𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 [𝟏𝟖+] ✔

56

"Ainsley, please get the nappy out of my face."

She sighs, dropping both arms to her sides. "Why does he shit so much? It's constant!"

I chuckle and glance down at the offending baby. Shane lies in his cot, asleep and content, as his mum has a hissy fit about getting poo under her nail and dry-retching into my sink. I've witnessed her squeamish, but never as bad as this. You'd think she was being forced to eat it.

A curly blonde head runs into the kitchen, excited for her first full day in her new school. Orla has been doing trial days to ease her back into education. After two weeks, she's ready to spend all day with her class.

I kneel in front of her, making sure to lather her with sunscreen, before putting her packed lunch into her bag. Skye waggles her tail beside us, waiting for her lead, so she can get out for her morning walk to school.

Diesel will join us soon. He's been keeping Mum company but spends most of the day here with us while she's at work.

It's taking me a little longer to adjust to normality. Not only am I fending for myself and getting used to it, but I also have Orla in my full care. Our bond only gets stronger, especially when she comes into my bed at night and tells me she loves me before falling asleep.

We get regular vaccinations. We all came down with the flu not long after arriving, followed by other sicknesses that the nurses treated. But things are better. Things are becoming easier.

Like Ainsley handing me Shane when he fills his nappy not five minutes after being changed.

In all fairness, she's been doing great at this mothering thing. She tries to do it all on her own and wants to prove that she can. She breastfeeds, walks Shane around the town numerous times a day to get him out and into the sunshine, and reads to him at night. He's only two months old, but it feels like he's been a part of our lives forever.

Orla loves him, gets excited when she finishes her transitional days back into school and we're standing outside with his pram. The recently turned seven-year-old will sit on the rug in front of the TV and sing as he babbles. She made up a song and somehow put his full name Shane Robert Low into a nursery rhyme.

Ains named him Shane after the boy who saved her. Robert for Robbie for saving me and Orla, and he obviously has Gareth's last name. He has the biggest eyes, the darkest hair, and he really does shit every twenty minutes.

When she gave birth, I was there, holding her hand through each push, each scream, even when she yelled that she was going to find Gareth and kill him. But then she cried while she held their baby in her arms. She wished he was with her. She wept so much that I had to take Shane until she calmed down.

She's been staying with me and Orla some nights, some she wants alone time. I was worried about her initially, but my best friend is strong, completely determined to not break. We were all messes the first week. Mum and Ains stayed with me with the dogs. We cuddled on the couch and watched TV. We cried some more while telling stories of our significant others.

Ainsley's mum did appear at her door and begged to see her grandson, apologising for the way she'd acted. One day at a time, is what Ains says when she lets her mum hold Shane on their weekly meetups.

"Right, you ready?" I ask Orla as I fix the straps of the school bag onto her shoulders, before running my fingers through her hair. "First full day!"

She cheers and jumps on the spot, waves to Ainsley, who's holding her nose while she takes off Shane's nappy. We hold hands, knock on my mum's door on our way, and all three of us skip down the alleyway, into the small town while we wait on the bus.