I'm Addicted To You

Three Years Later

David’s POV

It has been three years since Kaelyn has been born, and it has been amazing. She has my personality and does things that I would do, and sometimes, isn’t a good thing. She looks just like Raven, which is a little bit scary, but you can tell she came from me too.

Now for the present.

Today, Kae, Raven, Pierre, and I are going to the zoo with a water park within it.

It is now around nine in the morning, and we are just waking up. I hop into the shower while Raven is getting Kaelyn up and giving her a bath. I get out of the shower and put on a plain white t-shirt and my blue skinny jeans. I walk downstairs, and I hear the TV going.

I walk into the family room, and I see Kaelyn watching Dora the Explorer in her pajamas. Her hair was wet, so I guess she does what her mom does, puts on her pjs after she takes a shower.

I walk over to the couch and sit down next to her.

“Morning Baby.” I say kissing her on the cheek.

“Hi, Daddy. When are we going to the zoo?” Kaelyn asks while crawling onto my lap, facing me.

“Well, you and mommy have to get ready, and Uncle Pie Pie has to get ready, and I have to run to the store to get thing for today.” I say looking at her cute face.

“Can I come with you to the store?”

“Yeah, but first, you have to eat breakfast, and Mommy has to get you dressed.”

“Well then Daddy, come on.”

She giggles, jumps off my lap, and “pulls” me off the couch.

We get to the kitchen, and I lift her up and put her on one of the breakfast bar stools.

“What do you want to eat, Sweetheart?” I ask while looking through the pantry.

“Luckies.” She yells while clapping her hands.

I grab the Lucky Charms box off the top shelf and grab a bowl and a spoon and pour the cereal into the both with a little bit of milk. She doesn’t like when her cereal gets all soggy, just like her mom.

I pass Kae her breakfast and get a different kind of cereal for me to eat. I sit down next to her, and we begin to eat at the same time.

“Thankies Daddy.” She says taking a bite.

“No problem.”

We continue to eat our cereal in silence, just hearing our chewing, the spoons scraping the bowls, and Raven upstairs doing what she is doing.

When we both get finished, I wash out both bowls and put them in the dishwasher. As I was closing it, Raven comes down the stairs, all ready to go today.

“Morning David.” Raven says coming over to kiss me on the lips.

“Morning Baby.” I kiss her back.

“You’re still going to the story, right?” She asks while getting some eggs out of the fidge to make her some eggs and toast.

“Yeah, and Kae is coming with me when you get her changed.”

“Okay. I will get her ready when I’m done eating.”

She takes the eggs off the stove and put them on her plate. Then she takes the bread out of the toaster and butters it before putting it on her plate and sitting in the seat that Kaelyn sat in when she ate her breakfast.

“What kind of things do I need to get from the store?” I ask while getting out a piece of paper and pen to write down what she tells me.

I have the tendency to forget what I need to get when I get to the store.

“Well, we need sunscreen and stuff to make sandwiches when it’s time for lunch, and you know what everyone likes, so just get whatever for those, and you need to get a crate of water bottle because it’s suppose to be hot today, and you know how Kae is when it’s hot. I think that’s it…oh, and pick up some gum.” She listed off while she was finishing her food and putting her plate in the dishwasher.

“Okay, I got that. Now I hope I don’t forget what kind of sandwich everyone likes.” I laugh.

She laughs too.

“C’mon Kae Kae, you need to get changed so you can go with Daddy.” Raven yells from the kitchen.

“Should I put her bathing suit on under her clothes or just throw it in the bag where I’m putting ours?” Raven asked while picking up Kaelyn when she got to her.

“I would just put it on under her clothes. It would be easier, and I bet when you get up there, that’s what she’s going to want.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Are you ready to get changed?” Raven asks Kae after kissing her cheek.

Yeah, but we got to hurry so Daddy doesn’t leave without me.” Kae says wrapping her arms around Raven’s neck.

“Kaelyn, Daddy isn’t going to leave without you. I would never do that.”

I walk over to both of them and kiss her cheek.

“Okay Daddy. I’m ready Mommy.”

They both walked up the stairs.

While I was waiting, I decided to call Pierre to see what his schedule was.

“Hey Dave. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I was just seeing when you are coming over. We aren’t in no hurry because I have to go to the store and get stuff for the day, and Raven is just changing Kaelyn, so you have like an hour or two.”

“Well, I just got up about a half an hour ago and just got my breakfast started. I still have to get dress and pack some of my stuff.”

“You don’t need water because Raven told me to get a couple crates of water bottles, and I’m getting stuff for lunch, so just bring your bathing suit and necessities that you need.”

“Alright man. I will probably be over by the time you get back or sooner. See you later.”

“Bye Pierre.”

