A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

Parents Time Out

"Kayleigh Rachel Theroux! If you do not put down those scissors right now you're going right to bed!" I jump up in the middle of feeding Lexie to see Kay about to cut Ben's hair "ONE! TWO!"

She finally drops them, of course they stab my couch as they fall, and runs out of the room to Justin. Ben runs up to my crying.

"Mommy!" He reaches up "Hold?"

"I can't, buddy, I'm feeding Lexie." I sit down on the couch with him. He gets pissed that I'm holding Lexie and not him and also runs to Justin. Ever since we brought Alexia home last month it's been pure chaos. Kay and Ben have be unbelievably jealous of her, and have been doing anything they can think of for attention. The hair cutting attempt isn't even the worst so far. Justin and I are both exhausted and stressed to the max, but we also know that this is our new life, and no matter how hard it is, we got ourselves into this mess. We really should have stopped after two and kept the little sanity we had left.

Justin walks into the living room joining me on the couch. He wraps his arm around me, admiring Lexie, the only quiet child we have right now.

"Your kids are pissed at you." He finally says "They won't tell me what happened, other than the words 'Mommy's mean' between crying.

"Aw, well I guess I'm doing good. Kay was gonna cut his hair. I saw just in time to save your son from the worst haircut of his life. Although, it would have made for some great pictures."

"Wonderful." He sighs "We need a break from this."

"Yeah right." I laugh at his suggestion "Like someone would actually want to watch our kids."

"I'm sure our parents would." He gets his phone to call. His parents are about to go out to something already and can't watch them. I try my parents next and they aren't answering at all.

"What about Court?" I suggest. Justin calls her next and she's sick. We call everyone else we can think of but nobody is able to.

"Our neighbor's daughter babysits, right?" He asks "We could ask her."

"I'm not trusting a 13 year old with them. That's too much responsibility." I say as we hear a crash from the kitchen "Maybe we just shouldn't go out."

We get up and walk out to see what the crash was. It ends up being a chair that fell over. Both kids seem unharmed so we go back to talking.

"What about the Clark's daughter?" He suggests "She watched Kay before, you liked her."

"I know." I sigh "I just don't want a teenager watching them right now when they're acting like this. Especially with Lexie only being a month old. It's too much for her."

"Well do you have any better ideas?" He asks "We need this, Jen. We deserve to go out for at least a few hours."

"Fine." I think for a while and go to my last resort "Chelsea."

"Chewy!" Ben yells after hearing her name. He loves Chelsea because she probably is the worst babysitter and let's them do what they want.

"Seriously? Chelsea?" Justin looks unimpressed with my idea "Are you sure?"

"Yes." I reassure myself "She might be crazy, but they aren't hurt or anything when we get home. Do you wanna go out or not?"

"I think she'll be great." He finally agrees. I go to call her, but have a hard time convincing her to do it.

"Please, Chels!" I beg into the phone "I know you don't like kids, but we need to go out!"

"I don't do kids, Jen. I eat candy and get drunk all night while yelling at my TV. You know that."

"I have not had more than an hour alone with my husband in the past month. We need you."

"Fine. But I expect to hit the freaking candy jackpot when I get to your house."

"Thank you!!" I yell "We have everything here. Ben loves sharing too."

We hang up and I run upstairs to get changed. I grab the first dress I see and practically throw it on. I quickly do my hair and makeup so I at least look reasonable and then go watch the kids so Justin can get ready.

Chelsea walks in a few minutes later just in time for Kay to jump off the couch and into her arms.

"What the fuck?" She glares over at me "This is not what I signed up for. I signed up for candy, alcohol and kids that are sleeping."

"Well, our kids don't sleep." Justin throws diapers and some wipes at her "And one of them needs changed. Have fun figuring out which one it is."

"You guys have 2 hours!" She yells out the door as we leave. Justin practically pushes me into the car excited to get out of here.

We sit down across from each other at the table. Justin orders our drinks and we look at the menu. To me, anything that doesn't have little bits missing because they were taken when I looked away seems amazing. Even something as simple as pasta.

"You look excited." Justin laughs at how I'm looking at my plate. I probably look like an idiot.

"I didn't have to make it." I stare at it "And it's hot. I don't have to heat it up 5 times."

"You need to get out of that house more." He takes some of my pasta "This isn't as good as mine."

"Stop stealing my food!" I fling some sauce at his face "It's mine!"

"Well then eat some of mine." He throws a piece of steak at me before taking more of mine.

"You're mean." I pout "I don't like you."

"You love me." He leans over the table to kiss me "You know you do."

"I guess I do." I smile kissing him back.

We finish eating a while later after playing with our food. Chelsea hasn't called saying the kids are hurt or she's about to leave, so we take that as the sign that everything is okay and we can go see a movie.

"When's the last time we did this?" Justin asks as we walk out of the movie.

"Did what?"

"Stayed out past 11." He laughs "I feel like a rebel."

"It was too long ago. That's all I know." I lean on him as we walk to the car "I missed this."

"I did too."