Dandelion

"Why is there children's shoes by your front door?" Pause. "There's a children's jacket on your coat rack." Another pause. "There's a children's backpack by your couch! Oh my god, do you have a child!?"

With a roll of my eyes, I peeked around the corner from the kitchen. "Shut up, Silas."

He stomped into the kitchen and came to a stop, planting his hand on his hip. "Please tell me you don't have a secret child that you've been keeping secret from me."

I shook my head. "If you would shut up for one second and let me explain—" He cut me off.

"Explain then, woman!"

Oh dear god. He was such a drama queen sometimes. "My cousin from back home came to visit for a few weeks. She's seven."

He let out a deep breath and his shoulders dropped. "Oh good. I thought I was gonna have to unfriend you for having a child." Silas hated children. Well, besides his little cousins. But other then that, he had no desire to be around children whatsoever. But seeing as Sadie was just a miniature me, I knew he would like her.

"Veve, I need help with my earrings," Sadie called out. I told her I was in the kitchen and waited for her to come in. As soon as she rounded the corner and came to a stop in front of me, I noticed Silas' eyes grow two times in size. "Daddy said I wouldn't need earrings, but I told him that I was a girl and I always needed earrings," she spoke.

I let out a chuckle. "That's my girl!" I clasped both the earrings and turned to Silas. "Bug, I want you to meet my friend, Silas. Silas, this is my cousin, Sadie."

Sadie grinned and waved. "Hi, I'm Sadie but you can call me, Bug. Everyone does. I like your boots. I have a pair like those, but they're black." She then turned to me. "Is he your boyfriend? I think you should date him. He's cute."

Silas barely got out a 'hi' before she took off with my phone to call her dad. He watched her leave and immediately looked at me when she was out of sight. "She has got to be your kid. She's a carbon copy of you."

"Swear she's not mine," I answered, holding up two fingers. "Scouts honor." I finished packing our backpack for our trip to the zoo and turned back around to face my still stunned friend. "We're making a trip to the zoo. Would you like to join?"

"Sure—" Sadie cut him off.

"Oh please come! I want your boyfriend to come, Veve!"

"The boss has spoken." I grinned. "Hope you like juice boxes, squeezable applesauce, and granola bars, because that's what I packed."


"They have elephants!" My eyes lit up at Sadie's words. I grabbed her hand and we took off running to the exhibit, leaving Silas behind. As soon as we got there, we both stood in awe. Of course we had seen elephants before, but our love for the wrinkled creatures would never cease.

"It says here, that their names are Ellie and Murphy." Sadie let out a gasp at my words. "Murphy, like my Murphy!"

"And Ellie, like my Ellie!" Yes, I was an adult and I had a stuffed elephant named Ellie, but I had had it since I was two and there was nothing that would make me get rid of it. Silas let out a sigh beside us. "Deer are better," he spoke.

Sadie snorted. "I shot a deer the other day." I couldn't help but laugh at both her response and the look of horror on his face. "You shot a deer? It could've been Bambi!"

Sadie look up at him with a smirk as she shook her head. "Nah, it was Bambi's dad."

He gasped. "You killed Bambi's dad!?" She nodded and said, "And he tasted good too."

That was one thing I missed about home. When it was deer season, we always got deer meat. We had deer meat chili and deer jerky. It lasted us all through the winter. I got my first buck when I was about Sadie's age. My uncle and cousin had taken me hunting and I had never been so proud of something in my entire life. I still to this day had the polaroid in my wallet. It went with me everywhere I went. And there would never be a time that I didn't miss hunting with them. Just the other day I got to thinking about how nice it would be to get out and shoot my bow and gun. But alas, out here in Los Angeles there wasn't any place close by where you could hunt. And hunting gear wasn't cheap.

"Oh my God," he whispered in horror. "You eat the deer?"

Sadie and I both let out a scoff. "What're we gonna do? Leave the thing laying in the woods and attract coyotes or bobcats? Heck to the no, my friend. We feast on that deer meat all winter."

"I think I just became a vegetarian."

Sadie giggled. "You sound like my stupid sister."

A chortled laugh came from my person. "Sadie!" She shot me a shit eating grin as she shrugged. "What? She is stupid."

I shook my head. "Oh my god. Come on, let's go to the next exhibit."