“Later.”

I hang up the phone and saw that Raven put Kaelyn in a while t-shirt like mine, a pair of jean shorts, and black flip flops. Under her clothes was a princess one piece bathing suit.

“You look so cute, Sweetie Pie. Are you ready to go?” I ask Kaelyn as I pick her up and kiss her forehead.

“Thank you Daddy, and yes I am.” She told me wrapping her arms around my neck.

“Okay. Kiss Mommy bye bye.”

I lean her over towards Raven. They peck each other’s lips and tell each other that they love each other. I kiss Raven and tell her I love her and walk to the car.

When we get to the car, I put Kae in her booster seat and then get into the drivers seat and take off to the store. After about ten minutes, we arrive to the store. I park in a parking spot and get out of the car to get Kae out. I carry her into the store and put her in the front part of the cart.

Since I have been with Raven when she comes here, I try and follow the route that she goes every time she’s here.

We get to the gum section, and I grab packs of gum that I know Raven, Pierre, and I chew.

After that, I go and get the sunscreen that has the highest SPF.

Hey, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I got some more things that weren’t on the list for the house and walking over to the food section. I see the crates of water bottles in the middle of the aisle, so I grab those before grabbing the sandwich stuff. Just to make it easy on myself, I just grabbed the stuff to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I also grabbed a couple bags of potato chips and juice boxes for Kaelyn.

After getting some food for the house, I make my way to the checkout counters. All the lines we long, so I just got into the shortest long line. I estimated the time we had to wait was about ten to fifteen minutes. I was just looking around at nothing when I felt Kae patting my hand. I leaned down so we were face to face.

“What is it Sweetheart?” I ask her softly.

“Daddy, can I get a push pop, please?” She asked back softly.

“Of course you can. What flavor do you want?”

“Blue, please”

I grabbed a plain blue one for her and then I grabbed and blue and red one for Raven, knowing that one was her favorite.

I was finally able to load the groceries onto the conveyer belt. Kaelyn handed me the light stuff, and I picked up the heavy stuff. After the cashier rang everything up, I loaded everything back into the cart and made my way back to the car. Before I started loading everything in the trunk, I put Kae in her seat, turned on the car, and put the air conditioning on because it was really hot. I loaded everything into the car and put the cart where the other ones were. I get into the car and start to drive home.

When the house comes into view, I can see that Pierre had just arrived because he was getting out of the car. I pull into the driveway, and Pierre is standing by the side of the car where Kae is. I unlock the doors, and Pierre gets her out. He kisses her all over her face and she is just giggling away.

“Are you excited about today Baby Girl?” Pierre asked her.

“Yes. I get to see the ze-ze’s and the elephants and gorillas and then I get to go down the big water slides with you and Daddy.” Kaelyn said smiling.

She calls zebras ze-ze’s.

“You bet you do. Today is going to be so fun.”

Pierre put Kaelyn down and helped me get the stuff out of the car. Kaelyn wanted to help in some way, and I gave a couple light bags.

We walked into the house and put all the groceries on the table. Raven was putting mine and her bathing suits in the bag and some beach towels. She was also putting little mini fans to fan ourselves during the day and stuff that we thought Kae would want/need during the day.

I grabbed a cooler out of the garage and helped Raven put the stuff I got for lunch and the water in there while Pierre and Kae Kae were in her room playing something.

We loaded everything in the car, and when everyone was situated in their seats, we were on our way to the zoo. The zoo was about a thirty to forty-five drive, so we were playing different kinds of games like I Spy and the letter game,

The letter game is where you pick words with the first letter of the alphabet letter that you on. For example, if I had the letter “G,” I would have to find a word that starts with that letter.

Those games made the drive much faster.

I saw that we were running out of gas, so I got some before we entered the park because I knew by the time we would be leaving the zoo, I would not be in the mood to get any. I would want to go straight home, just like everyone else.

We got to the zoo gate and I paid the parking fee. I drove up and down the aisles trying to find the closest parking stop I could find. The closest one I could find was about ten rows from the entrance and about five spots in.

I parked the car and we all got out. We were leaving all the food in the car because we were planning on eating at the water park. Raven started putting sunscreen on Kaelyn, and when she was done, she gave it to me and Pierre so we could put some on.

Since it was a long walk to where we had to get the tickets, I asked Kae if she wanted to be carried and she said no so she held onto mine and Raven’s hands. We got to the ticket counter, and we were about the third family in line. When we got to the front, Raven did all the talking.

“Hello. Welcome to the zoo/water park. How many are with you today?” The lady at the counter asked.

“There are three adults and a three-year-old.” Raven replied.

“Okay. The child is free because she is under five, so you only need to pay for the three adults. Your total comes up to be $41.97.”

