corinna's little sister » david dobrik

twenty one » baseball bats and loose towels

"Toby!" I cheered, placing my hands underneath my armpits and lifting the boy to sit on my hip. "Wow, you are so big! One month and you're almost as tall as me!"

He was not almost as tall as me. He barely made it up to my waist, but I did have quite long legs. Still, I had noticed a few years ago that he liked when you mentioned his growth, so I made a point to bring it up anytime I could.

Toby grinned, showing off a gap from a missing tooth. "I've been drinking milk!"

"It's definitely working," I giggled, adjusting him to sit higher. "Where are your parents?"

"In the living room," he pointed with his hand and I nodded, carrying him to the full living room and sitting him down on the couch beside his sister. "Look, Miss Matilda's here!"

"I see that," his mom stood and pulled me in for a hug. "Make yourself at home. We'll be back tomorrow around nine, if that's okay."

"I have no plans," I confirmed and she smiled gratefully, digging around in her purse and pulling out a hundred. "Oh, no, that's too much."

"Toby is a handful," Mr. Dobrik shoved the money in my hands, then hugged his son goodbye. "Be good for Matilda, okay?"

"Yes!" he grinned, eagerly wagging his eyebrows at me. I laughed and saw the rest of the family off, sighing when I finally got some alone time with Toby. I loved the Dobrik family, but they were exhausting. Toby was my type of kid. We ate and watched movies and played with toy trucks and took naps. Easy peasy.

"What do you want to do, Tob?" I asked as I sunk down on the couch. He immediately jumped up from his spot, rummaging around the living room until he found some hot wheels to play with. We sat on the living room floor, zooming around a fake town and doing stunts better than The Fast and The Furious cast ever could. He eventually got bored of his games and decided we should watch a movie. I let him pick, though our tastes were probably pretty similar. We ended up watching Coraline after he promised repeatedly he wouldn't be too scared to sleep. Please.

By the time the movie was over, Toby was telling me that he wanted to sew buttons onto my eyes. Not because he was "evil like the Other Mother", but because "it looked cool". I decided then that I should probably make him love me with some dinner before he whipped out the needles.

Toby sat on the counter beside the stove, gingerly stirring the pot of soup, glancing up at me every few seconds to make sure he was doing it right. He chattered on and on about his first month of summer, telling me all he had done so far. His favorite of the lot seemed to be the sprinkler his mom bought while at Walmart one day. Apparently, one afternoon, they plugged it up to the water hose, and Toby ran around for hours. He wanted to use it the next day, but his dad told him the water bill would be too high. He had been taking short showers  to ensure the water bill wasn't any more expensive than last month, so he could use his favorite toy again. I had to hand it to him; he was a smart kid.

"Are you and my brother kissing?" he finally asked, halfway through his grilled cheese. It was a question I honestly wasn't expecting.

"No, we aren't kissing," I giggled, sliding his bowl of soup closer to him. "Finish your food."

"But I heard my dad say you and David were boyfriend and girlfriend. Aren't you boyfriend and girlfriend?" his tone was so innocent that I had to answer, no matter how uncomfortable the content of his question made me.

"Not anymore. I want to be your brother's girlfriend, but it just won't work out," I explained in the most simple terms possible.

"Why?" he picked up the bowl and slurped the rest of his soup.