The Babysitter

Chapter 18: Pictures (Louis' POV)

Chelsea and I turned the lights off after we had sex and we were laying in her bed. She was laying on her back while my chin was sitting on her stomach. We were just staring at each other smiling. She was playing with my hair, when a subject popped into my head.

"Chelsea?" I asked her once I finished debating on whether I should ask her or not. "Hmm?" She stopped playing with my hair to pay attention. "Where is your dad?" As the words slipped out of my mouth, I could see her turn pale; even in the dark.

"Umm." She said as she looked at. the ceiling. I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. "You don't have to tell me." I said, immediately wishing I never asked. "No, it's fine. I knew you would start to wonder sooner or later. I was kind of hoping later, but..." She sighed and placed her fingers on her temples to think of a way to tell me.

I stared at her blankly as she pushed my head off of her and stood up. She walked over to a drawer and pulled out a crumpled old picture. She walked back over to me and showed a picture of a man with a little girl in his lap.

"That's him and me together when I was four. He always babied me." She laughed. I was in shock. They looked like twins from different ages! I grabbed the picture. They both had the same brown eyes with a tint of green. Same hair color. Same everything.

"That was before... drugs took over his life completely." Her voice cracked as she said the last word. I looked up to see her holding back tears. "My mom was fifteen when she got pregnant. He was 18. My mom didn't know that he had been doing meth since he was thirteen."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "But he rarely did it. He was naturally a very sweet person, until he was high or drunk. He would cheat on my mom, hit her, and call her names. The only reason he stayed in my life for so long was because my mom wanted me to have a dad."

"She never wanted me around him, but I would always beg her to let me sleep over at his house. She never thought anything was wrong. He taught me how to steal, and he taught me that police were the bad guys."

"This picture was taken at his mom's house. She always treated him bad. He and his mom would fist fight right in front of me. She always liked my dad's brother better than my dad. He was never really there for me. He would leave in and out of my life and he still does."

"My mom always tells me to get angry at him for doing the stuff he did. I just recently had a sort of flash back, and I remembered him smoking weed right in front of me. When I was about six, he was completely hooked on meth. People think that meth take a years to look gross..."

She stood up and walked back to the same drawer and pulled out a slightly smaller picture. "...but it only takes a little while." She finished her sentence. I gasped as I saw a man with wrinkles, very skinny and bony, red marks all over his face and rash all over his skin.

You could see Chelsea in the picture with the same happy smile on her face, but he had an angry frown on his. They no longer looked related. He looked like a homeless man with a random girl in his lap. She brought the first picture to her heart and dropped the second one onto the floor.

"He will call about once every one and a half years. He always breaks down crying and I am the one that has to comfort him. It should be the other way around. Yet, I still get afraid to stand up to him for being a poor excuse of a dad, because I am afraid of hurting his feelings."

She instantly broke down and sat down next to me. She rested her head in her hands as she let loud sobs slip out of her mouth. I picked her up and laid her in my lap like a baby. She cried into my chest as i started to stroke her hair to comfort her.

"Sienna is my step dad's daughter. She is my half sister. The reason why my step dad's not around is because he's in the navy. Don't get me wrong. He is great, it's just.... he's not my dad. Instill always have an empty spot in my heart that he can never fill." She managed to choke out.

After a little while, her sobs slowed down and I was singing to her. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."

I know it seems childish, but... I'm childish. She sat up to look at me. Her eyes were red and puffy from the tears. She hugged me and kissed my cheek. "I'm sorry for that." She mumbled. I hugged her back. "Don't be. Don't ever feel like you need to hold back your emotions with me." I whispered in her ear.

I felt her nod and she pulled away. "You know, informative that's exactly what he needs." I said. She looked at me confused and waited for me to explain. "Does he know that you know about his drug problem?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Well, I know that he loves you. I can see it in hi eyes in the diary picture that he has unconditional love for you. Maybe if you talk to him about it, finally stand up to him, it will open his eyes and give him a change of heart about the drugs." I suggested.

She thought about it, then smiled. "You're a genius Lou!" She said excitedly. I laughed at her excitement, but got very serious after a moment. "But he's hooked on it, so don't expect him to just instantly stop. Let him slowly ease out of it."

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously." She said with a giggle. "I know, I just don't want you to get your hopes up." She nodded. She put the pictures back and faced me. "Louis, no one else except for my mom knows about this. Would you mind not telling anyone?"

"I swear. I love you and if it gets to you that much, then we never have to discuss th situation ever again. Let alone with other people involved!" "Really?" She asked me. "I swore it, and I intend to never tell anyone." After that, I sealed my promise with a kiss and we cuddled again.