CHAPTER 60
OMERA W.

I walk inside and see an older woman with blonde puffy hair and a very mom-like body with an apron on, holding a plate of cookies. She did look like she had lost her mind years ago so I immediately know it's Maci's mom.

"Oh sweetie, is this your friend?" The woman stares me with a wide smile as she sets down the cookies. She doesn't stare at my clothes at all, which most older woman would do with confusion. Usually, the daughter of rich parents dresses like I did back in boarding school. However, most of my jeans were torn and my shirts were tight and cropped.

"Hey, I'm Omera." I smile as wide as Maci's mother, her while aura is highly contagious.

She immediately hugs me as if I'm the most precious thing she has seen and she strokes my hair in a way I wish my mother would do. It all feels a bit too cliché for me, but somehow I liked it.

She releases me but keeps her hands on my shoulders as she studies me but for once the stare isn't judging me. "What a beautiful young lady."

"Thank you." I manage to say with another smile. This is so weird, she barely knows me but she's trusting me as if I had just gave her life again. Does Maci never have friends over or something?

"Omera is staying here because her brother left her." Maci points out.

"He didn't leave me he-" I try not to seem like my family is filled with heartless jerks, even though it actually is.

Maci's mother shakes her head, silencing me. "There's one rule you should know, there is no lying in my house. Be truthful and apples might fall and hit your head."

What the fuck?

"Right...what does that mean?" I question her, she almost convinced me that she isn't all that crazy but I guess I was wrong.

"Apples give you knowledge and good luck. We have an apple tree in the backyard and I always get hit right in the center of my head." Maci's mother explains to me with a nod.

"Well, that explains a lot."

Maci seems to understand that I was calling her mom a nutcase so she decides to change the subject. "Omera will be staying for the weekend."

"Splendid! Tree is coming over because I promised the woman next door that I would babysit. I have to run over to the post office before it closes so you guys behave."

"We have to babysit a tree?" I question. If they heard me, they definitely don't show it.

"Have fun, mother." Maci says with a smile, I stare at the clock on the wall and see it's nine at night already. Once Maci's mother is gone through the front door I turn to Maci.

"What time does the post office close?" I question her.

"Eight, why?" Maci says as she walks over to the cookies and begins to nibble on one.

Well, either Maci's mother is lying or she's so crazy that she forgot when the post office closes. I decide on the latter and go over to eat a cookie as well.

"Oatmeal cookies?" I question with a confused look. Who eats oatmeal cookies?

"Yeah, they're my favorite." Maci smiles brightly, I decide to eat the vomit cookie just so Maci to be happy that I like her favorite as well.

"Aren't they wonderful?" She asks me.

"Yeah, I guess. Why do we have to babysit a tree?" I question her with a look of confusion.

"Oh, it's not a tree. It's a child, we call him Tree." Maci explains.

"Why do you call him Tree?"

"It's the first word he ever learned how to say, he's quite a cutie." Maci gushes to me. I don't have time to ask anymore questions before the bell rings.

"It's him." Maci cheers, she gets up to go answer the door. I walk behind her and when I get to the door there's a woman with a huge smile looking at Maci.

"Come in." Maci says, the minute she catches my eye her smile drops a bit.

She's tall, a few inches taller than me maybe, even with the heels I'm wearing. Her eyes are gray, and her eyelashes so long and thick that I begin to feel a bit envious. I don't focus much on the rest of her face. Her button nose looked as if it had been sculpted and her lips were dark pink. She runs her hands through her hair that was the same color of Tia's, but her hair was longer.

"Omera, this is Euri." She introduces me. I already feel so mesmerized by this girl, it's unreal.

"Hello." She states as she sticks her hand out with a small smile, I grab ahold of it.

"Mommy." A small voice whispers, I look down at the child that tugs on Euri's jeans. A child that looks nothing like her.

"Tree, you have to stay here for tonight." She explains to him. The boy nods but opens his mouth to speak.

"I want purple milk." He says in a voice so precious I want to squeeze his head until it breaks. I immediately shake my head of the violent thought.

