I'm All Yours

Chapter 4: Boyfriend?

"What are you doing?" Giggles Maya. "Why are you just sitting here?"
I don't speak. I cant speak.
"What's wrong?" She asks with sympathy as she touches her hand to my thigh. "Why are you crying?"
Am I crying? I can't feel anything.
"Cassie," she's whining now. "Come on! Mommie said you have to take me to Summer Camp today!"
"Cassie!" The four year old starts crying. "You're being mean!"
I take a long, slow sigh and manage what I think is a smile. "I'm sorry."
Hs smiles back, putting away her crying act. For now. "Can you take me to Duncan Donuts?"
I laugh. "For what?"
"For breakfast!" She pleads. "Pleeeease?"
I sigh and ruffle her frizzy orange mess on her head. "Fine," when I try to pull away, a curl gets caught on my ridged nail. "Don't you ever wash this?" I complain as I wriggle my finger free.
"Nope," she says proudly. "It takes too long. The Foster Care lady said that I squirm too much for her to wash it right. So she gave up."
I laugh again. "What if I washed your hair for you?"
"It'll take too long," she pouts.
"No it won't. And it'll be long and straight like mine," I taunt.
She giggles as she smooths out my hair from the scalp all the way to where it ends at my ribs. "Okay. I like your hair, Big Sissy."
"Okay. And when we're done we can go to-"
"Duncan Donuts!" Maya shrieks as she races out my room towards the bathroom.

I love that girl.

So as you probably guessed, I lied to Maya. Her hair took forever to wash. But, when it was done, I straightened it and put a white bow in the top. And she loves it.
"I look like a big girl!" She flaunts in front of the mirror. "And my hair's longer than yours!"
She's right. Her hair glides all the way down to her bellybutton.
"Hey!" I pretend to be mad at her. "You better stop pretending to be bigger than me!" I tickle her stomach and she thrifts forward in laughter.
"Good morning," my mother stretches as she trudges in. She gasps when she sees. Maya's hair.
"Oh my gosh!" She almost tears up in shock. "You look beautiful!"
"Big Sissy did it," she wraps her arms around her. "It took really long."
"But it was worth it," my mother runs her hands through Maya's hair. "Your hair never looked this long while it was in that tangled puffball."
Maya giggles at the word.
"Cassie," my mother commands more sternly. "You'd better leave now if you want to get her something for breakfast, since we're low on groceries."
"When does it start?"
"Nine!" She interrupts my mother before she can even speak. "We have to hurry and get to Duncan Donuts now!"
I check the blue clock on our wall. It's only eight. To think I did all that I did this morning and its only eight.
"Okay, Skipper," I urge her. "Get in the car."
The moment I pull up in the drive-thru line, I immediately remember something. I pull out my phone and dial -sigh- Wade.
Because he was right.
Beige is real.
"Big Sissy!" Whines Maya in the back seat. "You can't call someone, the drive-thru guy will get mad! You have to talk to him!"
"Oh, I'm sure the drive-thru guy wont mind," I roll my eyes at her. "It probably happens to him all the time."
As the car in front of me pulls away, I pull up at the first window just as the last ring chimes in my ear.
"Hello?" A voice on the other line says, as well as someone right next to me.
There's no way...
I turn my head. Wade is the drive-thru guy.
I sigh.
He puts the phone down. "Hi, Cassie."
"What are you doing here!" I almost yell.
"Uh, I work here?" He pulls his name tag forward so I can see it.
I try to think of another excuse to yell at him. "I told you to delete my number from your phone!"
"I did. You're the one who called me."
Crap.
"Look, Cassie, I-"
I shove a crumbled up wad of cash into his face. "Here," I grumble.
He snaps out of a daze, as if he forgot he worked there for a second, and puts the money into the register.
"Here," he gives me fifteen cents in change along with my recipt.
"Ooh, can I have it?" Pleads Maya from the back. I stretch my hand back there and give her my change and the recipt, which she plays with.
"Is that..."
"Yes, its Maya. No, you're not talking to her."
"Hi, Maya!" He waves to her, using a kid-friendly voice.
"Maya, don't talk to him." I sigh.
"Hiii!" Shrieks Maya as she rolls the window down.
Unbelievable.
"How are you?" He asks.
"Good! Look! Big Sissy did my hair!" She pulls a whole chunk of it for him to see.
"Very pretty," he nods, making her giggle.
"You guys are acting like you know each other!" I sigh.
"I like your new boyfriend better than Josh," Maya whispers to me.
"Maya!" I scold.
"Boyfriend, eh?" Wade scratches his bare chin. "Well, she's way out of my league, but okay."
"What?"
"Yay!" Maya cheers.
Wade hands me my bag. "There you go, babah." He wriggles his eyebrows at me.
I scoff as I pull out of the drive-thru.

"Mmmm," hums Maya as she finishes the last bite of her vanilla sprinkled donut. I just sip my iced coffee; they don't have the donut flavor I like.
"I don't wanna go to camp," she whines suddendly.
"Yes you do," I argue. "You burst into my room wanting me to drive you there this morning."
"Yeah, but I want to play with you," she whines. "And Wadey."
"Its Wade," I correct. "But how did you know that?"
"It was on his shirt," she replies. "I read it."
I sigh.
"Pleeease?"
"No. Wade made me very mad."
"My parents made me mad before," she says suddendly.
"What?"
"My real ones. They used to beat me. Thats why they're in jail," she sighs. "But I still love them."
"You do?"
Of course! And isn't Wade still your friend even though he made you mad?"
I sigh.
"Yes. You're right, Maya." I say finally.
"Well, I mean boyfriend," she giggles.
"Maya!"