Chasing Grace

chapter 4

I slowly turn around in my bed and immediately get hit with the sun shining through my unclosed blinds. I squint, rub my eyes and take in my bearings. I grab my phone, checking the time nine-thirty, it reads. I sit up in bed and place my phone down before pulling the covers off, I open my door running a hand by my no doubt untamed and curly hair. I see Axel's door wide open. I walk down the hall and see Wyatt's door close but Connor's wide open.

I walk downstairs, hearing the tv on and the smell of waffles. I walk into the main area of the house and see my son sitting on the floor, stuffed dinosaurs from his room surrounding him, and he was watching a dinosaur cartoon. I walk over to him, kissing his head.

"Hi baby" I mumble, kissing his cheek. I look up to see Connor flipping waffles over the stove, he looked like he had just come from a run.

I had noticed that both he and my brother were very active, going to the gym and runs. I knew my brother was always a gym rat, but Connor was a whole different story. He turns around a smile plastered on his face.

"Hey, I walked in this morning and Axel was watching YouTube on the tv," He says, jutting his chin to Axel sitting behind me.

I chuckle "Yea that happens a lot. He'd always sneak downstairs to watch tv early in the morning my parents would just rudely ignore him" I shake my head as I stand up and walk over to the fridge. When I had Axel, my parents forced me to move back home. I hated it, absolutely dreaded every minute of it.

"Really? They have no relationship with Axel?" He asks shocked as I approach him.

"Nope, so the worse part about having Axel is he has no father and no other male figure, thanks to my own father. So it is was easy to come to live with Wyatt, I mean I didn't know you'd be here but more the merrier" I grab the orange juice.

"Shame, I'm sure Axel's father would've loved to see such a bright kid," Connor shakes his head.

"Yeah well, it's his loss. I suppose," I shrug as I pour two glasses, I slide one of them to him and he nods. "It's not like I could have not taken care of Axel by myself, it just helps from the father would've been nice."

It's not like I hadn't reached out to Harrison, Axel's father. I had, quite a bit when he was first born because every father should know or at least see his son but his excuse was that he was busy with baseball. So after that, I stopped trying. It wasn't worth my time.

"Well if it helps, I think you're doing an amazing job raising him all by yourself. You don't need his father, screw him" Connor says waving his hand around, I chuckle.

"Don't be. So you left late, what time did you come home?" I ask.

"Um well, long story short, I didn't get any sleep. I came home at like 8:30, went on a run and now I'm here," Connor says nonchalantly.

"Seriously?" I ask, he nods. "Go upstairs. I'll finish," I begin.

"Grace," He yawns.

"No, everyone needs sleep. Especially you because I think you've been awake for like seventy-two hours, go" I demand him as I nudge him with my hand.

"So demanding," He grumbles but steps away, stumbling a bit. I don't know how he was functioning. I thought my all-nighters were bad but I've never seen anyone be awake for seventy-two hours. Wyatt always tells me it's normal, but it's definitely not.

"Try being my kid" I respond jokingly, he chuckles as he finishes his orange juice.

"Alright, I'm out," Connor says with another nod.

"Goodnight," I call out after him and he flicks his wrist in a goodnight manner.

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