The War of Hearts | Bensler

My Boy

He ain't got my smile, that don't bother me a bit
He's got somebody else's eyes. I'm seeing myself in
I'm holding on to every moment, God knows I've missed a few
The day we met, I knew I had some catching up to do

Elliot slowly opened his sleep-filled eyes, looking around, trying to piece together the events of the night before. At some point throughout the night, they must have shifted because he was now on his back with Olivia’s head on his chest and her arms loosely wrapped around his torso. He looked over at his phone, sitting on the nightstand. It was only 7:00 am, which wasn’t unusually early for him, but it was too early for him to risk waking her up, especially on her day off. As he ran through the events of the previous night, in his head, he smiled to himself.  After a few minutes, he began to hear some quiet movement from the kitchen. Noah was up. He and the boy had gotten along quite well on their car ride the day before, but he still wasn’t too sure what the kid thought of him. He slowly eased his way out from Olivia’s grasp and quietly left the room.

He ain't my blood, ain't got my name
But if he did, I'd feel the same
I wasn't there for his first steps
But I ain't missed a ball game yet
And that ain't ever gonna change
I could never walk away
Yeah, he's my son and that's my choice
He ain't my blood but he's my, he's my boy

“You’re up early” Elliot said as he walked into the living room where he saw Noah sitting on the couch, playing with the Nintendo Switch that Elliot only recognized because of his grandchildren’s addiction to theirs. “Morning Elliot” the boy said with a smile before returning his attention to the video game. Elliot was shocked by how unbothered the boy was about his presence, but he let it go. He walked into the kitchen and began making coffee, it wasn’t anywhere near what he made in his machine at home, but it would have to do.

It hit me like a train, the first time he called me dad
In a three stick figure crayon picture with all of us holding hands
His mama said, "I understand if it's too soon for this"
I didn't let her finish
I took it to the kitchen and I stuck it on the fridge, yeah

“Is my mom still sleeping?” Noah asks from the seat he had just taken at the breakfast bar, having abandoned his game. “Yeah, had a rough time getting to sleep last night” Elliot responded calmly, not wanting to worry the boy. To his shock Noah was completely unfazed by this fact “She does that a lot, or she wakes up really really early” he told Elliot innocently. Elliot noted the information but didn’t push the subject, even though he wanted to. Instead, he went about making pancakes for them both, saving some for Olivia. As he cooked, they discussed everything from his upcoming dance recital to the intricacies of his favorite video game, none of which Elliot understood but he would have Jet explain to him later. Once they sat down with their plates the conversation took a turn that caught Elliot off guard.