12 | Friends?

12 | Friends?

Paige's Point of View ~

"...She is severely allergic to citrus and the doctor's number is on the fridge in case anything bad happens," Lily continues to tell me everything I need to know, "On that little pink post-it right there." She points to a post-it hanging on the fridge with scribbled numbers on it.

"Okay Lily, no need to worry. You'll be late." I practically force her out of the doorway and she turns around with a worried look on her face. I haven't had much experience with little kids, but I practically raised myself, so I think i'll be capable of watching a 10 year old.

"Thank you, Paige." She said smiling. "Honey don't worry, Paige will be here to watch you while mom is away, okay? You two have fun!" She reassures Maddie who is standing next to me with Sunny in her arms and waves goodbye. As Lily starts her car, me and Maddie go inside the house and into the kitchen.

Maddie props herself onto the tall chair by the island and I lean my elbows on the cold white marble counter top.

"What do you wanna do?" I ask her. Her face lights up and she takes my hand in hers. She quickly jumps off her chair and pulls me in the direction of the stairs and climbs them carefully and I follow close behind her.

We end up in a large room filled with all sorts of toys. The room is mostly pink, but there are some hints of yellow. Maddie is still clutching onto my hand when she pulls me towards a small table with a fragile looking tea set.

When I was 10 I used to play with my barbies non-stop. My parents said it was unhealthy because I was in my room acting out scenes with my dolls. I don't think there should be a certain age where it's weird to play with dolls and toys. Kids should be able to hold onto their imagination for as long as they can. Once it's gone, it's like everything in the world is grey and boring.

"This is Mr. Bubbles," She points her tiny finger to a small round stuffed plushy that's a light blue color and has an even tinier tiara on the top of its forehead. It sat in one of the chairs at the small table and around Mr. Bubbles were many other stuffed animals sat too.

She sat down at one of the tiny seats and motioned for me to sit down next to her. Once I finally fit in one of the chairs Maddie poured me some imaginary tea and we both sipped our cups.

She giggled when I bowed my head towards Mr. Bubbles and poured him tea. The tea set she had was an off-white color with tiny designs of flowers and leaves. It almost looked like my grandma's China. Fancy.

"Paige?" I turn to Maddie. She has a questioning look on her face as if she wants something. "Can we go to the beach?" She asks

"Yes. How about you get your swimsuit on and we'll take Sadie with us?" I sit up from my chair and so does Maddie. She starts rummaging through her dresser, located in her closet and I go downstairs, and into the kitchen.

I don't really know if I'm allowed to be in the fridge but I took a couple of pre-made sandwiches, water, and grapes and put them into the beach bag I found by the front door.

When Maddie and I were ready, I called for Sadie and packed up the car with the food bag, towels, some of Maddie's toys she insisted on bringing, and my book.

***

"Careful!" I yell to Maddie who's laying across the wet sand while waves crash against her body. She giggles loudly when Sadie joins her in the cold water and licks her face like it's a lollipop

We've been here for 2 hours. Time has gone by so fast.

I look down at my book and read further and further in. Suddenly I'm 3 chapters ahead so I take a break and look up to check on Maddie. She's playing with another girl her age in the water. The girl must've lent her a boogie board because we didn't bring any.

I set my book down and Sadie comes around the corner. She suspiciously takes a whiff of the bag of food and walks away towards a couple of other dogs playing tag.

"Paige!" I turn around to see Cole running towards me. I smiled as he approached me. When stood up from sitting on the warm sand and he waved.

"Hey, Cole."

"Hey, is she your sister?" He points to Maddie playing with the random little girl in the water.

"She's a friend's sister. I'm watching her for a couple days." I say truthfully.

My eyes landing on Cole's bare chest. I realized he was only wearing swim trunks. He was definitely fit. Maybe he plays sports? My gaze landed back onto his grey eyes. He was waving for someone to come over. It was the little girl that was playing with Maddie in the water.

