I wait for the kids to race downstairs. I made breakfast. Gei and the boys come downstairs to waffles with syrup and yogurt.
"Where's Daisy?" Adrian asks looking around the kitchen to find her.
"Asleep, how was your chick last night?" Donnie says shoving his face into his waffles.
"Hey Gei, can you wake Daisy up?"
"But Luran usually wakes us up and has us put on our matching outfits. Can everyone wear red today, blue tomorrow, grey on Monday, and orange for Tuesday..."
I ignore her as I rush up the crowded steps. Maria and Ade fight for the bathroom downstairs because the one upstairs had stopped working.
"Daisy, school," I say shaking her.
She gets up as she yawns, "Okay."
I wait for her to get out of her bed, "Breakfast!"
"Okay, Felix. Megalynn's being annoying about Mommy's place. Saying what she does and her nighty routines she has us dose." She flips her hair in the mirror of her closet door as she hugs her bunny tightly.
I don't get into the conflict between them about what they do and what they don't do at their Mom's house as I repeat, "Breakfast!"
"Waffles again?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," she shrugs. I wish they'd take in Adrian and Donnie, too but at least Daisy and Gei get a nice home, especially because they're younger. They deserve a better life. I help her get dressed and stuff the waffles into her lunch bag for daycare and run her over next door to the Wilstones. I knock on their door. Mr. Wilstone comes out. "Hey Mr. Wilstone, can she brush her teeth in your bathroom, please?"
"Sure, come in," he says in a low voice.
"Thank you so much I could kiss you right now."
"Stop, you're finna make my dick hard," He laughs. He's one of Maria's friends. He's so close to the point we just call him family.
I laugh along with his contagious laughter.
After she's done brushing her teeth, I pick her up and rush her into the daycare center, I hope, and run to school.
After school, Busk and I play video games for about a few hours, then I throw my stuff on the ground next to the spare bed getting ready to throw my things onto the top bunk to sleep there for the night. Adrian's not going to like the bottom bunk.
"This your house?" He asks looking around the room.
"One of them. My siblings and I alternate between our grandparents and Maria. I usually don't go to school while living here, but my grampa had an asthma attack last week so I drove my siblings to Maria's house."
"Damn," he says getting a pipe of my cigarette.
"I know. I just texted him to see if he's okay and I also texted my gramma."
"I kinda have to tell you something."
My heart pounds along with the thunder of gunshots rallied out from far away.
"I kinda ran away from home."
"Why?"
"Family drama. Look, can I stay here?"
"Uh," I scratch my nose and lick my lips. "No, but you can stay at my grandparents' house. They have an extra room literally for guests."
"But--"
"I can drive you over there later tonight. And, besides, I need to check on them anyway. So, might as well, kill two birds with one stone," explain as I hop on the top bunk to throw Donnie's things off of the bed.
"Good plan, but what time exactly," Busk asks.
"Around 12:00," I take a long drag off my cigarette getting a flashback of his fireplace in sixth grade when I thought everything was great. "Uh, look, I have to pick up my lil' sis, so gotta bounce," I say escaping the question.
"Yeah, it sounds perfect. Yo, can I have another pipe on that cig, bro!?"
"Yeah," say hopping off the bunk and giving it to him. "Hey, I got you a piece of chicken. I was gon' to save it 'til tomorrow, but buds gotta do what buds gotta do, i'ght? I have to get it from downstairs, though."
"I'ght, thanks, bro."
I go into the kitchen to heat leftover "KFC" from Maria's work. I notice her lingerie on the chair where her coat is supposed to be. I don't touch it. I just sit next to Donnie and Adrian eating their chicken. They eat so differently, Donnie shoves his face in it, while Adian slowly eats it. Where could she be if she isn't with David? I shake that thought out of my head and I see Gei sitting at the table eating chicken with Ade, Donnie, Daisy, and Meg.
"Aw, you guys are all sitting together like a normal family," Maria comments as she takes her coat and shoes off.
Everyone leaves, Donnie with his beer plopping on the couch as he turns on the only tv source--cable, Adrian putting the dishes in the sink and putting Daisy on her rocking horse afterward, and Gei stays at the table not touching her food. While cleaning the kitchen I ask, "Gei, why aren't you eating your chicken?"
"Because Luran usually cooks lasagna for dinner."
I dry the dishes.
She goes upstairs. I take her plate and give Donnie a piece of chicken and I eat one.
"What are you guys watching?"
"I dunno, something on "Hallmark"," Donnie says drinking one of the beers from the fridge.
"You look like an old man from a "Disney" movie," Daisy says rocking harder on her rocking horse.
"Hey, Daisy, be careful," I chime in.
"Okay," she says as she slows down.
I watch a little bit of tv and then I go upstairs with two pieces of leftover chicken after I get it from the microwave.
"Here," I say handing him the chicken wrapped in tin-foil.
"Thanks."
I shrug.
I guess he just has the clothes on his back, so I text Alaska and Charli for some spare coats as I guide them out the back door and into my car. Surprisingly, Donnie's asleep on the couch with Daisy curled up in one of his arms and a beer in the other.