Raven pulls out her credit card and then signs the receipt. We all walk to where we had to scan our tickets to get into the zoo part. Pierre grabbed us a map to see how we were going to plan out that day so we could a lot of time at the water park. The gorillas were at the back of the zoo, the elephants were in the middle, and the zebras were at the front, so we went there first.

When the exhibit came into view, Kaelyn let go of both mine and Raven’s hands and ran over to it. She tried to look over the wall but she was too short. I snuck up behind her and grabbed her and threw her in the air. We both couldn’t stop laughing.

“Daddy.” She giggled and lightly smacked my cheek.

I just gave her a raspberry kiss on the cheek to make her giggle more and turned to look at the zebras. She turned her head to look too. We were both staring at them like they were the best things to happen on this earth.

“Daddy, why is that one going to the bathroom in there? It needs to go sit on the potty.” Kaelyn asked looking up at me.

“Honey, this is its potty. It’s its home. You go potty at your home, so does he.” I replied.

“Oh. What he’s doing is gross.” She scrunched up her face.

After we spent about fifteen minutes with the zebras, we walked over to the elephants. This is Pierre’s favorite animal, so we were going to be here for a long time. There were elephants outside, and there were also some inside. I had Kaelyn in my arms so she could see. All the elephants that were outside were just standing around, doing nothing.

I don’t blame them.

It’s hot as hell.

When we were ready, we went to the inside part. All I can say is thank god for air conditioning. Raven and I stood right in the doorway where there was a large vent giving off cold air while Pierre took Kae over to the glass to watch the baby elephant and its mom walk around in a circle.

“Uncle Pie Pie, is that a baby elephant?” Kaelyn asked Pierre.

“Yeah it is. It doesn’t look like one does it?" Pierre asked her.

“No, it’s way too big.”

“Well, it has to be that big to be the size of its mommy.”

“Am I going to be the size of Mommy one day?”

“Yeah, and guess what? She was the size of you at one time.”

“Really?” She asked really shocked.

“Yep, and so was Daddy and I.”

“Whoa.”

Since Kae has the same attention span as I do, she got bored really fast just watch the elephants walking in a circle over and over. We exited the exhibit and looked at the map to see where the gorillas were from here.

“Mommy, I’m thirsty. Can I have some water?” Kae asked Raven.

“Of course you can.”

We all walked over to a bench and sat down. Raven got out a water bottle from the bag and helped Kae drink it. After Kae was done, she handed it back to Raven, and she drank some of it. She asked me if I wanted some of it, and I did, so I took it from her and drank the rest of it. We asked Pierre if he wanted a bottle of water but he said no.

After our little break, we got back up and started walking to the gorilla exhibit. Just like the elephant one, there was an outside part and an inside part. In the outside part, there were only a couple gorillas eating and some were crawling. I didn’t want to watch them, so we went in to the inside section. There were about ten windows with gorillas in them. I think Kae was a little scared because she was holding onto my hand really tight. I decided to just take her to all the windows. The first one was just sitting in the corner, just looking around, not really doing anything. That’s how all of them were except about five of them, and out of those five, one was a new baby gorilla.

When we got to the baby gorilla, Kae squealed and got really close to the window. There was a woman in there taking care of the baby. I crouched down next to her and put my hand on her back so she knew I was here. I looked up at her and could help but smile at her. She had this look of amazement in her eyes. I smiled at her and kissed her cheek and went back to watching the baby gorilla.

“Hey, Daddy?” Kae turned to me and asked.

“Yeah Baby?” I asked back.

“Why is there a lady in there with the baby?”

“The grown up gorillas are too rough for the baby, and this lady is in there to be like his mommy.”

“Why is its leg missing?” Kae frowned.

I didn’t even notice its leg wasn’t there. I looked around the window to see if there was something that explained what had happened.

“Baby, do you see that paper on the window? It says that the daddy gorilla got into a fight and didn’t realize that the baby was there and bit its leg off.” I frowned too.

That was horrible.

“Daddy, that’s bad. That baby shouldn’t have had something like that happen to it.”

“I know Baby. That is bad.”

We watched the baby for a little bit longer and then we went to find Pierre and Raven. I picked Kae up and walked towards the exit. I saw Pierre and Raven sitting at the top of the path drinking a bottle of water and talking to each other about something.

“Mommy, you aren’t going to believe what happened to the baby gorilla.” Kae said running towards Raven and putting her hands on her thighs.

“What happened to the baby gorilla, Baby?”

“The daddy bit off its leg when he was in a fight.”

“Oh goodness. That’s terrible. Did the baby look in pain when you and Daddy were watching it?”

“No. I was playing around like I do.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t hurting.”

“I know.”

