Just a little bit of fun...
Sliding her hand down behind the cushion on the sofa she screwed up her nose. "What the…" pulling her hand out she tugged on the cushion and gasped. "What the hell?" she muttered.
At that precise moment the front door unlocked and a giggling Mack and Adam arrived home and they stopped on a dime when they saw Kim in the living room.
"Care to explain?" she held up a handful of popcorn.
Adam nudged Mack forwards. "Run, save yourself." He warned her. She hesitated. "I've got your back, save yourself."
"Don't you move Makayla Ward Burgess." Kim waggled her finger at her daughter and Makayla glanced at Adam nervously.
He took a step towards the front door, that seemed like the quickest and easiest way to exit. "And you, stop right there Adam Ruzek."
"I think we are busted." He whispered. "I thought we cleaned it all up?"
"You said you did."
"Oh so you are throwing me under the bus, I see how it is." He nodded. "You and me…." He waved his hand between the two of them. "We are done." Makayla smiled at him and he winked.
She leant in closer and Adam bent down so his head was level with her. "We could blame Sammy?" she whispered quietly.
"Yeah?" Adam looked little he was contemplating it.
"Yeah."
Nodding his head in agreement. "Okay."
He stood back up to full height and nudged Mack. "It was Sammy's fault." She announced. "He started it."
Kim's hands were on her hips. "Started what exactly?"
"The popcorn fight."
Adam put a hand on her head. "Shhh."
"What popcorn fight?" He'd seen that look before and this wasn't going to end well for one person in this room and it wasn't Makayla.
"Sammy started it, we were watching a movie and then we broke the picture frame but Adam is going to fix it." She blurted out. "He says it's your favorite picture ever, that he's like really hot in it."
He sighed. "Mack, I hope you never get arrested ,you'd fold like a deck of cards in front of the cops."
She looked at him strangely. "But Mom is a cop."
"And a good one to boot." He grinned smarmily knowing that it was going to get him nowhere. He'd known the moment he came downstairs and saw the aftermath of the great popcorn fight of 2022.
Stupidly he'd thought that the pair of them would be fine watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn to share. What could possibly go wrong? He was certain that there would be bigger issues with the flatpack bed he was trying to assemble than two kids who had been known to going into a trance like state when the TV was on, at least when you wanted them to do something.
Kate had dropped Sammy off while she had a girl's lunch and Sammy and Mack loved hanging out together, even if Sam pretended that he wasn't into hanging with girls. "But Mack's not a girl, she's my cousin" was his argument and Adam has teased him about it until he got all embarrassed and said he didn't want to hang out anymore. That lasted all of a couple of hours.
They had headed out for lunch and spent an hour at the playground before heading home because Adam had promised to get Makayla's new bed together while Kim was a work.
He loved the laughing and loud conversation that drifted up the stairs and had come down to check on them and made them a bowl of popcorn. "All good?" Handing Mack the popcorn she nodded.
"We are gonna watch Sing." Adam was genuinely surprised.
"You good with that Sammy?" It didn't seem like the kind of movie he'd like. He was certain he'd go for something like Buzz Lightyear. Sing was definitely a favorite in this house though, Mack and Kim loved it.
"Yeah, it's Mack's turn to choose."
It was all going well, until it wasn't.
"Holy shi..pwreck." He gasped as he came bolting down the stairs after hearing a loud crash followed by shrieking.
Dropping his tools he almost tripped on the ridiculous amount of packing that he'd pulled off this stupid bed and had cursed profusely before he hit the bottom step and was confronted with the chaos. He honestly thought nothing could be worse than the flat-pack bed from hell. He had begged Kim to let him pay for someone to assemble it for them but she didn't want to waste the money and insulted his manhood but teasing him that he couldn't actually do it. Kim knew how to manipulate him into doing whatever she wanted, he was kind of weak like that.
"You shouldn't say shit." Sammy reminded him.
"I didn't say shit, I said shipwreck." Both of them dissolved into fits of giggles and Adam rolled his eyes and took another look at the completely trashed living room. "What in fresh hell has gone on in here. I thought you were watching a movie."
