Chapter 11
Jalen looked up at the sound of her name being called to find Nathan coming towards her with a princess dress in her hands.
They were currently at the store looking for Halloween costumes.
They still had a couple of weeks, but since the store was having a sale, she decided now was the best time to get them all.
She smiled at her little sister, squatting down so that they were close to the same height. Nathan came to a stop in front of her with a beaming smile.
“I want this one! It’s so pretty!”
“It is very pretty,” Jalen said, and it was. Though she was sure that her little sister had chosen it more so because it was blue than for the style of the actual dress. “Did you find a crown to go with it?”
“It comes with one,” Nathan informed her, turning the dress around for her to see the crown attached to the back.
“Okay, we’ll get this one for you.” She stood up, taking the little girl’s hand. “Let’s go find the others. I’m sure Kodi is scrambling to see where you ran off to,” she told her.
While Jalen had no issues disciplining any of her sisters, she liked to give the twins gentle reminders of things she’d asked them not to do or be cautious of.
She was a firm believer that when you attempted to keep a child from doing something by scaring them, it caused them to be fearful of all things.
Nathan gasped. “Oh, no! I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to walk off like that.”
Jalen squeezed her hand gently. “We all forget things sometimes. Let’s try to be more careful about that, okay?”
“Kay!” Nathan exclaimed, leading Jalen back the way she’d come from.
Sure enough, she could see Kodi weaving through the different racks, Omari on her hip as she searched for Nathan. Her little sister let her hand go, and she ran over to Kodi.
“Where did you go?” Kodi questioned, and Jalen could tell her sister was trying to keep her voice even.
“I went to show Jalen the costume I wanted.”
Kodi looked up as Jalen approached from behind Nathan. “I’ve already talked to her,” Jalen informed, and she watched Kodi deflate.
The action made Jalen’s heart sink a little. While it was normal for older siblings to worry about their younger ones, she resented the fact that her seventeen-year-old sister worried like a parent. It wasn’t her job or her responsibility. It made her despise their mother all the more.
Jalen knew she had chosen to take on the role she now played because she didn’t want them to be separated, and she honestly didn’t mind taking care of her sisters. It allowed her to form a bond with them that she knew wouldn’t be shaken by anything.
She simply wished that her little sister could be a normal teenager. Although she would never complain about the extra help.
Omari showed Jalen the costume she’d chosen, which was a cowgirl costume with a red hat.
It reminded Jalen of the cowgirl from the Toy Story franchise.
She wasn’t surprised that she had chosen something like that.
Omari had an obsession with anything that had to do with horses, and, in her words, all horses needed a cowgirl.
“Did you find a costume?” she questioned Kodi. She knew her sister was at that age where she wasn’t really big on costumes, but she had still stated that she would wear one to go out with her younger siblings.
“Nah, I think I’ll just borrow some of your scrubs and go as a nurse.
” She responded. Jalen had mildly thought for a moment about doing the same thing, but she was sure Mikal wouldn’t let her hear the end of it, since it would be like everyday clothing to her.
Speaking of the younger girl, she and Landon were approaching them.
“Did you both find a costume?”
“Yeah, I’m going as Gamora. I found this really awesome costume, and Landon said she would help me paint my face and hands.” Mikal told her excitedly, and Jalen couldn’t help but smile at her before turning her attention to Landon.
“What about you?”
“She tried to talk me into being Nebula, but I figured that was just too much work. So, I’m going to be Michael Meyers,” Landon told her with a smile.
“You know it’s weird that you have this strange obsession with murderers from horror movies, right?” Kodi asked before turning to Jalen. “We should probably get her tested,” she tacked on teasingly.
“Shut up,” Landon demanded, rolling her eyes. She then held a costume up. “I chose this for you. You’re going to be Moana.”
Jalen raised a brow. “I am, huh?” Which simply received a nod from Landon.
Taking the costume from her, Jalen checked the size. It was correct, and she honestly had nothing against being Moana, so she rolled with it. Her sister picking a costume for her also saved her from having to go through the headache of doing it herself.
