“And you’re sure you don’t want to go out with me tonight, Minnie?” Allison called out from her bedroom.

Minerva, who was flipping through the channels in search of something good to watch, stopped briefly to answer her roommate. “I told you earlier that I’m babysitting.”

“Oh right,” Allison said after a minute, “I guess I didn’t think you were serious. Last time I checked, you hated kids.”

“I don’t hate them; I just don’t like them that much. They’re like little, whiny, animals that need constant supervision and not to mention, they’re annoying.”
“With a description like that I’m not sure who would want to leave their kids with you in the first place.”

“My scholarly boyfriend, of course.”

“Blake has kids?” Allison stepped into the doorway then, a surprised look on her half completed face of makeup. She’d been in her room, making sure her makeup was on point for the past fifteen minutes. She was going to Renee’s party, so even if Minerva wasn’t babysitting, the answer still would’ve been no.

“God no, it’s his nephews.” Minerva couldn’t help but to chuckle at the thought of Blake with kids. True, he would probably be a good father, but that would mostly be because he acted like a child himself. Her laughter quickly died out when she thought about his request for seven kids. “He’s supposed to be watching them for his sister, but he’s playing at Renee’s party tonight.”

“Oh, and he asked you to watch them.” When Minerva nodded, Allison went back into her room, out of sight. “We’ll you’re a good girlfriend, Minnie. If I had a boyfriend, he’d have to pay me to watch his kin…and I like kids.”

“You think I’m doing this for free?”

She laughed. “I should’ve known.”

Minerva continued to flip through the channels, only stopping again when Allison stepped back in the doorway to ask which top she should wear. Thankful for the distraction, Minerva got up to help her friend pick out the appropriate attire. The two girls spent a good fifteen minutes in the room, chatting and sorting through clothes. After a while, Allison left and Minerva returned to her spot on the couch. She remained there, watching a game show until there was a knock on the door. Already knowing who it was, the college girl let out a sigh and walked over to the door.

Minerva expected to see Blake with three little kids behind him when she opened the door, but she didn’t. Instead, she was in for a surprise when she saw a shirtless guy with a pair of slim black jeans and vans on. There were shades covering his eyes, a backpack on his back and a black snapback with Bugs Bunny on his head. It looked like Blake…but that couldn’t have been him. Why in God’s name would he be shirtless at little after nine pm?

And that couldn’t have been his nephews standing behind him—not the three boys with facial hair and mischievous looks on their faces. They were practically the same height as the shirtless man and a several inches taller than Minerva.

"Hey Minnie, thanks again." The shirtless man leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek.

He then moved aside and gave his nephews a little shove, encouraging them to introduce themselves or at least say hi. However, the three boys just shook Minerva's hand carelessly and headed past her into the apartment. The confused girl just stared at her boyfriend, not knowing whether to address his appearance or his ‘little’ nephews first. Blake spoke before she had the chance to though, deciding for her.

“My eyes are up here Minnie—gosh, sometimes I think you only want me for my body,” he said playfully after he realized she was staring at his body.

“Blake, why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”

“Well Chase suggested that the band play shirtless tonight. He said some people from other campuses will be there and we’d stick out to them if we had less clothes on.” He paused, still grinning. “Also, I have the body of a demi-god and I felt like it shouldn’t be hidden from the eyes of the not-so-lucky.”

Sometimes Minerva was at an honest loss of words for her boyfriend. It was times like these when she not only wondered what she had seen in him, but how he was able to succeed in the real world. It was like he didn’t use his brain at all! If she hadn’t seen him do the work himself, she wouldn’t have believed he was an architect major.

When Blake noticed her silence and confused look, he figured she didn’t approve. He proceeded to reach into his backpack and pull out a hoodie. “It’s probably going to be hot, but I have a jacket just in case.”

As he showed her the hoodie, Minerva noticed the words, 'Single for the Night' across the back of it. She crossed her arms. "Single for the night, huh?"

"What? Oh, I must’ve grabbed Chase’s hoodie by accident. You see, I was in a rush to get the triplets and I just grabbed one of the jackets off the floor. This isn’t mine—I’m not single. Not even for one night…not unless we were on a break. Technically I would be single then, right? Or are you one of those people that think we’re still together while on a break?” When Blake saw that he wasn’t doing a very good job at explaining and going off of a tangent, he just handed her the jacket instead. “You know what? Keep it. Like I said, it’s going to be hot so I'm probably not even going to use it."

She took the hoodie and looked away. "You’re a piece of work, Blake.”

"Don’t be like that, Minnie. This is just for a few hours, remember? I’ll be back before you know it.”