"Purple milk?" Maci looks at Euri with confusion.

"Grape juice." Euri says with a giggle. Maci laughs as well if it becomes evident that I am just staring at Euri.

"Are you okay there, Omera?" Maci questions.

"Oh sorry, I was just in the mood for another cookie." I quickly say, I walk away from the scene and into the living room.

--

"Omera." I say slowly.

"Orange." Tree says before he giggles.

"O-me-ra." I sound out my name for him. Maci decided she had to take off all the makeup and get into some comfortable clothes so I had to take care of Tree for fifteen minutes.

"O-lee-la." He tries this time instead of messing around.

"No, focus Tree." I state as I grab the sides of his head.

"Tree." He cheers with a smile. I groan as he does so, I didn't know my name was this complicated.

"Oleela, can I go to the bathroom because I need to go to the bathroom because I need to go pee, please?" He asks me with a straight face. This is the weirdest kid I have ever encountered. He needs to give me a reason for everything he needs to do, and he ends up making no sense.

"Yeah, whatever." I respond.

"Thank you, Oleela, for letting me go to the bathroom." He states with a nod as he gets up.

"You better get to the bathroom before you have an accident." I tell him, he nods again and runs off to go to the bathroom. He returns in a second with a cookie.

"Tree, go use the bathroom." I point back in the direction of the bathroom.

"Oleela, I don't have to use to the bathroom because I lied to you because I wanted to go to the kitchen and get a cookie. I'm sorry Oleela." He apologizes in sadness.

"It's fine, Tree." I reply with a bored look.

"Why do you have blue things in your eyes?" He questions me, he sets his cookie on the table and gets really close to my face. Has he never seen blue eyes before?

"It's a piece of candy, I hide it there in case I get hungry." I explain to him with an eye roll, I shouldn't have said that because he immediately pokes his finger into my eye. "Ow, what the fuck, Tree."

"Sorry, Oleela. I want candy too because-" he begins to say but I silence.

"Tree, don't say because ever again please." I order him as I hold my eye in pain.

"Can you give me the candy in your eye bec-" Tree says but he quickly stops himself from saying anything else.

"This isn't candy, it's just the color of my eye. Fuck, Tree, you really hurt my eye." I state as I try blinking away the pain.

"Oleela, that's a bad word. Don't say it, please bec-" He stops himself again.

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you're a kid." I murmur to myself.

"I'm not kid, I'm Tree." He explains to me, I look at him and realize everyone living near Maci's house is completely crazy.

"You're pretty like my Mommy." Tree compliments me. I chuckle at this, Euri is really pretty so that's saying something.

"Well, slide me your Daddy's number." I joke around.

"My Daddy is gone, he went to Antarctica because he wanted to see the polar bears." He says in a serious tone.

"He left?" I immediately feel sad for Tree, Euri probably made up that bullshit story for Tree to feel better.

Tree nods. "Yes, but Mommy said I'm going to have a new Daddy that will always tell me the time because I need to go play cars with Mary across the street at 5:30 and I always forget because I-" Tree begins his rant, it seems he forgot my rule of not saying because.

"I got the idea." I cut him off, he nods and sits on my lap.

"I want my new Daddy to come now, and take me to the food store. I always wanted to go." Tree excitedly explains to me.

"I'll take you to the food store." I promise him, I'm pretty sure that's the grocery store, and if that's Tree's dream then I'll take him there.

"Oleela, can you be my girlfriend so you can always take me to the food store?" He asks me.

"Okay, but you need to take me on a date." I joke around once again.

"Okay, I saw it in the movie once because Mommy loves those movies because she said Daddy never took her on a date." Tree explains, damn this kid really can't keep his mouth shut about his mother's tragic love life.

"Let's watch a movie then." I declare.

______

A/N:

89.989027 % edited.

Everyone seems to drop a question about my gender in my messages so I'll clarify. I am a female, always have been.

This chapter was really fun to write, so I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.

-Chloe