red hair and a blue hoodie // ed sheeran

Chapter 55 - Kinda Babysitting Theo..

nιallѕ pov:

Theo had situated himself in the living room, surrounded by toy after toy that I was foolish enough to buy for him. You see, the thing about little Theo is that you never take him shopping - its a financial death wish. With the toddler, you are unable to just walk past a toy aisle in the supermarket.

You have to walk in with him, let him choose a toy or seven and then buy it for him. In the time that Greg and Denise are here I am probably going to have to get them a couple new suitcases just to be able to accommodate Theo’s growing toy collection.

Well, as I was saying, he had surrounded himself with his toys, using them almost like a fort. Zo was on the couch, unaware of her surroundings with her cane secured tightly between her legs. I could tell she wasn’t comfortable here.

But I didn’t know what else to do with her.

She couldn’t stay cooped up in the apartment with Sierra and Harry. They weren’t even there half the time, with Harry’s hectic tour schedule and just being out and about most of the time and then Sierra’s lawyer-ing I guess you can call it, she was well in demand.

Zo was stuck by herself majority of the time and when she was with them, they didn’t do anything for her. They barely took her outside. I mean, the first few months they were caring for her, they made sure everything was perfect for her. But things just started declining after a while and she was left to fall into this constant fear of change and the predictable and depressing nature of her life.

I couldn’t just sit by and let her become like that. She had to know what it was like to live. I knew today would probably be a massive stretch for her but I had to try something to help her. I had to.

“Hey Zo?”

“Yeah?” Her fragile, little voice came out of her cracked lips. 

“Did you want some heating or something? You look a little chilly.”

“Oh nah - I should be fine. I’m pretty good like that; not really one to worry about weather or things like that.”

“That would come in handy for me when I’m on the road and shit like that.”

“Ha-ha I can imagine it would too.” Her laugh rang out through her voice as she giggled quietly to herself on the other side of the room.

There was a short silence then until I got a brilliant idea. I ran over to my stereo and started fidgeting with my home-bound iPod, pressing button after button on the touch screen, making a random playlist of songs I thought Zo would like. I made an exceptional effort to keep any Ed songs out of the playlist.

“What are you doing Niall? I can hear you clicking away on something.”

“I’m just trying to get some music together love. Any requests?”

“Umm.. ‘Don’t Stop’ ?”

“5 Seconds of Summer? Nice choice,” Since we had toured with the boys and I had taken it upon myself to promote them in every way I could think of. I also took the liberty of downloading any and all of their songs. It didn’t take long until I had added the requested song to the library. “Anything else love?”

“Uhh.. Geronimo by Sheppard?”

After a few more taps away at the screen, I was finished. “Done and done!” I exclaimed. I pressed shuffle and let the music ooze out of the speakers. A rap came on by Lupe Fiasco and as soon as I looked over at Zo’s face, I knew she liked the song. When the rap finished, she opened her mouth and sang along with Guy Sebastian.