Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

17. Samantha

It's so unfair! I make one stupid mistake and now I actually am being treated like an indentured servant. Stupid Brendon making me change the beds, walk the dogs, skim the pool and vacuum!? And he knows I have a killer headache. He's being so unfair!

I went upstairs and threw the blankets off my bed and pulled off my sheets, then took the pillows out of their cases. I put my leg on because that was easier for moving around. The sock was a bit uncomfortable but I'd shaken out all the sand I could. I didn't think much of it. I'd take my leg off as soon as I could and change the sock.

I went into the guest room grumbling that I had to change the sheets on a bed no one slept in. Aunt Sarah passed by as I was yanking at the fitted sheet that was stuck on the corner. She stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"What?" I spat at her. Obviously she knew what Brendon was doing.

She shook her head and walked away without saying anything. She just looked... disappointed. Tears came to my eyes. I hated disappointing anyone. And I hated that Aunt Sarah hadn't even said good morning. I hated feeling like they were both mad at me. 

I changed the sheets on the bed and went into their room and changed their bed, too. Then I went back to my room and put clean sheets on my bed. I gathered up all the sheets and brought them down to the laundry room.

"You can throw those in the machine, but we'll put the machine on later," Brendon said. I glared at him and went and dumped them into the machine.

"You can either vacuum, walk the dogs or skim the pool. Up to you," he said. I didn't say a word to him, went out back and started skimming the pool. So stupid. There wasn't even anything in the pool to skim. Just then a gust of wind blew a few stray leaves into the pool.

"Oh come on!" I said, and went back to skimming.

I finished that and then grabbed the dogs' leashes. Without saying a word, I left the house with the dogs on their leashes.

"At least you guys still like me," I sniffled, as Bogart jumped around me and Penny sniffed at my legs.

I walked them for about half an hour but then my leg was bugging me, so I went back to the house.

"You've got vacuuming to do," Brendon said when I came into the house.

"Am I allowed a glass of water at least? Maybe a crust of bread?" I said snarkily, showing him my glucose monitor was starting to trend low.

"Sit down. You should have a snack. What would you like? Yogurt and strawberries?"

"A crust of bread and a glass of lukewarm water should be fine, Warden," I muttered.

Brendon looked at me.

"Sam, don't be like that. How about a piece of toast and peanut butter and a glass of milk?"

I shrugged. I didn't plan on speaking to them more than absolutely necessary.

He made toast and poured milk while I went to pull out the vacuum and put it in the living room. I ignored Sarah sitting on the sofa, reading a book.

I ate quickly, put my dishes away and then vacuumed the living room, carelessly. I didn't care if I got everything. My head was pounding.

When I was done, I put the vacuum away and went up to my room. I was exhausted, my head hurt.

I lay down on my bed and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I'm not sure how long I slept but Brendon came and woke me up and I still didn't feel rested. And my head still hurt.