Sleepwalking {GTA V}

7: Donut

The terrible twos were just as terrible the third time around with the Townley kids. The temper tantrums were the same with all of them, for Alana was old enough to be spewing words, sometimes bits and pieces of them. But when this kid was mad, all sorts of gibberish rolled from her mouth like they'd been boiling inside.

Her favorite word was no, and she said it all the time. I think the only person she didn't say it to was Tracey. She acted like Tracey was God.

Michael and Amanda talked me into babysitting for them while they had a night out, something that they didn't have the privilege of often. I just think they're trying to pick up their challenge of fucking in every parking lot of North Yankton again from before they had responsibilities and mouths to feed.

So I blew off drinking with Brad to watch Jimmy and Alana for awhile. Tracey was at a friends house for a little girls sleepover party so I had one less person to look after.

I switched through channels on the TV until I found one with cartoons. Alana was sloppily drinking from a sippy cup and standing in front of the television. "Hey, kiddo." I call to her and she doesn't turn around. She rocks from side to side on her feet. "You make a better door than a window."

"Move!" Jimmy yells at her and she turns around, throwing the plastic cup at his head. It bounces off his thick head of hair and he frowns at her. "Jerk." He mumbles and continues playing with a G.I. Joe action figure Michael bought him for Christmas last year.

She turns away from him and comes over to the couch where I was slumped like a bump on a log. She tries to pull her self up onto it, but I had to help her up. Her eyes are glued on the screen and I begin to ask her questions.

"Do you wanna play?"

"No."

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

"No." She shook her head and crossed her arms.

"Do you want a million dollars?"

"No."

"Are you hungry?"

"...yes." She gives up.

"Ah, there we go, little squirt." I laugh at her and stand up from the couch. "What do you want?"

"Chicken nuggets!" She shouts and runs next to me. The way her little legs bounce is adorable while she runs in front of me and into the kitchen. Jimmy follows us and sits on a stool with his arms crossed on the tan colored counter.

I lift her to sit on the counter next to a box of donuts so she can't run away and get into something while I'm busy. "That's all she likes to eat. I'm so tired of chicken nuggets I could puke." Jimmy groans.

"No!" She points a finger at him with a dirty look on her face and it makes me laugh. Jimmy rolls his eyes at her. I turn my back on them and find the box out of the freezer. I'm not exactly a chef, so it took me a bit to read the instructions on the box.

"Hungry now!" She shouts and I feel her foot kick into my side.

"Calm down, sassy pants." I say and open the box. "It's gonna be a little while."

She frowns and crosses her arms. "Fine I'm not gonna play with you anymore." Her insults never failed to intrigue me, and I don't regret ditching Brad at all.

"Well I can't help it princess. You're gonna have to wait."

I put the about 6 chicken nuggets onto a plate and opened the microwave, but Jimmy said, "uh uncle T? They go on a pan."

"Oh," I look down at the plate in my hand for a second. "Where does Amanda keep the pans?"

"Under the oven."

I bend down and slide out the drawer and find a pan. I dump the rest of the box along with the 6 onto it and preheat the oven to the temperature on the box.

"We could do something til it's ready?" I say the Alana to ease her anger.

"Okay," she agrees and holds her arms out for me to grab her. God this kid's emotions change so fast.

I switched the TV back on and found a cartoon I knew she liked about some kid with two fairy parents or something. I helped her up to the middle of the couch and her sippy cup went straight into her mouth.

"Stay here okay?" I say and start to back away. "Got a rumble in my tumble." I ran into something with the back of my knee and muttered a "fuck," but looked back at her on the couch. Her eyes were still on the TV.

I turned around and entered the hall and into the bathroom. I tried to hurry up but it still took me around ten minutes. Since I was with small kids, I actually washed my hands with soap before going back into the living room. Alana wasn't where I left her and my hurt lurched from my chest. "Shit," I say and begin to look around.

"Uncle Trevor!" Jimmy yells and I follow his voice to the kitchen. The scene nearly gave me a heart attack.

"What the fuck happened?" I say worriedly and rush to bend down to Alana. She was on her knees before a puddle of vomit.

Jimmy was quiet so I looked up at him and yelled "what happened??"

"Well... Alana came into the kitchen and kept saying she's really hungry so I told her to eat the box of donuts..."

"All of them??"

"Yeah..."

I pick her up and take her to the sink and use a wet towel to wash the puke off her face. I help her take off her shirt for it's covered in puke as well. "Jimmy, clean that up." I tell him.

"Ew, no way."

I turn to him and give him a stern look. "Clean it up. Now."

He sighs and grabs a bunch of paper towels, then gets on his knees. I turn back to Alana and see she's stopped crying, but her eyes are very pinkish-red from it. "They are good." She says, despite the majority of it being on the floor.

I chuckled at her and tapped her nose. "You donut." I say and pick her up to take her into her room for a new shirt.

I decide to just put her in pajamas so I search through her small dresser for a pair. I found a blue Cookie Monster outfit and helped her into the t shirt and sweat pants. Probably should've given a bath, but I'll save that for Michael.

I got her into bed and turned out the light. Thankfully she was exhausted and was asleep right away. I went back to the kitchen and found Jimmy throwing dirty paper towels away. "It's all clean." He washes his hands.

"Make yourself a bowl of cereal, I don't care. I'm throwing these out." I grab the pan with a pot holder and dump it in the trash and put the pan in the sink. Jimmy goes to the pantry and grabs a Cheerios box. I turn and head back into the living room and see her cartoon still on.

I switch it to a movie channel playing Dirty Dancing and it's pretty much the only thing on. Michael has such shitty cable.

I see Jimmy come into the living room with a bowl of cereal and stumble over his own feet, resulting in some milk spilling over the side.
I sigh, and lean my head back, closing my eyes.

"I'm never having kids."