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“He plays basketball in his college!” he said instead, all excited again about basketball. “He said he’s going to the NBA this year!”
College? What the fucking shit! What was Paula doing with a… Images of Mia flashed across my brain and I shut my mental mouth. But, at least I wasn’t dating the girl. I might have jerked off to her a couple of times in the last twenty-four hours, but…
“Ok, pizza it is,” I finally agreed, not having the mental capacity to deal with all the shit in my head, plus try to manage some kind of homemade dinner.
Not that the kids were used to any kind of homemaking. Paula wasn’t a warm baked cookies kind of woman.
“Then maybe we can have a movie night?” I offered.
Caden hooted in excitement, but Charlie had nothing to offer me.
When we got back to the house, Caden went to the fridge for a snack, but Charlie headed for the stairs immediately.
“Don’t be long, we’ll have dinner soon. I was hoping we could play a game before the movie.”
“I don’t want to play a stupid game,” he said, not even looking at me while he continued up the stairs.
“What’s going on, Charlie?” I called, but he just ignored me before heading up and, eventually slamming his door so hard I heard the thump of it from the foyer.
When did my little boy turn into a fucking teenager? What would he be like when he actually turned into a teen?
“Charlie’s been mean,” Caden said when I joined him in the kitchen.
He was snacking on some grapes he’d found in the fridge, his little legs swinging from the edge of the chair.
“What do you mean? Mean how?”
“He yells a lot, and Mom slapped his mouth. Oh! He got in a fight at school and punched a kid!”
Caden made a double one-two punch while fisting those grapes while my fucking head exploded.
“What do you mean he got in a fight? Your mom would’ve told me.”
“Ohhh…” he moaned, drawing out the word. “Sorry, I wasn’t s’posed to tell you. Mom said it was our little secret. Please don’t tell Mom I told you!”
I sighed, dragging my hand down my face.
“Bud, I’ve got to talk to your mom about it. She needs to know it’s not ok to keep things like this a secret from me.”
Caden’s face fell as he grabbed another handful of grapes, then dropped off the chair and followed his big brother’s footsteps up the stairs and to his room with a slam of the door.
Awesome.
Fucking awesome.
My pocket vibrated, but I took a minute of self pity before pulling it out to check what it was.
Mia Miller: Am I supposed to wait with you after class tomorrow while you make an appointment with the plagiarizing student? PS Hope your week with your boys is awesome.
I sighed, wishing my day had been better so far.
Me: You don’t have a class after the 2 o’clock creative writing, right? If that’s the case, then yes. Stay.
Me: And thanks, but that’s looking unlikely. Evidently little kids can act like teenagers. Who knew?
I grouched at myself for sending that last message. She wished me a good week, she didn’t ask for every Goddamn struggle I’m having with the kids.
Mia Miller: Yikes. Yeah, I think the tween stage starts earlier than is rumored. My little brother turned into a monster when he became nine. My most sincere condolences.
