“But I’m hungry now,” she whines. “I tried to make my breakfast but it was too hard.”
Oh no. “What did you try to make?”
“Cereal.”
“Ok…and which part was too hard?”
Her eyes cut away from mine with nothing but guilt shining back through them. “The milk was too heavy and when I poured…”
“Go on.”
She holds up her hands to demonstrate what happened and from what I can tell as she poured, she couldn’t stop it fast enough, telling me there’s a pool of milk in the kitchen to clean up. I let out a sigh as I curse dad for having a job today. “Fine,” I groan. “Just let me pee first and then we’ll clean it all up.”
She beams back at me before bouncing off my bed with unbelievable amounts of energy. I mean, thank God it’s a school day. I couldn’t handle that all day considering I’ve hardly had any sleep.
Aria practically pulls me from my bed and drags me down the hallway. She stops at the bathroom door and no doubt listens to me pee but has patience on her side today as she doesn’t come right on in with me. You know, apart from the whole dragging me out of bed before six in the morning thing.
I deal with business and before I know it, Aria’s dragging me the rest of the way down the hallway towards the kitchen. “How bad is it?” I ask, trying to prepare myself.
“It’s bad,” she chuckles to herself.
“Is there any milk left?” Aria shakes her head. “I guess I won’t be making cereal then,” I murmur. “What should I make?”
Her little eyes brighten up at the thought of having options and I’m struck for the millionth time at how the little things in life that I so easily take for granted are such a big deal for her. She’s probably never been offered options before and it breaks me every time I’m reminded of it.
“Ummmmmmmmm,” she draws out. “Can I have pancakes and cupcakes?”
I laugh out. “You can have pancakes. There’s no way I’m baking cupcakes at this time of the morning.” As her face falls, I find myself desperate to make it right. “How about this?” I tell her. “If you’re a good girl for me this morning, we can stop by the bakery on the way to school and get you something special for your lunch.”
“Really?” she questions, jumping up and down as we turn into the kitchen.
“Of cour-”
Oh, dear lord. This mess!
There’s milk dripping off the bench, on to the old floors and making a little pool that has her cheerios floating on top. The box of cereal was knocked over in the process and cheerios spread from one end of the kitchen to the other. I don’t understand how it’s physically possible for one little girl to make such a mess while trying to make a bowl of cereal.
This is the reason I don’t want a teen pregnancy. I couldn’t handle being in charge of this kind of destruction every day. I mean, God knows I love my little sister, but she’s the best tool to convince teens to use contraception.
I stand on the spot, still as a statue as I try to make a game plan. “Right,” I tell her. “You go get the broom and sort out the cheerios while I work on the milk. As soon as that’s done, we make pancakes, but it’s going to have to be a packet mix because unfortunately, we’re now out of milk.”
She grins up at me as innocently as possible.
Damn it. How could I be cranky at that face?
As my eyes rake over the kitchen, I take in the familiar note sitting on the bench with a fifty dollar note on top. Instincts have me moving towards it.
I scoop the note up off the table and hold it up, letting the milk drip off the edge and hope I can still read the blurry, milk destroyed words.
Squish & Squirt,
I’ll be gone for the night and hopefully back before school drop off on tomorrow morning.
There’s enough food in the fridge to feed an army.
Be safe and call me if you need anything.
Squish – Don’t be an asshole to your sister. Read her as many bedtime stories as she wants!
Squirt – I know you can’t read but I’m trusting your big sister to let you know that you’ll be safe with her and to be a good girl in class. I don’t want any more calls from your teacher!
Be good.
Love you both.
Dad.
Dad left early this morning, probably shortly after I got home actually, so let’s hope he didn’t realize how late I’d gotten in. Since he didn’t call me out in his note, I’d say I’m in the clear.
This has become our new normal. As hard as it is, dad still needs to work and now that I’m apparently old enough to be responsible, that means I need to be a little more helpful. Dad needs to work more now than ever as our bills just suddenly doubled. He does as many jobs as he can while trying to remain as close to home as possible.