Fainting

Chapter 18 - Mark

"Mark!" Denise yells as I open the door on Sunday afternoon.

I chuckle and ruffle her poofy hair. "Hey, Nise. What's up?"

"Look!" The four-year old holds up a painting. "I did this at school today!"
"Wow, that's so good," I commend her. It really is; she made Deanne – her oldest sister – holding her pet fish.

Denise beams. "Told you he would like it, Devin!" She yells into the sunroom at the back of their house, where, presumably, the almost six year old is playing legos.

"Good for him," Devin calls back. I sigh.

Ryan – Mrs. Young – comes out of the kitchen drying her hands on a towel. "Hi, Mark," she greets me. "Devin and Denise are slightly mad at each other at the moment, so don't mind that. Deanne and Danielle are out back on the trampoline with some friends, and Dayton is attempting to eat. Unfortunately, the majority of the food is getting to know the floor and walls, not my son's mouth."

"DENISE!" We hear a roar from the back. Ryan and I go running. "She stepped on my legos!" Devin's crying.

Ryan and I have done this many times before; I take Devin while she takes Denise. The best method – at least for these kids – is to distract them. They'll get over the issue fairly quickly. "Devin, I found a new earing for Daddy's birthday. You want to give it to him?"

He nods, wiping his tears. I hand over a silver stud and remind him, "Remember, give it to him tomorrow, not today. Okay? His birthday is tomorrow, not yet."

Devin nods again. "I 'member."

I smile. "Good." I nod toward the legos. "What do you want to build?"

His face is dry now; Devin shows me around his city, Denise's demolishment already forgotten.

Ryan and Brandon Young are old college friends of my parents. Well, they're not old – they kind of are, but don't tell them that – but former college friends; that's probably the better way to put that. They have five kids, and at first it wasn't their plan for them all to begin with 'D.' After they named Devin, they realized they now had three D's, so the last two were intentional.

I hear shouts of joy from outside; peeking out of the window I see the seven- and eight-year-old girls jumping and having fun. From upstairs I hear Denise's exclaims of happiness as Ryan shows her a new hair product, as that's something the Young girls love. Their dad, too; he's got long hair to play around with.

"Mama!" Danielle calls as she comes in, face flushed. "Oh, hey Mark. Where's Mama?"
"Upstairs with Denise. What do you need?"
"Can we have popsicles?"
I look at her sternly and she giggles. "Well, I don't know. Are you going to be hungry for supper?"

She's still giggling. "Supper's in, like, three hours, Mark."

I smile. "I know. Yes, you girls can have." I do have the liberty to give the kids permission for things; I'm somewhat of an uncle to them.

"Yay! Thank you!" She runs towards the freezer, pulls out the box, and goes back outside before Devin notices anything. Sorry, Devin, but I don't particularly want to deal with you and a popsicle right now.

Suddenly I remember two-year old Dayton in the kitchen. Checking on him, I see he's fine, just covered in baby food. "Hey, Tony. How's the food?"
He looks up at me and smiles. "Food!" he says proudly.

"Yes, that's food. Are you eating it?"
He nods happily. "Eat!"

I shake my head and smile. "Whatever you say, Tony."

Dayton smiles again and misses his mouth with his next bite. Brandon claims he enjoys cleaning this up, so I'm not going to bother.

"Mark, where's the mama lego?"

I walk back to Devin and point. "She's over there with the daddy."

"Oh yeah. I put her there. I'm gonna take her back now, though."

"Hey, where my boys and girls at?"

"Daddy!" Devin yells and runs to the front door. Dayton yells too; I see if he's clean enough that I can take him to go say hi. He sort of is; I wipe him off a little bit and set him down on the floor where he goes running to Brandon. "Dada!"

"Hey-hey, Day!" I hear, followed by a scream of happiness, most likely from Brandon picking Dayton up and swinging him around.

"Daddy, do that to me!" Devin pleads. Brandon seems to comply; Dayton comes running back into the kitchen. I pick him up and walk him back to the front.

"Hey, Brand," I say.

He looks up. "Mark!" He puts Devin down and comes to pat me on the back. "Haven't seen you in a few weeks. How's it goin'?"

"All good. Deanne and Danielle are outside with friends, Ryan's upstairs calming Denise, and Dayton made a mess in the kitchen."

"A mess! What fun!" He tickles Dayton as he walks past us towards the back. "Hey, girls!" he bellows out through the back door.

"Hi, Daddy!" the two girls shout, but they don't come running. Too busy playing.

Brandon smiles as shuts the door. "All right, let's get cleaning!"

It's really late when I finally enter my apartment. I could have stayed at the Youngs if I wanted, but I didn't. Mornings at there house are hectic, especially on birthdays, and tomorrow's Brandon's.

Checking my phone for the first time since the early-ish morning, I see I missed Allison's call, so I call her back.

"Hey, Mark," she says as she picks up.

"What's up, Hyper?"

She groans. "Still with the nickname?"
I nod, even though she can't see me. "Yup. Is mine still going?"
"Of course, Rude. Wouldn't want to deprive you of your nickname."

"That would be a tragedy. Ever so kind of you to look out for me like that."

I figure she's nodding. "I know. I'm very kind."

I withhold a snort. We stay silent for a minute until Allie breaks the silence. "So, you called this morning?"

"Yes, I did. Uh, I can't actually remember why I called right now. Dang it." I actually don't think I had a reason; I just felt like calling her.

Thankfully – and this is probably the only time this is a particularly positive thing – Allison has a joke. "You didn't call right now. I did."
I roll my eyes. "Oh, right. I often get confused between you, me, pressing the call button, pressing the answer button. It all gets mixed up in my head."

"I figured. That's why I clarified."

"Nice of you. I appreciate it."

"No you don't."

My snort comes out and I hear her start to laugh too. "Uh, I have to go right now. My brother's calling. Wanna meet up tomorrow?"

"Sure. Where?"

"You choose."

"I don't want to."

"Well, I don't want to either."

"This is productive."

"Of course this is productive. I never take part in useless conversations, so if I'm a part of this then it must be useful."

"I'll meet you at Cade's at ten."

"There we go. My strategy worked. See you there andthen." She hangs up and I sigh. Allison's crazy.