How to Love (un-finished)

Chapter 8

Picture is Livy, Mikey's girlfriend. She will be showing up more in the story. I also love love love her hair sooooo much.

Ari had moved on to playing with her Barbie’s. She was pretending 2 of them were dating. I decided to play with her.

“Can I play” I asked, scooching over to sit next to her.

“Yeah, you can be Jake and I will be you” she said handing me the doll, who was Jake. I felt really awkward. Even though she was only five it was like she knew everything. She drew a picture of me and Jake holding hands when I first met her. Now she is naming her dolls after us and pretending they are dating.

We sat and played for a few minutes. The whole time she basically told me what to say or do. It was adorable. Then, Jake came upstairs and went to his room.

“I’m gonna go check on Jakey” I said to Ari before standing up to walk out.

“Okay” she said back.

I went into Jakes room without knocking and sat on his bed. His face was shoved into his pillow.

“You’re gonna suffocate unless you come up for air” I joked.

“I thought you were my mom” he said, rolling over to look at me.

“Nope” I said, popping the “p”.

Before I even asked the question I was about to ask he told me,

“During my suspension I’m not allowed to leave the house” he said frowning.

“They didn’t say I couldn’t come over though” I said, trying to cheer him up.

“And that’s a plus side how?” he asked, jokingly.

“Fine, I will make you die here in boredom for the next two weeks” I said, crossing my arms.

“Please don’t” he whined.

“Fine, but only because I have to come and babysit Ariana.” I smirked. He scoffed and rolled over to look away from me.

“I know you love me” I said grabbing his shoulder. I felt him tense up as if I just revealed his biggest secret but he quickly relaxed again and rolled over to look at me.

“No I don’t” he said quickly crossing his arms over his chest.

“Sure” I said, sarcastically. It was already 4 and I really haven’t been home often so I decided to get going and come back in the morning.

“I’m gonna go home Jakey” I said, getting up off his bed.

“See ya, Dani” he said.

I walked over to say goodbye to Ari and then went downstairs to talk to Stacy and Dave. 

“Hey Stacy, I’m going to head home. I will be back first thing tomorrow” I said.

“Wait up for a second, sweetie” Stacy called to me from the kitchen. I went in to talk to her.

“I was going to start taking Ariana to a day care, but I was wondering if you wanted to watch her instead?” she asked.

“I will pay you twenty dollars a day” she added.

“Yeah, I would be happy to” I said. I wanted to get a job anyway so I would have something to do. This was perfect. Then, I went home. 

Maddi was making dinner and Shawn was in the living room watching TV.

“I’m home” I called out, walking into the kitchen.

“How was babysitting” Maddi asked, taking a break from making the food.

“It was great, Ariana is so adorable” I exclaimed.

Maddi looked slightly surprised. It made sense though, she hadn’t seen me this happy before. 

“I am going to be babysitting her from 7 to 4 everyday” I said.

“That’s amazing, Danielle” she said.

“I do have one question though” she said.

“What is it?” I asked. Please don’t ask if Jake and I are dating. That question is so awkward.

“I wanted to know about you and Jake” she stated. Of course she did. Why can’t anybody just stay out of it?

“We aren’t dating” I replied, annoyed.

“I wasn’t going to ask that, but thank you for the information. What I wanted to ask if you had feelings for him. You seem so much happier since you have been hanging out with him.” She stated. This question was even more awkward than before. I mean I think I did have feelings for him. Should I tell her that, I mean, she is my sister. I should be able to tell her anything, right?

“I- I think that, maybe, I might” I said, stumbling on my words.

“Aww!” Maddi exclaimed “Danielle has a crush” she said a little too loudly. Even though nobody could hear, I still worried someone would.

A little later dinner was done and we all sat down and ate dinner. Shawn was talking about work and how there was a stray that they were trying to find a home for. Before I even thought about what I was saying, I blurted out “can we have it?”

Maddi surprisingly told me she was thinking the same thing and Shawn decided he would adopt it tomorrow after work. I was so excited. I love pets but I could never have one because my mom was allergic.

After dinner, I went up to bed. I fell asleep, oddly late, I just couldn’t fall asleep. It was about 2 am when I finally fell asleep.

Shorter chapter I know, but the next chapter is HUGE.

So huge I typed it in all caps. lol