She happily runs up to him, Maddie following close behind. He picks her up and spins her in circles. His muscles flexed as he put her on his hip. The little girl looked a little younger than Maddie. She also looked a lot like Cole. She had the same raven-hair, and had grey eyes, but where a little more blue than Cole's. It's like their smile matched perfectly.

She was his sister.

"Liv this is Paige," He informed her of my name with a soft voice and turned to look at me with a soft smile. Liv sent a smile 'Hi' in my direction and I returned it with a sweet 'Hi Liv.'

This is two days in a row I've seen him. Isn't that weird? After a couple of hours of the two girls splashing around in the cold water and Cole playing with them I'm still sitting on the sand reading my book.

The day goes by so fast it's crazy. It's like the sun is gone like that.

Everybody has a fear. They could be afraid of snakes, bears, the dark, being stolen or robbed, dying, and pretty much anything. One of the only things I'm severely afraid of is time. Time with the people I love, time for myself, and just generally my time in this world.

Just like everybody else, we all have a certain challenge we must overcome. Some are more difficult than others, but regardless, everyone around you is going through something tough at one point in their lives.

"Can we go home," A tiny voice said from in front of me. I look up and nod my head at Maddie. My gaze looks around to say goodbye to Cole and Liv, but they're nowhere in sight. They probably left. The sun was slowly going down and the sky turned a bright pink. The sun sets are absolutely stunning here.

"Liv and her brother left," She giggled. She probably thought I was upset he left without saying goodbye or something because she was smirking as she picked up her doll from inside the beach bag.

***

When we got home I heated up the macaroni and cheese leftovers I found in the fridge.

After Maddie ate the rest of her food she took me into her bedroom to tuck her in. She insisted I tell her a bedtime story so I did.

I made up my own version of Cinderella where Cinderella is the princess and Prince charming was the commoner instead of Cinderella. I stopped at the part where he left the castle at midnight and dropped his little mp3 player on the huge flight of stairs.

"What happens next?" Maddie asked eagerly, wanting me to finish the story. I smiled and leaned in to tuck the piece of hair that was in her face behind her tiny ear.

"That," I paused and picked up Sunny from her night stand, "Is for tomorrow night." She smiled as I placed Sunny in her arms. Once I was done tucking her in I stood up and walked towards the door switching the light off as I walked out.

"Night, Paige." She whispered as her eyelids slowly closed, putting her into a deep sleep filled with dreams that could take her anywhere.

"Night," I whispered back.

I closed the door as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't wake her up. Plopping down on the large couch I flipped through the multiple channels but couldn't find anything interesting. I settled on a F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode I've already seen.

My mind started wandering.

Where has Ronnie been this whole time? She couldn't have possibly been partying all day everyday, could she? I guess I wouldn't know I've only been to a party once and I ended up with a cold. It's like I'm living alone in this empty house made for not just 1 person, but a family that's never home.

"Friends?" A deep voice slurred from behind me. I jumped and quickly turned my head to see Leo standing by the living room entryway. He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. He had blood on his fists and collarbone. I looked up to his face. He must have gotten into a fight because his face was all bloody. His cheekbone had a deep red cut on it and he had a small cut on his lip. He looked exhausted.

"Oh my god," I jumped up from the couch and ran up to him. "Leo, what happened? Your bleeding." I slightly raised my hand to his cheek where the cut was. He inhaled sharply and flinched at my touch.

"Why are you here?" He asked and I frowned. Why didn't his mom tell him? Even better; why wasn't he watching Maddie instead of me?

"I'm babysitting Maddie. Why are you bleeding?" I practically ignored his stubbornness and asked him once again.

"Did you take Maddie to the beach?"

He isn't answering my damn questions.

"Yes. Why?"

"Did you talk to a Cole?"

"Y-yes." I stuttered. How does he know who Cole is? How did he know we were at the beach too?

"Cole Riley?"

"How do y-" I was cut off by a deep and loud groan coming from Leo's mouth.

"He was my best friend."

***