[UNEDITED][JASON]
I looked down at Amanda who had fallen asleep and I couldn’t help the smile which appeared. I loved my niece more than anything and I would do anything to keep her safe.
I imagined that’s how I would be if I ever had a daughter. I would protect her and keep her safe from all the evils of the world, especially the male population. She would be my little princess and she would always get what she wanted, within reason that is – I can’t afford to be like Chloe and give my daughter absolutely everything she asked for.
I would always love her and she would always be my little girl, even when she was twenty-one and living her own life. She would still be my little girl when she walked down the aisle and when she gave birth to her own child for the first time. She would never stop being my little girl.
Age is just a number. If you ever have a daughter then you will always have the urge to keep them safe and to protect them from the world, even when they are old enough to face the world on their own.
You just never really want them to grow up and you will do anything to prevent them from growing up. They will hate you for it during their teenage years but, when they got older, they would realise that you did nothing but the best for them and you only did what you did because you never wanted to see them hurt by the world.
“What time is Chloe getting here?” Erin disrupted my thoughts. I realised we were still sitting on the kitchen floor, me leaning against the counter with Amanda on my lap and Erin’s head lazily on my shoulder.
“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me,” I replied.
“Well, I’ve put Amanda in the same room she was in before and I have text my Aunt. Hopefully she will be looking to have a break from Damien for the night,” Erin chuckled.
In the last two weeks we had looked after Damien four times and he was one energetic kid. He wanted to sleep by day and play by night. He would be wide awake at eleven at night and then ready to sleep at five in the morning. I wondered how Erin coped with him at times because I came close to shouting at him.
Don’t get me wrong, he is a sweet kid and I am sure he will get on with Amanda, but he just has far too much energy for a six year old. He never wants to do as he’s told and he’s impossible to control when he does start misbehaving. It was enough to drive mother insane at times but Anita loved her son, regardless of the trouble he caused.
Erin also loved her cousin, even when he was giving her the run around and refused to do as he was told. She loved Damien in the same way I loved Amanda, I guess I just had a hard time accepting the way he was because Amanda had never been any trouble. She had always been the shy and quiet one who did as she was told first time and never argued back about anything.
Damien and Amanda were, to put it simply, binary opposites. I had everything in my body crossed that the two of them would get on rather than come to blows with each other.
“Ah. Damien. I can’t wait to see him again,” I muttered sarcastically.
“Just because he redesigned the inside of your car,” Erin laughed, though I didn’t find it all that amusing. Damien had thought it would be a good idea to take some paint with him on the journey back to his mother’s house, paint which ended up covering the back seats and doors of my car and was damn near impossible to remove.
“I was happy with the leather interior I had. But I guess the red and blue do brighten the place up,” I stated unamused with her comment.
“He’s six. You can’t hate him,” Erin shrugged and I knew it was pointless arguing with her because, where her cousin was concerned, I was never going to win. She would defend him until the day she stopped breathing.
“I don’t hate him. I’m just not his biggest fan,” I smiled.
“I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I’ve asked for Damien to spend the entire week here?” Erin laughed. I knew spending a week with the three of us was too good to be true and that she would try something like this.
Then again, it would be a good opportunity for Amanda to make a new friend. She didn’t have all that many at school because of how quiet she was around them. Getting to know Damien would give her someone outside of school to get to know and, in the future, they may even grow to be best friends.
“You probably should have told me that sooner. I wouldn’t have bought all those slasher movies I did,” I grinned and Erin looked at me in total shock. “Joking babe. I would never do that, especially knowing Amanda is in the house.”
“I can’t wait to see how you cope without sex for a week.”
“Meh. I’ve gone longer. It won’t be all that difficult,” I shrugged uncaringly.
Sure, I was lying and I was used to having sex at least twice a week, but she didn’t need to know that. I could last a week without having sex with Erin, it wasn’t that impossible and I had been through worst things.
Though, saying that, I broke Chloe’s rule of not having sex in the house while Amanda was around. I never managed to obey that rule and I was sure Chloe hated that I had never managed to keep that rule, alongside the no swearing in the house, but that was damn near impossible with most of the situations which happened under that roof.
