Met Online

Chapter 10

"I hate hangovers," I groan into the receiver. I'm hanging half way across the counter at The Brew on a lazy Saturday morning.

"I'm pretty sure you can't get a hangover from just attending a party," Taylen states as a matter of fact on the other end of the phone call.

"Sure does feel like it."

"You're just experiencing sleep loss from staying out late," she laughs, probably at my lack of experience regarding the party scene. I don't mind it. She was kind enough to drive me home last night without asking a single question about the dried tears on my cheeks or the puffiness of my eyes. She still hasn't said a thing about it and for that I'm forever grateful. "Don't you feel alive?"

"I just feel tired," I sigh. I wish I could sleep, 'cause staying at the café when there are no customers is a waste of time. Time that I could spend sleeping.

"You need to embrace life," Taylen chuckles into the phone.

"I did embrace life and look what it got me; a killer headache." I groan as I rest my phone between my ear and shoulder and use both of my hands to rub at my sore temples.

"Whiner," she tells me in the most childish voice I've ever heard. It kind of reminds me of my two-years-old nephew.

"You would be too if you had to be up for work at five."

"Whatever." I can basically hear her roll her eyes through the phone. "At least you don't have to babysit all day."

"Speaking of, are you supposed to be on the phone?" I don't have a lot of experience when it comes to babysitting, but I've been around children enough to know that they need constant supervision.

"They'll be alright." She sounds too confident for my liking; Taylen is horrible around children. Even her own siblings.

"What did you do?" I ask suspiciously. Usually when I'm on the phone with Taylen it's a whirl of disaster on the other end of the line but it's too quiet this time.

"Nothing," she promises me in a high-pitched voice.

"Really?"

"Okay, so I might have threaten them a bit to get them to shut up." I can't hold back my laughter as she finishes her sentence.

"You're horrible with kids," I tell her mid-laughter.

"It's not my problem that my cousin keeps asking me to babysit," she exclaims. She's right, but it kind of is her own fault for saying yes all of the time, when everyone knows she hates kids. She won't even babysit her own siblings when her parents go out.

"You could say no."

"Eh, the money's good," she tells me, before our conversation is interrupted by the sound of a loud crash echoing through the phone. It sounds like porcelain being smashed against the kitchen floor and scattered into a thousand pieces. "Shit, I have to go."

"Told you, you should have kept an eye on them." I can't help but laugh at her. It's so typical Taylen to think that she has everything under control and then have hell break lose behind her back.

"Shut up," is the last thing she tells me before she ends the call.

I'm still laughing by the time the bell across the door chimes and Clark steps into the café. "Finally," I groan in relief at the sight of him.

"Hey Cassidy, you ready to head home?" he chuckles as he joins me behind the counter and slips his bag off his shoulder.

"You could say that," I sigh.