One Day At A Time

|Chapter 4|

Hazel

"And then we played hide n seek and I won every game." Ava says sticking the straw into her Capri Sun, filling me in on her stay with her grandparents.

"You did not win every game." My mama protests, shaking her head at Ava's nonsense.

"Yes I did. I had all the best hiding places and I only got caught twice."

"Then you ain't win every game if you got caught." I laugh.

"Why y'all gotta be difficult? That is winning every game." She says walking over to my dad and smirking. "Didn't I win every game, pawpaw?"

She knows good and got damn well he's gonna agree with literally anything she has to say, whether she's right or wrong. He says yes to everything when he's either asleep or watching his shows on tv. You can't count on him at all because he'll tell you yes to jumping off of the bridge if you asked.

"Yup." He agrees.

See what I mean?

"See I told you." She sips some of her juice, smiling innocently in the process.

I shake my head and stand to my feet, reaching my arms in the air for a much needed stretch. When done, I bring my hand to the top of the chair, a give it a push to place it back underneath the table where it'd been before.

Mama doesn't play about keeping things the way they were before you got them.

Going over to the trash can, I hover my hand over the lid so that it can open automatically. I then throw the wrapper to my ice cream sandwich in the trash and walk away as the lid to the trash can closes on its own. I walk back over to the table and grab my purse, throwing it over my shoulder and digging inside to fetch my keys.

"Alright y'all I'm finna go. Thanks for watchin her for me." I kissed my mama forehead, near her temple.

"No problem baby."

I walk over to my dad and sit next to him, engulfing him in a hug. He's always in that damn tv. He needs to get out more.

"See ya later."

"See you later baby girl." He kisses my cheek.

I get up from the sofa and watch as Ava says her see you laters to her grandparents. She grabs ahold of her iPad, placing it beneath her arm so that she can still eat her bag of chips, before we both head out of the front door.

"Love y'all." I call out behind me.

I know I say this a lot and y'all will hear me say it even more, but with everything going on in the world today, I need everyone who is close to me to know that I love and appreciate them deeply. I don't know my last time seeing them will be, being that tomorrow is never promised for all of us, and vice versa, but at least we'll know we love each other.

Once we get into the car, I start it and we both fasten our seatbelts, not wanting to hear any scolding from one another. I glance down at my phone, checking for the time, and see that it's now 10:27. Ava reaches down to the floor and grabs her headphones, plugging them into her iPad before resting them on top of her head, leaving me with no choice but to fill the car with music of my own.