Over My Head

~Dustin's P.O.V. Two years later

The moment I get out of work I'm high tailing it out of the small cafe` to the daycare center a couple blocks from my apartment complex. The minute I pull up to the daycare I'm rushing inside the slightly run down building and am greeted by the sight of Andy bawling his eyes out and one of the lady's who work there trying to calm him down. When he sees me walk threw the door he runs across the room and latch's himself onto my legs still sobbing. I pick him up and he circles his legs around my mid-section, resting his head on my shoulder. "Baby, whats wrong," I ask him. "I thought yew weft me, daddy," He whimpered out between sobs. I hug him closer to me and say," Andy I could never leave you. I love you too much. And I'm only ten minutes late." "But I missed yew daddy," He said softly now only sobbing a little. He has horrible separation issues if you can't tell. That's why I was in such a rush to get here, I new if I was just a couple minutes late he would start to panic. I'm surprised that I can even get him to go to daycare. Nodding my good bye to the woman I walk out of the building carrying Andy.

When we pull up to our apartment building in the truck I unbuckle Andy from his car seat and carry him threw the lobby. I begin my short journey up the stairs because the apartments elevator is usually broken and I don't feel like walking all the way over to check. The few people who know this information always ask me why I don't just move if the elevators always broken and my response is that its cheap and there's just enough room for both me and Andy. Ya its not in the best part of town but its good enough.

We live on floor three out of ten so it doesn't take long to get to our floor and we live in apartment 239 which is about ten doors down from the stairwell on the right side. After I unlock the door and step inside I set Andy down. He immediately runs for the living room where he had been coloring earlier and had left all his crayons scattered across the coffee table. I look at the clock next to him and it reads 6:30 so I head towards the kitchen to make dinner.

Our apartment is quite small. Right when you walk in the door on the right is the kitchen/dinning room, on the left is a hallway and straight forward is the living room. The kitchen consists of a stove, fridge, microwave, sink, dishwasher, a couple counters and some cupboards. Then there's the dinning room half which is just a high chair for Andy and a couple bar stoles pushed up to the counter for me. The living room has a medium sized television, couch, recliner, coffee table, side table, two lamps and a small book shelf. Then there's the hallway which only consists of a bathroom, my room, and Andy's room.

I'm a horrible cook so I decide that we'll just have mac and cheese and freezer bread sticks for dinner. When I have them cooking I check on Andy to make sure he's still doing okay and am not shocked to see that he had abandoned his coloring for Sesame Street. I'm about to turn and go back into the kitchen when I notice my son sucking on something that looks suspiciously like a red crayon. "Andy, what do you have in your mouth?" I ask. "Nothin," He replies turning slightly away from me. "What the fuck do you have in your mouth Andy?" I ask more sharply losing my temper easily. I swear, sometimes I wonder how he hasn't picked up on one of the many swear words I've used in front of him. Not that I'm not grateful, because I am.

Then I silently curse myself when he begins to cry. That's another thing about Andy. He's very sensitive and gets upset easily so you can't yell at him or he begins to cry. I stride across the room and scoop him into my arms, then sit down on the couch cradling him to my chest. I take the crayon out of his mouth and set it on the coffee table. "I'm sorry I yelled Andy but you shouldn't lie. Lying is bad, okay," I tell him. He sniffles once and shakes his head in confirmation.

I carry him into the kitchen and set him in his high chair, quickly buckling him in. Then I check on the food which is done so I take the bread sticks out of the oven and the mac and cheese off the burner. I mix the cheese packet, milk and butter into the noodles and get Andy his juice in a sippy cup. I then serve us both and we eat. Through out dinner Andy doesn't say a word which is surprising. But I don't question him.

When were both finished with dinner it's only 7:30 so I let Andy play in the living room for another half hour before I tuck him into his crib and read him a story. I decide to take a shower after that and then watch the television until ten when I stumble into my room. Just another normal day at the Moore house hold I think before I fall asleep.