Stephanie's phone rang in the middle of the night, she panicked when she saw it was her mom, "hello? Mom is everything okay?" She listened as her mom tried to explain something, but she couldn't understand what she was saying, "mom, are you crying?"

Linda explained something about her sister being in the hospital, and that she wasn't gonna make it very much longer, "do you want me to drive up there with you? I will if you want me to. I'll invite a friend over to watch the girls tomorrow."

Her mom agreed and hung up the phone. Stephanie jumped out of bed and started stuffing clothes in a bag. She ran around her room grabbing the necessary stuff she needed to bring. She put everything in her car, then went back inside to make a phone call.

"Hello? Its four AM, who is this?" Paul answered the phone, angry and tired sounding.

"Its me Stephanie," she sighed, "I have to drive to my parents house and drive with then to see my aunt, who my mom says is dying, I need your help. I need you to come watch the girls for me."

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, "but they're 19, they're adults, why do they need me to watch them?"

"Because they don't know how to cook, or drive, and I can't just leave them alone in the middle of the night. Please just come over here and stay with them for a week or so. You all can do your own thing, its not like you have to watch over them like little kids."

"You think I know how to cook?" He got up and turned his bedroom light on, "let me pack some clothes and I'll be over there. Where do you live anyway, that would help."

"I'll text you my address, I'll leave when you get here. Thank you so much Paul. I'll leave you money for whatever you need. I'll even clean my room so you can sleep in there," she smiled, "don't knock on the door when you get here, just text me first so I can go unlock the door."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can," he hung up and threw the phone on his bed. He quickly packed as mush stuff as he could. He threw his bag into his truck and sped off.

"Thank you so much Paul, you don't know how thankful I am for you to do this," Stephanie reached up and kissed him on the cheek when he walked through the front door, "I'll call you when I get there."

"Okay…" he opened his mouth to ask her a question, but she walked off down the hallway, "Stephanie…?"

"Yeah, what?" She was in her room tidying up the bed, "here you go, my bed is all clean my room is clean, its all yours."

"Do the girls know you're leaving? Are you gonna tell them before you leave?" He fidgeted his hands, "on another note, just let them sleep and I'll just surprise them tomorrow."

She sighed, "I don't really want to tell them anything until I know what's going on, I left a note on the refrigerator door, the first thing they do when they wake up is eat, so they'll see it. Just tell them I had to go out of town for a week for some business."

"But you told me you took this month off. That's suspicious Stephanie, its two weeks before Christmas, they're gonna know you aren't working," he shrugged, "I'll think of something better. I don't think they like me that much, they don't talk to me, like at all. This is probably gonna make them flip out."

"Oh shut up, its fine," she hugged him, "once again, thank you, I have to go now. My mom's a wreck right now," she picked up her purse and almost ran out the front door.

Paul awkwardly looked around the living room, then went back to her bedroom and lied down. Her bed smelled like perfume and hairspray, two good smells to him. He tried to think about something other than her as he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Paul got up and walked out to the living room, expecting the girls to be in there. There weren't any dirty dishes in the sink, so he guessed that they weren't even awake yet. He opened the refrigerator door and grabbed the milk. When he closed the door, Emma was standing in front of him, "oh my fucking God you scared me!"

She smiled, "so where did Stephanie go? On the note she left, she just said she had to go out of town for about a week or so. What did she tell you?

He quickly tried to come up with something, "well, nothing really, she just called me at four in the morning and made me come over to watch you guys."

"So we have to have a babysitter? We're 19, why do we need you here?" She sat down across the table.

"I don't know, why do you need a babysitter?" He shoveled his cereal in his mouth, "do you know how to cook? How are you gonna get to school?"

"Olivia and I aren't in school right now, we're on winter break," she sighed, "but no, we don't know how to cook, do you?"

He nodded, "yeah, I do know how to cook. Why don't you two know how to drive yet? I got my license at 16, but I drove since I was probably 13. My parents taught me as soon as I became a teenager."

She shrugged, "Stephanie worries about us too much, she hasn't talked about us driving yet.. I don't even think she wants us to drive, ever."

"Why? How do you guys get to school then? Does she have to drive you?"

"No, we take the bus, or sometimes our friend Maria gets us, especially on rainy days when we don't want to walk to the bus stop," she started to pour her own bowl of cereal, "so how long are you gonna be watching us?"

"Stephanie said a week, but I'm not really that sure how long she'll be gone. It could be awhile I guess." He heard footsteps coming down the stairs, "Stephanie did say she was going to leave you guys a note somewhere on the refrigerator, and she said she would call you as soon as she could."

Olivia came into the kitchen, silently. She looked at Paul, then at her sister, "what are you doing here? Where's Stephanie?"

Emma went to the fridge and read the note, "Stephanie had to go to grandma and grandpa's for something important," she turned to Paul and thought, "she told you why she had to go there, just tell us, is someone sick?"

He looked around, wide-eyed, "she didn't tell me a thing, I have no idea what's going on," he shook his head, "I just know I'm supposed to be here to make sure you guys are able to eat and get places."

"We have eggs, potatoes and bacon, make us breakfast," Olivia sat at the table beside him, "I can't drink that kind of milk, it makes me sick," she pointed to the milk jug, "its whole milk."

Paul looked at the jug and grumbled, "I kinda expected it to be like, fat free, or maybe like one percent, nobody I know drinks whole milk," he cleared his throat, "why can't you drink whole milk?"

"Because my stomach hurts really bad after I drink it, why are you holding your stomach? Are you lactose intolerant too?"

"Yeah, my stomach hurts after for a little while, its inconvenient, but I like milk, so I don't really care," he thought for a second, "is anyone in your family lactose intolerant? Cause it can be genetic, I had to have gotten it from my dad."

"Not that I know of, Stephanie says no one in her family is lactose intolerant, when I was little, I used to always complain my stomach hurt after eating or drinking something with milk, and my grandma said I probably was lactose intolerant, and my grandpa said it was all in my head, he never believed me."

"That's because your grandpa is a…" he paused, "he's the type of person who, if it never happened to him, it doesn't exist."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma smiled at him, "what were you going to say about our grandpa before you paused?"

"I was going to call him an asshole, but that's a little much, don't you think? What I meant was, for example, if he's not lactose intolerant, he doesn't believe in it and doesn't believe you that you have it."

"You really don't like him do you?"

He sighed, "I'm not gonna say I don't like him, but he hated me, which made it hard to get to know him, and how can I like someone I don't know?" He got up and went back in the fridge to get the bacon.