Zac's eyes opened slowly.
Sighing loudly he turned to the crib sitting across the room. "A
nineteen year old brother with kids should friggin get an apartment
already!" Despite the fact he had been awoken by either his niece or
nephew's midnight crying sessions for 6 weeks out of the past two months,
Zac said it quietly. The crying continued and Zac flapped his arms on the
bed. "Taylor." Zac rolled his eyes. No response. Throwing himself
to a sitting position he looked towards his brothers bed. "This really is
stupid. Dumb freak over here needs to move out!" Zac stood up quietly
and walked to the crib where Tristan let out another gurgling cry and Zac
reached into the crib. Lifting the two-month-old from his bed Zac wrapped
a light blanket around him and pulled him next to his body. "Kay now. I'm
holding you, and your sposed to be quiet so do it." Tristan didn't seem to
think so. He belted out another howl and Zac sighed. "Fine. Fine. I'm
moving around now see." Zac walked slowly to the door, talking quietly all
the while. "That wasn't too bad huh. Kay now, downstairs we go." He
walked like he was walking on eggs, taking a pause before continuing to the
next step as he made his way to the kitchen. "Why am I doing this? Your
dad should be doing this. It's…oh wow! Gee! Could you have waited at least
another half hour until 4? I think there's a they re run rikki then." Zac
nodded down at Tristan. "Where's your mom anyway. How come your not
with her? And your sister. Sheesh. Breaking you two up at birth. Sad sad
people I tell ya." He sub-conciously rocked the baby and walked, making
his way to the fridge. "How's about a midnight snack." Zac pulled the
door to the fridge open and stared in at a shelf half full of already made
bottles. "Oh look! The milk bar! Hey Tristan, ever wonder if they come
flavored? Do you even HAVE taste buds yet." Tristan had begun to grow
quieter, and mumbled and sputtered as Zac continuely talked to him. "Do
you like yours on the rocks? No, sorry kid you'd choke on the ice." Zac
popped the lid off the bottle and opened the microwave door. "Instant
breakfast, lunch, AND dinner! You lucky baby you!" Shutting the door
quietly he punched in a minute and pressed the start button. Continuing to
walk around with Tristan in his arms his feet shuffled on the floor. "You
know what. You get heavier by the minute kid. Oh my god. My poor arm. You
better not do anything your not supposed to, got it. Save the diapers for
Taylor." The baby had quieted down now, and wiggled its fingers,
occasionally letting out a weird noise. "What was that?" Zac frowned
and pulled the blanket up around Tristan more. The microwave dinged
and he quickly made his way to it, popping the door open and putting the lid
back on. "There we go. Lookie there. Ick. How can you eat this formula
stuff. Poor kid. Just wait, candy bars and corn puffs. You'll love em." He
made sure the milk wasn't too hot and lifted the bottle up to Tristan, who took
it greatfuly and drank, letting out quick gasps as he tried to eat
faster. "Woah. Look at that sucker go. As long as you don't like, spew on
me your okay." He tipped the bottle up and walked to the living
room. "Now. I think there may be a good show on. Should we
look?" Tristan paused, as if to agree with Zac, then resumed
sucking. "Okay. I'll take that as a yes." Zac picked up the clicker of the
television and turned it on, turning the volume down so as not to wake
anyone else. Tristan gurgled and Zac shifted him to the other
arm. "You weigh a ton kid. I bet a bowling ball weighs less then
you." Tristan continued eating, his stomach rising and falling with each
breath. Zac watched his late night show from the sofa, his feet up under
him and Tristan in his lap. He went from the tv to Tristan and back again,
making sure nothing went wrong in the process.
Taylor and Mercy had agreed to share baby duties until they could find a
house or apartment that would suit their wants. So far there had been none,
so they had agreed that, nights where Taylor didn't have them both, Mercy
would have them, and nights where Mercy didn't have them, Taylor would.
