I’m spending all of this morning before work cleaning tar off the linoleum that somebody left there after setting their keyboard in the middle of the kitchen floor to play some tunes at two in the morning. Emily Stewart, if you see this note, I know it was you. Maybe you should consider not labeling all your possessions with your initials. It’s less incriminating. For the record, I think not cleaning up after yourself is lame. - Jess
“What’s that say?” Christian asked, licking peanut butter off his finger.
Jess sighed, brushing the hair out of her eyes. She made a face as she realized she just streaked peanut-butter through her curls. “It says to clean up after yourself.”
Christian nodded. He licked his whole hand real slow before he told his mom. “Good thing I know that already. Your face looks scary.”
Jess looked up from scraping peanut butter off the floor with a kitchen knife in time to see her son doing the same thing with his fingernail and then licking his entire hand clean. “Christian Jesse! Don’t! That’s so gross! That black stuff is tar. You’ll get sick.” Jess did her best to keep her voice low, knowing that it was six o’clock on a Saturday morning and the rest of the girls were sleeping peacefully.
His face split into a maddeningly adorable grin. “I like tar! It tastes so good! And you got tar peanut butter in your hair,” he pointed, laughing.
“We have to be quiet, remember? The other girls are sleeping,” she reminded, though Jess had half a mind to go and drag Emily out of bed and make her clean this disgusting mess, since she made it. “What are you learning in school?”
“Seasons,” Christian said, looking at the yucky color the water turned. “And. Guess what? The one right now is fall ‘cause the leaves fall off the trees. And! Guess what else?”
Christian waited, even though he wasn’t that good at holding his horses yet.
“We’re having a fall party on Monday. And my teacher said for everybody to bring in leaves and a treat to share. So, can I?”
Jess nodded. Leaves she could do, but she wasn’t sure about being able to afford treats for a class full of preschoolers. But Jess told herself she would make it work. “I’ll figure something out, I promise,” she said, as she cleaned the last of the stubborn black streaks off the floor, leaving only a pale grey line in its place.
Just her luck that a week into living in a new place, they already had a broken shelf and tar stains to fill out on their damages report. Jess put that out of her mind. She couldn’t think of extra expenses, she barely had enough money to make ends meet as it was, and yet somehow, she always made it.
She gathered up her uniform, Christian’s clothes, and Christian, and brought them into the bathroom with her. Christian sat on the floor with Bacony while Jess got in the shower fully clothed, pulled the curtain closed and made quick work of escaping her sticky nightgown, and setting it outside the tub.
“Ew! Underwear!” Christian exclaimed, giggling. He watched his mom‘s arm drop them on her PJs. “Can I go out of here?”
“Nope, nobody’s up to watch you, so you’re in here by me. Why don’t you get dressed out there? See if you can beat me,” she challenged, turning on the water.
CJ tried to go super speedy fast, but his shirt had too many holes, so it took a long time. He was still trying to get lefty to come out the hole it was supposed to, when there was a knock on the door.
“Don’t come in!” he shrieked. “We’re naked!”
Outside the door, Libby’s brow crinkled in concern. “Christian? Who’s in there with you?”
“My mom! She’s in the shower and I’m getting dressed!”
“Ah,” Libby said, understanding. “Well, are you two almost done? I gotta pee.”
“Who is it?” Christian demanded.
“Libby, silly!”
“Mom, Libby has to pee. Are we almost done?” Christian wondered.
Jess snickered, rushing to rinse the suds from her massive mane of hair. “Yes, tell Libby we’re almost done.”
“Hey Libby!” Christian called. “We’re almost done. But you know what? If you can’t hold it, you can go out in the woods. That’s what I did one time.”
In the hall, Libby cracked up.
In the shower, Jess admonished her son that ladies did not pee in the woods.
--
Coby got up way too early Sunday morning, knowing that he had a huge job ahead of him, and not enough time to do it in. Sure, the house-painting gigs he’d lined up ahead of time were great, but some people had totally unrealistic expectations. For example, this guy wanted his entire house and trim repainted in only a couple hours Tuesday morning. Coby had two days to find some help. And even with that, Coby had a feeling they would have to convince the guy living there that they needed more time in order to get it done.
Since he had already asked Aaron last night, and Aaron complained that paint fumes gave him a headache, he decided to wake up Bryan and ask him how he felt about earning a little extra cash.
“What the hell do you want?” Bryan swore lightly, as Coby shook him awake. “Church doesn’t start for like, four hours.”
“I need somebody to help me paint on Tuesday morning.”
“Paint what? Can’t this wait?” Bryan grumbled, turning over.
“A house, numbskull. It’s a huge-ass job, and I’m never gonna get it done alone.”
“Can’t. I’m taking Emily to audiology as my guinea pig. You should ask your lady. Jess,” Bryan yawned and stretched.
Coby turned, quickly retreating to their little balcony to make a call to the girls’ apartment. Emily had given Bryan the house number, and right now, Coby couldn’t be happier about it. He dialed and waited, not caring that it was barely after seven in the morning.
--
Jess got out of bed and dragged herself to the ringing phone. Whoever was calling this early was going to get a piece of her mind, that was for sure. Calling this early on a Sunday was just plain rude.
“Hello?” she snapped into the receiver.
“Hey. Can I speak to Jess?” Coby asked, leaning on the railing and admiring the early morning.
“You’ve got her,” Jess answered testily. “Who is this and what do you want?”
“It’s Coby. I’ve got a big house-painting job lined up for Tuesday morning and I wanted to know if you were interested in making a little extra money?”
