Pain

"I'm so glad we're finally going on this date," Freddie said as he helped Sam zip up the back of the new black dress she was wearing. "I feel like we've been planning on going out for ages but things keep getting in the way."
"Well that's what happens when you get married and decide to have a family," Sam chuckled. "Last week when we were gonna go, Jason decided to surprise us by coming home from school for the weekend. The weekend before that Ashton had that stomach flu, and the weekend before that Emma's soccer team's bus broke down so you had to drive all the way to Olympia to pick her up after her game."

"Well this time we're really going," Freddie told her. "We're going to have a relaxing, kid-free dinner followed by a viewing of the sequel to your favorite zombie slayer movie The Striding Deceased 2."
"Can't wait, baby," Sam smiled, standing on her toes to kiss Freddie just as the couple's fifteen-year old twins came downstairs.

"Bye mom, bye dad!" Emma said, grabbing her jacket that was lying on the couch. "We'll be home by eleven!"

"Yeah, don't wait up," Ashton said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Freddie said as the girls headed towards the front door. "Where do you think you two are going?"

"To the mall with Quincy and Clarissa," Emma replied.

"Yeah, we're gonna get frozen yogurt and shop around," Ashton nodded.

"Yeah…no you're not," Sam said.

"What?" the twins exclaimed simultaneously. "Why?"
"Your mom and I are going out on a date," Freddie said, putting his arm around Sam.

"Okay, that's very gross," Emma said, rolling her eyes. "But what's that have to do with me and Ashton not being able to go out?"

"Well you two have to stay home and watch your brother," Sam replied.

"Mom!" Ashton groaned. "Tyler's eleven! He's totally mature enough to stay at home by himself."

"Really?" Freddie said, raising an eyebrow. He cleared his throat. "Tyler!"

A moment later the eleven-year old came running into the house, covered in dirt.

"What were you just doing?" Sam asked.

"Making a dirt bike ramp in the backyard made out of mud," Tyler said at once. "It's gonna be so cool! I might even be able to jump over the house!"

"See?" Freddie said. "Totally immature. Which is why you two are staying here and watching him."

"I'm not immature," Tyler pouted, crossing his arms indignantly.

"Yes, you sort of are," Sam laughed, kissing the top of his head as she gave him a quick hug. "But that's okay. It's cute…for now. Anyway, Tyler, Emma and Ashton are in charge here tonight. Listen to them. Oh, and I'll just save them the trouble now and shut down that dirt bike ramp idea now."

"Man…" Tyler moaned.

"Mom, dad, this is totally unfair," Emma said. "We had plans!"

"Yeah, don't we get a say in this?" Ashton agreed. "You guys can go on your old-people's date next weekend."

"I'll be nice and ignore that comment," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "But your mom and I are going on this date. We've postponed it too many times because of you kids. Do you no how hard it is keep romance alive in your relationship after you've been married twenty years and-"

"Ugh!" Emma cringed.

"Okay, okay, we do not want to hear this!" Ashton gagged.

"There's pizza money in the kitchen," Sam smirked. "And we'll both have our phones on. If there's any problems, just call us."

"We won't be out too late," Freddie promised. "We'll be back by midnight at the latest."
"Midnight?" Ashton exclaimed. "You guys make us be home by eleven but you're allowed to be out frolicking around till midnight?"

"Well it's like you said; we're old," Sam shrugged. "So we don't have a curfew. Alright, bye guys. Em, Ash, be nice to your brother. Tyler, listen to your sisters."

"Have fun," Freddie said, helping Sam into her coat before opening the door for her and heading out into the night

"You know, I bet they think they're real cute," Ashton said, shaking her head.

"Well this night sucks now," Emma said, throwing herself down on the couch. "Tyler, go get me a soda from the fridge."

"How come you can't get it yourself?" Tyler asked.

"Um, because mom and dad just said me and Ashton are in charge," Emma said.

"Yeah," Ashton nodded, sitting down next to her twin. "So get me a diet root beer while you're in there."

"You guys aren't just gonna boss me around all night, are you?" Tyler frowned.

"What? Pfft, no!" Emma scoffed. "Of course not! Now hurry up with those sodas."

"Man, I wish we were at the mall right now," Ashton sighed later that evening as the three Benson children sat around the coffee table, eating their pizza. "This is probably the worst Saturday night of my life."
"I miss the days before Jason went to college where he'd be stuck with babysitting duty," Emma said. "This is so boring."
"We could play a game," Tyler suggested. "Or we could watch a movie."

"Or we could sit here and fume about mom and dad trapping us here," Ashton suggested.

"You know, I bet they're not even gonna pay us," Emma said. "Even though what they're making us do is practically slave labor. Tyler, go get me some Parmesan cheese for this pizza."

"And some red pepper flakes," Ashton added. She turned back to Emma. "I know! Just because we're their kids doesn't mean they can make us do whatever they want whenever they want. We're fifteen years old!"

"Seriously! Just because they want to go have some fun on their own they think they can trap us here with Tyler?" Emma said.

"Hey!" Tyler frowned as he handed his sisters the Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes. "Are you guys just gonna sit here and complain about me and boss me around? Can't we do something fun?"
"Tyler, we're at home on a Saturday night," Ashton said. "There's nothing fun to do!"

"Well maybe if we-"

"Well at least put the T.V. on," Emma sighed. "If we're gonna be bored to death, we might as well have some background noise going."

Tyler sighed as he walked towards the foot of the stairs. He took one last look over his shoulder at his sisters, who were now giving all their attention to the T.V., before slowly heading up to his room.

…..

"Well, at least we got to see Snooki almost get attacked by lobsters on Celebrities Underwater," Ashton said an hour later, turning off the T.V.

