Five Year Old Matchmaker

“Sissy! I wanna chocolate ice cweam!” my five year-old brother declared, tugging on my pant leg.

“Luke, are you sure? How about a vanilla?” I said, trying to persuade him out of the chocolate ice cream. Our mom let me take him to get an ice cream, but told me not to get him chocolate. If I did, I would be the one that had to handle his sugar rush. It was not pretty when he had sugar rushes. He would be screaming, and running around. If my mom took him to get ice cream, she would be able to handle his persuasiveness. I, on the other hand, would cave if Luke took it far enough.

“No!” he said, glaring at me, then switching to crossing his arms and shaking his head, his dirty blonde hair shaking around when he shook it. “I wanna chocolate ice cweam!” This kid wouldn’t give up, would he?

I sighed, and then looked at my watch. It was just about to be 3 o’clock. If I got him a chocolate ice cream, I could take him to the park and let him run his energy off. That way, when I took him home, he would sleep until dinner was ready, which was usually around 7. Sounded like a plan to me.

“Alright, Luke, you can get a chocolate ice cream,” I told him.

“Yay!” he said, delighted that he won the argument.

“We’re going to get it in a cup, though. I’m going to take you to the park, and I know you would be mad if you accidentally dropped your ice cream if you had a cone,” I explained to him before he got mad that he had to get it in a cup.

His eyes lit up, and he said, “We’re going to the pawk? Yay! I love you, Sissy!” He then hugged me, causing me to awe.

“I love you too buddy!” I said, hugging him back the best I could, since he was hugging my legs. I walked up to the cashier and said, “One kid-sized cup of chocolate ice cream, and one small cup of vanilla with chocolate syrup,” I went through my purse to find my wallet.

“Alright, that’ll be $5.75,” the cashier told me. I took out 6 dollars, and he gave me 25 cents in change, and then proceeded to get our ice cream ready. Luke moved to where they’d scoop ice cream, and put his small hands on the glass, watching the guy scoop the ice cream into the cups, his hazel eyes moving with the movement of the scooping. It was cute to watch.

Once we got our ice cream, I grabbed a few napkins and stuck them in my purse, since five year olds were notorious for making messes. I then called our mom to tell her where we would be, which was Lincoln Park, a park 5 minutes away from the ice cream shop. She said okay, since we would be home before dinner, and also since it would wear Luke out.

When we reached the park, I got Luke out of the booster seat he was in and gave him his ice cream to finish. So that way he wouldn’t get mad at me for not getting to eat his ice cream in the car, I had sat both our ice creams in the console. At least the ice cream was soft once you got to eat it. I lead Luke to a picnic table to eat our ice cream. I had left my purse in the car, putting my keys on a keychain I attached to my jeans, and the phone in my coat pocket. I also grabbed the napkins.

We finished our ice cream a few minutes later, Luke barely getting the ice cream on him. I was proud, since he only got it on his face and hands. After we threw away the cups, Luke ran towards the swings.

“Push me, Sissy!” he shouted at me.

I then pushed him on the swings, him shouting, “Higher!” until he suddenly shouted, “Let me push myself!” I let him, getting in the swing next to him. I showed him how to pump your legs back and forth when you swung. Soon, we were swinging together.

Then he said, “I wanna go to the slide! Get me down!” I stopped swinging myself, and got behind his swing to slow him down so he could get off. Then he took off to the slide. He climbed up the plastic rungs, and sat down at the top of the slide.

“Look at me!” he declared, looking like he was the king of the world. Then he slid down the slide, squealing in delight. He slid down the slide until he got tired of it. He went up to me, I standing only a few feet away, and challenged, “I betcha you can’t catch me, Sissy!”

“I bet you I can!” I said, taking off after him.

He shouted out taunts like, “You can’t catch me!” I deliberately kept a few paces behind him so he’d think he was winning. I also was a bit behind him because a lot of people were filing into the park. I started getting worried when I couldn’t see his bobbing head anymore. It’s odd how I don’t notice how many people were at this park. Well, this is a big park.

I was freaking out. Ten minutes had past, and I still couldn’t find my little brother. The crowd in the park had lessened some, and that made it easier to look, even though I still couldn’t find him in this park. I was sure he’s figured out that I wasn’t chasing him anymore. I decided to call his name, and see if he was near at least. “Luke? Are you over here? Where are you?” I rattled off.

Some people looked at me as I yelled out my brother’s name. “Have you seen my brother? 5 years old, about this tall,” I put my hand at hip level as I said it, “same dirty blonde hair as mine, hazel eyes? He’s wearing a Transformers shirt and dark blue jeans.” People I said my description to shook their heads. A few even told me that they hoped I’d find him.

After searching for a few more minutes, I heard, ”Sissy?” I turned around to see Luke holding hands with a guy around my age. “Sissy!” Luke cheered, running at me full speed, arms open wide.

