Family: Out of Business

Shopped

Claire's pov

The next morning, as I was sitting eating my Lucky Charms, my uncle approached, standing next to me with a cup of tea and a sour look on his face. Apparently, I'm not the only one who woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. We probably shouldn't have stayed up so late watching the storm last night cuz now we're both tired and cranky.

"After you finish your troll cereal, I need you to get showered and dressed. We have some errands to run this morning, so get a move on," he dictated humorlessly. "I don't want to wait all day for you to be ready."

"Where are we going?" I asked, slurping a spoonful of sugary milk. "And it's not troll cereal by the way. He's a leprechaun. See," I said, with a skosh of attitude, pointing to the box.

"Whatever, and it's none of your business where we're going. Just get ready like I asked. Capisci (Understand)?"

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him as he had now annoyed me thoroughly, causing me to lose what little interest I had in this conversation to begin with. Feeling his eyes on me as I continued to pick out the fruity marshmallows from amongst the boring cereal pieces, I nodded my head in response, hoping that would suffice and he'd leave me alone.

"I'd like a verbal response, Principessa (Princess)."

Sighing heavily and unnecessarily, I put my spoon down and turned to face him. I'm just not in the mood to cater to his ego right now.

"Fine," I replied curtly, turning my attention back to my rainbow infused breakfast.

"Francesca," my uncle referenced me by my middle name in warning. Gently cupping my chin, he directed me to make eye contact before continuing, "Let's not start the morning this way. Shall we?"

"Si, Zio (Yes, Uncle)," I dutifully replied, knowing this was a losing battle in my case. Starting an attitude war with my uncle would never earn me a victory worth bragging about. More than likely, however, it would earn me a very sore bottom, which is not something I currently desire, seeing as I just got spanked the other day and I'm still feeling the residual effects of that punishment now. "Mi dispiace (I'm sorry)," I apologized.

Pinching my cheek before lightly patting it with his open palm, he replied, "Grazie, mia nipote (Thank you, my niece)." Setting his teacup down on the counter, he said, "Please be ready to go in twenty minutes."

I nodded and went back to eating my cereal since Uncle EJ couldn't see or hear me as he was already halfway down the hall. After I finished my breakfast, I got in the shower and started daydreaming about Dante, well, fantasizing would be more accurate. Nothing gross, just kissing and stuff. Before I knew it, thirty minutes had passed and my uncle was pounding on the door, shouting at me to hurry up. I finished up my shower, dried my hair, and got dressed quick as lightning but my uncle was still pissed off at me for not being ready on time.

"Get in the car and let's go," he ordered in an icy tone, holding up one finger as he held the door open for me.

"I'm sorry, Uncle EJ, I didn't..." I started to apologize, but he cut me off.

"I don't want to hear it, Claire," he replied angrily, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter than necessary. "I expect you to remember and abide by the rules I set in place for you while we're out today. Sono chiaro (Am I clear)?"

"Si, Zio (Yes, Uncle)," I responded softly, slumping down in my seat, thinking this is gonna be a long day if my uncle keeps being so annoying.

Our first stop was the hardware store, which floored me since I know my pretty boy uncle doesn't know a hammer from a wrench. There is no freakin' way he's going to be doing manual labor by fixing shit around our rental home. Turns out, I was right. We're only here to buy cleaning supplies.