Baby Daddy

Two Years Ago…

“Aw fuck.”

Cam’s head throbbed from the hard hit to the corner of the nightstand. She fell out of bed, yet again. Shakily, she regained her balance and squinted her eyes to look at the blinking clock.

9:12 am

“Fuckity fuck fuck.”

Approximately 18 minutes until her interview.

Tearing her closet apart, she pulled out “appropriate clothing”, which consisted of a pair of loose blue jeans and a baggy “Life’s Good” t-shirt. She wouldn’t want a repeat of last job interview.

“Good first impression. You need a good first impression”, she whispered, cringing at what she had picked out.

She frowned. “Ehhh… fuck it.”, she thought, reaching into her closet to grab her black skinny jeans and a teal v neck t-shirt. On a whim, she reached into the little jar on her desk and grabbed her gauges, lip ring, and nose piercing. Along with her piercings, she instinctively shot her hand to her neck, letting out a breath when she felt her woven shark tooth necklace. She took one more look around the room and rushed out, grabbing her worn tribal-printed backpack.

A trip to the bathroom, a cup of herbal tea, and four slices of on-the-go peanut butter toast later, Cam hopped into her black Jeep Wrangler. Silently thanking herself for looking up the directions last night, she pulled out from apartment lot parking.

Nine minutes till showtime.

At the next red light, she reached into her bag and pulled out her iPod. Somehow, she managed to hook it up to the adapter and press play on her favorite shuffle mix before settling back down. Foster the People blasted through the speakers as Cam reached back into her bag in search of her phone.

“Aha! Now what was that phone number…” she started, trailing off. She glanced around the car and smiled when she spotted the little piece of ripped blue paper hanging from the visor.

The other line picked up on the third ring with a happy, “Hello?”

“Oh, hi! I’m Cam Spencer and I have an interview for that nanny job in … 8 minutes”, she said lamely, looking at the clock. “I just wanted to let you know I am gonna be a bit late.”

The voice on the other line laughed. “No worries. No one showed up anyways so take your time!”

“Oh thank you thank you. You will not regret this. So, umm. I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

After exchanging a quick goodbye, she hung up and proceeded to turn up the music again. Mark Foster’s smooth vocals oozed out of the speakers, settling her nerves instantly.

"I've broken every law; all the words come out my broken jaw. I don't know anything, but then I act like I know everything."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Fifteen minutes later, Cam pulled onto the street of the interview address. Or at least she thought it was a street. At the end of the circle, a huge house three stories tall loomed ahead of her. The outside looked like one on the cover of a magazine. Different types of flowers sprouted from every window box, the grass was trimmed, and big white oak trees lined the driveway up to the epitome of picture perfect. The house itself was painted a pretty shade of light blue and the shutters a softer white. However, the best part was the front door, which was painted a bright red.

Cam gulped. “Holy mother of Buddha.”

Cam didn’t even know what to do, so she pulled her Jeep up to the side of the circular driveway.

Looking at the reflection in the mirror, she put in her piercings and straightened her jet black hair that was attempting to escape from the white bandanna tied Rosie Riveter-style on top of her head. Taking one last deep breath, she grabbed her backpack and climbed out of the car.
Viewing the house from afar was one thing; standing next to it was a whole different story. Still taking in the beauty of the house, she walked up to the red door and stopped.

“Okay. You can do this. It’s just an interview”, Cam said as she paced. “You can’t fuck it up this time because you are going to get the job, god dammit, and the parents are going to be nice and the kids going to be nice and… and…” She paused, hearing a laughter coming from the door.

“Aw fuck”, she muttered, turning towards the noise.

Standing in front of her stood a man with a short head of blondish-brown hair wearing gray skinnies, black vans, and a red flannel long sleeve. He was bent over laughing so hard she was sure he was crying. She stood their awkwardly with a stupid grin on her face as the man in front of her got a hold of himself. Once he stood up straight, she got a better look at his sharp cheekbones and his adorable dimples that creased around his mouth as he smiled. He was handsome, in a different way, and she liked that. And he appeared to be around the same age as she was. The man wiped the tears underneath his eyes and finally looked at her with a stupid grin on his face. He didn’t say anything, which made things super awkward.

“Hi, so umm, I’m Cam Spencer and I’m here for an interview?” She said questioningly.

The man seemed to snap out of his trance, responding. “Oh yeah, sorry about that. You are too damn cute. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while”, he smiled. “Oh right, my name’s Justin and you came to the right place.”

“Nice to meet you Justin. So are you one of the parents?” She questioned, feeling a bit confident.
He shook his head, “Naw, that’s my band mate Kellin. Here come on, we don’t bite. Come inside. Oh, and I like your ears.”

Ok then. You can still turn around now and run, she thought.

Cam reached up and felt her ears, feeling slightly creeped out. “Why do yo- Right.” She said forgetting that she had her gauges in that matched the ones in Justin’s ears. “Thanks!”

