˗ˏˋOur Differences Sequelˊˎ˗

-12-

When I walked downstairs the next morning, Nick was running around the house completely naked.

Dylan only gets to see Nick on holidays or rare occasions when he's home in Tennessee. And as soon as Dylan goes back to New Jersey, Nick goes right back to Alexis.

Dylan and Alexis have been separated for about a year now, and Dad's pretty pissed off about it. He's mostly mad at Dylan for leaving Alexis with a load of responsibility. Dylan does his best when he's home to take care of Nick, though. He's matured a lot.

"Put clothes on your kid." I said harshly while sitting down at the table for breakfast.

Dylan shot me a glare. "I'm teaching him to be comfortable with himself."

"I'm not sure that's the correct way to teach him that." Mom commented, and put a plate of pancakes in front of me.

Dylan ignored all of us and pulled out a chair so Nick could eat too. I immediately spoke up.

"Seriously? Not while we're eating."

Dad shook his head. "Go put clothes on him, please."

"Fuckers." Dylan muttered and picked up his child, before going upstairs to clothe him.

We started eating without him, and when he came back downstairs, Nick started chewing on his fork, making weird scraping sounds with his teeth.

"Is that a yummy fork, Nick?" Mom chuckled.

He mumbled a few baby slurs and then slammed the fork down on the plate. Dad and I jumped from the loud noise.

"Do you want to show them what you got?" Dylan grinned at Nick excitedly.

Nick nodded and turned his arm sideways so we could all see his temporary tattoo of a dinosaur.

"Wow!" Mom gasped. "I love that."

Dad nodded in agreement. "That's really awesome, Nick."

We finished breakfast, and then Dylan went to go hang out with Brandon, Austin, and Quinn. He took Nick with him, which I thought was cute.

"He's pretty attached to his kid, surprisingly." I said while helping Dad clean the table.

"I know." he laughed. "Those two are best friends. When Dylan's home, they do everything together."

It was actually pretty wholesome, considering how far away Dylan lives and how rare it is that he's ever home. I guess it makes sense for him to spend all of his time with Nick before not seeing him for a long time.

"Are you going anywhere today?" Dad asked me.

I gave a nod, even though I wasn't exactly planning to. "Yeah, if you need me to."

He glanced to the pantry and let out a sigh.
"Normally, I'd do it myself, but I don't have time to go to the store today. I have four back to back meetings, and they don't go short ever."

If there's anything to know about my Dad, it's that he works his ass off. Too much sometimes. Dad grew up poor. His parents threw a lot of responsibility on his shoulders at a young age, and he's always had to work his way to a better life. Even know, when he has more money than he could ever ask for, he still works and rarely takes a break. I really admire him for that. It's kind of inspiring.

"Don't worry about it." I replied casually. "I don't have any other plans today, so I'll go. Do you have a list?"

"Just the general stuff." he said and slipped a piece of paper towards me, along with a pen.
"Of course, you can add whatever you want. And call Dylan and ask for his input. I want both of you to be well fed when you're home."