Raising Lexi (Year One)

7-When the Cat's Away- part 1

Lexi had tried to drag out cleaning up her room as long as possible. With every minute that ticked by an ominous feeling began to grow in the pit of her stomach. She was just sitting on the edge of her bed when Tyler peeked in through her opened door.

"Hey Lex, you okay?" He asked softly his eyes scanning the lightly painted lavender room, noting it looked clean to him.  Lexi just shrugged as she continued to stare down at the floor.

Tyler walked over and sat down next to her. He and Chandler had heard her and Dameon up here arguing earlier and they also heard the results of that confrontation. He also knew that Dameon was expecting her downstairs. He really didn't want to see his little sister get into even more trouble than she already was in. 

"You know Lex, it's not a good idea to make Dameon come looking for you." He offered. 

Her scowl back at him let him know she could really careless what he, and probably Dameon, cared about, at all. 

"I'm just saying," he continued on still attempting to get her to heed his advice , "he is patient for only short time. A very short time." Tyler stressed, "He gives you, what he considers, enough time to do whatever it is he instructed you to do and then you are expected to report to him. In a timely fashion." He tried to explain. 

"What's the big effing deal?" Lexi asked her scowl now gone. 

However, replacing it was now a  quizzical questioning look, though Tyler thought it looked more like she was more just highly irritated. Especially after she flopped back onto her bed. Adding a dramatic sigh, as she stared up at the ceiling.

Joining her, Tyler leaned back then rolled himself up onto his side. While propping his elbow up, holding his head in the palm of his hand, they laid there. Listening to nothing but the silence of the room. He studied his little sister, as he reached out and rolled a lock of her chestnut brown hair through his fingers. Noting how it draped over her shoulder, curling gently down her arm. He couldn't help but notice how long her hair had gotten. Continuing to play with the strands in between his fingertips he reflected on how he couldn't believe it had been almost two years since they had lived together. 

Maybe it was because he was a little older now that he was seeing things a bit differently than he did when he was twelve. It truly had never crossed his mind how his leaving would hurt Lexi when he left to go live with Dameon. He and Lexi had been close, real close. Not that he had much say in that decision. Dameon just showed up one day, with papers in hand, announcing he and Chandler were going to live with him. Dameon's reasoning, they would come to understand, was both of them had been in and out of trouble over the last few years. Dameon was stepping in to keep them from taking the wrong path in life. 

Remembering a rather heated argument one night between Chandler and Dameon, Chandler threatened to move back to their Mom's.  Damone was quick to point out to that even though Chandler was sixteen, no judge was going to let him decide where he wanted to live.  Especially when it was so obvious that their Mom couldn't control him, or rather wouldn't control him. Dameon also made it very clear to Chandler that with his past encounters with law, his only options would be him or the juvenile detention center. Since then, there hadn't been any more of those "discussions." There had been others, no doubt, but not this particular one.

For Tyler though, truth was he was just excited to have the opportunity to play football at a prestigious school with a true chance to be seen by college recruits. Of course, for both of them that also meant they had to get their grades up, just in order to play football on the team. Which then came a real awakening as they started a whole new life with Dameon.