Tanked: TANKED Read Free

already tanned skin. Quit your complaining.”  He walks out of the bathroom and yells to me as he goes down the hall. “I’m going to start a load of laundry.”
    I walk into the bedroom and drop my towel on the floor; I pull on some yoga pants and a tank top, and go and sprawl out on the couch in the living room. 
    “What do you want to do tonight?” I shout.
    “Hold on I can’t hear you over the water running.”
    He walks into the living room with Prima following right behind him. When she spots me on the couch she heads straight for me.
    “I said what do you want to do tonight?”
    “Let’s order pizza and watch movies.  I know it sounds completely ridiculous, but I’m exhausted from lying around all day.”
    I smile at him. “I was thinking the same thing, you order the pizza and I will find some movies.”
    “Something with Julia Roberts please!”
    No problem there . I pull the app up on my phone and do a search by her name and send a bunch of movies to the queue while I wait for Jessie to get back. He has changed into shorts and a t-shirt and must have taken his contacts out because he’s now wearing his black nerd framed glasses.
    “What?” he asks curiously.
    “Nothing, I just love it when you wear your glasses.”
    “I know right? We totally could be twins.”
    We spent the rest of the evening vegging out on the couch watching movies. When I look at my phone and see it is after two in the morning, I push on Jessie and say, “Holy smokes! It’s after 2 in the morning!  I can’t miss church tomorrow. Momma and Daddy will kill me.” I untangle my legs from his and start to get up, then look back at him, “And you’re going too. Momma will be mad with me if you're home and don’t come. Which, I still can’t figure out why I get in trouble when it’s you that doesn’t come with me.”
    “I had already planned on going. I brought my suit over with me.”
    “Good, you can do my hair in the morning, too.”
    As he sits up and starts picking up the pizza box, glasses, and ice cream containers, I say, “Just leave it, we will worry with all that tomorrow.”
    He shakes his head. “It’s a wonder you don’t have cockroaches yet. You kill me.” He continues picking up the items and heads in the direction of the kitchen. I shrug my shoulders and start to my bedroom.  I notice Prima asleep on the chair as I leave the living room.  I better leave my bedroom door cracked so she can come in when she decides to get up, which she will and if I don’t leave the door open she will claw and paw the door until I get up and let her in.  I lay in bed thinking about today and how much fun it was until sleep finally overtakes me.
     
    ****
     
    “Well, Jessie, don’t you look sharp,” my mother says as we are walking toward her, meeting her on the sidewalk in front of the church.
    “Mom, he always looks good.”
    “I know Kinsey. I was just paying him a compliment, and somebody must have not gotten much sleep last night. You’re a little ill this morning, dear.”
    “I risked my life getting her out of bed this morning. It was pretty rough,” Jessie jokes.
    “Your hair looks great McKinsey. Did you do that Jessie?”
    “Yes ma’am, I sure did.” He smiles then pats himself on the back.
    I turn around when I hear my father’s voice and smile when I see he has my favorite black suit on, it makes his blue eyes shine bright. “Doodlebug, you made it.”
    He reaches around and hugs me tightly. He then turns and puts his hand out to shake Jessie’s hand as he says, “I ought to have known you were home. She doesn’t believe it, but she still needs somebody to look out for her and wake her up on time.”
    I roll my eyes as Jessie joins in on the McKinsey bashing. “Oh, I believe it. She wouldn’t have gotten out of bed all weekend if it wasn’t for me.”
    I interrupt them, “Ok we’re at church remember, and it’s not nice to pick on somebody at church, let’s go in and get a