Kissing Habits.

05. The Babysitter's Club

Chapter Five
The Babysitter's Club

WHEN THEODORA PHONED CAMILA FROM THE HENDERSONS', ASKING FOR SOME HELP BABYSITTING, SHE HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO SAY YES. For the past two hours, Camila had been laying on her bed, leg hung over the side, staring up at the ceiling, falling in and out of slumber; but when her brother barged into her room saying there was someone on the phone for her, her whole evening had flipped upside down.

She changed out of her bummy PJs and into some more respectable attire (which ended up only being her jeans, a t-shirt and her flannel - not much of an improvement from her previous outfit), and got her mom to drop her off at the Henderson's.

"So why do you need to babysit a thirteen-year-old again?" Camila asked for the umpteenth time, now finding herself sat on one of the plush couches in the Henderson's living room, wedged in-between Theodora Özdemir and Dustin Henderson.

Theodora glanced up from her manicure, newly red. "Don't really know. His mom is too protective of him and scared of the world around him to leave him by himself for too long," she explained with a shrug. "Not that I mind though; easy money. I just let the kid do what he wants."

Camila looked over at Dustin on her other side. He was a mop of curly hair, pushed down with a cap, and a gappy smile that looked good enough. His eyes trailed up from the floor to her, and offered a tight line of a smile.

Silence hovered over them in the form of a heavy cloud. Until Dustin abruptly stood up, causing all eyes to land on him.

"I have some business to attend to," he stated dramatically, offering a sort-of-bow, and speed-walking off into the kitchen. The two girls shared a confused look, but shrugged it off and turned on the TV.

Their gameshow was going well (and if they'd been playing for real, they'd even have won a few hundred dollars), but things began to get confusing when Dustin began to step out of his room, clad head-to-toe in an old hockey uniform, dropping slices of salami and cheese onto the carpet, seemingly forgetting the girls' presence.

It wasn't until the audience cheered on the television that the boy looked up, letting out a startled gasp. "Oh!"

"So..." Theodora began, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "What 'business' includes cheese and hockey sticks?"

There wasn't really any logical way to explain himself.

Dustin let out a long, heavy sigh. "Theodora," he began, and the Turkish girl sat a little straighter in her seat at the mention of her name. "They didn't actually find Mews, it was a lie. I know where Mews is, and it's not good because she's not coming back."

"What? So she's dead?"

Even through the helmet, you could make out Dustin's pained expression as he nodded frantically. "Something killed her."

"Oh, shit!" Camila piped up, jaw dropping. "What killed her? A fox, or something?"

"Or something," Dustin admitted. He waddled on the spot in his heavy protective hockey gear uncomfortably. "The other day I found this... thing in the trash. I took him in as my child, raised him for a bit, feeding him my nougat and whatnot. But... I guess the thing is... He kind of is a weird creature not from this earth?"