Juliana Cade

The Gang Pt.2

                        ~ Johnny's POV ~

     I woke up to the beeping of my alarm clock. The thing is loud enough to wake up me but not too loud to wake up Juli. Quickly I turned it off before it would wake her up and get my things ready for a shower while rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I made sure I was quick when I dug through my dresser drawers in search of decent clothes. Almost all of my shirts are either super old, too small for me or have so many holes in 'em they're no longer considered an item of clothing. Some are considered as garbage instead.

     I pull out the only shirt that doesn't have any holes and isn't super old or too small, that good ol' grey one. Pulling out the rest of the clothes I needed for the day I hurried off into the bathroom for a much needed shower. I made sure to shut the door behind me. I let the water adjust to the right temperature while stripping my pajamas. The cool air instantly gave me goosebumps all over. It woke me up enough. I sighed from the heat of the water on my skin as I stepped in. The heat was instantly relaxing my stiff neck and back.

     This is exactly what I needed. A hot shower, couple more hours of sleep, and breakfast is all I wanted. But I know I can only have two of the three requests. There was no way I'll be able to fall back asleep til late into the night. Juli needs to be fed and stuff soon so I'll let her wake up when she's hungry. Usually I'll just roll with it. Taking one step at a time, one day at a time. That's what I've always done, not even with Juli, just life in general.

I washed my hair and body before stepping out. The cold air gave me goosebumps again. I dried off, got dressed and greased my hair before going into the kitchen to prepare Juliana a bottle. By now I know that when I wake up in the morning she'll be hungry. Juli's cries snapped me back to the world. The house filled with her hungry cries. I hurried through the house with the new bottle in one hand.

     I opened the door to my room and went over to her crib. I set the bottle on the edge of the crib to pick her up and noticed her diaper was rather full. Walking over to the changing table, I laid Juli down on her back and handed her her bottle. She was still a new baby so I used a rolled up blanket to prop the bottle. Her cries instantly died down as she ate. I unbutton her onesie and changed her dirty diaper.

Just as I was finished buttoning her onesie up she was finished with her bottle. I slowly picked her back up and rocked her in my arms while I took the empty bottle away. I set it off to the side and hung a rag over my shoulder and burped her. I was preparing to clean up spit-up that's soon to come. As I predicted, she spat up once she burped. Good thing I got the rag. I didn't have any other shirts to change into and I didn't want to smell all day long.

     I rocked her back and forth trying to get her to fall back asleep. While I did, I looked over at my clock to read the time; 10:30 AM. That meant the gang would be coming in an hour and a half. Which also meant I had an hour and a half to attempt in washing away the semi-new blood stains off of the floor and clean the rest of the house. The last time I saw my parents they got me good. They were both drunk, and I'm guessing both high as well. You never know with my parents. They're testy people. At least they never hurt or never will hurt Juliana. As long as I'm here, she'll have the best life I can possibly give her.

     I looked down to see her sound asleep. Her chest was lightly rising and falling with every breath she took. Slowly, I laid Juliana back into her crib. I was careful to shit the door and started walking towards the kitchen. Just in that moment did I realized just how hungry I actually was.

                    ~ Third Person ~

Johnny sat at the dining room table. His eggs were half eaten within what seemed like seconds. The last time he ate was late the night before, he couldn't believe how different his life was now that Juliana came along. He doesn't regret caring for her, he just misses what it was like before all of this. He missed sleeping longer the most. Sighing, Johnny walked over to the sink and set his plate in. Looking down, he noticed the sink was starting to pile with dirty dishes.

"Might as well start with this..." The older boy muttered. He started the water and let his thoughts drift as he cleaned.

     ~ Time Skip ~

Johnny glanced at the clock from where he was at on the floor; 11:35 AM. He sighed and looked down at the dried blood that stained the carpet. The rest of the house was cleaned, not to clean though. Johnny just wiped everything down so it didn't look like a pig sty. The dishes were cleaned and put away, he threw in a load of his and Juli's laundry, Johnny cleaned the bathroom, he vacuumed the carpet where he accidentally woke Juli up. Now all he worried about is how the stain would get out of the carpet. If the gang saw that they'd flip their lid.

Dally would be the first one to know, Johnny knew he would. Dally's always worried about the boy. When it came to his parents and things like that, Johnny couldn't blame him for getting upset. It seemed like ever since the Socs jumped him and ever since the whole Bob thing that life had given Johnny a hard time. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Juli crying. The boy sighed while putting away the cleaning supplies. The stain was still visible but looked more faded, less out there than before. That was good.

Johnny walked into his room and picked up Juli. She was just recently fed and burped, her diaper was just changed as well. The boy knew exactly what she wanted. All she wanted was her big brother's attention. Sighing, Johnny held Juli to his chest and began to sway. He smiled at Juli while she played with the fabric of his shirt.

Johnny vowed she was going to get the best life she could get. She deserved so much in her life. Johnny kinda she deserved a better life than the life of a Greaser, she deserved anything she wanted, she deserved everything in the whole entire world. And Johnny would try his hardest to give that to her. He slowly laid her back into her crib and shut the door. Johnny was lucky she was good with noises when she was asleep.

Walking through the house, Johnny stepped into the kitchen to make him and the gang lunch. They were to arrive any minute now...