For Messesgoodenewtmen. I hope I did your idea some honor...and I hope it turned out okay! Thanks for giving me something to write about. :)
Summer time. Freedom.
Or, at least, that's the idea. Instead, I'm stuck inside a house babysitting a five-year-old, who is way too curious for her own good.
"Cammie, I'm hungry!" Sarah pleads. Her luminous brown eyes stare up at me as she tugs on my sleeve. I'm feeling lethargic and am sprawled out on the couch.
"What do you want to eat?" I groan, my forehead sticky with sweat. Even though the house is air-conditioned, it isn't nearly cool enough for my comfort.
"POPSICLE!" Sarah yells, plopping onto the couch. I struggle to remember. Her mother (my aunt), said something about certain foods being off-limits. Were sweets one of them? I don't know. I sigh and roll off the couch, yanking open the freezer door. Rummaging through its contents, I find a box of unopened popsicles.
"What flavor?" I ask Sarah, opening the box.
"Cherry," Sarah says decisively. I select a cherry Popsicle and hand it to her. Sarah struggles to open the wrapper, but succeeds and sucks on it contentedly.
Fifteen minutes later, I decide that Popsicles were one of the items on the don't-feed-Sarah list. Sarah zooms around the room excitedly, overloaded with sugar and ten times more hyper than before, if that were even possible. The doorbell rings.
"Don't get that!" I yell to Sarah. She obliges, but follows me to the door. I open it warily, prepared to drop into fighting stance if it's an intruder.
Instead, green eyes and a mop of dark brown hair greet me. My jaw drops open.
"What are you…" I splutter. Zach leans against the doorframe, smirking.
"I heard you were in town. Thought I'd drop by," he says without missing a beat. Suave, like he always is. Sarah stares at him with wide eyes and looks at me, a grin breaking over her face.
"Is he your boyfriend?" she squeaks, curiously.
"No!" I scowl, avoiding looking at Zach. "Um, Zach, I kind of have a little kid to attend to…now isn't really a good time, so…" I finish by shutting the door gently. In his face. Then I focus my attention on my little cousin.
"Sarah…!"