"We were." Makayla took a step closer to Sammy for some kind of support.
Waving his arms wildly Adam sounded near on hysterical. 'This… this doesn't look like you were just watching the movie." The room was trashed. Every cushion was on the floor, the picture of her and Adam together was lying face down on the floor and there was popcorn everywhere. "This looks like some of the houses we raid at work."
"Like a crack den?" Sammy asked a little too enthusiastically. Apparently he'd decided he was going to be a cop like his "Uncle Adam" and hung off every word he said about work, even if he wasn't supposed to be listening.
Adam held up his hand to stop his nephew saying anything else. "You talk too much."
Makayla couldn't stop herself from spilling the beans while Sammy heeded Adam's warning and stood defiantly saying nothing. "We had a popcorn fight. I built a castle to protect myself."
"You know your mother is going to flip her lid."
Makayla suddenly looked at the chaos and was struck by a wave of guilt. She hated making people angry or disappointed in her which was very much a hangover from her early childhood. Those memories still affected her now even though they did their best to give her all the good memories to counteract the bad. "At me?"
Adam exhaled slowly. "No sweetheart, at me." He disappeared into the laundry and grabbed a broom and dustpan and handed them to Sammy and asked him to start sweeping up the popcorn while Makayla was directed to replace all the cushions.
"Where do I put it?" Sammy managed to get a few pieces in the dustpan.
"How about the bowl they came out of?"
"But I don't want to eat popcorn that's been on the floor. I don't like floor food." Adam glared at him and told him to put it in the bowl.
"What about the picture?" Makayla handed it to him.
Adam looked at it. The glass was cracked and he decided the best thing he could do was to remove the glass completely and hope Kim wouldn't notice until he could get it replaced.
"Kim will notice." Sammy was just pure attitude and Adam wasn't quite used to it. Makayla was such a people pleaser whereas he knew Sammy pushed his sister's buttons regularly. He swore he had some form of ADHD although Kate constantly reminded him that he was exactly the same when he was a kid.
"Kim won't notice, and I will get it replaced next week. You got any better ideas?"
"Hide it." Sammy shrugged. "That's what I do."
"It's her favorite picture, she looks at it every time she comes home to remind her how much she loves me and how awesome and hot I am."
Makayla giggled and Sammy looked at his Uncle and shook his head. "I really don't think that's true."
Adam pointed to the broom in his hand. "Sweep."
Trying to get it cleaned up was like pulling teeth. Makayla was diligent but Sammy was all over the shop and kept flicking popcorn at Mack to rile her up. "Stop it Sammy, Adam is grumpy already."
"He's okay." Sammy eyed him quickly and Adam motioned for him to keep sweeping and eventually it looked somewhat normal again. He had no doubt that Kim would notice something out of place. Her neat freakiness was already legendary in this house.
And he still hadn't finished the bed. "Oh, Mom is going to not be happy with you."
"You think." Adam muttered under his breath. That was a given but they needed to get Sammy home. He had an early ballgame in the morning and Mack had soccer in the complete opposite direction so they couldn't do both and after today the idea of a sleepover had lost its shine.
The exasperated look that Kim was giving him right now didn't bode well for a pleasant evening either. "And the bed?"
"Well, I had to sort out this mess." He waved his hands around as he plead his case. Leaving it to those two to clean up would've been a poor choice. Even supervising had been painful and he felt like he was turning into his mother with his nagging.
"Perhaps if you'd paid more attention to what was going on down here…."
Adam pointed to his own face. "One set of eyes Kim and you forget, I am a male, one thing at a time."
Her smile was involuntary. He did this all the time, turned her own rants against her to win an argument. Makayla just watched the back and forth between her parents with a feeling a comfort, it was never angry and someone always smiled or laughed first. "Okay, Mr one thing at a time. If the bed isn't assembled I guess Mack is sharing with me tonight."
"Right-o." he bounded up the stairs. "Bring food and drinks. I'll need the energy."
