Almost Easy

"Mom, Dad, before you say anything; I left a note to tell you where I was going." Phoenix pleaded, when we walked into the room. He knew that he was in deep shit and he was going to do anything to get out of it.

"That still doesn't make up for you just leaving like you did. We were really worried about you, Phoenix." I reasoned in my motherly voice.

"You had me, Brian, Matt, and Johnny searching all of Huntington Beach for you. You're lucky we didn't call the cops to help us look." Jimmy groaned, having his arms folded over his chest. It was actually nice to see Jimmy upset over something Phoenix did. Usually he would laugh about it and do nothing.

"You didn't call the cops because I'm sure you've got warrants out for your arrest anyway!" Phoenix shot back. Both Jimmy and I stared at him in shock.

"What did you say?" Jimmy asked slowly. When Jimmy talked slowly like that, you knew he meant business.

"You heard me!" Phoenix yelled with no sense of fear in his voice. Oh, He should be afraid.

"Phoenix, Stop. You're in enough trouble as it is, You wanna keep digging yourself a deeper hole?" I tried to calm him, but it didn't really work.

"I didn't want to do this to any of my kids, but you've just volunteered yourself." I sighed and pushed Jimmy back from him, knowing what he was going to do.

"Jimmy, No. We can't do that. Give him a second chance." I tried to reason.

"Bring it on you washed up drummer!" Oh shit. Jimmy's eyes burned with Fury. He shook his head and pushed me aside gently.

"Fine! You asked for it! You're going to live with Matt from now on!" Phoenix froze. I stood at the doorway with my arms crossed. Phoenix had done this to himself, who was I to stand in the way of a perfectly good punishment.

"Dad! You can't do that to me! Matt and Kallie are strict! They work out like non-stop and…"

"I don't care! Matt volunteered to have you stay at his house to actually learn some respect for others. I'm sick of you doing this over a dumb argument that your mom and I had. It's over!" I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Phoenix looked to me helplessly.

"Mom, You aren't going to actually let him do this are you?" I shrugged. "Why? I thought you were on my side!"

"I was on your side until you broke my trust Phoenix. I trusted you to stay in the house when you're supposed to and I trusted that you would set a good example for your little sister. Now you have her crying, thinking that dad and I are getting divorced. You know that's never going to happen, so why try and scare her with that?" I ranted. He looked completely defeated and hurt, something I never wanted to see my kids look like; but he had it coming. "It's out of my hands Phoenix. You brought this upon yourself and now you have to deal with the consequences." He sighed and sat down on his bottom bunk.

"How long?" He sighed.

"Until Matt thinks you're respectful enough to come back and live here." Phoenix looked up.

"Wait, So you're practically kicking me out?" Jimmy nodded.

"No! You will always be welcomed here, but for now you're staying with Matt. We're not kicking you out. I wouldn't have that." Jimmy turned to me with stern eyes. "Don't give me that look, I'm not kicking him out. He's my son." Jimmy sighed and looked back to Phoenix.

"You're leaving tonight so get anything you want to take with you packed. Meet me down at the truck in 20 minutes. Got it?" Phoenix nodded solemnly. Jimmy and I walked out of the room, leaving his door open so that we could make sure he didn't attempt to run again.

"Jimmy, How could you say that we were kicking him out? That's not what we're doing." Jimmy shrugged.

"It just came out. I didn't mean it, I'm sorry." I nodded and sat down on the couch next to him. "It's going to be alright. You know that one week with Matt and Kallie and he'll be begging to come home." I nodded again, smiling lightly to myself.

"I just hope that he actually learns something from all of this. It's going to be weird here without him." Jimmy sighed, taking me in his arms and placing me on his lap.

"It'll be fine. We've still got Sydney to deal with." I nodded.

"That reminds me, I need to call the public school and get them enrolled."

"Already taken care of." Jimmy smiled. I looked to him, shocked.

"What do you mean?"

"When you left last night and we were out at dinner, I called the school and got everything organized. They're all set for tomorrow. I even printed out their schedules and everything." I smiled. This was completely shocking. Jimmy never did anything ahead of time. He has never been organized.

"Baby, You really did all that by yourself?" He blushed and shrugged.