Once they’d checked out and were all back in the car, Jalen headed home. It was going on seven o’clock and she still had to start dinner. She hadn’t expected them to be costume shopping for that long.
When they entered the apartment, she questioned what they wanted for dinner.
“Tacos!” Omari exclaimed before turning in a circle, while Nathan nodded along. Jalen looked at her other three sisters, who either shrugged or nodded.
“Tacos it is,” she stated, going to the kitchen. She was grateful that it wasn’t anything complex and could be cooked rather quickly.
As Jalen began cooking, she could hear her sisters disperse throughout the apartment. She was sure that the twins were in their bedroom. More than likely, they were already putting on their costumes. They both enjoyed dressing up. Sometimes, a little more than what she always had the patience for.
She was sure that if that was what the twins were doing, then Mikal was more than likely in her bedroom reading a comic book.
Jalen had made it clear to her sisters that if at any time they needed time away from the person, or in Mikal’s case, people they shared a room with, they were more than welcome to use her bedroom.
While going to the living room may have worked as well, there was only so much privacy you could have there with people coming and going through it.
She assumed Kodi was probably in the bedroom she shared with Landon, who came into view at the kitchen table.
She had a sketchbook and some pencils in her hand.
Jalen made a mental note to ask to see what she’d drawn lately if she felt like showing her.
She hadn’t inquired in a couple of weeks, and she knew Landon drew almost daily.
Once everything was done and placed in the middle of the table, Landon volunteered to go get the others for dinner. While she waited for her sisters, she took cups and plates from the cabinet and set them on the table.
Sitting around the table together, Jalen and Kodi helped the twins fix their tacos before fixing their own. As they ate, the two youngest dominated the conversation with talk of their birthday and Halloween. They were excited about their kindergarten class coming to their party.
Just as they had for the last two years, they’d wanted a Halloween-themed party.
It didn’t bother Jalen, and most of the time, the kids who were invited already had their costumes since the twins’ birthday was on the twenty-ninth of October.
Though Jalen often had their party, whichever weekend was closest to the actual date.
She listened to them prattle on with pure excitement. Making a mental note to place the order for their cake tomorrow and inventory the decorations she already had.
????????????
Rohan sighed as he drowned out whatever conversation was going on around him.
This was not how he wanted to spend his Saturday night.
He would have rather spent it taking Jalen out, but he knew she had already made other plans.
So, when his brother had called him up, telling him that their mother had Alynn for the night, and asked him to be his wingman, he’d agreed. Now, he wished he hadn’t.
The woman his brother was currently talking out of her panties, came with an annoying sidekick that he wanted no parts of.
Typically, when his brother hadn’t been laid in a while and wanted to go out, Rohan had no issues babysitting whoever the extra may have been, or being a silent third wheel.
Though when the latter happened, he’d often simply excuse himself.
He could also admit he was not the man you wanted when it came to “taking one for the team”.
He would unabashedly let the team down. That was the situation he was in at the moment.
That and the fact that he was currently dating someone who was far more interesting and easy on the eyes than the woman who was doing her best to be as sexy as possible in the chair next to him.
Even if she had been easy on the eyes and was talking about anything he would have remotely found interesting, Rohan still would not have engaged her in much more than he was now.
He wasn’t sure if he and Jalen were dating exclusively.
They hadn’t discussed that. They’d also only been conversing with one another for about six weeks.
He decided he would leave that decision up to her.
He knew she had responsibilities and didn’t want to seem as if he was pressuring her or moving too fast with her.
Contrary to what his brother liked to think, Rohan had no qualms about dating one woman.
It was usually the fact that he seemed to attract women who wanted him for the same thing he initially wanted them for.
Which, in his mind, wasn’t a bad thing. Physical attraction was the beginning of most relationships.
It was typically the fact that there was nothing more to them outside of that.
In hindsight, and now that he was older, he could admit that he was looking for women in all the wrong places, as Trent still was now.
Those places being nightclubs, bars, and the like.
Not that you couldn’t find something meaningful at places like that; it just wasn’t likely.