Living On A Prayer

McKenna rested her cheek on her fisted hand as she listened to her American History teacher drone on about Civil Rights. Feeling her phone vibrate, she made a quick glance over to her old batty teacher and slipped her phone out of her pants pocket. McKenna rolled her eyes seeing that it was Brian who’d texted her, again.

Ever since her dad dropped her off this morning at school, Brian had been texting her asking her random questions. She got he was bored but his text were rather irrelevant.

“Miss. Haner? Is your lap that interesting?” Snapping her head up, McKenna quickly hid her phone and gave a sheepish smile to her teacher.

“Sorry Mrs. Degroff, my brother won’t leave me alone.” McKenna explained shrinking slightly when everyone’s eyes widened. She knew they were all thinking “Synyster Gates!”.

“Just don’t do it again.” Mrs. Degroff turned around mumbling something about the Haner children. McKenna held in a little laugh knowing that Mrs. Degroff had to put up with her older brothers and now her. “Alright class remember your Civil Rights projects are due next Friday!”

Quickly making her way out of the classroom and through the school, McKenna sent Brian a text asking if he was already there. She wanted to avoid the mob of kids that weren’t her friends and the stupid boys who only want to go out with her because they had some creepy man crush on her brother. McKenna let out a sigh of relief when she saw his black escalade parked in front of the school. Swiftly she pulled open the door and tossed her bag in before she secured herself inside.

“So how was your day?” Brian asked slightly amused by his little sisters hurried manner. “Seat belt, dad will kill me if I got you killed.”

McKenna rolled her eyes as she buckled her seatbelt. “Mrs. Degroff caught me with my phone because you texted me and then when I mentioned that my brother texted me she muttered something about the Haner kids.”

“I still manage to annoy that woman without even being in the same room as her.” Brian let out an amused laugh as they got to his house. “Ah Jimmy and I got kicked out of her class a lot.”

“She has a picture of Jimmy in her room,” Brian glanced over to see McKenna biting her bottom lip. He noticed she did that whenever she mentioned Jimmy around him.

“So . . . what should we do tonight kid?” He asked changing the subject and parked his vehicle in the garage.

“Um actually I have to babysit for Ms. Kent tonight, so you’ll need to take me over there at seven.” McKenna informed him as she set her backpack down on the kitchen table.

“Um okay . . . do you want to eat before then?” Brian couldn’t stop the small frown that tugged on his lips.

“No, I’m going to finish my homework and I’ll probably end up eating at Ms. Kent’s. She usually has food left over that she coins me into eating.” Brian nodded leaving his sister to her school work. Sitting back down on the couch where he’d been since they got home from Australia, Brian was convinced there was a permanent impression of his ass in the cushion.

The hours passed slowly for Brian as he watched the clock slowly get to six forty five, the time McKenna told him they need to leave. Fishing his keys back out of his pocket, he saw her waiting by the garage door for him. Pulling out of the driveway McKenna rattled off the directions to the house. Brian pulled up in front of the house seeing that it was one of the older and less expensive homes in Huntington.

“So I’ll text you when she gets back for you to come get me.”
McKenna told Brian getting a nod in response from him.

Brian watched as his sister disappeared inside the house. He thought back to the conversation he had about her starting high school in the fall. He knew that the Ms. Kent she was babysitting for must’ve been the same one at the high school. Brian groaned as he stood in his empty living room knowing he couldn’t drink tonight let alone this weekend.

McKenna let out a giggle as the eight month old little boy crawled at hyper speed away from her. Picking up she tickled his stomach earning a laugh from him. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was close to his bed time.

“Okay James let’s get you to sleep.” She heated up a bottle of milk knowing it would help put him to sleep. Sitting down on the couch she cradled the baby while he suckled down the milk his eyes slowly drifting shut. Looking down she saw that he was asleep. Slowly standing she walked down the hallway to where the nursery was and gently laid James down in the crib. Grabbing the pacifier that was lying in the crib she put it in his mouth remembering how he’d wake up if he didn’t have it.

Slipping out of the room McKenna went back into the living room and changed the T.V. to the Travel channel catching Ghost Adventures half way through. Lying down on the couch, McKenna let out a yawn.

“McKenna?” Ms. Kent whispered an hour later. “Hun . . .” Biting her lip, not wanting to wake up the young girl. She remembered that McKenna mentioned her brother Brian was picking her up tonight. Spotting the purse McKenna brought on the coffee table, Ms. Kent grabbed McKenna’s phone and opened the text messages finding Brian’s contact.

McKenna fell asleep and I didn’t want to wake her but she told me you were picking her up.

Waiting for a response, she jumped when not a minute went by for the cell phone to start buzzing. Looking at the messaged that read I’ll be there in a few minutes, don’t wake her.
Putting the phone back, Ms. Kent walked down the hall and checked to see that her little boy was still sleeping. Going back to the living room she turned off the T.V. as the doorbell rung.

Quickly making her way to the door, she pulled it open to see Brian standing there wearing a white wife beater, basketball shorts, and a pair of flip flops.

Brian froze as he saw who had opened the door. He was expecting Ms. Kent to be some thirty something, even forty something year old woman, not the one from the cemetery.

“Mr. Haner,”

“Call me Brian . . . I—I saw you the other day.” Brian said still beyond confused. “Wait, so how do you know my sister?”

“Brian, I use to babysit her when we were in high school not that you noticed.” She mumbled out the last part with a roll of her eyes.

“Wait, what’s your name?”
Brian asked. Confused didn’t even begin to cover how he was felling at the moment.

“Eloise . . . we only had class together since you moved here.”

“Eloise,” He muttered looking at the five six strawberry blonde in front of him. Trying to recall her babysitting McKenna thirteen years ago.

“Come inside, she’s asleep on the couch.” Brian just nodded following Eloise inside her home. He looked around noticing the family of three in some of the pictures, other ones just of the blonde little boy. “I stuck her money in her purse next to her cell phone.” Eloise informed Brian as he scooped his little sister up.

“Alright, uh I’ll take that.” He grumbled finger the purse with slight distain on his face. “I guess we’ll see you later?”

Eloise gave a slight nod as she walked him out to his car. “Do you need help getting her in?”

“Oh no, I’m use to doing this. She isn’t much of a night owl like the rest of us. Which I guess is a good thing.” Brian gave Eloise a slight smile as he got McKenna situated in his vehicle.

Eloise just nodded. “Tell her I said thank you, I wouldn’t have been able to get done what I need to without her.” Brian just nodded. “So drive safe, I need to get back inside . . .”

“Right, night.” Brian got back into the Escalade but he sat there watching as Eloise retreated into her house. Pulling away from the curb, he mentally shook himself and glanced over at McKenna. She had some explaining to do.