Thorns On My Rose: A Story of the Daughter of Robert Downey Jr. (EDITING)

One Shot - Bonding With Baby Brother

I was upstairs on the couch in my room, listening to The Fray and The Script blast through my black and gold studded headphones, humming along. I was piecing together a collage of pictures that I had been cutting out for the last half hour, I was bored as hell.

Susan wasn't here as fucking usual but Duke was, which was strange because he was usually always with her. He was swimming in the damn pool, again, fully aware of that fact that I was supposed to be in there right now Alone. No guests allowed for any reason.

I'd just let him have it, though, out of the kindness of my heart. Okay. That's a lie. I asked him politely to get the hell out, but then I kind of realized that I didn't want to have Robert coming out of his study, bugging me about how rude I was.

I had grabbed Exton from his baby swing as left the patio, swinging him onto my hip and taking him upstairs to my room. Robert said I treated him like " a damn chihuahua". I even put him in my purse sometimes, but only to spite Rob.

I reached for one picture, looking down at my mom and her parents at her high school graduation. I smiled and looked up, seeing something move out the corner of my eye.

Exton was crawling all over my room, about to eat a Starburst packet I'd left on the floor. I gasped and ran over to him, frowning and yanking the paper out of his grasp. He whispered but recovered, over it. I rolled my eyes, carrying him back to the couch with me.

"You're the worst." I said, taking of my headphones, and placing them around my neck. The volume was still loud enough to where I could hear. I placed my annoying half brother on the couch, handing him a Gatorade bottle.

He looked at it curiously, shaking it up and down before throwing it. I glared at him.

"Hell no. We are not doing this." I declared, wanting to throw the bottle at him. He laughed, slobbering. I grimaced. "Don't you get your little cooties all over my couch, you damn weirdo."

I handed him the bottle again and placed him in my lap, beginning to cut the picture into the shape of a heart.

Exton continued to play with the stupid bottle for about three more minutes before he lost interest, throwing it across the room, bursting into tears.

I rolled my eyes and put down the glue, standing up off the couch. I went to my secret candy stash in the bottom of my bottom drawer in my dresser. I looked around for the Sour Punch Straws, agitated when I didn't see any. M&Ms were too small, suckers were too hard, he didn't like Twizzlers and Snickers were for people with teeth.

Ah-fucking-ha!

I finally found some, my last pack, and brought them over to Exton. His face went blank and his tears stopped almost instantly.

He knew the drill.

I took out a straw, tore it in half and placed one piece in my mouth, chewing it. He whined pathetically as he watched me swallow, I grinned. The number one job of a big sister is to torture her younger siblings.

I wedged the other piece into my hand, about let him lick it, when I snatched it away. He whined again and I pointed at him.

"Listen here. You are going to suck on this straw,and you are gonna leave me alone, okay?" And, like usual, he did.

We sat there for about five more minutes before Exton fell asleep, his lips still sticking one the now sugarless candy. I pulled it out of his mouth, threw it away and shifted him to where he was laying on his back, leaning against my stomach.

I looked up, my door opening less than five seconds later. Robert peeked his head inside, smiling.

"Hey, beautiful." He said, walking over to the couch and plopping down next to me. "What happened here?" He asked, looking down at Exton.

He was wearing jeans and a shirt with the words "No Flash Photography" on it. I smiled.

"Oh, nothing. The power of bribery is fricking amazing, by the way. I mean, who knew that babies would love shit like Sour Punch Straws." Robert frowned.

"Alana-Rose."

I ignored him, looking down at my collage, taping a picture of my mother onto the large sheet of paper.

"Hey can you let Duke know that the pool is my turf, and that he's gonna need to take his blue-eyes-on-a-black-man self somewhere else every day from twelve to one? I would truly appreciate it." I said.

Robert was shaking his head. "Alana are you feeding my child candy again?" I nodded slowly, looking at him understandingly.

"Yes. Yeah, I did. And I know that you don't necessarily want me to feed Exton sugar in order to induce sleep, but I'm telling you, best way to get him to just leave you alone."

Robert pulled his hand down his face, groaning. "Rose you cannot do that, honey." I nodded.

"Yeah. But I think that you and I both know that I will accidentally forget this conversation on purpose."

He turned to me. "Please stop drugging my kid." He said, taking off his non-prescription glasses. I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you where those if you don't have fricking impaired vision?" He frowned.

"What? Am I supposed to be impaired to wear glasses?" I nodded. He smirked.

"Whatever."

"Tell you what, I will stop if you convince your hot manager to get the hell out of my pool. And you have to stop wearing those stupid glasses when nothing is wrong with your eyes. It's, like, mockery, Padre."

He sighed, thinking about it. "Deal. About the pool though, I'm keeping my Ray Bans." I smiled, blowing a raspberry on his cheek messily. Robert shouted, pushing me away.

Exton snores and I rolled my eyes.

Robert wiped face playfully before slapping his thighs. Standing. I raised an eyebrow.

"That was so unattractive." I said and Robert sat on me. I grunted, trying to push him off. He bounced up and down on my lap. I groaned.

"You gonna say sorry?" He asked. I couldn't speak. I wiggled underneath him and he laughed.

"Apologize and then I promise to get off." He repeated, squishing me even more.

"I'M FUCKING SORRY, NOW GET YOUR HUGE BUTT OFF ME!!!!"

He throws his head back laughing but gets off, grabbing my face and kissing my cheek. I pull away.

"Yeah, yeah. You suck." He shrugs, grabbing Exton off the couch.

"Wanna go get some ice cream?" I pretend to look at a fake watch on my wrist.

"Go get ice cream during the middle of the day? What kinda question is that? It would be my fucking pleasure, Robert." I say, with a British accent. Robert smiles and hooks his arm in mine, dragging me out of my room.

He calls Jolenne and then Mark, the fricking body guard. I roll my eyes, stuffing my hands in my rolled up black sweats, waiting by the front door.

I hate riding with body guards. They're huge first of all, and while Mark is an okay human being, he is very rude when trying to 'protect' me. It's like what the fucking hell do I need protecting for?

I kinda realize as I'm thinking that, that is one of those stupid questions.

We leave soon after Jolenne gets there, staying home with Duke and Exton while Robert and I go and gorge our damn faces on YummyBerry.

It was... fun. There's that word again. A word that I am generally beginning to accept as okay. It's okay to have fun and be a normal person, and just, enjoy yourself. It's okay to just live.

As we are walking past a few paparazzi, to annoy Robert, I start to pose. They fricking eat. It. Up.

Robert laughs a little and poses with me, not what I was going for, but still amusing and entertaining nonetheless. Robert eventually gets tried of it though and smiles one last time for the cameras before he leaves, heading to the car. I ignore his obvious body language and continue to pose, making a crazy face before Mark comes to retrieve me.

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Lol... here's a picture of Alana and Mark