"Yeah, I remember. I was supposed to spend a few hours watching your 'little' nephews. These boys have facial hair."

"That's because they're fourteen."

"Fourteen?” She repeated, aghast. “They can take care of themselves."

"You'd think that, wouldn't you? I did too until they tried to burn my sister’s house down a month ago."

She rubbed her temples. "Blake, you said little."

"Yeah, well I meant littler than me."

Minerva clenched her teeth and breathed deeply through her nose. She should've known better than to think this would be a stroll through the park. Nothing with Blake was ever just a stroll through the park. Literally. She didn't have to hear anymore to know this was going to be a long day. Just before she could speak again, a red Jeep pulled up in front of her apartment. Music was blasting and there were four guys inside, three of which were in the band—evident by the fact that they were also shirtless. Chase sat in the driver’s seat while Damien, Ricardo and Louis sat in the back.

Blake jutted his thumb toward the car. “I told them to pick me up here.”

Chase turned down the music and leaned out of his window, revealing part of his shirtless body. “Hey Minnie Mouse! When are you going to dump Blake and come to me?”

“Real soon on that first part, Chase. Real soon,” she said, cutting her eyes at her boyfriend.

Blake gave her a somewhat concerned look. “Don’t kid like that, Minerva…”

Chase just laughed. “And what about the last part?”

“We discussed this already.”

“When Hell freezes over?”

“Your memory is improving. Maybe next time you won’t forget to feed your fish.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong Skinny Minnie; my memory wasn’t the problem. I only forgot to feed one of them—the other three died of natural causes.”

“What natural causes?”

“Well, I naturally tried to put them in a glass of alcohol and that caused them to die.”

Minerva held her hand up for him to stop. “Don’t tell me anymore. Please, just take my idiotic boyfriend and go.”

He laughed once more and then turned his attention to his friend. "Blake, what are you doing just standing there? You heard the Minnie the Pooh. Come on, get in the car. They'll be plenty of time for flirting with girls when we get there."

Blake turned his body around completely and gave Chase a sick look. Behind him, Minerva glared daggers into her boyfriend’s back. If looks could kill.

Chase noticed immediately and tried to backtrack. "Did I say girls? I meant they'll be plenty of time for flirting with…guys when we get there."

This time Blake, Minerva, and everyone in the car for that matter, turned to Chase and gave him a weird look.

"I meant…flirting with—"

"Not helping, Chase," Ricardo whispered, trying to stop his friend from further embarrassment.

"Alright, I messed up. Can we just go?" The blonde haired best friend of Blake said as he leaned back in the car.

“Chase was just kidding,” Blake said as he turned back around. He opened his arms to give Minerva a goodbye hug and/or kiss, but he was greeted with a slammed door. "Minerva?"

"Bye. Flirt with a bunch of girls for me."

Seeing no point in trying to explain himself, Blake just mumbled something under his breath and went to get in the car. As he sat down on the passenger side, he proceeded to give Chase an earful. Minerva stood sourly by the front door until she heard the music resume and the car pull off. It was then that she realized the boys she was supposed to be babysitting were out of sight.

"Hello? Blake's nephews?"

In a matter of seconds, the three boys appeared in front of her. One had a short faux hawk and dark eyes, the other had light brown eyes and a crew cut, and the last had long shaggy hair that covered his eyes. They all had dirty blonde hair, dimples and a slender build, but aside from that, it was obvious they were fraternal. They were cute much like their Uncle, to say the least...but like their Uncle, looks deceive.

"Alright, I don’t know what all your Uncle told you, so I’m going to start from the beginning," she started, "My name is Minerva Washington and I’m Blake’s girlfriend. You can call me Minerva or Minnie, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to be honest here and say that I don’t babysit too often, so you might have to cut me a little slack if I forget something."

"How old are you?” One of them asked.

“Twenty-one.”

“I didn’t know Uncle Blake was dating an older woman.”

“…your Uncle is twenty; I’m hardly older than him.”

A different boy waved her words off as unimportant. “You’re twenty-one and you’ve never babysat before?”

She gave him a look. “I’m an only child, so I wasn’t ‘blessed’ with the opportunity.”

The last boy crossed his arms. “For the record, we’re fourteen years old—you’re not babysitting us. You’re just supervising us.”

“Whatever you want to call it, I’m doing it. So how about we move on to you three’s introduction. You wouldn’t want me calling you Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3, would you?”

The boy with the short faux hawk went first. "I'm Mason, try not to forget."

"I'll try my best.” Minerva gave him a look and then turned to the shaggy haired boy. “And you?"

