Protect Me Please

Chapter 1

"Connor and Cameron, breakfast is ready!" I holler from the kitchen to my 4 year old son and 14 year old brother; who are upstairs getting dressed for their days at school.

"Coming papa!" Connor hollers back just before hearing their feet coming down the stairs and into the kitchen to eat.

"What's for breakfast, Benji?" Cameron asks curiously as he pulls out the gallon of milk from the fridge to pour a glass each for the three of us.

"Waffles, bacon and scrambled eggs," I say as I plate their food and hand it to them with a smile.

"Yummy, fanks papa!" Connor chirps stuffing a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"Welcome Con," I giggle sitting across from him and Cameron; my son insists on sitting next to my brother at every meal.

"Do I really have to go to school today; it's my 15th birthday?" Cameron whines with a pout.

"Mum said you have to go, so you're going," I remind him with a pointed look. 

"Can we do something together for my birthday?" he asks softly; as if afraid I'll say no.

"Of course we can, it must be something Connor can do, too," I inform him with a huge smile.

"Awesome, can we play mini golf?" my brother asks with a bat of his eyelashes.

"Yeah and I'll take you guys out to dinner, too; mum said that she's sorry for being out of town on business."

Mum works for the government; the defense department and she's out of the country currently. When she's out of town for work, I care for my brother until she returns and he stays at my place and she'll be home in a week.

"Hey, I get it," he shrugs; smiling at my little brother at how mature he is at now 15 years old.

"You're awesome, you know this right?" I seriously ask him as we grab our belongings before heading out of the house.

Cameron smirks at me as he locks the door behind us; "I know but it's nice to hear it once in a while."

Let me introduce myself before we dive any furthur into this story; I'm Benjamin James Brown, Benji to most everyone. I'm 19 years old, yes I became pregnant with Connor at 14 years old and delivered him via c-setion at 15 years old; Connor's other dad, Kyle Andrews, left us a year ago when he decided he wasn't ready to be a parent and wanted to attend college and not be 'tied down' to me or Connor. We haven't seen or heard from Kyle since the day he left.

I live with Connor in our own three bedroom apartment, fifteen miles from mum and Cameron and like I said earlier, my little brother stays here when mum is out of town for work and I drop him and Connor off at school; Connor attends preschool and daycare. I work at a music store Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then I pick both of them up.

Dropping Cameron off at the high school first, parking in a spot to let my brother out; "Bye Cam, see you at 3:15 p.m., okay? Love you."

"Bye Benji, love you, too; by Con-Man, love you," Cameron says, climbing out of my extended cab, metallic blue Chevy Silverado.

"Bye uncle Cammy," Connor giggles loudly from the back seat; in his car seat as he waves wildly.

Cam shuts the passenger side front door with a smile and a wave before heading toward the main entrance where a few of his friends are already waiting.

"Ready for preschool and daycare, my little man?" I ask my mini-me; our eyes meeting through the rear-view mirror.

"Friends, friends, friends!" he chants with a few fist pumps in the air as I pull out of the high school parking lot; heading toward the preschool/daycare building a half block away.