Chapter 14

"I'm so sorry, Darby"

 She held up her hands and Sam brought him to her, he inclined with acceptance until he was in her arms, he pushed himself up on her thighs and cupped her face with his sticky hands. Leaning closer to place his mouth on her cheek.

"That's so sweet"

She winced when he sucked on her face, she pulled him away and they laughed.

"I was mixing up his breakfast before you arrived."

She left to get a bowl that steam evaporated from.

"Jenny called"

"Really? What did she say?"

"She asked if the diapers were enough" They giggled, he had an almost toothless smile on his face revealing the pair of milk teeth above, even though he knew virtually nothing about what they were giggling about.

...

It was bright today, Keira woke up more refreshed than she has ever been since last week, she threw on a pink blouse, soft grey jacket, and just about the most worn-out sweatpants on earth.

With her hair up in a tight ponytail, at 4 am, she got to cleaning the bathrooms, the fridge, and sorting out the dishes.

She prepared breakfast at 6 am bacon sides with scrambled eggs, preheated storebought waffles, and orange juice. She prepared her workbag.

"Sam, wake up, you've gotta get ready for work!" She yelled shaking Darby's hand from where he stood holding on to the cot rails, already awake.

No answer, she sighed "Sam, breakfast!"

Sam pounded to the alleyway in a faded green shirt that was two sizes too big with her college's initials written across it, her hair was up in tangles, her tired eyes sagged.

"What work?" She asked with a hard tone.

It dawned on Keira and she buried her face in her palms groaning. She had a dream about placing price tags on the merchandise at the store and woke up with a strong impression that she was late for work.

Sam snorted, she had been up all night playing Minecraft and barely got some shut eyes. She gave out a big yawn and stretched her arms up, her head throbbed, she hissed when the doorbell buzzed.

"What?" She whined, walking to the door.

"Keira, it's for you"

She said with indifference, Keira left Darby and went over giving Sam a questioning look about how the shirt only covered half of her thighs.

She answered the door, the UPS guy snorted holding out a wrapped package, with prints of the company's trademark and a tablet with a lightpen on top of it.

"Delivery package for Keira Miller, sign here" He sniffed.

"Who's it from?"

"I'm just doing my job," he said drily

She patted her hands and scribbled on the space reserved for her handwritten signature and took the package, he tipped his hat and left.

Holding it as if it were a ticking time bomb, she glared at Sam who shrugged.

"Don't look at me"

Keira huffed unwrapping the sheets, the wrapper came off and so did the lid, she yanked out the layers of tissue paper.