Damey

•4•

"Okay. Explain."

Shayne sighs and goes through his phone quickly. "Have you ever heard of involuntary age regression?" I shake my head.
"Okay. Well basically, it is a stress, anxiety, or coping mechanism in general that can "regress" you into a mental age younger than your physical age. Some people can control it but our little man right here can not. Therefore, it is involuntary. He has no control over when or how it happen. He has a Little headspace. In this headspace, he is called Damey. As you heard me say earlier. Some people go by a cute nickname as a Little, others don't. Another thing is age. The age of a regression is determined by the Little headspace or amounts of stress, anxiety, or compression of being Little. Some people regress to teenagers, others to babies. Damien regresses to approximately a toddler. The age ranges between 2-4. He is very secretive about everything and texted me saying that you saw the animal crackers in the drawer. That heightened his anxiety a bit but I don't know what started it. Anyways, Damien has it because of anxiety, depression, and not the greatest of relationships recently."

Shayne pauses and thankfully gave me a second to process it. "So.... he is a toddler right now?" I look down at Damien who had just woken up. He was watching Bubble Guppies in my phone. Shayne nods. "Right now, he looks to be 3." I nod in understanding. "Wait. You said he has anxiety and depression?" Shayne scoots over to Damien. "Hey buddy. Can you roll up your Superman sleeves?" Damien shakes his head and hides himself in my arms. Shayne gives me a "worth a try" look. I look down at Damien. "Hey Damey? I'll make you a really good deal. If you can just roll up your sleeves, I have a surprise for you." Damien rolls up his sleeves and you can see the depression on him. Scars line his wrists. Some cuts are old. Some cuts are look newer. "Thank you Damey. You want your surprise now?" He claps his hands. "Now now now....pease." I laugh and stand up. He motions for me to pick him up so I place him on my back as we walk out of the room. Shayne stays where he is and waits for us to get back. As Damien and I are walking, he starts telling me about ducks. I start smiling at his babbling. We finally reach the lunchroom and I run over to Wes' secret cookie collection and Damien giggles as my running caused him to bounce up and down. I grabbed 3 chocolate chip cookies and gave him one. We ran back to Shayne and Damien was a giggling mess. Shayne started laughing and Damien handed him a cookie. Everyone was happy and Damien cuddled into me again.

I'm sorry for this chapter being so short. I have a lot going on right now.