Saskia sipped her orange juice. After summer she was going to special effects make-up school, then the world was her oyster. Dad stumbled in, half drunk with sleep and sat heavily in the chair in front of her. "Y'up early," he said and raised his thick greying eyebrows and stifled a yawn.
"Had a new YouTube tutorial to upload," she replied. But already his head was slumped into the folds of his tartan pyjamas.
"Whaaa.."he mumbled through the fabric, "watching YouTube?" There was little point to this conversation.
"Yeah, that's right Pops, just wasting my life as usual." Saskia sat back with a grin, winding him up like this was too easy but to be honest, it just had to be done.
"No, no, doll. Focus. I told you, be focused." He raised his head and his eyes rolled as if the whole world was too much effort for them to take in. Saskia changed her face to serious just for him.
"Yes, Papa, focus. How about I make some more tutorials?"
"Yeah, Sass, that's it. Do that."
Alia slid her hand into Tony's pocket, teeth softly biting into her lower lip. He gazed at her face, not moving the arms he'd wrapped around her waist. He felt a soft tug from his pocket and Alia pulled away into the soft glow of the streetlight. In her hands were the keys to his new car. "Finders keepers, losers weepers," she said, her voice echoing around the brick row-houses and sending a nested bird into the air.