Cupid Collections

36. Peyton - 15: The Stick

Pyro barking awoke me from my ten second nap. I swear, my eyes had barely closed when Pyro’s warning went off around the house, and it kept going.

“Okay, okay,” I relented, sitting up on the couch. I rubbed my tired eyes hoping to knock some sleep out of them, but it was to no avail.  In my right hand was a half empty bottle. I wasn’t sure how long I had been holding it, or even how old the formula inside of it was. I set it on a nearby end table and push aside plastic toys, baby wipes, and a bowl of pacifiers to make room for it. Our little apartment had officially become baby-fied.

There was a moment of silence, and I took that moment to yawn and wait. Maybe all was well and I could nap for a moment longer? But no…Pyro’s barked echoed into the hallway.

“I’m up,” I shouted toward his bark. It silenced him for the moment and I trudged into the hallway where the sound had been coming from. With tired eyes, I blinked as I entered the bathroom.

Logan was holding himself on the rim of the toilet with his hand in the water. Pyro sat straight in the hallway watching him. Pyro wagged his tail upon seeing me, but I just sighed and grabbed my son.

“No, sweetheart,” I scolded nicely. I placed him on the edge of the sink and grabbed a towel from our towel rack. I proceed to dry his arms and hands before I got out a baby wipe to clean them off. “That is very dirty.”

Logan pouted. “But fun!”

“I know,” I agreed. “And you were being so good and quiet for Mama.”

“Tired?”

“Mama is very tired,” I replied picking him up. I held him on my hip and proceeded to take him into the living room.

Logan was two, for all intents and purposes, which meant that he only looked like he was one years old. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t as high functioning as his brain. He wanted to walk, and he had tried almost every day, but his little legs weren’t ready for his full weight. He had quite a large vocabulary but his voice box didn’t even know how to make half the sounds yet. His curiosity grew as he mentally aged which meant that he got into everything he could get his hands on. You’d think with him not being able to walk, that it wouldn’t be much, but then you’d be wrong. This gift was turning into more of a curse.

I set Logan down in the middle of the floor on the living room where he had a circle of toys to surround him. He took interest in a toy that made music with various buttons. Pyro came in and joined us. He laid down in the corner and kept his eyes on Logan. He was a good babysitter, just loud.

Logan laughed as one of the toys made a funny sound, and I fell into the couch and watched him. His golden blonde hair fell into his face in waves. He needed it cut, but I was just not up for the adventure of going to the salon. I wasn’t up for much of anything anymore. If Logan didn’t need my attention, I was sleeping.

Thankfully, Eros hadn’t asked me back to work yet. I had no idea how I could possibly have time for that. With Nate working, I had been the stay at home mom, which was fine, but my sentence was twice as long as mortal mothers – thanks to Eros’s prolonged life gift to Logan.

Logan was bubbly as ever so I figured closing my eyes for just…a second wouldn’t…hurt….

My head had just lolled to the side when a knock came at the door. I groaned without even opening my eyes and wondered if it was honestly that important. Another more rushed knock came and Pyro barked in response, answering my question that this was indeed important.

I lifted myself up with an extended amount of force and trudged over to the front door.

“If that’s you Nate and you forgot your keys, I’m going to hurt you so hard-” I weakly pulled the door open to the apartment, but to my surprise, Eros and Psyche happily walked in passed me.