The Girl Behind The Glasses

Chapter 1: Our Little Braelynn

Authors Note: that's probably Andy with Willow, but let's just pretend that it's his child.

2 Years Later

"Anna, I'm home!" Andy yelled up to me and the door slammed behind him. I winced as I waited for the crying to start from Braelynn's room. Crow ran into the bedroom before the screeching filled the house and I sighed as I got up from the bed, taking the car seat with me as I went into the nursery. The nursery walls were purple with appropriate band logos, lyrics, and quotes written in black paint. I had to yell at Chris Cerulli since he almost dropped an f-bomb when I invited him and the rest of his band over to paint. She's only seven months old guys, let's keep it rated G.

I smiled at Braelynn and picked her up from her crib, carefully supporting her head and body as I set her in the car seat. For some reason the only way to get her to stop crying is to put her in the car seat and gently rock her, then she'll fall asleep.

"Let's go tell daddy he's too loud." I kissed her forehead and picked up the seat by the handle, walking downstairs to the kitchen to find Andy digging through the fridge with a beer in his hand. I wish he would stop drinking. He closed the fridge door and smiled at us as I set her down on the table. He smiled and kissed our daughter's head, then sat down in the chair as he pulled me onto his lap. I hissed as his fingers ran across the tender still healing scar from when I had my c-section.

"I'm sorry babe, I forgot." I rolled my eyes and leaned back into his chest as I gently rocked the car seat. Her eyes started to slowly drift closed. "I missed you and our little Braelynn today." Clearly you missed the alcohol, too. I stared at the beer that sat unopened on the table.

"We missed you, too." He pressed his lips to mine as he lifted me off the chair, moving to the counter and standing in between my legs. He opened the cupboard above my head and took out the healing cream. I frowned and he sighed as the put some on his fingers. "No, that stuff burns."

"I know, but if you don't put it on your scar won't heal correctly. Now lean back." I groaned as I lay back on the counter with my knees bent so I could fit my whole torso. As he rubbed the cream on, I couldn't help but continue to stare at the bottle of beer.

About a month after Braelynn was born, Andy started to drink more...a lot more. He would go out with the guys and party until the early hours of the morning, then stumble into the house, almost wake up the baby, and repeat the cycle the next night. This has been going on for six months now. I'm starting to get really worried because he would get annoyed at the slightest things when he was drunk. Things like if his dinner was cold when he got home at one in the morning, or if there were a few dirty baby bottles on the counter. I don't even want to know what would happen if he found something worse than that. I have started to cherish the few times when he was sober.

"Anna? What's wrong?" He helped me sit up and put his hands on my shoulders as he looked into my eyes. I sniffled and wiped my eyes. Even though it's been like two and a half years, I still find it weird to have clear tears instead of the old usual tears of blood.

"Nothing. Just hormones going crazy." He sighed and wrapped his arms around me while I cried into his shoulder. I missed the old Andy; the one that didn't drink and would sit for two hours straight watching Braelynn sleep just to make sure she was safe.

I pulled away and slid off the counter, picked up the car seat and walked back up the stairs with the now sleeping child. Maybe I could talk to Andy about this after I put her back in bed. I heard his footsteps follow me up the stairs and into the nursery. He better not have that bottle of beer with him. I carefully lifted the sleeping child out of the seat and placed her in the crib, making sure she was on her back with nothing else in the crib that could cause her to suffocate. Andy came up behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. Things are going to possibly get messy in a few minutes. We each kissed Braelynn's cheek and went into our own room down the hall on the opposite side. When the door closed, the atmosphere changed between us.