Apartment 311

Ch | 58

Noah Silas Anderson

Chapter Fifty-eight: "Whale watchers at the shark tank"

"Happy birthday, Emmers!" I shouted, walking into the guest room in my apartment that she slept in. I had to steal her from Kim and Cassie for the weekend, we needed to bond more, I think. We had a lot of fun together, too, the kid is funny! She had me singing and dancing, baking and almost burning my kitchen down. Shit, we probably watched every Disney Princess movies in one night, and I'm not mad about it.

I stalked over to her bed and went to peel the covers back and smash a cake in her face. Except, when I did, it was just pillows under the blankets and no Emereigh or Audrey. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I scratched my beard with one hand, the cake in the other.

All of a sudden, I was tackled onto the bed by Emereigh and her half-sister (one of Kim's kids) Audrey. They were close in age and best friends so I figured I'd let Audrey tag along for Em's birthday festivities, and Kim had no problem giving her up.

They tag-teamed me and smashed the mini cake in my own face.

"Two on one," I complained, "not fair!"

"No-ee, I'm seven today. Do you know what that means?" asked Emereigh.

"No," I said, "what does it mean?" I sat on the edge of the bed and wiped the icing from my eyes.

"It means I'm almost a teenager," my little sister told me.

"Is that right?" I asked. Her and Audrey nodded their little heads.

"Well I guess I'm getting old, then, huh?"

"Really old," Audrey commented and Em agreed.

"Can we go to park today? I wanna try out the skates you got me," Emereigh said and quickly covered her lips.

"How'd you know I got you skates?" I asked, folding my arms. It was just one of her several gifts from myself but I hoped she didn't see anymore than the skates. It doesn't help that I didn't wrap any of them.

"Oops! I looked in your room," she revealed, crawling under the covers.

"Emereigh Sunny Anderson," I scolded her, trying to sound like Rick until I started laughing.

The doorbell rang and I stood, wondering who it was.

I pointed my finger and Em and then threw a pillow at her. "Stay out of Noah's room, got it?"

"Okay!" Emmy gasped, falling on her back on the mattress. I shook my head, laughing, and grabbed a towel for my face as I headed towards the door.

"I'm comin'!" I shouted, glancing at the time on the stove. 10:44 AM.

I opened the door and saw Brooklyn waiting there.

"I bet you thought I wasn't going to come," she said, smiling.

"Honestly, yeah. I thought I fucked up again," I admitted, swiping the towel down my face. Brooklyn shook her head and ran a finger down my cheek.

"You taste good," she giggled after licking her middle finger. "Where's Emereigh, I have gifts?" Brooklyn displayed a few neatly-wrapped boxes, some big, some small.