"I'm Twitch."

"What?"

"Twitch.”

“Twitch? Your mother named you Twitch?”

He laughed. “No, but I wish she did. My mother named me Killian; Twitch is the name I go by though.”

She stared at him a little longer, but nodded. "Okay, so we have Mason, Twitch, and…"

The last one did not speak, but instead just stared, mouth agape, at her breasts. Minerva caught on quickly, and then turned around as she put on the hoodie Blake gave her.

“Single for the night? Is that appropriate? I mean were still minors.” Mason smirked as he read the jacket.

“This is your Uncle's.” She turned back around, shooting him yet another look.

"No need to lie; as long as you're not hitting on me, I'm fine. Don't get me wrong, you're cute and all, but I already have a woman. Her name's Brittany Spears, you may have heard a song by her once or twice."

"Or saw her in your nearby loony-bin," Twitch mumbled under his breath.

Minerva looked between both boys for a few seconds before slowly turning her attention back to the last boy with the crew cut and light eyes. “Alright, now your name, Mr. Gawk?”

"Um, I'm Tobias."

"Yeah, but everyone just calls him Big Toe with an ‘e’," Mason said with a devilish grin.

"No they don't! Don't call me that."

"Big Toe! Big Toe! Big Toe!” Twitch started chanting.

It only took seconds for Tobias to get angry and he pushed Mason hard enough to make him fall to the ground. "Loser! I told you not to call me that."

“Hey, don’t do that—” Minerva started, but was cut off.

"Don't get mad at me, meathead!" Mason said as he jumped up and pushed his brother back.

"Slime ball!"

"Dirt bag!"

"Trailer trash!"

"Big lummox!"

“What the hell? Cut it out!” Minerva yelled.

Neither boy seemed to hear or care about her words though. They remained in each other’s faces, barking out names and pushing one another. Minerva, getting irritated by the random yelling match, started to grab one of their arms to force them to stop. However, before she got the chance, Twitch stepped in front of her.

“Let them fight, it’s not like any real damage will be done; these two are mostly bark, no bite.”

“I’m not going to stand here and watch these two fight—I said, cut it out!”

“They’re not going to listen to you anyway. Listen, I’ll stop them for you, but in the meantime, just hear me out. This is the perfect chance for me to give you a better introduction about us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We don’t need to be babysat at fourteen for no reason.” The boy offered her a smile and rested his arm on her on her shoulder. “I’ll start with Mason since he’s probably the worst of us all. Not only is he extremely violent and has a bad attitude, but he likes to insult people. When he insults you—note I said ‘when’, not ‘if’—try not to hurt him. I would encourage you to, but Mason is sneaky, so he’s liable to claim you assaulted him or something along those lines. Your buttons will be pushed when you interact with him. Anyway, it might help for you to keep Mason entertained, because if you don’t, he will entertain himself. Got it?”

Minerva narrowed her eyes at his words. “No, I don’t got it. I don’t know what happened during the last time you three were babysat, but I can assure you that I’m not going to be insulted. I’m not here to entertain you all either; like you said before, I’m here to supervise.”

As if her words went through one ear and out the other, Twitch scratched his chin and continued.

“Tobias is next, and while he’s not a problem like Mason, he is in a difference sense. Tobias is the type of boy that is girl crazy. And since you’re chesty, I’m going to bet he falls for you pretty quick.” He paused and gave her a quick once over. “Yeah, nice figure, little attitude and cute face; the perfect recipe for a love sick Tobias. Listen, he’s on the sneaky side too, probably the sneakiest of us all. He will try to kiss you and, no doubt, get close to you. You may feel uncomfortable and/or violated…and there’s nothing I can do for you. Just try your best not to be stuck in the same room with him alone. Got it?”

“Twitch…I’m ten seconds away from calling Blake.”

“I’m almost done.” He cleared his throat and took his arm off her shoulder to face her completely. “Last, but certainly not least, me, Twitch. I’m not bad like the other two, but I can be a handful at times. I suspect that this will be one of those times, because I didn’t take my ADHD medicine. I also just finished off a truck load of junk food before coming here. That last time I did that was before I went to school one day; the same day my science teacher quit. Her last words were, ‘Killian, you belong in an asylum’. Now that I think about it, I’ll probably do something crazy while I’m here—for instance, sell or destroy one of your appliances. I apologize in advance. Despite everything I just said though, I’m the most obedient of the three of us. That’s about it. Got it?”

Minerva couldn’t say all the things she wanted to, partly because they would be considered profane and partly because Twitch put his hand over her mouth.

