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1135 Words
Aster wilted a little but peered up at him with puppy eyes. “What are we having?”
Matt grinned. “I thought it be fun to make stuffed shells together.”
Aster seemed to mull that offer over before nodding. “Okay, but I want to pick out the ice cream flavors.”
Seeing Aster being all cute and trying to get her way, he jabbed her. “Hey, maybe seeing Aunt Katya having a kid will inspire mom and dad to get pregnant again.”
Aster shouted as if the idea was personally offensive. “No way! They can’t do that. If they do, I’ll be the middle child! And I’ve seen enough movies to know how that goes. I’ll become neglected and forgotten about!”
Seeing he had gotten back at her a little, Matt eased off the teasing and reassured her that they would always love her, even if they did eventually get a younger sibling.
What followed was a disaster of epic proportions, as the two of them trashed their tiny kitchen, making dinner and ice cream with two dozen different flavors ranging from various fruits to candy bars crushed in.
His little sister had somehow managed to get some of the fruit ice cream in her hair, which had dyed the usually white hair a motley assortment of the rainbow.
Burping, she rubbed her extended tummy and said, “Okay, maybe I can have enough ice cream in one night. I can’t tell if I need to fart or vomit.”
Knowing that meant it was time for them to finish up, he extended a hand to his sister who was laying on the tile floor.
“Okay, time to get up and in the shower.”
Aster pouted. “I can’t move.”
“You’ll feel better with a nice warm shower.”
“The cold tiles feel better than a warm shower.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Ok short stack, you can lay on the floor all you want, but I’m going to mop the floor whether you’re on it or not.”
That got her up and he escorted her to the bathroom in case of any accidents, and once he heard her turn on the shower, he started to put dishes into the dishwasher.
Normally, he would have cleaned as he went, but he had been more concerned with letting Aster have a fun time, which meant he had at least three loads of dishes to do.
He wasn’t even done getting the first sinkful ready for the next cycle when he heard the shower turn off.
As a now clean Aster came out, he washed his hands and joined her on the couch for a little time to watch something together.
It was well past her bedtime, but the two of them rarely got to spend time together alone like this, so he was willing to push it a bit.
And it was a Friday, so she didn’t even have school tomorrow and could sleep in.
Even then she was nodding off before the first commercial break, so Matt prodded her into brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed.
After brushing their teeth together, Matt sent the tuckered out Aster to bed as he cleaned the apartment from top to bottom as best he could without running the vacuum.
His parents weren’t exactly on a vacation, and the last thing he would want to come home to was a messy house.
Just as he was dozing off on the couch with a cooking show rerun playing quietly, his pad pinged, and he rubbed his eyes to clear them to find his mother’s profile calling him.
Yawning, he answered but sent the volume to next to nothing.
“Hey, Mom, how is it going with Aunt Katya?”
His mother looked tired but smiled. “She’s still in labor, but we wanted to check in on the two of you. How is your sister?”
Despite being tired, Matt didn’t fall for the trap. “Aster is already asleep. If you really want I can wake her up—”
“No, no that’s fine.” His mother said, but he knew she was happy he had her settled in before ten.
Cracking open her door, Matt turned the camera on the pad to show Aster sprawled across her bed, clutching one of the stuffed animals that was nearly her size.
Quietly closing the door, Matt saw his father was now on the screen and said hello.
“Hey kiddo, thanks for looking after your sister. We really do appreciate it. We know you had that date planned for tonight.”
Matt dropped back into the couch and waved his father off. “I enjoy spending time with Aster. We made stuffed shells and then made some ice cream. It was fun.”
Matt could hear both his parents sigh and knew their pain. The kid would live off ice cream if no one made her eat normal food.
“Don’t worry, I made her eat two stuffed shells and three scoops of mixed veggies before we even touched the ice cream. Really, we spent more time making a mess of the kitchen than eating.”
Without being asked, he raised the pad so they could see the now clean kitchen and finished up. “We’re fine here. What about you two and Aunt Katya? I assume everything is okay? Isn’t ten hours of labor, like, long?”
Matt’s mother snorted and shook her head. “It’s not that long for a first time mother, but she’s mostly fine, just tired and wanting it to be over. We just wanted to check in and say thank you.”
Rolling his eyes, Matt said, “It’s not like she’s in diapers. We’ll be fine. Antonio gave me the weekend off, and if you guys aren’t back by Monday, he said he’ll make sure I’m out of there in time to pick up Aster from school. I’m thinking we’ll go to the new water park tomorrow or something fun. You guys worry about everything up there and we’ll send pictures of our plans.”
Matt’s father yawned over his mother’s shoulder, and that set Matt off, which then set his mother off. Once all three of them finished yawning, Matt waved them off.
“You two have fun and update me when everything is over. Take your time on our account.”
Saying their goodbyes, Matt flopped into his bed after showering himself and heard something crack underneath him.
Rolling away, he heard a crinkle and sighed.
Aster must have been drawing on his bed, again, and once he pulled back the covers, he saw the snapped colored pencils and crumpled sheets of paper.
- Writer
