Oh, Heather

Chapter Thirty-Four

Heather, Miley, Leo, and Jada had arranged to meet at the cafe Sunday morning to hang out for a bit, but Heather was left with babysitting duty.

“I want to go too but I don’t know if Corey wants to leave. He’s been really into reading and I don’t think he’ll put down his book.” She complained.
“Just ask him, please? It’ll be awkward if it’s just me, Miley, and Leo.”
“Okay I will. Bye Jada.”
“Bye Heather.”

She tossed her phone beside her, looking over Corey’s shoulder.

“Hey buddy, do you want to go to the Cafe and get a dinosaur donut? I’m gonna meet some friends there.”
“No.” He said, not looking up from the book.
“Please Corey? We won’t be there long. And you really like the dinosaur donuts.”
“I don’t want one.”
“Come on Corey, I’ll take you to buy a new book afterwards?” 

“Another new one?” He said, standing up.
“Yes. Another one.”
“Okay, we can go.”
“Great. We’re gonna take momma’s car so you can watch a movie while we drive.”
“Yay!” He replied, putting his book down and running out of the house.

Heather chuckled, grabbing her purse from her room before walking out to the car. She put her purse on the passenger seat, taking the keys from the console.

“Sissy, can you drive?”
“Of course I can buddy.” She lied.

It wasn’t really a lie, she knew how to drive, she wouldn’t be driving if she thought she might put her brother in danger, she just didn’t have her license. She hadn’t gone to take the test, but she drove places before. Heather helped Corey out of the car, wrapping him into her arms as they walked into the cafe. Jada, Miley, and Leo were already there as Corey and Heather went to sit down.

“Hey Corey, this is my friend Jada.”
“I thought you told momma another thing?” He said.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“You said Jada asked you something and she was something different.”
“Do you mean girlfriend, Corey?”
“Uh-huh.” He smiled.

She pulled him underneath her arm, softly kissing his head before the waiter walked over to take their order. 

“Aw, is he yours?” He smiled, looking down at Corey and up to Heather.

She choked on her coffee, using the back of her hand to cover her mouth. Miley and Leo were suppressing a laugh but seemed to find the situation more confusing than hilarious.

“Uhm, no. He’s my little brother.” She replied.
“Oh. I’m sorry for assuming miss.”
“It’s okay sir.”

The waiter took their orders, quickly jotting them down and excusing himself from the table.

“Does he really look like he could be my son?” Heather asked, almost frowning at the thought.
“I don’t think so, but it might’ve been the way you were holding him. It could have been taken as motherly.”
“I don’t think you look old enough to be his mom, but I get what Leo is saying.” Miley replied.

Heather took a long sip of her coffee, exhaling as she finished the drink.

“You already drank all of it?” Jada laughed.
“This meeting has been very stressful.” She said, wrapping her arms around her stomach.
“We’ve been here for maybe 10 minutes, and we got our drinks like 6 minutes ago. There should be no reason you finished a large coffee in that amount of time.” Miley replied.
“Be quiet. You have like 4 coffees before the school day even starts so.”
“She got you there Miley. I remember when her mom took the coffee machine out of the kitchen, she didn’t put it back in there for almost a year. She always walked here to get her coffee after that happened.” Jada said.

“Yeah well remember when you broke your coffee machine because of how often you were using it? You had to come over to my house every morning to get a cup of coffee.”
“I didn’t break it because of how often I was using it. My mom bought it for two dollars from some homeless guy after a party. There was no telling what was wrong with it.”
“And you used it?”
“If that’s how I have to get free coffee then yeah.”

“You know there’s a coffee machine in the cafeteria that students are allowed to use for free, right? It’s been there for like 4 whole years. It was there before your coffee machine incident.”
“I did not know that, that would’ve been nice to know.”
“Well to be fair I just found out about it at the start of this year, but apparently the coffee sucks.”
“Anything would have been better than the coffee I was drinking.” Jada said, wrinkling her nose at the gross memory.

The waiter brought their food over, thanking them for choosing to come here before speeding off to another table.

“I think he’s really embarrassed about thinking that Corey was mine.” Heather said, watching his demeanor change for the elderly couple he was talking to.
“I would be too.” Leo replied.

They wrapped up their meeting, exchanging hugs before departing back to their houses. As Heather pulled into the driveway, Corey started whining.

“What buddy?” She asked, taking off his buckle.
“Book.” He frowned.
“Oh right. How about we wait for momma and Matthew, okay? She’ll wanna come with us.”
“Okay. But we’ll go?” 
“Yes Corey, I told you we would, so we’ll go.” He smiled, hugging her around her waist.

She picked him up swinging him in the air before locking the car and walking into the house, putting Corey on the couch.

“I want to watch the fish.” He said, pointing to the TV.
“You want to watch your fish show?” 
“Uh-huh.”
“Let me find the remote and I’ll turn it on for you.” She smiled, searching around the living room.

She took the remote from underneath the couch cushion, turning the TV to the show he wanted to watch. She walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. She sat back down on the couch as she took a small sip of the water. Corey laid his head on her lap to continue watching the movie. When it ended, he ran to his room and wasted no time to go back to reading his book. Heather took her sketchbook from her room before making her way into Corey’s room, drawing a rough sketch of him reading his book. He closed the book and directed his attention to her, tilting his head as she moved the pencil across the paper.

“Whatcha drawing sissy?”
“I’m drawing you, C.C.” She replied, not looking up from her paper.
“Can I see?”
“When I finish it you can.”
“When will you get done?”
“Just sit back down and read another book Corey, I’ll tell you when it’s done.”
“Okay!” He smiled, plopping down on the floor in front of her.

He slid a couple books out from under his bed, staring at the pile in front of him. He took one off the top then put it back in the pile, then he would take the same book and look at it again about 4 or 5 times before putting that book back under the bed.

“Heather, I don't wanna read.”
“I’m almost done so just wait a minute.” She said, adding the final details of his hair.

She looked up at Corey and back down at the paper, adding a couple more details before turning the paper over to him.

“Yay! I look so cool!” He cheered, shooting his hands up into the air.
“I’m glad you like it buddy. I drew my friends too, want to see them?”
“Uh-huh.” He said, jumping onto the bed beside her. 

She flipped through the first 5 pages of the notebook showing a drawing of her, Leo, Miley, Jada, Alyssa before flipping it back to him.

“Do you draw anything else?”
“Not in this notebook. I draw sunsets and mountains and lakes in my other one but it’ll take me a minute to find it.”
“You can show me and mommy them when she gets back!” He babbled, jumping off the bed and down to his pile of books.

He picked one up, dropping it beside her.

“Can you read to me?” He asked.
“Sure I can.”

She flipped to the first page of the book, mumbling the words as he acted them out in front of her.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!