Babysitting the Player

Chapter 13

"I'm heading next door to babysit," I say as I peek into the living room before heading down the stairs.

"Wait a minute, my gosh." Mom shakes her head as she mutes the television.

"What?" I ask.

"What time are you babysitting until?"

"No clue." I catch my grandma using the kitchen scissors to cut something out of a flyer on the coffee table. "What are you doing?"

"Couponing." She doesn't look up from her work.

"Again?"

"Yes, Alex, again."

"You would sell your soul to save a dollar." Mom rolls her eyes.

"No, I wouldn't, I'd sell you." Grandma fires back.

I can't help but smirk at my mom. "Can I leave now?"

"Please. I don't need any witnesses to what I'm about to do."

"Oh, please." Grandma rolls her eyes. "Scissors or not, I can take you."

"Good luck." I walk down the stairs and out the front door. I walk along the edge of the cul-de-sac to Bryce's driveway. I take a deep breath as I start the walk up the driveway and the sidewalk until I reach the house. My knuckles tap on the front door a few times and Maggie lets me in almost immediately.

"Hey, Alex." She smiles.

"Hi." I walk up the stairs and stop in the kitchen where Maggie is fidgeting with some cash.

"Layla already had dinner and she's having a yogurt right now so she should be good for the night. She was up early today so she should be ready for bed a little earlier than usual. You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen, just please no alcohol until Layla is asleep. I know you and Bryce are dating so again, no sex until Layla is asleep. There's condoms in the top drawer of the vanity in the bathroom off my bedroom. It's locked but I'm sure Bryce knows where the key is. I should be home around midnight, is that too late?"

There's not a word of what she just said that didn't catch me off guard so the only part I acknowledge is the very end. "Not at all."

"Great. Here's this for tonight." She hands me some rolled up bills. "Thanks again." She grabs her keys and her purse. "Bye, Layla."

"Bye, Mommy." Layla waves from her seat at the dining room table and goes back to eating her yogurt.

Without another word, Maggie leaves the house.

Wow.

I quickly count the money and see that she gave me seventy dollars and I stick it in one of the pockets of my brown leather bag. I set my bag on the couch and join Layla at the table and see that there's an actual dining set now. A dark wooden table with matching chairs goes with the hutch placed against the wall.

"Hi, Alex." She smiles in between bites.

"Hi." I smile back. "How's your yogurt?"

"Yummy."

"What flavor is it?"

"Vanilla," she says through a mouthful of it, yogurt threatening to drip out the corners of her mouth.

"That is yummy." I take a look at her outfit, pink sweatpants with white polka dots and a matching short sleeve shirt, definitely pajamas. "You look like you're ready for bed."

"I am."

"You are?"

The front door opens and I wonder what Maggie forgot.