"Well, To be honest, Jordan helped a lot. She made sure I knew what to say." I laughed. I knew he couldn't have done it by himself. It was still nice that he did it nonetheless.

"Aww, I love you." I smiled as I leaned in and kissed him.

"I love you too." He chuckled as he kissed me back.

"I'm ready." Phoenix said sadly from behind us. We looked at him to see 2 duffle bags over his shoulders and his guitar in his hand. Jimmy stood up and grabbed his keys. I walked over to Phoenix and kissed his forehead.

"I'm sorry," He scoffed and walked out the door towards the truck. Jimmy rolled his eyes and walked over to me.

"I'll be back soon. Go relax, ok?" I nodded, kissing his cheek. He walked out of the door swiftly. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I totally needed something to do. I clapped my hands as I walked around the house, just looking over everything. I was trying to find something to do, Anything really. I walked by the fridge and noticed something that caught my attention. A small smile creeped onto my face and I ran towards the phone. This was just what I needed.

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"Raychel? I'm home!" Jimmy called as he walked into the house.

"Daddy!" Sydney yelled as she ran from the dining room where we were coloring. Jimmy laughed and picked Sydney up in his arms. "Look! Mommy gave me tattoo's!" She laughed, showing off all the little drawings that I drawn on her arms.

"Wow, That's really cool! You're looking more like me everyday!" He laughed, carrying her back into the dining room. I was sitting on the table itself, surrounded in markers. I was smelling the good smelling ones, probably making me look like I was getting high off marker fumes. "What does that one smell like?"

"Sydney and I say that it's chocolate." I said as I kept sniffing it. Jimmy laughed as he put Sydney down on the table and walking over to me, taking the marker out of my hand; smelling it for himself.

"Burnt Marshmallow." He said. I scoffed and shook my head.

"Nah, It's definitely chocolate." I defended. Jimmy held up the package of markers, looking at the back of it.

"No, Burnt Marshmallow." He pointed out, showing me the back of the box where the list of scents had been listed. Needless to say, I didn't know the list was back there. I groaned and threw the marker down.

"That's the stupidest scent I have ever heard of. Why would someone want to smell burnt marshmallows?" Jimmy shrugged as he drew some little things on his arms. "Don't you have enough tattoo's already?" He shook his head. I shrugged and folded my legs under me. "So, How did Phoenix do?" He shot me a glance, telling me to drop it for now. I nodded my head, understanding since Sydney was in the room. I looked back down to the intricate design I had been drawing on my arm for an hour or so. It was on a Fallen Angel. Her wings were black and her dress a dark blue. Her hair hung in her face as a looming moon rose over her head. The tears in her dress represented all the hard times she had gone through on her fall down. I smiled lightly once I had finished the tattoo. Jimmy was standing behind me, which I didn't know.

"That's amazing baby, You want that?" I looked over my shoulder to him and shrugged.

"Yeah, Like I have time to go get a tattoo right now." I scoffed, getting up off the table and walking out. "Sydney, clean up those markers please."

"But mom! You're the one who took them all out!" I laughed and looked back to her.

"Who's the mommy?" She pointed to me. "Who makes the rules?" Again, She pointed to me. "So who am I telling to clean up to markers?" Sydney sighed and pointed to herself. "Good girl! Now get working." She laughed and began putting all the markers back into their respective packages. Jimmy chuckled as he followed me into the laundry room.

"Hey baby?" Jimmy asked, wrapping his arms around my waist as I pulled clothes out of the dryer. "When's the last time we had an actual date?" I snorted a laugh.

"Honey, We never actually dated. We were just together and that has always been enough for us. Why do you ask?" He leaned down and kissed the spot right under my ear, sending shivers through my body.

"Lets go on a date." I sighed, pushing him away.

"Why?" He shrugged. "What would we do?" I asked, leaning back against the dryer. Again, he shrugged. "Who would watch Sydney?" Sadly, he shrugged again. I nodded my head and kissed his cheek. "When you figure out the answers to those questions, that is when I'll go on a date with you." I muttered before walking out of the laundry room to go be a wonderful housewife and fold clothes, oh Joy.