“I’ll tell you what I’m interested in,” she snapped. “I’m interested in getting some sleep the one morning a week I have that option. To paint this house with you, I’d have to be alone with you, which is something I’m never planning to do.”
Coby was speechless. The click in his ear of Jess hanging up on him was deafening.
He was disappointed, but knew good advice when he heard it, and waited another couple hours before he called Liam, Jon and Nate. He didn’t need any of the other girls getting the idea that he needed anything more than an extra set of hands.
Neither Jon or Liam answered, but Nate was awake and agreed to help out easily enough. That gave Coby enough peace of mind to get on with his day.
--
Jess was at the table, trying her best to catch up on a week’s worth of anatomy, as the clock approached midnight Sunday, when the sight of Christian’s Spiderman backpack, brought to mind the promise she had made. His fall party. She put her head in her hand. Where was she going to find treats at this time of night? There was no way she was going out shopping this late, leaving CJ at home by himself. Morgan had been going to school and then working twelve-hour days, so she was asleep already. Legend was, too.
“You wanna know what goes great with Mountain Dew? Mentos,” Emily paused dramatically, looking ridiculous in her pink pajamas with hearts, and fuzzy slippers. “The fresh maker!” She walked to the fridge and stared happily at its contents.
“Why are you in the fridge for Mentos?“ No response. “Em?” Jess tried again. “Would you mind running to the store and picking up some candy corn or something fallish for Christian? He has a party tomorrow and I promised him. Oh, and leaves. Can you grab a couple leaves, too?”
Since Mentos weren’t an option, Emily decided to make a sandwich. A giant one. Pausing with her hand halfway to the shelf with the ham and mayo, Emily turned. “I’m sorry, were you talking to me? I thought after you left that note for me this morning, the next time you talked to me, it would be to apologize.” She almost added that these weren’t their trees, and stealing leaves might be criminal.
“Come on, Emily,” Jess complained. “I need to study, and you’re up anyway. You could get Mentos!” she bribed.
“No.”
Out came the ham, the mayonnaise, the mustard, the American and Monterrey Jack cheese, the ketchup, the lettuce and the pickles. Emily considered what she had and added salami, turkey, bologna and chicken. This sandwich would be epic. She set to work, grabbing the salt and pepper as an afterthought.
“Please,” Jess begged. She didn’t need this right now - to suddenly be keenly aware of what it would be like to raise a teenager in ten years. Plus, Jess was sure Emily was going to manage to eat all of the groceries she’d bought on the first day and managed to stretch. “I promised Christian.”
Emily turned, wielding butter knife in a way that made Jess nervous.
‘If you can’t take care of your son yourself, you shouldn’t have gotten pregnant,” Emily glowered.
Jess put her highlighter down. She looked at Emily calmly.
“Oh, fine! Don’t touch my sandwich,” she threatened, grabbing the bills off the table and taking off for the store behind them.
Emily made quick work of running into the store, and grabbing several packs of Mentos. After she paid, she moved in her stealth-mode through the grass, and scooped up a handful of leaves.
Back inside, and breathless, Emily tossed the leaves and the few packs of Mentos at Jess, keeping two for herself.
Jess felt her heart sink. She couldn’t give her preschooler Mentos for a treat. That was lame. Still, she thanked Emily, who was by now seated at the table, taking a huge bite of her sandwich, and pouring about twelve Mentos in the two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew she‘d been nursing.
A sudden explosion caused Jess to cower and cover her head. A geyser of soda erupted from the opening in the bottle, hitting the ceiling and spraying all the way across the room. As an afterthought, she grabbed her book and notes, diving under the table for cover, but by then, soda drenched the table, the countertops and the floor.
“You are cleaning that up,” Jess emphasized, still beneath the table, as pop dripped off the sides.
“Can’t you help?” Emily asked pathetically. “I don’t know how to get it off the ceiling…and I got you leaves…” Mountain Dew saturated her black hair, plastering it to her head, in a way that suggested she had showered but failed to dry off.
Jess glared up at her, still clutching her notebook and text which were now spattered and wet. The pop made her hair feel gross and sticky. It was all over her, and soaked her pajamas.
“You will clean it up,” Jess insisted, standing up and walking the bathroom to take her second shower in twenty-four hours.
--
Jon took off the pink bracelet he wore to honor his aunt, Beth. Pink in any form was forbidden now, due to Liam’s asinine house rules. Jonathan wore it under long-sleeved shirts now, but it was okay. His aunt - his favorite aunt - had been battling cancer for a few years now, and she always stayed so positive through everything. He tucked the bracelet deep inside his pillowcase. Then, he gave her a call. He knew she was often up late, and loved hearing from family.
“Hey, Jon. How’s my favorite nephew?” Beth asked, making him laugh. He had it on good authority that his older brother Kyle, was also Beth’s favorite.
“I’m good,” he told her softly.
“How’s college?” she asked. She sounded tired.
Jon stretched out on his bed. “My girlfriend and I are doing good.”
“You are, are you?” Beth was both amused and interested. “What’s her name again?”
“Ashley. She’s awesome. We had coffee tonight,” he confided shyly.
“That sounds nice. How are your roommates?”
Jon sighed. “Well, one just came out, and the other one’s a Jesus freak.” He rubbed a hand down his face.
“Sounds like you won’t have a shortage of excitement. You boys need anything?”
“Yeah, some of Mom’s brownies,” Jon grinned lazily. “Think you could get her to send some?” he asked hopefully.
“Jonathan, I would do anything for you.”
“Thanks, Beth. Take care,” Jon told her sincerely.
He heard the click as she hung up.
“I’m praying,” he said to no one.
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