"Remember what I told you, because this conversation never happened."

He removed his hand before Minerva had a chance to, and then went over to break up his still arguing brothers. Minerva had to look around to see if a camera man was hiding somewhere. She must’ve been getting punked or pranked. This couldn’t be real. Blake couldn’t have left her in this situation. She took her phone out to call him—to confirm this sick joke—but when he didn’t pick up, she realized that this was real. Blake left her in this situation.

Closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh, Minerva came to the conclusion of starting over and pretending all the previous events never happened. Tobias never stared at her chest. Mason and Tobias never fought. Twitch never told her all those things and he certainly never put his hand over her mouth.

A fresh beginning would make things better…right?

She turned back around to the three boys that were now talking to each other about some random event that happened at their school. They’d moved on too. Great.

"Mason, Tobias, and Twitch…let's just move on. We’ve got a few hours together, so what would you like to do first?"

"Wrestle," Mason said flexing.

"Take off our jackets." Tobias winked at her.

Twitch did a handstand. "Drink some red bulls and see if they give us wings.”

"Break each other's ribs."

"Hug each other."

"Arson."

"Yeah, arson."

"Kiss each other…and then arson."

Minerva frowned. "Can we do something…I don’t know, not physical…or dealing with burning my apartment down for money you won't even get?"

"Like?" Mason raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"I don't know…sleep? You guys seem like you could use a nap after all that yelling.”

Twitch immediately got back on his feet and shook his head like a madman. "No, no, no, no, no! No sleeping—I'm way to hyper to sleep!"

"It depends," Tobias said, looking deep in thought. "Are we sleeping…together?"

"Okay…that was super inappropriate, but I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Okay, so sleeping's out," Mason said with a wave of his hand. "Next option?"

Minerva rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Watch TV, I guess. I can’t imagine you three wanting to do anything else.”

Mason threw his hands up in sudden frustration. "Why am I not surprised?"

Minerva, startled by his sudden shout, made a face as she went over to sit on the couch. His attitude was starting to work her nerves, but she held her tongue. She grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels. The three boys proceeded to sit on the couch next to her.

"What shall we watch?"

"Something violent," Mason said while punching his hand.

"Something with love." Tobias made his eyebrows go up and down.

"Something short." Twitch squirmed around a bit.

"How about something G-rated?" She suggested, figuring it was the best thing for them. She started flipping to one of the kid stations.

"G-rated?" Mason repeated as though it was a foreign term to him.

“Oh look, it’s Nemo.”

Mason looked appalled at the sight of the movie Nemo on the screen. He shook his head in disgust and rubbed his temples. He sighed heavily as he looked at her again. "Look old lady, this won't do. We’re fourteen not six, you have to do better. We don't want to watch a movie about some stupid fish getting lost. We want to watch movies with guns and fighting and blood."

"...and love," Tobias added.

"...and arson," Twitch added.

Minerva ignored the other two boys and frowned at Mason, deciding not to hold her tongue any longer. "Look little boy, your attitude won't do. Now I’m trying to be nice and not call you out on these snide remarks you’ve been making. I think you need to remember that I'm in charge and you're not; I give the commands and you obey them. If you just keep your smart mouth closed then we won't have any problems…and I'm not old."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes.

A few seconds of silence between them passed before Twitch was able to sense something bad coming. The shaggy haired boy stood up suddenly and walked past Minerva into the kitchen area. As he walked past her, he whispered, "Here it comes."

Minerva looked at him like he was crazy, but before she could question what he said or where he was going, his prediction came true.

"Where did Uncle Blake find you?" Mason asked suddenly. "On the corner?"

It took a few seconds to process what he’d said, but when she did, Minerva narrowed her eyes. She must’ve heard wrong. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Leave it to Uncle Blake to pick up some old hooker that doesn’t know the first thing about teenagers.”

The college girl jumped up with speed that could rival the Flash’s. In less than a few seconds, she grabbed Mason by his shirt and pulled him close, his surprised face now inches away from her angry one. She proceeded to yank him roughly into her bedroom and only let him go after she closed the door.

"You're pretty strong for an old lady," Mason said while backing up and smoothing out his shirt. "Let me remind you that I am a minor."

"You may be a minor, but you’re becoming a major pain in my side,” she barked out. “I don’t know who or what you think you are, but I can tell you what you aren’t—you aren’t going to have your teeth much longer if you insult me like that again. You better straighten up your act or else."

"Or else what, old lady? You can't touch me." He challenged. "I got the law on my side."