Justin laughed again. “I think I’m going to like having you around.” And with that he turned around and walked back into the house. Cam followed close behind.

“Oh, and just a note. Kellin’s a single dad. The mom gave him Cope and walked out. It’s still kind of a touchy subject, just to let you know.” She nodded.

The inside of the house matched the outside. There was a small hallway that led to what looked like the living room, and there were two rooms that stemmed from it. If you took a right, you walked into a very large kitchen. In which, a tall guy with a short mop of curly brown hair sat at the large island in the middle, drinking a juice box. He gave a small wave, and continued drinking.

“Oh yeah, that’s Gabe. He’s a bit of a fuck up”, Justin whispered, putting his hand up to cover his mouth.

“Hey! I am not”, said Gabe, who had snuck up behind her. He turned to face her, “Hi, I’m Gabe, and you must be Tam, right?”

“Actually it’s Cam”, Cam said, giving him an unimpressed look, trying to contain her smile when he shifted awkwardly under her gaze. “Man, I’m joking! Lighten up. Call me what you want.”

Gabe breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good, for a minute there, I thought that you were another lame ‘nanny’.”

“Honey, I am anything but lame.”

“Well then, you are going to fit in just fine here”, he turned back toward the kitchen and swept his hand high above his head in what looked like a wave. “It was nice meeting you Cam!”

Cam laughed. Suddenly, she heard a shouting noise. It sounded like a baby squealing, and then a loud, “I’m gonna getcha!” Cam looked over at Justin, who was smiling knowingly. “It’s about time you meet who you are going to be dealing with.”

They walked into the living room area, a wide space with a couple couches. Surprisingly, it was relatively clean for the house full of guys she had met so far. The yelling appeared closer here. All of a sudden, a little girl ran by flailing her arms and laughing happily. Cam took a step forward and started to say, “Is tha-“, when she got full out tackled to the ground. Automatically, she brought her knee up to protect her fall, but it nailed something a bit softer than the ground. She hit the ground with a thud.

The bruise on her head from this morning throbbed. She reached a hand up to touch it and winced.
Her eyes stayed closed as she heard a laugh and a groan. Cam lay on her back for a second before opening her eyes. She felt a weight on top of her as she attempted to lift up her head so see who her attacker was. Unfortunately, there was a hand pushing down on her chest, covering her necklace, which was situated right below her collarbone. The hand stayed put and prevented her from moving without fear that the hand would creep somewhere a little lower than the base of her neck.

Another groan.

Reaching for the hand, she pulled it off her and sat up. On top of her stomach lay a mop of black hair underneath a red beanie with a big V on the front. Justin was laughing his ass off, leaning against the wall for support while he tried to breath, failing miserably. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gabe run up and join Justin. The attacker groaned again, his face nestled into her stomach. His hot breath, which blew on the thin strip of skin that had appeared when her shirt had ridden up, gave her goose bumps. He was awfully close to making this extremely awkward.

A bit embarrassed, she reached over and pushed the man off of her. He flopped on the ground and turned over, showing his face, which was contorted in pain. He reached down and grabbed his crotch area, writhing around a bit more before lying still. So that’s what she had hit. Even in pain, the man was handsome. He was wearing a purple shirt and black skinnies, along with a very small pair of black Toms on his feet. His unruly hair covered his face.

Cam got up and brushed herself off. “That’s one way to make an entrance Kellin,” Gabe said.

So this was the infamous Kellin Quinn. Interesting.

“Fuck off”, Kellin said through clenched teeth. “Holy crap you can knee hard. I feel like my balls are going to fall off.”

“Maybe next time you should look where you’re going. That’s what you get for tackling me,” she said smoothly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the little girl ran into the room again, cutting him off.

“Daddy, what are you doing on the floor?” she said, causing Justin and Gabe to start laughing all over again. Kellin looked at Cam and said, “I ran into this pretty lady right here.”

He turned back to the little girl, who looked at Cam with wide eyes. Cam bent down to the little girl’s level and asked, “What’s your name cutie pie?”

“My name is Copeland Quinn”, she answered.

“Well it’s very nice to meet you Copeland. How old are you? I’m guessing you are 5. You look so grown up in that princess outfit. I think I’m going to start calling you Princess Copeland, ruler of Boy Land,” Cam said, referring to the pink dress with a large tutu and the plethora of males in the household.

Copeland giggled and leaned into Cam to whisper in her ear. “I’m 3. Wanna play dress up with me?”

Cam looked behind her at Kellin, who was now standing behind her with a dumb grin on his face. He nodded. Copeland tugged on Cam’s hand and led her down another hallway, before turning into a room. He looked over at Justin and Gabe with a huge grin on his face. The boys all had that big grin.

Kellin finally spoke up, “She’s perfect.”