“Luke! I cried, hugging him and spinning him around.

“When you were chasing me, after a few minutes, you neva cawght me, so I turned awound, and you was gone! This guy helped me find you though! He’s nice, Sissy!” Luke said, animating all he did, and then pointed to the stranger behind him. I didn’t notice before, but he was really good-looking, His dirty blonde dreadlocks, which were a shade darker than mine and my brother’s, were hanging from a red cap he wore, his large t-shirt the same color as his cap. He also wore baggy pants, and had a lip ring.

The guy chuckled, and then said, “It was nothing. The kid was lost, saying that he and his sister were playing, and then his sister was gone. Had to help him find his sister. The name’s Tom Kaulitz. Glad to be of service,” he said with an accent, extending his hand out to shake.

I nodded, taking his hand, and replied,” My name’s Veronica Macon. As you probably know by now, this is Luke, my five year old brother,” I shook his hand for a second, then let go, turning to my little brother when I introduced him. I started blushing a bit after I had shook his hand, habit I suppose.

Luke noticed this, and teased,” Oooh! Sissy likes Tom! Wook! She’s blushing!”

After he said that, I gaped at him, then after that, said, “Luke? Go swing on the swing set. I want to talk to Tom.” I was able to contain my anger at him when saying that pretty well. “Keep in my sight!” I added.

“Okay!” was his reply, and he started swinging.

Then I turned to Tom, who had an amused look on his face. “Siblings. You can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” he said knowingly.

I raised my eyebrow at this, embarrassment gone, and said, “I agree. Do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah. Identical twin brother, though we have different styles. He colored his hair black, I put mine in dreads. His choice of clothing is gothic, kind of emo, and mine’s gangster. We both think the same though,” he replied, using hand gestures a lot. “His name’s Bill,” he added as an afterthought.

I smiled at his twin telepathy thing and asked,” How old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

“I’m a year younger than you. Eighteen.”

“Well, that sucks. Still having to watch the younger sibling when you could be out on your own.”

“It’s got its rewards. Luke is a great kid. He’s a real bundle of energy. Our other sister, Caroline, wouldn’t have been able to take him to get ice cream, which is what I was doing before we came here. I gave him chocolate ice cream, which makes him hyper, so we came here to burn it off. Caroline’s only 13, so she wouldn’t be able to drive, or handle Luke’s hyper self,” I smiled at that last comment, and noticed Tom was too. We were both leaning against the Jungle Gym, watching Luke swing. There were less people than before, maybe 10 or so left. Must have had a big traffic rush within that last hour or so.

“Your eye color’s different from your brother’s,” Tom stated, trying to start another conversation.

“I’ve got my dad’s eye color, which is grey, and my little brother has our mom’s. Caroline had our grandmother’s eyes, which are blue,” I explained.

“Well, they’re really sexy, and so are you,” he said, messing with his lip ring with his tongue.

Did he just call me sexy? “Did you just call me sexy?” I said, repeating what I was thinking.

“Yes, I did,” he replied, and then he took the opportunity to kiss me, and boy he did! His lip ring was cold, but the kiss made up for it. He didn’t go as far to French kiss me though, and pulled away. He then got close to my ear and whispered, “I’d go a little further, but there are kids around.” I looked into his eyes, and then where Luke was. His mouth was agape, and I found this quite funny.

“Whoa! Sissy and Tom kissed! Ew!” he exclaimed, then clucked his tongue. We both laughed at this, and then calmed down. Luke then walked over to us and stated, “I’m tired. I wanna go home.” I looked at my watch and noticed it was around 4:30. Wow. Time flies when you’re trying to find your little brother.

“Okay, Luke,” I told him. He hugged my legs, putting me in a lock grip. I looked at Tom’s brown eyes and asked, “ Will I see you again?”

“Well, I was about to ask you if we could meet here, around 1 o’clock tomorrow?” he asked hopefully.

I smiled, and answered, “Sure. Do you need my cell phone number?” He nodded, and got out a sharpie. I still had napkins leftover, so we exchanged numbers on the napkins.

“See you tomorrow,” he said, and then kissed me on the cheek. He then walked off while I tried to get myself out of the vice grip that was Luke, his tongue stuck out in disgust from when Tom kissed me on the cheek. I finally got him off of me, and we walked to the car.

After I got him in the booster seat, and we were on our way home, I asked a favor of him.

“Hey Luke!”

“Yeah, Sissy?”

“Can we keep this our little secret? Between you and me?”

He liked the idea of having a secret, and said, “Yeah!”

I chuckled, and said, “Alright, buddy.”

I don't know if he'll ever know that he was the one that lead me to Tom, but he did. My 5-year-old matchmaker of a brother.