COFFEE

O

*_*_*

"I need a venti iced coffee with vanilla, 2% milk, easy ice, and one shot of expresso."

"Name?"

"Lacey."

She writes my name on the cup. "Will that be all?"

"Yes."

"That'll be $4."

I hand the cashier a ten dollar bill. The cashier opens the register, puts the bill inside, grabs my change, and hands it to me with a smile. "Here you go."

"Thanks." I muttered, walking over to the same table I sat at yesterday.

London, Lincoln, Luci, Levi, and Lawson are playing in the indoor playground. I gave them the same pep talk as yesterday before I went inside of Starbucks. I decided to let them go to the playground before I sat down and made my iced coffee order. The sooner I can start on my assignments for the day, the faster I can get my siblings at home in their beds. My parents fussed at me for coming home late with the five children, even after I thoroughly explained what all went down yesterday.

You see, my parents are too cheap to hire a babysitter or for somebody to attend to my siblings for the evening. They asked me to watch them first, but I declined because of my college classes. After my first semester, my parents threatened me to watch my siblings or they would cut me off financially from college. Since then, I made all of my college classes either early in the morning or online to coordinate my schedule with my siblings'. I've tried telling my parents multiple times that I need a day off to catch up on sleep, but they don't care. As long as somebody is watching their kids as they go to work or go out to have fun, they don't care about my well-being. Sad, I know.

I had to start working part time instead of full time thanks to my parents' threat. At night, I work as an EMT to keep some income flowing in. Between working, going to classes, watching my five siblings, and completing college assignments, I get an average of about three to five hours of sleep. How do I manage to stay awake, you ask? Iced coffee, the caffeinated liquid beverage created by the Lord above.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching my siblings. They are a handful, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. I just wish I was able to watch them on my own time, not by a threat from my parents. It makes me feel dirty, like I'm only watching my siblings to get my college paid for. I'm grateful they're at the age where they don't understand how college works yet.

They're quintuplets. Mom and dad wanted me to have another sibling, but they didn't expect five kids to pop out. They don't know where the quintuplet gene came from, even the doctors are clueless. Either way, I'm at a high chance of having twins, triplets, quadruplets, etc. if I decide to have children one day in the future.

The sound of a cup being placed on my table snaps me out of my thoughts. "Here's your order, Lacey."

I avert my eyes to the brown eyed barista sitting next to me. "Hey, Dayton."