"How does some smoothies and the park sound?"

"I could go for a smoothie."

"I want strawberry!"

We walked to the Jamba Juice right down the block from the zoo and then immediately went back to Speck, my car, and headed to the nearest park. While we stopped at a red light, my phone dinged. It was a text from my dad.



"Bug?" I looked in the rearview mirror at her. "Want to go run some errands with Ethan?"

Silas scrunched his face in confusion. "Ethan?"

Sadie beat me to the punch and answered for me. "Ethan is her dad. He's super nice. He brought me here on his jet!"

"Your dad has a jet? As in a private jet? As in he's rich enough to have a private jet? And you live in a shitty apartment on the bad side of town and drive a piece of crap Volkswagen Bug?"

"Bad word!" Sadie exclaimed. "He needs to put a doll hair in the swear jar!"

I waved Sadie off and rolled my eyes at Silas. He had a tendency to overreact. But some of the rants he went on we're absolutely hilarious. He reminded me a lot of Zack. Him and I instantly clicked. We both worked at the cafe together and without one another, we wouldn't have lasted there as long as we have.







"The Peninsula is on South Santa Monica Boulevard right?" Silas' face was one of complete and utter shock. Which I couldn't blame him. The Peninsula hotel was the top rated hotel in the Los Angeles area and one of the most expensive. I've never told anyone that my dad had money or that I came from a small town in Missouri or that I used to date an internationally known boy bander. "The fucking PENINSULA?!"

"Swear jar!"


Silas jabbed me in the side. "You forgot to mention that your father was the fucking owner of one of the biggest record companies on the planet."

I shrugged. "Never came up," I whispered back. Sadie sat in the middle row with my dad, playing on her iPad, while Silas and I sat in the third row. My dad had ordered a car service for his time here, as he did every time he was here. Given this time it wasn't his normal Towncar, it was a Lincoln Navigator.

"Swear jar," Sadie piped up. Her head peaked around the edge of her seat. "That's like four doll hairs in the swear jar now."

Silas stuck his tongue out at her, which she happily returned before going back to her game. My dad was on his phone, talking in a hushed tone, but hung up a few seconds later. He turned to face me. "I have to stop by a venue where an event is going on. Do you want to come in with me? I only have to pick up a few things."

I shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Got nothing else to do."

It took us about fifteen minutes to reach where it was that we needed to be. And the place we needed to be, just so happened to be the Nokia Theatre. Silas' mouth dropped. As my dad and Sadie climbed out of the car, he jabbed me in the side with his elbow.

"This is where the AMAs are going to take place. Your fucking dad has something to do with the AMAs," he spoke, scathingly. This was all old news to me, so it didn't phase me. Silas didn't know that half the people that go to these things, I have met. My dad has worked with more musicians then I can count on both hands and feet. So when Silas reacted the way he did, all I could do was laugh.

When I was the same age as Sadie, if not a few years younger, I got the pleasure of meeting NSYNC, the BackStreet Boys, and Aaron Carter. They were the One Direction and Justin Bieber of that time. Getting to meet such famous people at such a young age, gave me an advantage over most people. Your normal, every day people had fangirl moments whenever they met someone famous, whereas I didn't. I acted as if they were your average Joe. Sure, I knew they weren't, but to me, I knew that if I was famous and I met a fan, I wouldn't want them to scream and cry and faint, so I tried to treat them how I'd want to be treated if I were in their shoes. Silas was a fangirl through and through. Not with One Direction and the sort, but with all the good looking famous women. I'm sure if he met Katy Perry, he'd faint.

"What are you picking up here, Dad?"

He shrugged. "Some paperwork and tickets."

"For the AMAs?" He nodded.

"I got four tickets just in case you wanted to bring a date," he explained. "Sadie already agreed to be my date."

I grinned as Silas once again jabbed his elbow into my ribs. "I'll bring Silas, I guess."

My dad grinned. "Great! I'll give you guys my card and let you pick out something to wear. All I ask, is that you don't go over five grand on outfits." Silas let out an odd gasping sound. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "I'm very careful with my money now, Dad. Probably won't even go over four hundred," I replied.

He handed me his Visa Black Card, making Silas gasp for air. "Holy shit. That's a Visa Black Card. They're real."