Addiction

-- 15 -- You Make it Better --

 "Janie please put your nice clothes on," I begged Janie for the upteenth time that next afternoon.

My least favorite part about helping out with my sisters was trying to give them baths and trying to get them dressed. Unless they were promised bubbles and bath toys they were not fans of having baths and even less impressed with having to get dressed up. They thought it was dumb when we made them dress up to have Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at our hour or Easter lunch at my grandparents' house or anything else and they'd refuse to get dressed.

My mom had been up cooking since five in the morning so I figured it was the least I could do to try to get them dressed for her so it was one less thing for her to worry about.

"No, I wanna wear my pjs," she pouted, sitting on her bean bag chair.

"But Janie, Momma picked out a pretty new outfit for you!" I insisted, "See, a new dress and leggings and a new headband that matches!"

Every now and then the prospect of a new outfit would get them wanting to get dressed and ready to go, but Janie just wasn't having it today. Josie had been all for her new outfit but Janie was over it already.

Janie was usually more rambunctious and was typically the one who got the two of them into trouble. Josie was more quiet and reserved and Janie usually just dragged her into whatever shit she was getting herself into.

"But I don't want to change my clothes," she sighed.

"Come on Janie, I'll braid your hair too," I begged.

"Nope," she replied, grabbing her blanket and tossing it over her head.

"She's not going to listen to you," Liam laughed from the doorway.

"Don't encourage her," I hissed as Janie stayed under the blanket.

"Hey Janie, the sooner you get dressed the sooner you can have that turkey we've had to smell all day," Liam remarked.

"Really?" she asked, peeking out from the blanket.

"Yeah," he said, "You really should let Livvy help you change your clothes."

"Fine," she sighed, kicking off the blanket.

"You're a lifesaver," I remarked as I grabbed Janie's clothes off the dresser.

"Anytime," he smirked, "Now, I have to go get dressed or she probably won't let me hear the end of it," he laughed before walking away.

After getting Janie dressed, I went back upstairs to get myself dressed. I'd brought most of my clothes with me to school, save for most of my dress clothes and dresses that I left here at home. The trick when I came home for the summer would be to somehow hide my designated going out clothes from my mother who would have a heart attack if she knew I was going out in crop tops and tight skirts every now and again. I'd picked out a dark purple long sweater with a scoop neckline and a pair of black leggings. I had put in curlers half an hour earlier and took them out of my hair after getting dressed. I quickly put on the rest of my makeup before Liam knocked on my door.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Almost," I replied, putting in my earrings.

"You look fantastic," he said as I opened up the door as he looked me up and down.

"And you look rather dashing," I smirked, doing the same to him. He'd taken off his hat and actually brushed his long brown hair back and put on adult clothes today, a cream colored sweater that zipped a quarter of the way from the neck down with a pair of nice jeans.