Ready For It (MacAteer Brothers #2) - M.L. Nystrom Page 0,23
was a lot. The other kids counted on their fingers, but I didn’t need to use them. I could count to one hundred all by myself.
Mommy liked being told she was pretty too. She went to the spa every day to be pretty, and sometimes, I didn’t get to see her until dinnertime. I had to go upstairs to change clothes, and Bee-Dee would make me lunch. Then I could play or watch TV for the rest of the day. At least until Magnus came home from school. I stayed in my room when he did, ’cause he liked to yell at me and call me names until I cried.
My room had pink walls and matching lacy pillows on the bed. Mommy’s and Daddy’s rooms were side by side across the big space. I had to walk all the way around the inside balcony to get to them. When I got to the top of the stairs, lots of noises came from Daddy’s room. Happiness made my heart jump, ’cause Daddy was home. I wanted to show him my numbers, but the noises were scary. It sounded like a monster panting. Bee-Dee told me there were no such thing as monsters, but I thought there were. My friend at school told me if you yelled at a monster and pointed your finger at it and told it to go away, it left you alone. I was sure Daddy didn’t want them in his room, so I pulled down on the latch real quiet and opened the door.
Mommy had the biggest room in the house, but Daddy’s room was big too. He had a big bed, and it looked like he was jumping on it like I did sometimes to my princess bed. Then I saw his bare butt, and I had to put my hand on my mouth so I didn’t laugh. It would be so funny tomorrow if I told my friends about seeing my Daddy’s butt. He was bouncing on top of the new maid. I didn’t know her name, but she was naked like him. Her big boobies moved round and round, and they were both making pig oinks, and it sounded like it hurt.
My tummy suddenly felt bad. It was funny at first watching my Daddy and the maid, but deep down, I understood that it wasn’t funny. I wasn’t supposed to see this. I wasn’t supposed to see my daddy’s bare butt. I wasn’t supposed to hear him grunt and bounce on the maid. This was wrong, but I couldn’t stop staring. The maid spotted me and screamed at my daddy while she tried to push him off. He turned and looked at me and kept bouncing. I wanted to run away so bad, but my feet were stuck to the floor. My daddy saw me watch him, then he looked at the maid and told her to shut up. He kept bouncing.
When he turned away from me, I had my feet back again. I ran downstairs to the kitchen. Bedelia had made my cheese sandwich and soup.
“Come on. Eat your food while it’s hot.”
“Thank you, Bee-Dee.”
She looked at me with concern. “You didn’t change your clothes. What’s the matter, moje dítě? School no goot today?”
I shook my head and kept my eyes on my princess plate. I didn’t think she wanted me to tell her about my daddy’s butt and the bouncing and how I didn’t like it and how it bothered me. Her gaze rose to the ceiling, and she scrunched her lips into her teeth. She did this when a pot boiled over or something spilled on the floor.
Just then, my mommy walked in from the spa.
“Bedelia, some tea. Oh, you’re home already.” She sat down on the other side of the round table as Bee-Dee pulled out one of the china teacups with the flowers and gold rim. “Chamomile with lemon this time. I have such a headache.”
I sat staring at my sandwich with my hands folded in my lap.
Mommy sighed. She was mad at me. “Why are you still in your school clothes? I’ve told you dozens of times, you’re supposed to change into play clothes immediately after school. What if you drop something on your dress and it stains? People will say you look like a ragamuffin and your mother doesn’t dress you appropriately.”
I kept my eyes on the hard brown crust of my sandwich, thinking about how I liked the soft white part better.