Playing House

Lauren flicked through the channels on her grandparents TV finding nothing of interest. She sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall, 11am. This was going to be a long week. Lauren's grandparents were out of town and had asked the teenager to house-sit with their dog, Petey. She stretched out along the couch wondering if it was too early to take a nap. Petey hopped up, curled himself into a ball on Lauren's chest and promptly fell asleep. Figuring she had nothing better to do Lauren followed the dog's lead and closed her eyes.

A couple of hours later the brunette was woken up by her phone vibrating under her arm. Without checking the caller ID Lauren answered.

"Hey Lauren, just letting you know we've arrived!"

"Oh, hey Gran! Safe and sound?" Lauren replied rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Safe and sound! How's Petey?" Lauren looked down at her chest where the small dog was still asleep, snoring softly.

"He's good, he's actually asleep on my chest." She giggled scratching the dog behind the ears.

"That's his favourite spot." Lauren's Gran chuckled.

"Hey, whilst I've got you, is there anything you want doing around the house? There's only so much TV I can watch." Lauren asked, crossing her fingers that her Gran would have some pictures she wanted printing or flat pack furniture that needed building.

"Now you mention it, Grandad and I have wanted to paint the back wall in the spare room but just never found the time."

"Oh cool! I can do that!" Lauren turned her head to look at the spare room from the couch. The room just barely fit a double bed and chest of drawers and all four walls were currently white. "What colour did you want?"

"We've already bought the supplies; it's all on top of the chest of drawers." Lauren slid Petey from her chest earning her a tiny growl and wandered into the spare bedroom. A deep purple paint sat on top of some dust sheets. Paintbrushes, rollers and a small step ladder were propped against the wall ready and waiting to be used. "Just make sure you open the window when you're painting and close it before you go to bed." Lauren nodded distractedly, forgetting her Gran couldn't see her, "and cover everything with the dust sheets to be on the safe side."

"Got it," she grinned as she pulled out the step ladder. "I might need some help though; I don't think I can reach the top parts of the wall."

"Just make sure you pick someone sensible," her Gran laughed, "I don't want the whole house purple."

"Will do," Lauren replied, mentally sifting through her friends that were tall and sensible. She had about two options. "Have a lovely holiday! Petey sends his love and I promise I'll send you a daily progress picture of the wall."

"Don't worry about us love; we really appreciate you taking care of the house and Petey."

"Anytime! I'll speak to you soon."

"Thanks Lauren, love you!"

"Love you too."

Lauren hung up and immediately started scrolling through her contacts for a tall, sensible friend to help paint the wall. She stopped on Meredith's name, changed her mind and scrolled back up to Joey's name. Her thumb hovered over the call button as she debated between the two friends. She didn't see Joey as often, she rationalised, he swum a lot and had so many friends to spend time with it would be nice to have him over for a couple of hours. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she liked him and the thought of having him to herself for a few hours was desperately appealing. Lauren took a deep breath and pressed the call button.