Family Portrait (Fam Series #1)

Chapter 45 - The Idiot Box, Bellbrae

Adeline Isobel Plowman -

I miss my sleep so fucking much.

I inwardly groan as my eyes snap open and I stare up at the dark ceiling. Sleep. I had only just gotten back to fucking sleep, and not even five minutes later did someone have other plans for me.

"Must we do this every night, guys?" I ask, getting out of bed and stretching as I walk over to where the twins are asleep. Well, are supposed to be asleep.

The culprit as always is Brigan, she seems to be a lot like her dad, nothing but trouble. Bailey is the more quiet of the two. That doesn't mean he behaves the way I would like him to either.

"ADELINE, CAN YOU SHUT THAT FUCKING KID UP ALREADY ?!"

I grimace as I hear George yell at me from upstairs banging his foot against the floor. It's not just me who's sleep deprived. Apparently the sound travels loudly through this entire house, because so far George, Eliza and Dave have put their official complaints in every time Brigan makes some sort of noise. Cassie is more tolerable of this though, and Charlie knows not to complain or else I'll fuck with his brain so hard he won't know which way is up.

"YOU KNOW, YOUR LOUD YELLING DOESN'T DO US ANY FAVOURS!" I yell back, rocking Bri up and down as a half zombified Charlie appears in the room.

"What's going on?" He asks, half asleep.

"What do you think is going on? Obviously, Charlie, I'm throwing a fucking party in here. Take your daughter and calm her down, I need a drink" I say, passing the baby to her father and walking out of the room. Eliza is in the kitchen eating a bowl of ice cream for whatever reason would suit the need to do such a thing at 3am. I open the fridge and grab my drink as I lean against the bench and put my head in my hands. I almost fall asleep like that, until Charlie startles me.

"Has she been fed?" He asks.

"Yes, of course she's been fed. She only eats every three hours, and so does her brother. Charlie, I am exhausted. Can you take the Brigan shift for the rest of the night, please? If I don't get some sleep I'm not going to be able to tolerate Ashleigh tomorrow" I say.

"You mean today, and I don't know. I prefer the Lach- I mean Bailey shift. He's quiet" He says.

"Here's the plan. You look after Brigan and you stay awake for the remainder of the night because I can't take a fucking baby screaming in my ear for a minute longer, and I will take these pills and hopefully sleep long enough to be able to take miss gucci versace zara highpoint tomorrow. Don't open your mouth, because you're not allowed to refuse, you don't get a choice" I say, swallowing the knock out pills with water as I walk off in the direction of the bathroom.

"You know Mum or I are gonna end up looking after her, don't you?" Eliza asks as I walk past her. I sneer at her immediately.

"Don't make me start bossing you around as well, bob cut" I say, in reference to her new dramatic hair cut. The hairdresser couldn't salvage much as Andrea cut huge patches, so Eliza had to settle for a short style, while I cut mine a bit too and dyed it black.

"You're no fun mum" Eliza tiredly mumbles.

...

I lay on the couch with a book over my face as I pretend to read. So far it's working. Not that anyone has come in to check on me yet. Maybe if they do, they'll notice my eyes are closed and I'm sleeping. Brigan and Bailey are out with Cassie, thank god. Charlie's doing something outside, Eliza's gone out and George went down to the coast. I think Dave ended up going shopping. This is nice. Silence. Peace.