Till Death Do Us Apart

-10-

"Niko, please stop crying. We always go through the same thing every day." Tom tried to comfort the crying child but Niko wouldn't stop crying.

Niko was wailing in the middle of the room not wanting to sit on the table where books and more books were waiting for him as well as his lecturer who sat on the table unfazed with Niko's tantrum. It's the same thing every day, Niko stands in the middle of the room and cries until he gets tired, then he has to read, write his name, count to 100, and learn something new. There hasn't been a single day where Niko doesn't enter the room crying.

Niko's vision was blurry from the tears flowing continuously out of his eyes and then down his cheeks and his face was red from the screams that he let out.

"Damn, you got some lungs." Tom kneeled to Niko's height and wiped the tears that flowed down but they never stopped. "Niko, once you're done with your lessons, we'll go take a nap so stop crying and let's get done with this." Tom stood up and tried pulling Niko towards his seat but Niko screamed louder and punched Tom's hand until he was let go and dropped to the floor.

"Niko. Don't you ever hit me again. Now sit on that chair or I'll make sure you'll never play with a toy again." Tom pointed at the chair and kept his tone down since screaming at a distressed child would get his tongue cut off.

Niko glared at Tom through his blurred vision, slowly got up, and sat down in his chair still soaked in tears but his wailing quieted down.

"I'm sorry for that." Tom apologized to the lecturer but he just waved dismissively and smiled.

"It's fine, I get paid hourly anyways." The lecturer then turned to Niko and handed Niko a thick book, "Here, start reading this out loud."

Tom left the room, closed the door behind him, and took Kyle downstairs.

"He's such a crybaby," Kyle said when he was wiped down by Tom. He was using a damp towel to wipe the sweat and dirt from Kyle's face, neck, and arms.

"Kyle don't start now, my head hurts." Tom was done wiping Kyle and changed him into a different attire. Kyle now wore another pair of shorts and a plain white blouse as well as new socks.

"How old are you?" Tom asked not knowing what he was supposed to do with Kyle as he seemed to be old enough to not need naps.

"Ten."

"You don't feel tired or cranky do you?" Tom asked in case he was feeling tired or cranky because he didn't feel like having to go through another round of crying and stubbornness.

"No, but it seems like you are. Go take a nap, I'll be at the library." Kyle then headed back upstairs to the library with Tom behind him.

Tom went straight to the comfortable chair and once he laid down, he started snoring. While Kyle grabbed a random book and began reading. When it was positive that Tom wasn't going to wake up soon, Kyle quickly put the book down and ran out of the library. He found the study room's door cracked open and peeked in.

All Kyle saw was Niko sitting on the chair and he was still sniffling. His lecturer wasn't in the room so Kyle walked in and went straight to Niko.

"You're still crying?" Kyle asked as he looked down at the wet pages Niko was writing on.

"Shut up and leave me alone." Niko squeaked out and continued writing.

"Oh, you're learning to write in cursive," Kyle said and noticed the interesting squiggly lines Niko called letters. "You can't even understand your writing."

"I just learned to write months ago and now they want me to write in cursive! I hate this!" Niko looked up at Kyle briefly before looking back down and started to cry again.