Always Us

stage five pt. ii

I've missed writing chaos with this bunch. After I posted the first, I saw a TikTok (lol) and had to write another one for them. A little less sweet, a little more real life lmfao.

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"Mama."

"Yes, baby."

"Mama."

"Mhm, Jax."

"Mama."

Olivia eyed the tiny hand reaching into the water. "Can you step back a little, please?"

The two-year-old shuffled back, his wide eyes staring at her through the glass shower wall. Both his bottle and his teddy filled his hands, and while they had been entertaining enough for the toddler two minutes ago, they no longer held his interest. His main goal now was to get as close to Olivia as possible, and shuffling in place, he cocked his head to the side, trying to understand why she was stopping him.

Olivia sighed. "Five minutes please."

The look on his face went from sad to heartbroken. Five minutes was practically five years in his world.

Looking away, Olivia did her best to enjoy her five minutes of solitude. Well, semi-solitude. And for the first thirty seconds, she successfully managed to tune out the whimpering. That was until the sound of furniture dragging across her custom wood floors sent her hurtling back into reality.

"Here Jaxie." Her six-year-old, who spent half her days yelling at her brother, and the other half threatening to return him to God knows where, was lugging a chair from her parents' bedroom into the bathroom. It was a specialty piece Olivia had found in Spain. Pure wood. Didn't belong in wet environments. And on top of it was a small plastic stool that the first grader used to reach the sink when brushing her teeth. In her bathroom. On the other side of the house. "You can sit on this one."

Olivia stared with a slack jaw. "SiSi, why did you bring that in here?!"

"So we can wait for you, mommy," she replied, holding her brother's hand while he hobbled over. Once he was seated, she patted his head before climbing into her own seat. "You take too long."

The mother pressed the base of her palms against her eyes. Taking in a deep, deep breath, she had to remind herself that she was used to this. This was her life. Where the hell was Spencer when he was supposed to be distracting them? Who knew. But it was easier to just power through than to get upset right now.

She reached for her loofah.

"Oh, I forgot!" Sienna scuffled off the chair and ran back into her parents' room. Within seconds, she was rushing back in, and at the sight of what was in her hands, Olivia lost it.

"SPENCER!"

Jackson burst into tears, dropping his bottle and teddy on the floor and running around the glass divider, straight into her legs. As he cried, he tugged at his shirt, remembering all the times that his dad had reminded him that bath time meant no clothes.

"No, baby. It's too late..." she muttered, trying to shove his shirt back over his belly.

But it didn't matter, distress had taken over. Sobbing, he reached up for her to carry him.

Olivia called out for her husband again. And in doing so, she tried not to cry herself. She also tried to not look over at her daughter, who was sitting comfortably, legs crossed, with a bag of chips in her lap.

"SPEN—"

"What? What? I'm here." He jogged into the room, out of breath and ready to save someone from a fire or drowning or whatever else could possibly have his wife yelling at the top of her lungs. "What's wrong?"

"What happened to watching them!?" she shot out.

"Baby, I was," he shot back, "but they wouldn't stay. I kept telling them we have to give you alone time, but they kept running down the hall. I was out there running back and forth trying to wrangle them, but then I went to the bathroom for a minute and—"

"A minute?" Olivia gestured at the set up her daughter had managed to pull off in his one minute. "Really?"

"Okay, maybe two," he admitted. "I had to go. But I got them now. Don't worry."

Olivia narrowed her eyes, jutting her hip out to bring attention to the soaking wet baby at her waist. "It's a bit late now."

Eyes roaming the situation, Spencer nodded. "My bad, baby. But you know, I could just watch them in here..."

Mid-spiel, Sienna thrusted out the bag. "You want chips, daddy?"

"...you know," he mumbled to himself, eyes looking for somewhere comfortable, "pull up another chair..."

Olivia impressed herself by taking a breath before speaking. How she managed was a miracle. But she did her best to swallow back her words and chose the only two that would get her point across without terrorizing her kids.

"Get out."

And when he didn't vacate the bathroom within the next millisecond, she yelled again.

"GET OUT!"