Fall - A Rocky Lynch Story

Chapter 4

"Why aren't you eating your sandwich?" I asked Avelyn with a slightly frustrated tone as I watched her from across the kitchen. She usually loved turkey and cheese sandwiches, but today she wasn't even nibbling on it. She just stared me down from her spot at the table.

"I already told you, Juliette," she said in her sassy tone, which caused me to chew the inside of my cheek out of frustration. "I don't like cheese anymore."

"Then take the cheese off of it, Avelyn," I mocked her tone. "Give it to Mase. He'll eat it."

"He eats everything," she huffed. She peeled the top piece of bread off of her sandwich and laid it on the table before picking up the corner of the cheese. I had to give it to her, she was definitely a drama queen. With a shudder and a fake gagging noise, she plopped the slice of cheese onto her brother's plate. He gladly picked it up and put the whole slice in his mouth. "Gross," she said with her face all scrunched up.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Oh hush and eat your food," I told her. I walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs, making my way to the bedroom to get away from the diva in the kitchen. In the room,  Rocky sat on the edge of the bed, straightening Carter's outfit. "Where are you going all handsome like that?" I asked Carter, kissing him on the cheek and smoothing a wrinkle on his shoulder.

"Where's she-who-shall-not-be-named?" he whispered.

"Your sister is eating lunch in the kitchen.You're safe," I assured him. What had gotten into these kids lately?

"You remember the girl from science?" he asked. I sat down next to Rocky on the bed and nodded so that he would continue. "I asked her to go to the movies with me today. Dad is going to drive me and pick me up afterwards."

"Do you want to tell me a little bit about this girl?" I asked him, pretending like I didn't already know about her. "It's okay if you don't want to, by the way. I'm just curious."

He chewed on his bottom lip while he weighed his options, but decided to divulge information to me. "She is the best cheerleader on the team," he said with a shy smile. "Her name is Anna. I have a picture of her on my phone. Do you want to see?"

"Mmhm," I smiled. He sat down between me and Rocky and scrolled through his camera roll until he found a picture of him and a girl who I assumed was Anna. "She's very pretty," I said. "But is she nice?"

"Very nice," Carter nodded before he slid his phone into his pocket. "Dad, I don't want to be late. Can we get going?"

"Sure," he agreed.

"Car," I stopped them as they started to make their way out of the bedroom. I pulled  $20 out of my pocket and handed it to him. "So you can treat her to something good," I winked.

"Thanks, mom," he grinned. Rocky patted his shoulder and blew me a kiss as they walked away.
I went back downstairs and found that Avelyn had made herself a peanut butter sandwich instead and had left the one I had made on the table. With a sigh, I picked up the uneaten sandwich and took a bite out of it before getting Ellie up out of the high chair. "Let's go to Auntie Del and Uncle Ell's for a little bit," I suggested to the kids. They were more than willing to get out of the house.

At their house, I let the kids play outside with their older cousins. Alice even offered to watch Ellie for me so I could help Rydel paint the nursery. When I got to the room, I found my sister-in-law sitting on a box, staring at paint samples she had swatched on the wall. "Which shade of blue is better?"

I put my hands on my hips at stared at the wall with her. "Del, they are the same," I laughed.

"No. One is sky blue and one is light blue." Some of her long blonde hair had fallen out of her ponytail and was matted onto her forehead from the sweat.