Mrs. Avery

Chapter 23

~~~

Agnes had pulled into Molly's driveway under the premise of having dinner with her, Chris, and Juli, who was still a toddler at the time. Agnes had been having a rough time at school. She was racked with a heavy level of guilt that she hadn't quite sorted everything out yet when it came to James. They had the random mental breakdown hook ups for a few months after the breakup that left Agnes feeling as though she had been taking advantage of him. It had been damn near a year since the breakup, but it all still seemed to hurt. Agnes took summer classes that year to keep herself up at school and to hopefully keep herself from interfering with James any further, but that also kept her from her family. The break from Molly and Chris was welcome because they seemed to converse solely on the failed relationship. There seemed little else that they were interested in talking about or "trying to fix". Naturally, it created a level of tension that managed to give Agnes more anxiety, guilt, and anger. The break from Momma and Juli however was difficult.

Agnes had ventured home this time, however, because there were promises that this visit was going to be about Juli and nothing else. She was going to turn 3 soon and they were planning a party. Agnes had her doubts and so she stalled in the car to take a few deep breaths. She ran her hand through her brown hair and immediately just let her thoughts get caught up in whether brown suited her or not. And that was enough. She climbed out of the car and went inside. She hugged Chris and Molly hard. She missed them to her core, but then she went searching for her little munchkin buddy.

"Oh Juli." She yelled playfully into their living room.

"Aggie!" Juli yelled before she saw her. Juli stood up to do the unsteady run of a toddler. Agnes picked her up and kissed her all over her cheeks.

"Oh you've gotten even cuter." She said between kisses. "I could eat you up."

"No!" Juli giggled. Her little voice lit up Agnes's heart and she felt like maybe all the other things in her life weren't so bad as long as she had Juli-baby.

"Agnes, we're going to wrap up dinner and then we'll be back in the living room."

"Oh, I can help." Agnes said immediately going to put Juli down.

"No, no, no. " Juli protested.

"She's right." Molly smiled. "You two catch up."

Agnes didn't protest and let the little human guide her into the living room off of the kitchen to watch a cartoon.

Juli got Agnes situated on the floor and then immediately took off to retrieve a movie.

"Beauty and the Beast, please." She said handing it over.

"Again?" She asked.

Juli nodded with a big smile on her face. Agnes crawled over to the DVD player and put the movie in. She retreated to her spot on the floor in front of the couch. Juli promptly climbed onto her lap. As soon as the story of the witch started, Agnes began teasing Juli and saying the words in a spooky manner into her ear. Juli crinkled her nose and giggled as Agnes playfully pulled her around to add effect to the story.

Eventually, Juli was just lounging on top of Agnes, which was par for the course. They hadn't seen each other in a few months so that ritual was to be expected. About halfway into the movie Chris came and sat down on the couch near them. Agnes looked up at him.

"Hey, Dad." Agnes said and Juli looked, but then peered back at the TV.

"How have you been?" He asked.

"Good." She lied. "Just missing my munchkin."

"You can take her whenever you want." He said.

"I'll remember that." She said. "We'll have sleepovers so often, that you'll cut me off."