"Yeah…and now I'm hungry," Emma said.

"You just ate an entire pizza!"

"Your point?" Emma snapped. "Tyler! Hey, Tyler! Pop me some popcorn, will you?"

But there was no response.

"Hey, where is Tyler?" Ashton frowned. "I haven't seen him for awhile."

"Ugh, did the little dork go up to his room?" Emma said, getting to her feet. "Are we supposed to check on him or something?"

"Probably," Ashton shrugged. "We are babysitting the kid."
So the twins headed upstairs to Tyler's room.

"Yo, Ty?" Emma said, opening his door without knocking and stepping in. "What are you doing up here?"

Tyler looked up from his handheld video game he was playing on his bed. "It's more entertaining up here by myself than down there with you two," he said bitterly. "At least no one bosses me around up here."

"What? Oh come on," Ashton said, rolling her eyes. "We weren't bossing you around."

"Yes you were!" Tyler retorted. "And all you two want to do is just complain about how much of a pain it is to stay here with me instead of going out with your friends. It's not my fault mom and dad don't think I'm mature enough to stay home by myself, you know!"

"Oh stop being dramatic," Emma said. "We're not complaining-"

"Ha!" Tyler scoffed. "That's all you've done."

"It's not all we've done…" Ashton said slowly, looking over at Emma. "Er, has it?"
Tyler simply glared at the twins in response.

"Well, um, we-we weren't so much complaining about you as much as we were complaining about mom and dad making us give up our Saturday night with our friends," Emma said. "I mean they just took away our prime hangout time with them and-"

"But it's only Clarissa and Quincy," Tyler pointed out. "You see them every day and you hang out with them every day."

"Er…I-I guess that's true," Ashton said. "But-"

"And you guys never hang out with me," Tyler said.

"What? Sure we do!" Emma said. "What about that water balloon fight we had that one time?"
"I was six!" Tyler exclaimed. "And it wasn't a water balloon fight! You guys threw water balloons at me because you wanted the good raft I was already on!"

"But Tyler," Ashton reasoned. "It's not like you want to spend time with us anyway. You're eleven. We're fifteen. What could we possibly do together that'd be any fun?"
"I want to spend time with you guys," Tyler mumbled.

The twins exchanged guilty looks.
"Well you never said anything before," Emma pointed out.

"That's because you're always busy with your friends and other stuff," Tyler said. "You never have time for me anymore."

"Aw, Tyler," Ashton said. "Of course we have time for you! You're our baby brother!"

"Not your baby brother," Tyler mumbled. "I'm eleven."

"Look," Emma sighed, looking down at her feet. "We-We're sorry if we've sort of been ignoring you tonight…and all the other nights. We didn't mean to."

"Yeah," Ashton echoed. "I guess we've just sort of, you know, gotten caught up in everything lately. But it's not like we don't like you anymore."

"Or think you're a bigger pain than we always have," Emma agreed.

"Really?" Tyler beamed.

"Really," Ashton smiled.

"Oh…well that's cool," Tyler said. "Er, you guys aren't gonna hug me now, are you?"

"Maybe," Ashton said before quickly throwing her arms around her younger brother.

"Ow! You're squeezing me!" Tyler gasped.

"Hey, since we've still got a few hours before mom and dad get back, why don't we do something fun?" Emma asked. "You know, the three of us?"

"Okay!" Tyler said excitedly.

"What did you have in mind?" Ashton asked.

"Well…" Emma said thoughtfully. "Since its been five years since our last water balloon fight, I think we're a little bit overdue for our next one."

….

"Well, I hope you're happy, baby," Freddie said later that evening as him and Sam got out of their car and stepped onto the driveway in front of their house. "Now I'm gonna have zombie nightmares for at least two weeks. I hope you appreciated that."
"And I hope you appreciated me missing the good parts to 'distract' you so you wouldn't get too scared," Sam smirked.

"Well of course I appreciated that," Freddie chuckled as him and Sam began to walk towards the door. "Anyway, I'm real glad we finally got a chance to do this. We really needed it. Maybe we'll be able to squeeze in another date night in another two or three-"

He was suddenly cut off, though, as a loud cry echoed from behind the bushes of the walkway.

"Fire!"

"What the-" Freddie started, but at that moment Tyler, Emma and Ashton all popped out from behind the bushes, each with a large armful of water balloons in their arms. Before either Sam or Freddie could process what had just happened, a large water balloon came soaring towards the couple and collided with Freddie, bursting open and getting him soaked.

"Direct hit!" Tyler yelled triumphantly as the twins cheered and laughed.

"What in the-They just hit me with a water balloon!" Freddie sputtered as Sam stood there, doubled over in laughter.

"That-That was perfect!" Sam gasped as she continued to laugh. "What a great way to end the night."

"I'm soaking wet!" Freddie exclaimed.

"Oh lighten up," Sam said. "It's just water. It's not the end of-"

Before she could finish her sentence, though, another water balloon came soaring through the air, hitting her square in the chest.

"Hey!" Sam screamed as Freddie now had his turn to laugh at his wife. "Alright! Who threw that? You guys don't know who you're messing with!"

"But it's just water, baby," Freddie smirked. "It's not the end of the world."
"Watch it, Fredwad!" Sam snapped.

Just then a third water balloon came flying at the couple, spraying them both with water.

"Okay, this is so much fun!" Tyler grinned as he watched his parents wipe the water out of their eyes.

"Yeah, way better than the mall," Emma agreed.

"Definitely," Ashton nodded.

"That's it!" Sam said loudly. "You want a water balloon fight? I'll show you a water balloon fight!"

"Uh-oh," Tyler frowned.

"Er, we should probably run," Emma said. "Now."