Those sort of days were rare, only because twins was a lot to take care of
and neither of them could successfully give either child what they needed
right then. Other nights, Taylor got one, and Mercy got one, they alternated
kids every couple days and had them together during the day. Tristan was
the best of the two, he only woke up one to two times a night, and slept most
of the day. Arianna however, never slept more then two hours, and kept
whoever had her one night, ragged and tired. Their names had been decided
literally 5 minutes after they had come themselves, Tristan Damian and
Arianna Brittany, names Taylor's mother had giggled about and Dorin had
simply nodded about. Zac looked down again at his nephew, who now,
had his eyes drooping and his bottle sucking slowing down to a stop then,
starting up suddenly again. Zac reached up and took a small hand in his
fingers. "Look at these little things. To think. Those are going to be this big
when you get older." Zac played with the small fingers and pulled the
sleeve to the babies sleeper down. "Didn't know you liked babies." Zac
let go of the hand and snapped his head up. Taylor stood up from his spot
on the stairs. Looking down at Tristan Zac pretended to ignore his
brother. "I watched you the whole time. Didn't know you knew how to
make bottles either." Zac shivered once and lifted the bottle a little higher,
making sure no air went along with that milk. "Your good with him." Zac
didn't respond but continued watching the baby drink. "You could probably
babysit them if you ever wanted to." Zac jerked his head up. "Taylor cut
the bull shit." Taylor walked to the couch and sat down on the other end.
Away from his brother and the sleeping baby. "What Bull shit. That's my
kid your holding, I'm talking about my kid, not you. Gotta problem." Zac
shivered again. It wasn't like Taylor to dance around. He was more blunt,
more blunt then Isaac was at this stage, this was weird, he wasn't getting to
the point and the fact Zac and him hadn't had an honest and brotherly
conversation for almost a year wasn't helping. "I don't have a
problem." "Oh. Yeah. Like, you don't have a problem with Ike, 'cept
everytime he happens to show up you somehow disappear, or how I still
wonder if you and your little buddy are on drugs cause you're never home,
and instead your with those girls, or with some grungy friend of yours. Or
what you guys talk about when you aren't home. Or why you and your friend
treat everyone but eachother like shit anymore and expect the rest of the
world to ignore it. That's not a problem to you? You don't see that?" Zac
stared at the TV. "Cause as far as I can tell you're one stuck up little snot
that needs his ass kicked." "Oh, and I spose your going to take care of
that right. Like you're going to make it all better cause your Taylor Hanson.
You make everything better." "No." "Yeah right. Then why are my
problems any of your business." "You’re my brother." "So. So's Ike and
yet, you aren't talking to him about this, you don't even see him
anymore." "Oh really. I spend more time with him then I do thinking about
how much of a little ass your being, and that's saying a lot." Zac scowled.
He would raise his voice, and yell and scream at Taylor, but he had Tristan.
And Tristan was a good excuse. "So then what Taylor. What do you want
me to say now. You want me to get on my knees and beg for fogiveness.
Want me to say I'm sorry for everything that's happened between us. All three
of us. I can't. Cause it takes all three of us." "You’re the one who treats us
like shit." "You’re the one who has no faith in me. Who treats me like 'the
little brother' ALL the time. Even when we first got started. I was the little kid. I
was the one that everyone had to look out for and you know it. I can handle
myself. You could handle yourself, so why didn't you leave me alone to do
what I needed to do." "On drugs." "That had nothing to do with you!
Nothing would have happened. No one would have got hurt. I'm not
dumb." "You are dumb. Drugs period are a bad thing. Look at Jem. Look
at what it did to him. He's got a kid now that he can't go see all the time
because of drugs, he's got a little brother that for the first 10 years of his life
said a whole of 6 words to him a week." "What?!" Zac stared angrily at
Taylor. "Your little buddy Zac had a hell of a childhood, and I'm not
blaming the drugs on that. Cause no one has to do drugs." "What about
his childhood. You leave Zac outta this damn you he has nothing to do with
you." "HE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH ME!" Zac drew back and
looked down to make sure the baby was still sleeping. "You are HIS
friend. Look at what you two did! You can't say he has nothing to do with me
damnit!" Taylor sighed. "You fucked up." "How the hell do you
figure." "You did something stupid, really stupid, and to cover your tracks
you piled one lie on top of another. Then you did the worst thing you could
have possibly done and you lost the two best friends you will ever have in
your life time. You killed something Zac. You did something to what me and
Ike had in you and you ripped everything we had as brothers apart. You did it
Zac. You broke that friendship and then you walked all over the pieces. You
can't go back now. There is NOTHING you can do about that. No matter
what. You can't turn around tomorrow and say you want to go back cause you
just can't do that." Zac licked his lips. Pulling the almost empty bottle out
of Tristan's mouth he set it on the end table. "You will NEVER have that
Zac. Ever. You lost it." Taylor stood up and walked to Zac, reaching down
and taking Tristan from him. Situating the baby in his own arms, Taylor
walked to the steps. Turning back he sighed. "You lost it Zac. Everything
we had. It's gone." He walked up the steps and Zac heard the door to the
bedroom close. Leaning back and placing his hands over his face he let
out a sob. Laying down he cried.
