Love Bites

New at Babysitting

I stood up to stretch out my limbs, which was much needed since I had spent at least an hour sitting on the couch talking with Alice. We managed to fall into a conversation about the town that extended longer than I thought it would. Despite it being a small town with a small population we found a lot to gossip about.

I sat back on the couch and faced Alice who sat on the other side of the couch. "You don't look very sick to me."

"I'm not." Alice sighed. "I told my family that I wasn't feeling well and they assumed that I was physically sick."

Since she wasn't physically sick she must've been upset about something. I assumed it had something to do with Jasper and the girl he came downstairs with. "Is Taylor the girl that Jasper's in love with?"

Alice nodded. "Yeah, Jasper and I ended things a week ago. He's with her now and they seem pretty happy."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm happy for him, truly..." She said.

"But?"

"I just feel a bit lonely. Everyone in this house has someone to call theirs...and I..." Alice shrugged. "I have no one."

"That's not true. You have me." I reminded her. She gave me a confused look and I realized that she meant it in a different way. "You'll always have someone to talk to or vent to."

"But you're so far." Alice pouted.

I scooted over to her side of the couch. "Now I'm not."

"I meant our houses." She deadpanned.

Right, I'm a dumbass. "You can come over anytime you want. Or we could go out on friend dates."

"I might have to take you up on that offer," Alice mumbled. "I'm sorry I ruined the mood."

"You didn't. We all have things we need to get off of our chest." I shrugged. I didn't mind listening to Alice and her problems. I actually found it comforting that I wasn't the only person who felt alone even if we felt alone for different reasons.

"Like?" Alice asked.

"What time is it? When is everyone coming back?" I looked around for a clock.

"Aspen! I vented to you, now it's your turn." She whined.

"Exchanging sorrows isn't a babysitter's job." I rolled my eyes. Granted it was my first time babysitting someone my age so I didn't exactly know what I was supposed to do.

"I am old enough to babysit myself. In fact, I'm way older than you." Alice said.

"You're sixteen." She couldn't have been more than a few months older than me.

"Seventeen." She corrected.

I raised an eyebrow. "How long have you been seventeen?"

"A while." She said ominously.

"Oh fuck you." I laughed and pushed her shoulder playfully. "Seriously, when did you turn seventeen?"

"Last October." She answered.

I was ultimately wrong. She was more than a few months older than me. "You're a year and two months older than me."

"So I should be the babysitter. And the babysitter gets to set the rules." Alice beamed. "So go on. Talk to me."

"My parents are divorced and when we moved here we left my father behind in California," I told her.

"Do you still talk to him?" Alice asked.