothing I can do to stop him. I hate being a push-over, but I'm stressed as it is in this house. Dealing with Elliott adds a thousand more pressures I don't need.
Crystal smiles. "Can we go mini-golfing? There's this cool indoor place that is a glow in the dark type of thing!"
"Yeah!" Rose and Ethan agree with her idea.
I nod. "We have to make sure Addison and Jonas want to go first, but I'm down for it."
"Can Liott come?" Ethan asks hopefully.
"Elliott has plans tomorrow night," I say. "He's having a party."
"I like parties," Rose says and sets her doll down on the coffee table to sit next to Ethan and me on the couch. "Are we invited?"
"I don't think it'll be a very fun party. Well, not as fun as the party we'll have, at least."
The kids giggle in excitement. Addison walks in and lets us know the chicken nuggets are cooked. We all gather into the kitchen to eat dinner together. As stressed as they make me at times, they are all really good kids. I find myself laughing at each of their own unique personalities, feeling comfortable to just be me. Three months doesn't seem too scary anymore.
After dinner, I bring Jonas a bowl of saltines and a glass of Ginger Ale. He is really sick, his face completely fail and his body weak. I'm worried he might have food poisoning.
"I feel like I need to call your mom," I admit, placing my hand against his forehead.
"No," he sighs. "I don't want to worry her. I'll probably feel better tomorrow morning."
"I hope so," I say. "Do you want me to make a doctor's appointment?"
He shakes his head. "I hate the doctor. Plus, I'm fine."
I nod and rub his arm. "Call me if you need anything. I'll be right downstairs."
"Thanks, Ivy." I stand to go, but he stops me as he says, "I'm sorry about today. You should take a break sometime. Do you have any friends?"
I laugh. "Yes, I have friends."
"Well, I think you should take a day to hang out with them at some point. I mean, I don't want you to lose your mind because of our family."
"Too late for that," I mumble as Beth starts crying from her room.
~~
AN:
let's get it started in here
(and the bass keeps runnin' and runnin' and runnin')
Flynn McClean should be their cleaning lady am I right
that didn't make any sense I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it even though the ending was a little blah but I just wanted to make it a bit longer
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