I Am Invincible

Zach’s POV

I’m pretty sure the bones in my left hand were crushed to pieces by the time Kirsten gave birth to Kayden at 3:37 in the morning. The nurses kept him in the room long enough to tell us that we had a son before whisking him off to be cleaned up and all that other shit that they do so that your kid actually looks like a human child and not some slimy creature from the swamp or something. He was brought back to us a few minutes later wrapped in a pale yellow blanket and screaming his head off like his mother was doing not too much earlier. As well as breaking my hand, Kirsten was shrieking in pain. Every second word that came out of her mouth was ‘fuck’ and she threatened to kill me at least a dozen times for getting her pregnant in the first place in amongst all the swearing. If the nurses hadn’t told me to shut up, I would’ve argued that it wasn’t my fault she’d forgotten to take her pill, but they reminded me that she had other things to worry about just then and she wasn’t thinking straight. I knew otherwise though; I had received a death threat from Kirsten nearly every day for the past six months she’d been living at my apartment for knocking her up. So yeah, you could say I was unsurprised by the amount of times Kirsten explained to me in between all the swearing just how brutally she was going to murder me.

When the nurses came in holding the screaming yellow bundle that was my child, Kirsten immediately stopped explaining what sharp object she was planning on using to cut my balls off with (nail scissors, in case you were wondering) and reached out to the nurse carrying Kayden, who handed him over to her straight away. Amazingly, he stopped crying almost instantly, and he stared up at his mother silently. I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced around, my eyes finding my best friend. I leaned back against him and he took that as a sign to wrap his arms around my waist and let me rest my head back on his shoulder before I fell over.

“Gorgeous,” Ryan told me, looking over my shoulder at my baby. “Have you decided on a name?”
“Mhmm,” I replied. “Kayden.”
“Mm, nice,” he murmured, and nuzzled his head into my shoulder.
One of the nurses was very interested in what was going on with Ryan and me, and decided to ask.
“I’m sorry but… Are you two together?”
“Oh my god, no,” Ryan replied, seeming legitimately shocked that anyone could come up with that conclusion, “Zacky’s my best friend. We’ve always been like this for as long as I can remember, but we’ve never dated…” he trailed off and muttered so that I could only hear him, “…We have done shit before, but you don’t need to know that, now, do you Ms. Nosy.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing and Kirsten looked up at us in amusement, obviously noticing the fact that Ryan wasn’t too happy that this nurse was butting into our business.

“Hey, Zach?” Kirsten asked, “Wanna hold your son?”
“Yeah…” I replied uncertainly. The nurse who had asked the question that pissed Ryan off giggled and gently took Kayden out of Kirsten’s outstretched arms.
“Here, it’s easy,” she said, and placed Kayden slowly in my arms. “See, you’re a natural… look at that, see?”

I had tuned the annoying nurse out as soon as Kayden was securely in my arms and I was looking down at him. Big blue eyes that matched Kirsten’s perfectly stared back at me, but the small amount of black hair that resided on Kayden’s head matched mine. He was perfect, and he was mine. My son. Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to be a father, but having my baby sitting in my arms changed my mind completely. I loved him unequivocally, even though I had only just met him. My perfect son.

-*~- Five months later -~*-

After a few days, both Kirsten and Kayden were allowed home from the hospital and I was stressing out that my apartment wouldn’t be big enough for three adults and a baby, but both Ryan and Kirsten assured me that it was perfectly adequate. Which, of course, it was, I was just being ridiculous.

Ryan, Kirsten and I spent a lot of our time cooing over Kayden, squealing when he did something cute and probably just annoying the shit out of him actually. I don’t think he’s been left alone even once since he came home from the hospital. Unfortunately, I was probably the one out of Ryan, Kirsten and I who got to spend the least amount of time with my son. I had to take up a lot of extra shifts at the ice-creamery to pay for bills and food and stuff. I never realised before how expensive a baby could be, but it was much more expensive to live than it was when there were only three adults living in the apartment. I didn’t mind though, I liked the idea that I was providing not only for myself, but for my baby too and so I happily worked nearly all day, every day.

At the beginning of May, on Kayden’s five month birthday in fact, I struggled to climb up the stairs to my apartment because I was so tired after working a double shift. It was late-night shopping that night too, which I wasn’t all that pleased about; it meant that all the local teenagers would be hanging around causing trouble, and, sure enough, I had to stop at least three different fights during my shift that night.

Anyway, I didn’t think I’d ever make it up the three flights of stairs, but I eventually reached the door that my key fitted into. I was looking forward to saying a quick hello to Kayden, Kirsten and Ryan and then sleeping until the next afternoon, when I had another shift. When I stumbled through the front door, I spotted Kirsten and Ryan sitting on the couch with Kayden happily sitting in his high chair next to them.

“Hey there, buddy,” I said, and made my way over to him. I kissed the top of his head and he squealed in delight, kicking his legs happily and making me grin.

I turned to my friends, who were staring at me. “Hey,” I greeted slowly. “What’s wrong?”
Silently, Ryan handed me a white envelope with a small amount of black handwriting on the front. I frowned in confusion and took it off him, glancing at the front. The only writing was my name, in a hand I didn’t recognise. My brow furrowed even more as I slowly opened the envelope and dragged the cardboard out, flipping it over to the front.

I stared in disbelief. I re-read what the invitation said five times, and the extra handwritten bit, so different to that on the envelope, that was scrawled on the bottom at least twenty, before I silently handed it to Ryan, just so that he can tell me if I was seeing things or not.

His face lit up in a grin, and he handed it back, muttering a “finally.”
“What’s going on?” Kirsten asked, and Ryan leaned over to whisper in her ear. I ignored them and read the palm-sized piece of cardboard one more time.

I skimmed over the details about the prom, and went straight to the messy handwritten bit at the bottom.

Zacky,
I’m sorry. For everything.
I love you.
You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to go to prom with.
Be my date?
-Cam x