Somebody to Hold Tonight (Larry Stylinson)

4

Fizzy was still mad at me the next morning. I didn't take it to heart, though. I understood how she felt. There were many times when I wanted something but couldn't have it for lack of money. Our mom was usually the one who took care of the finances, and she seemed to always have her hands full just trying to keep track of what our dad was spending. When she left and I had to take over, I set up my own checking account so I'd always know how much money I had in the bank.

Since my dad didn't have access to it, I didn't have to worry about what he was spending. He usually went and cashed his unemployment check as soon as it arrived. He always paid me in cash, but I most always had to ask him about it first. I knew if I didn't ask him, then he would probably just go out and spend all of his money.

After he gave me the money, he ate what was leftover from dinner and left again. I suspected he was heading back to the bars, but I never bothered to ask. I didn't really care much either way. I actually preferred it when he was gone. His presence was just an annoyance most of the time. His life consisted of eating, drinking, and sleeping. How he had the nerve to ask me to call him dad I had no idea. After all, it had been his idea for me to call him Mark in the first place.

When he first started his band with his drinking buddies, he didn't want me to call him dad around them because he thought it made him look old. I started calling him Mark, and it'd stuck. Besides, I didn't feel that we really had much of a father son relationship anyhow. He was so far from acting like an adult it was hard for me to even consider him an equal. Sometimes I felt like I'd worked more in my nineteen years of life than he had in his thirty-seven.

Since Fizzy hadn't come out of his room the night before, he had to take a shower in the morning, which put us behind schedule. "I hate taking showers in the morning," she muttered. "The water's never warm enough."

"It's your own fault," Lottie commented. "Acting like a big baby and running to your room."

"I am not a big baby!" she exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and didn't bother to join in on this fight as I took Phoebe out of her high chair and quickly cleaned her off. "Just hurry up and finish your breakfast," I said. "We have to get going."

"I need lunch money," Lottie reminded me.

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "Grab my Backpack, will you?"

Lottie stood up from her seat at the table and stretched before grabbing her dirty dishes and taking them over to the sink. She grabbed my purse and handed it over to me. "Can you do the dishes when you get home?" I asked as I took out my wallet and took out a few dollars for her.

"Ugh, can't Fizzy?" she whined as she took the money and pocketed it while I put my wallet back in my purse. "SHe's the one that broke the picture frame in the hallway."

"SHe's also the one that doesn't get the dishes clean, and then we have to rewash them before we can actually use them," I pointed out.

Lottie glared at Fizzy and huffed, "Fine. I'll wash them."

"Thanks, Lot," I said as I stood up and grabbed Phoebe's jacket. "Come on, Phoebs. It's time to go to Galadriel'."

"Gala, yeah!" she exclaimed. Phoebe seemed to be going through an agreeable stage. In the last week or so, she'd taken to repeating whatever someone said and putting 'yeah' at the end of it. She marched over to me, and I helped her put on her light blue jacket before zipping it up.

"I'm going to take her down to Galadriel', but you two need to be in the car when I get back," I said, glancing at the clock on the microwave. "We're running late, and if you miss the bus, I won't have time to drop you off."