Fate Has a Cruel Sense of Humor

Cuteness Factor

When my mother showed up around ten at night, we were already ready for sleep. She was not surprised to see Luce, nor was she surprised about the fact that we turned my front room into a huge futon. I, on the other hand was surprised to see her show up in her silk pajamas and a pillow.

"She got to me." My mom shrugged, smiling sheepishly. I grinned and moved over to make room for her on the quilts. She moved in right between me and Luce and handed us each a container of food and we propped up against my couch to watch The Lion King. Through out the movie though, I found myself staring at my mother. I never thought I'd see the day my mom would chill out with me like this. Isabel Dalton was not known to spend her time entertaining her daughter and her daughter's friend, but everybody grieved differently. I guess she was just trying to spend as much time with her remaining daughter as possible.

Benji, broke me out of my thoughts when he stirred on my lap. He sat up, looking at his surroundings before locking eyes with me and climbing on my chest,dozing off again when he got comfortable. I whipped my head around to see if anyone witnessed the major cuteness, but my mom and Luce were already looking at me in awe.

"Okay." Luce whispered. "That just topped the ranks of cuteness." She whisper squealed, my mother nodding. I smiled having to agree. Benji did seem to have the cuteness factor down to a T.

After three more movies, we all called it a night and slept right there on my floor with Benji on my right cuddling to my chest, my mother on my left sleeping soundly and Luce next to her, snoring like a two hundred pound sumo wrestler. Luckily we were all heavy sleepers.

My mom had to leave the next morning, but she stayed for breakfast, while Luce slept in. I wondered when she would bring up the Marcus situation, she had to have known if Luce did, but she stayed silent and I smiled at her, and started on breakfast. She tried to help, but I begged her to get out of my kitchen before she destroyed something. My mother was as useless in the kitchen as Luce, but who needed the skill when they had gourmet chefs and patisseries to cater to their food needs.

I wondered why I learned to cook. It was one of my favorite hobbies. I remember when I was little I would pester the chefs to teach me what they knew. My mom fed Benji something orange and slimy looking. I think it was carrots and he was refusing to eat it. Poor kid, I didn't blame him. Carrots weren't my favorite thing to eat either.

With quick hands I smashed a banana and handed it to my mother before pouring myself a glass of orange juice. When Benji opened his mouth widely to eat the slimy pale substance my mother looked at me in shock.

"He likes sweet things." I shrugged. My mom still stared. "What?" I flushed.

"Oh, my, my, my." She whispered more to herself. "My baby girl is a mother."

"Momma." I moaned, embarrassed. "I am not a mother. I'm his guardian." My mother came up to me, cupping my cheeks with her hands and shook her head, looking at me with adoring blue eyes.

"Cassie-Bear, you are acting like Ben's mother. Trust me, I've been a mother for thirty years, I know what it looks like." She smiled sadly and patted my hair. "I guess I don't have to worry about Benjamin, now that I know that you're all in," She started grabbing her stuff and pressed a kiss to Benji before she looked back at me.

"I'll pick him up in the morning for the funeral." She whispered and I swallowed hard. "Are you sure-"

"I'm sure." I didn't let her finish. Pressing my fingers to my temples and closing my eyes, I let out a big gust of air. "I'm just going to get the rest of my stuff ready for the movers all day." I tried to smile, but I could see from the expression on my mother's face, that It failed horribly.

She started forward, but I side stepped her and grabbed Benji out of his high-chair to clean him up. I pretended not to hear my mom's sigh and occupied myself with Benji until I heard her pick up her keys and the door click shut. Heartless, I know but I couldn't make myself look at my sister and brother in law's dead bodies. That would be like torture. I couldn't deal with my goldfish dying, how would I be able to handle that.

"Depressing." Came a voice from beside me. Me and Benji jumped a foot in the air. Benji, thinking we were playing a game, let out a exuberant peal of laughter. I, on the other hand tried to slow my racing heart.

"You have to stop doing that!" I hissed at a heavy lidded Luce. She grinned lazily and shook her head.

"Nope. Too much fun." She popped her lips and kissed Benji on the cheek, before recoiling with a grimace on her face. "Benji needs a diaper change." She said, stating the obvious. I was going to get around to it, but a thought suddenly occurred to me. I thrust Benji in Luce's arms and before she would say anything I rushed to my en-suite, locking the door.

"Diaper bag's on the sofa!" I shouted chuckling, "Have fun!" Muffled insults could be heard from the walls of my bathroom and I sighed before running water in my claw foot tub. Pouring in all sorts of bubble baths, I waited until the frothy bubbles got high before slipping into the hot water with a satisfied sigh.

Oh, the hot water did wonders for my stress. It seemed like everything took a turn for the worst when I got that call. I still didn't believe that my sister was gone. Layla was the strong one. She was always the one who came to my rescue.

I didn't realize I was crying until the sobs came.

I was not a pretty crier, but honestly who was? I have yet to see someone look pretty while dripping saltwater. Sobbed wracked my body and bounced off my bathroom walls with the acoustics. I pressed my hands over my mouth to muffle the sound and turned the water back on. I didn't want Luce to hear me crying. I just needed a little time to myself. The fact that my sister would not be around to rescue me hit a little hard, I guess.

"Cassie?" Luce's voice questioned from the kitchen. She sounded uncertain. I cleared my throat before I answered.

"Yes?" It still came out a bit cracked, but I ignored it.

"Can Benjamin walk?" She asked a little giddily.

"No." I frowned. "Why?"

"Because he's standing up right now and-Get in here!" She squealed excitedly. Quickly grabbing a towel, I jumped out of the tub and stumbled my way out of the bathroom, slipping a couple of times and found them in the kitchen. There was Luce watching Benji, who was grinning widely, standing up wobbly with his arms out. She gave me a smile that fell when she saw my face. My eyes were probably rimmed with red, the giveaway that I was crying. She didn't say anything though, and I was grateful for that. Benji spotted me and took two steps in my direction, giggling with each step. Luce sighed when he hit a complete U-turn, coming to me now, instead of her and I grinned.

"That's how I'm treated for changing your poo?" She asked in mock-anger. I ignored her, unable to tear my eyes away from the adorable one year old. I found myself cheering him on and then he fell flat on his butt. He looked at us and his lip started quivering.

Luce rushed forward to help him, but I grabbed her arm to make her stop. "No, don't pick him up, he has to learn to get up on his own." I read that in one of Layla's parenting books. Luce looked like she was about to protest, but I pointed to Benji, who was already struggling to stand again. Luce's lips snapped open with a little popping sound and she turned to me in awe.

"Well, I'll be damned." She said and I grinned. I got on my knees, coaxing Benji to walk the few more steps and caught him in my arms when he made it to me. My first thought was Layla would have loved to see this, but my second one was maybe we'll be okay on our own after all.