The Babysitter

Justy

MaryGrace is braiding her daughters hair when her phone starts to ring.

"Hold on to this baby," MaryGrace says, handing the strand of hair to her daughter to hold while she picks up her phone.

Justin😆

She slides her thumb across the screen to answer, "hello?"

"Hey MaryGrace, it's me Justin." Justin says, mentally slapping himself.

"Yeah, what's up?" MaryGrace says, holding the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she finishes the braid.

"I was wondering, do you maybe want to go out to dinner?" He asks

"I can't, I have hazel with me."

"That's fine. Just bring her too." Justin insists

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I wanna get to know her." Those words were unfamiliar to MaryGrace, often when she told a guy she has a daughter they ran without looking back, but Justin was voluntarily wanting to hang out with Hazel. "So, I can come and meet you at your place." Justin asks, breaking the silence.

MaryGrace snaps from her thoughts and resumes her phone call, "uh, yeah sure."

"Alright. Cool. I'll see you in a little."

MaryGrace panics as she realizes she's still in her oversized pug shirt. Her face is bare and her hair is still in what was left of the bun from the night before. She frantically moves to the bathroom and gets ready in a record amount of time.

It's 20 minutes by the time Justin knocks on the door. MaryGrace goes to answer it. "Hey."
Justin says

"Hi." MaryGrace says, smiling at the boy in front of her. Hazel peeping through her mothers legs. "Hazel, you remember Justin right?" MaryGrace asks, picking up hazel.She nods slightly,

"You ladies ready?"Justin asks, swirling his car keys around his pointer finger.

MaryGrace nods and she picks up her purse. Hazel holds onto her mothers fingers as they follow Justin downstairs to his matte black Audi.

Hazels eyes widen at the sight, she exclaims "wow, mommy! Isn't this the most beautiful car you've ever seen!"

Justin chuckles, causing MaryGrace to blush. "So where are we going anyways?"

"You'll see." Justin winks as they get into the car.

Justin drives for a while. Hazel looks outside the window in sheer wonder. MaryGrace had never really taken her places outside of their neighborhood

They keep driving outside of the city and to the desert.

"Where are we?"

Justin smiles and turns onto a separate road. He continues driving until hazel yells "mommy look!"

MaryGrace glances outside of the window, and she sees the trolly. Giant white gondolas headed up the mountain. Justin parks the car and they walk to the station.

"Hi, I called earlier for a cabin for Bieber." Justin says.

The lady nods and opens a Cabin for them. They step inside. She closes the door before anybody else could get in. Justin must have paid to get a cabin alone.

The three take off up the mountain, looking at the view of the valley. "Mommy! Look!" Hazel continues to cheer.

MaryGrace is too mesmerized by the sunset in the background. The sky had turned a cotton candy pink, and got orange she further from the horizon, soon turning into a dark blue utopia.

At the top, the three exited the cabin, Justin leading the way to a restaurant. MaryGrace listens to Justin ask Hazel about her favorite colors and animals.

She was surprised at how well he got along with Hazel. How natural it was, with MaryGraces last boyfriend Hazel couldn't even speak more than five words to him without getting shy. So watching her skip and sing around Justin was incredible.

At dinner, Hazel was always well behaved, there were other kids Hazels age in the restaurant who ran around screaming, and their mothers would have to take them outside, but Hazel just sat in her seat and ate her French fries. Completely forgetting about Justin and her mother.

But the later it got, the more Hazel started to yawn and her eyes became heavier.

"Alright. Come in Hazel." Justin says. He lifts hazel from her seat and he carried her out the door. They got back into the gondola to take them. Back down the mountain.

Justin laid her across the backseat, and she was out.

"She's incredible." Justin says, breaking he silence between the couple.

"Thank you." MaryGrace chuckles, looking back at her daughter. She had sprawled across the seat, her mouth hanging open.

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit." Justin admits,

"But between work and school, I try my best to be home for dinner or take her to the park."

"You're doing great. She's well behaved, she's got a cute sense of humor, she's smart, and she's got your good looks. I'm pretty sure parents would kill to have kids like that. Isn't that why girls have severe daddy issues?"

MaryGrace laughs, and before she can respond Justin pulls into the parking lot. Justin helps MaryGrace by carrying Hazel up the flights of stairs to their apartment.

"You can just put her on the bed." MaryGrace says, so he does. He comes back out, "thank you, I- uh we, had a great time."

Justin laughs, "great enough to go on another date?" MaryGrace laughs, "but I get it, you're a single mother. Hazel comes first, but I do want to help. And try to make this whole parenting thing a lot easier on you." Justin laughs, "I'm on a break from music so feel free to call anytime-" but before he can finish he's interrupted by a soft voice.

"Mommy?"

"You should be in bed Haz."

"I didn't get to say goodnight to Justy." Hazel says, rubbing her eyes. Justin smiles as she walks over to him and reaches her arms out. He catches on and picks her up, she wraps her arms tightly around him.

"Alright squirt, I'll tuck you in." Justin says, taking her back into the room. He places her onto the bed, and she crawls underneath the sheets. Once she gets comfortable, Justin tucks the sheets under her and kisses her forehead, "good night hazel."

"Night Justy." Hazel exhales as she doses off back to sleep. Justin gets up and walks out of the room. He closes the door, leaving a small crack of light so she wouldn't get scared if she woke up again.

"Thank you, it would have taken me an hour to put her back to sleep."

"No problem."

MaryGrace thinks for a moment, "Sure."

"Sure?"Justin repeats

"Sure you can take me out again." MaryGrace confirms, giving him a smile.

"Oh okay cool. I'll call you" Justin promises,

MaryGrace smiles, and with that Justin was gone.

Please send some good thoughts to my friend. Immigration came and took his mommy. She's being deported back to Mexico.

My heart hurts for the families being separated.

Please love one another.

We need to fight hate and ignorance with education.

Because with family, love and imagination; we can conquer anything.