Since none of us wanted to see anymore animals, we started our way to the water park section. Raven wasn’t a big water person, so she was just going to sit on a beach chair and tan.

We get inside the park and try to find seats so we could eat our lunch. We finally found four beach chairs by all the water slides, which is a good thing because, knowing Kae Kae, she is going to want to go on those multiple times. We sit down on the chairs, and Raven starts unpacking everything.

“Kae, do you want a whole or a half of a PB&J?” Raven asked while getting out a plate, the sandwich stuff and the chips.

“Only a half ‘cause I want alotta chips.” Kae giggled.

“Okay Baby.” Raven laughed.

Raven fixed her plate while Pierre and I fixed our. I also fixed Raven’s plate because I know what she likes. Kae, Pierre, and I kind of ate really fast because we were all excited to go on the slides. Pierre was the first one out of us three to finish his lunch first. Kae and I finished at about the same time. We threw out all the garbage and were getting ready to go to the slides when Raven stopped us.

“Make sure you guys keep an eye on her and don’t do anything stupid.”

“We promise” Pierre and I said at the same time.

As we were walking towards the slides, I realized that Pierre nor I had on our bathing suits.

“Um, Pierre, we need to put on our suits.”

“You’re right. I thought I was forgetting something”

We made our way to the bathrooms, and I went first to change into mine. I came out a couple minutes later to Pierre and Kae making fun of people. They usually do something crazy and/or ridiculous when they are together.

“Alright, quit making fun of people, and Pierre, go get changed.”

Pierre walked into the bathroom while I sat down on the bench and pulled Kaelyn onto one of my legs.

“What slides do you want to go on Babe?” I asked while rubbing my thumb on her leg.

“I want to go on the ones with the tubes. Is that okay Daddy?” She asked.

“Of course, Baby.”

Right after I got done saying that, Pierre came out and was ready to go. We get to where you get the tubes, and we try to figure out how we are going to go down the slide. Pierre was going to go down in a single tube, but for Kae and I, I didn’t know if we were allowed to have a single one since she was really small, or we would have a double one. We get up to the front of the line where you get the tubes, and I ask the worker.

“I have a question. What tube would I use for me and her?”

I pick Kae up so the worker could see her.

“Um, you could use a single one. I don’t think the little girl would be able to balance out the weight for the tube not to flip over.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Pierre and I both grab a single inner tube and head towards the stairs. I put my arm inside the tube so it would be easier to handle, and also, so I could hold Kae’s hand. I don’t know what Pierre was doing, so I just let him be.

The stairs were really slippery so I had to be extra careful not to slip because if I did slip, Kae would be going down with me, and that would be a bad thing.

I took us about ten minutes to get to the top. We decided that Pierre would go first because he wanted to see Kaelyn come down. The lifeguard put Pierre’s tube at the top of the slide, and he waited for the cue for him to go down. When the lifeguard told Pierre to go down, he pushed off the sides and started cheering all the way down. You could still hear him inside the slide.

Next were Kae and my turn. I put the inner tube on the top of the slide just like Pierre did and sat down in it. The lifeguard lifted Kae and put her in between my legs. I wrapped one of my arms around her and was going to use the other one to push off when the lifeguard told us it was our turn. The lifeguard gave us the cue, and Kae and I were on our way down. Kae was screaming and giggling all the way down. I was laughing too.

When I saw some light, I knew what we were almost to the bottom. When we got to the bottom, I saw Pierre standing on the stairs that led out of the pool. When he saw Kae, he cheered, and that made her cheer too. The lifeguard at the bottom of the slides let Pierre into the water to get Kae out of the tube. I slid through the tube and came back up and carried the tube out of the water.

We went on a few more slides after that.

When we were all finished, we returned the tubes back from where we got them and went to find Raven. She was where we first left her, reading a book. Kae let go of my hand and ran to Raven and told her all about the fun she had.

It was around eight, and we decided that it was time to go because it would be a matter of minutes before Kaelyn would fall asleep. I helped Raven carry all of our stuff while Pierre carried Kae to the car. When we got to the car, we loaded everything in it, and Pierre put Kae in her booster seat.

As we pulled onto the highway, I saw an exit where there was a lot of food stops. Since we haven’t eaten dinner yet, I asked Pierre and Raven if I should stop. They said yes, so I pulled into a McDonalds drive thru. I ordered what everyone wanted and we just ate in the car.

Right after Kae was done eating, she was out like a light, and I knew she would be out until the next morning. Shortly after she fell asleep, Pierre and Raven both did too.

I put on some music quietly so I could stay awake and just thought about how my life was going. I had a beautiful wife and daughter, who I would do anything for, and an awesome family.

The one thing I wanted in my life was to see my children happy, and today, I got what I wanted.