“To be fair, your sister lasted for six months. I think she deserves an award or something because she’s a fucking saint,” Erin joked while I mentally cringed at the thought of my sister and Matthew having sex with each other.
“Wonderful,” I could taste the disgust on my tongue.
“Don’t worry, I will only make you suffer for a week. If you don’t try anything funny for the entire week, I will give you the best night of your life.”
I looked across at her, loving the mischievous grin which was on her face. It was only a week and I would get one hell of a reward at the end of it. The week would definitely be worth it at the end and it was something I was willing to sacrifice for the sake of two children.
“I’ll get it,” Erin smiled.
“Get what?”
“The door,” she laughed and I didn’t even realise someone was knocking on the door. I had been thinking about what she had said so I hadn’t been paying attention to anything around me.
I went back to admiring Amanda and the way her blonde hair fell slightly across her face when she slept. It was strangely cute and she looked even sweeter, though I never even thought that was possible with the way that she looked when she was awake. She actually looked her age when she slept, with her thumb slightly in her mouth and her Elsa doll cuddled close to her chest.
I was so engrossed in my own observations that I didn’t notice that presence of other people in the room until one of them cleared their throat to announce themselves.
I looked up to see Matthew and Chloe standing there with huge smiles on their faces as they looked down at myself and Amanda.
“Hey bro,” Chloe greeted casually.
“Hey sis,” I smiled back at her.
“I’d ask for a hug, but it looks like you’ve got your hands full there,” Chloe chuckled. She was definitely happier now than she was last night, a smile on her face and a spring in her step.
The way she kicked us all out of her place was amazing. She was on a mission and she was going to get what she wanted and, from the comments I heard while I was on the phone to her, she got what she wanted and some more.
“Yeah. Just enjoying the calm before the storm,” I replied.
“What?” Matthew asked, his voice going up an entire octave as the single word came out of his mouth.
“Damien, my cousin, is also going to be spending the week here. Jason and he have never seen eye to eye since the day he kicked a football, hit him right in the—“
“Thanks for the reminder,” I muttered.
“Or there was the time they were playing Frisbee in the garden and Damien throw it a little too hard. Jason ended up with—“
“I think I’ve had enough of story time,” I interrupted her again. I had only met the kid four time and, on all four occasions, he had managed to do something to make me dislike him.
The first time it was a football to the crotch, then it was a Frisbee to the head which left me with a bruise covering most of my eye and it’s impossible to forget the time he thought it would be amusing to take a pair of scissors to my clothes. He was the devil but Erin defended him like he was a god.
“How old is he?” Chloe asked and I wished she hadn’t have asked that, any question but how old he is.
“Six. He loves Jason, he just has a funny way of showing it,” Erin laughed.
“It’s fine. For the first nine months of Amanda’s life, if Matthew so much as breathed near her, then she would burst out crying,” Chloe said.
They were an extremely hilarious nine months. She spent the beginning of her life hating her own father for some strange reason, but she loved all the toys he would buy for her. She was a funny child, still is, but we love her all the same.
“It’s not funny. I don’t even know why she hated me so damn much,” Matthew mumbled clearly unimpressed with that story being told again.
“Anyway, we only came to drop off Amanda’s bag. Vivienne forgot to pick it up from us,” Chloe changed the topic, handing Erin the bag which she had packed for the week. It was the Frozen bag which I had bought for her not two months ago. I was pretty sure she would take the bag to school with her if she could, but she’s not allowed anything branded.
Everything has to be plain. Their school bags, their lunch boxes, even their water bottles. Something to do with not encouraging inequality because, apparently, having branded things would showcase the divide between families.
“Thanks,” I said as I managed to push myself up from the ground, keeping a sleeping Amanda in my arms. When I was stood up, I moved her to my waist and she immediately wrapped her arms around my neck, snuggling her head into my shoulder.
“Also, I have something to tell you Jase,” Chloe just about managed to smile at me, though it was an extremely half-hearted smile if ever I saw one.
“What?”
“Matthew and I, we’re going to try for another baby.”