"What's the law going to do for you when they can’t find you?" She growled and then stopped herself and started taking deep breaths. "Calm down Minerva, calm down…”

Mason, finding her reactions to be amusing, just stared at her with a smirk on his face. It took a good sixty seconds and a lot of motivational words, but eventually, Minerva did calm herself down.

"Listen to me and listen well. I’m not one of your teachers at school, not your therapist—if you don’t have one, you need one—not your Uncle, your mom or anybody else you think you can get over on. I’m Minerva and you will give me respect, one way or another. You're lucky I maintained enough self-control to not knock out your teeth this time.”

“I’ll tell Uncle Blake.”

"Please do! His teeth are going to be right on the ground next to yours.”

Mason mumbled something under his breath, then crossed his arms and turned his back to her in a defiant manner. Minerva stared at him a few seconds longer, waiting to see if he’d challenge her again. When it appeared that he wouldn’t, she started toward the door.

"Come back out when you change your attitude."

"I guess I'm never leaving." He spat.

It took all of whatever will power she had left, but Minerva forced herself not to respond and to exit the room. After she shut the door, she went back to the couch and sat down in her original spot. Still a little heated, she’d forgotten all about Twitch and that he was no longer in the room. She didn’t even realize Tobias was scooting closer and closer to her at first. It finally clicked to her when she noticed him yawning and putting his arm around her. She held her peace at first, trying to ignore it, but she couldn't any longer after he rested his head on her shoulder.

She pushed him away. "Alright, that's enough Tobias. No more touching, no more gawking, no more anything—I'm done."

Tobias looked hurt and he spoke softly after a moment, "So that's it? It's over for us?"

Minerva gave him a strange look. "What us? I just met you."

"I can't believe you! After all we've been through—the storm and the rain!"

She spoke through clenched teeth, "Little boy…”

He shushed her as he put his hand over her mouth. "You may not want this anymore, but I’m going to fight for us. I won't let you go that easily."

He then got up and escorted himself to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Minerva felt her temper rising again and started to follow him, but she stopped when she heard what sounded like a dish breaking. Distracted, she darted into the kitchen area where it came from.

Minerva didn’t know what she expected, but she certainly didn’t expect to see half of Twitch’s body sticking out of the cabinet next to the stove. A shattered plate, which appeared to have fallen from the counter, lied near his feet.

"Umm," she looked at the lower half of his body in confusion. “Twitch?”

Upon hearing his name, the shaggy haired boy raised his head, hitting it in the confined cabinet space. He quickly started to back out of the cabinet until he was out of it completely. His hair was messed up, allowing his eyes to finally be visible. They were light like Tobias’s, but an unstable look lied within them.

“Oh, hey Minnie. You scared me; I thought you were someone else…” He rubbed his head and looked around suspiciously.

“Twitch…” she started, but couldn’t find the right words to say. However, when she noticed that there was chocolate on his face and five empty Hershey wrappers in his hands, she found them. “Where did you get those chocolate bars? Please tell me you didn’t eat Allison’s emergency chocolate.”

“I don’t know if it was Allison’s or who Allison even is, but I ate someone’s chocolate.” He stood to his feet. “But it was for a good reason.”

Minerva scrunched up her face as she thought about the last time Allison was without chocolate when she needed it. She’d definitely have to replace it before her friend returned. “What reason could you possibly have? Are you out of your mind?”

Twitch looked around suspiciously again and then invaded Minerva’s personal space. When she tried to back up, he put his hands on her shoulders and forced her to look him square in the eye. “…the aliens.”

“The what?”

She tried to back up again, but this time, he leaned so close that their heads were touching. “The aliens.”

She pushed him away to get some distance in between them and gave him a look. “Stay right there and tell me what you’re talking about.”

"You wouldn't understand, so I'll make it short for you." He paused. "When I was five, I was abducted by aliens and I borrowed a dollar from them. I never paid them back and now they've come back to collect. I need more sugar to stay alert and move quicker. I have to pay them back before I leave here or else."

"Or else what?”

"I'm not trying to find out." He eyes fluttered rapidly.

Minerva stared at him, much like she stared at her boyfriend earlier. "…Twitch, I think your teacher might have been on to something…”

“Do you have a dollar?"

“I don’t, but even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you.”

The boy looked hurt at her words, but after a moment, a newfound resolution appeared in his eyes. “That’s okay, I'll just make a dollar some other way.”

Without a warning or a goodbye, Twitch dashed out of the kitchen and into another part of the apartment. Minerva stood there, staring at the broken plate, unsure whether to be mad, confused or laugh at the stupidity of it all.

What had she gotten herself into?