Michael was surprised when Ashton gave him some time off of work a few days later. For the last couple weeks he had been running around like crazy, trying to fulfill all of the small tasks that Ashton gave him and Michael was happy when he didn't have to go in to work at 6:30 AM every morning for a few days.
It was Wednesday morning now and Michael was in the kitchen, trying to make some breakfast for Parker before Melissa and Katie showed up. Recently they'd developed a routine that was working out much better than what they were doing before.
Instead of Melissa and Katie sleeping over and Michael's apartment every night and risking getting yelled at by Katie's mom, they just came over in the morning before school and stayed until pretty late at night. That way Michael still got to see Melissa as much as possible.
Michael let out a big sigh and set down the box of cereal that he'd gotten down for Parker, realizing that he still hasn't come out of his room. Michael walked out of the kitchen and down the hall, wishing that for once Parker would just listen to him.
"Parker." Michael said sternly, knocking on his bedroom door. He opened it to find Parker still sleeping in his bed, even though Michael was sure that he had woken him up just a few minutes before. "Parker, you need to get up."
"No." Parker mumbled, burying his face into a pillow.
"Melissa and Katie are going to come over soon and I would like you to be ready when they get here." Michael said, folding his arms over his chest.
He didn't mean to be such an asshole to Parker, he was just so frustrated. He seemed to be frustrated 24/7 lately. Parker used to listen to him so well, but things were changing and Michael was getting very irritated.
"I'm not going to preschool today." Parker said, rolling over. He coughed a few times, making sure to cover his mouth. "I'm too tired."
"You fell asleep last night at 8:30, I don't see how you could possibly be tired still." Michael rolled his eyes and sat down on the edge of Parker's bed. He knew that Parker had been tired last night because he almost fell asleep while brushing his teeth.
"I woke up last night." Parker whined, rubbing his eyes with his hands. "I couldn't fall sleep again."
"Why didn't you come get me?" Michael questioned. Usually if Parker woke up in the middle of the night he would go straight to Michael and stay with him until they fell asleep again.
"I don't know." Parker shrugged, slowly sitting up again. He rubbed his eyes, realizing he actually did have to get up and get ready now.
"Why did you wake up? Did you have a nightmare?" Michael asked, suddenly concerned.
"Yeah." Parker nodded. "The dark scares me."
"You could have gotten into bed with me." Michael said, remembering that only a few weeks ago Parker wouldn't even think about sleeping on his own and lately he hadn't been asking to sleep with Michael at all.
"You said I wasn't allowed to do that anymore." Parker said and shrugging innocently again, crawling to the other side of the bed. He hopped off of it and ran out of the room without saying another word.
Michael sighed again and stood up from Parker's bed, walking down the hallway and into the kitchen again. As soon as he opened the fridge to get out some orange juice he heard the front door open and Melissa and Katie came in the apartment.
"Hey, I'm in the kitchen!" Michael called to them, going that they wouldn't mind that the kitchen was so messy.
Melissa entered the kitchen, carrying Katie in her arms. Michael could hear Katie crying softly as she rested her head on Melissa's shoulder. He looked up from what he was song and furrowed his eyebrows at Katie, wondering what was doing on.