He looks the most like Dad. Adrian, and I look the most like our mom with her shiny, brown hair and her parched eyes. Gei's blond and Daisy looks the most like her mother whoever that might be.
The boys all have the same mother but she passed from cancer, and the three girls have separate moms. Before I was put on this fucked-up planet, Dad had a fling with this woman from college, then he met our mom, and lucky for the two, they had us, three boys. Then, when she died, he wasn't his sober, loving self anymore and he banged hookers and prostitutes all over town, then Meg and Daisy were born and he married another woman when I was nine and now Daisy and Gei go to her place with her family every weekend. Who knows where their moms are now, all we know is that we're one big messy family looking for a better life and looking out for each other. I get in the car waiting for the engine to start.
Tomorrow after school, I see Maria and Gei sit on the tiny love seat in the living room, while I'm in the kitchen cooking lasagna. Gei's tiny and blond, while Maria's tall, thin, and brunette. I can tell she looks like our mom. It's kinda scary but in a cool way.
Gei and Daisy have other family members in California. A little girl named Diana and her mother. They're a nice family and they come over every week to pick up the girls to live there for a while and to drop them off. I pass out the plates of lasagna around.
Maria takes a bite. "Damn, this is good."
"Don't talk with your mouth open," Gei says crossing her little arms. "Luran would've given us ice cream for dessert."
"Then we can go to the store and get some ice cream. Hey Felix, could you--"
"No! She would've given us sundaes with sprinkles from her freezer that she prepared for us at the start of the day!"
"Well, we can't rewind time. What else would Lulu do?" Donnie says taking a drag off of Maria's cigarette.
"Her name is Luran and she would let us play outside until 4:30 then she'd make mac and cheese for lunch, then she would let us take turns, me and her son, Natan. She has a daughter with the best styles ever and a son with cool waves. He's black and for his thirteenth birthday he got a four-wheeler and he lets me go on rides with him and his sister lets me play games on her switch sometimes!"
"That sounds like fun. How about we go on a ride in my truck around the city?"
"With David, because Luran has Blake, that's her new fioncé's name, with her when we go to the pool every summer!" She says moving her arms causing something to drop out of her pocket.
I pick it up.
"Sure, if you want him to come?"
"Okay!" She says digging into her lasagna. "When?"
"Tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay! Night!" She says but before she gets up to go to her's and Maria's room, "Oh, man!"
"What?" Maria asks.
"I forgot my phone."
I examine it. Her case is sparkly and glittery, "Did Luran give you this?"
"Yes. For school." She takes it out of my hands and goes upstairs.
"Don't forget to brush your teeth!" Maria calls from upstairs.
"I will after my bath because Luran tells us to go to bed and take a bath every night before and set out your pajamas and outfit for the next day!"
"Yeah then--then do that, yeah!"
"Okay! Night love you!"
"Love you, too," Maria says as Gei aggressively slams her door.
"Wow, she's a lot. At least she brushes her teeth," Ade says darting his statement towards Donnie leaning up against the island planted in the middle of the living room eating the rest of his lasagna.
"Yo, I brushed my teeth. I did it before dinner."
"Ew."
"What? You brush your teeth before breakfast or whatever-the-shit, it's the same for dinner."
"No, it's not," I chime in eating the rest of her dinner.
"It is for me."
I give Maria a beer after she puts Daisy on her rocking horse we got from the dumpster dive last April. I remember hopping fences, tires, broken swing sets, and trampolines at the junkyard on the other side of town for a used rocking horse for Daisy.
"Do you like your rocking horse?" Maria asks.
"I love him." She hugs it. "I named him Rider because he is a horse."
"Cool. Do you want to go to bed?" Maria asks.
"No. Can I have a drink, please?"
"What of beer?"
She nods.
"No!" Maria laughs. "No beer for you."
"Why?"
"Because you're too young."
"Okay. Can I at least have juice?"
"Yeah."
"I'll get it," I say opening the cabinet as I accidentally knock down an old oatmeal box and a whole bunch of money flies out. "Shit! How much is this?"
"Oh! That's savings. M-my uh savings for the light bill, the car, and water bill," she stammers on her words.
"I'd put this in a bank deposit." I put the money spread out all over the floor into the box with Maria's help. "I-I mean anyone can rob this place and take the money. Smart for hiding it in an oatmeal box, though."
"Thanks. We'll go to the bank first thing in the morning before going to the arcade with Megdylan to make her feel like she's at her other...house, okay?"
"Okay. I'll teach you."
She laughs, "My little is cousin teaching me how to run a bank deposit, wow."
I laugh as she nudges me, "Alright, I'm going to bed."
"Take Daisy with you!"
"Okay, come one Daisy."
"Okay," she says as she gets off of her rocking horse and turns off the tv.
"Night," I say.
"Night."
"Night, night," Daisy says hugging her stuffed bunny and juice in a glass.
I brush my teeth, Daisy, right beside me. I leave her room door a crack open. Just the way she likes it. She has her own room, Maria and Gei share a room, and we three boys get the biggest room. I go to sleep on my bed with the pitiful sounds of police sirens and rain splattering on the window.