Be Alright: Somebody To Love #6

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Madelyn’s POV

         We made it through the entire first week without a hitch. Aria was annoyed that she was always being toted around from dance practice to football practice, since she normally stayed home with Justin, but she was getting used to it. And I was constantly treating her to smoothies or ice cream, trying to keep her complaining to a minimum.

         A month ago, I would’ve cried at the thought of having to singlehandedly parent all of them by myself for an entire six weeks. The last time Justin had left for two weeks, they had tried their best to overtake me, since I was completely outnumbered. But since the accident, they had all changed. I had changed as well. I wasn’t as quick to get short with them. They were more inclined to listen. Now I didn’t mind being alone with them.

         By the end of week one, I was still feeling good about it. We hadn’t had any problems yet. Life had settled down. Without my constant fighting with Justin, I got to spend more quality time with the kids. And even though they missed Justin, I could tell they were happier, not being around the fighting and the tension. Everything was going great.

         It was Friday night before I realized there was going to be an issue. Kingston had a football game at noon, and the girls had an all-day dance competition in Long Beach. I couldn’t be two places at once. I knew I had to go to the dance competition, since no one else would do their hair and makeup. I had to find someone to take Kingston to his game. I wanted to call Pattie, but I knew she was in Canada. I thought about Selena, but I didn’t want to stress her out. I wanted Kingston to feel special, so I decided to call Alfredo.

         “Hey Maddie!” He answered happily, like he always did.

         “Hey, are you in town on Saturday?”

         “Yeah! What do you need?”

         “Would you want to take Kingston to his football game and stay with him until I get home? The girls have a dance competition in Long Beach. We should be back by six or seven.”

         “Sure! I have missed hanging out with my little buddy.”

         “And this might sound really weird, but can you do something manly with him? He’s missing Justin and he’s sick of being surrounded by girls. I've tried to do boy things with him, but it's not quite the same.”

         “Yeah! I’ll come up with something, manly.” He laughed at me as he hung up. I felt good knowing I had this weekend under control, and that Kingston was going to get some quality bro time with Fredo.

Justin’s POV

         Filming started at the end of the week and by Saturday I was beat. I was still exhausted from the time change, and I hadn’t been sleeping well. I could’ve blamed it on the  time change, but I knew it was more than that. It was the fact that Madelyn and all of the kids weren’t talking to me. I had tried to call everyday, but I very rarely got an answer.

         Before I went to bed on Saturday night, I tried Madelyn’s phone. When she didn’t answer, I tried our house phone.

         “Hello?” The voice was familiar. The voice belonged to Fredo.

         “Why are you at my house?”      

         “I took Kingston to his football game and now we are hanging out, having some bro time.”

         “Bro time?”

         “Yeah. Maddie said he’s been missing having another man in the house, so I came over.” Was she trying to replace me after just one week? I hated that Fredo was hanging out with Kingston instead of me.