He loves me. Vic Fuentes loves me. "Are you even going to get up anytime today?" Vic Fuentes loves me. "Dude, seriously, your daughter is throwing a fucking tantrum, can't you just get up?" Mike asks, shaking my arm. I turn my head and look at him, my vision blurry from just waking up.
"What?" I ask, sitting up. He lets out a long sigh and point towards the nursery where I can hear Copeland wailing. My heart snaps just hearing it.
"Vic and I have been trying to get her to calm down for like ten minutes," Mike says, helping me out of the bed. "She wants you." Well, that makes sense, I am her father. We walk into the nursery where Vic is holding Copeland, hopelessly bouncing her up and down in his arms slightly. He spots me and hands her over, quickly but gently.
I hold her soft body close to mine, repeatedly whispering for her to calm down and that everything is okay. I slowly turn from side to side, hoping it will help calm her down. After none of that works, I use my last resource: singing. I gently sing to her anything I can remember the words to, not caring if I sound bad or not. That ceases her crying, but I can tell she's hungry because she sucking on my shirt. "Let's go get you something to eat," I say to her, walking out of the room.
I hear Mike and Vic walking behind me as I make my way to the kitchen. I find a pack of oatmeal and start fixing that all up, placing it in the microwave and waiting. "I didn't know you could sing so well." I actually jump slightly when Vic says this, I forgot he was even here. I turn and see Mike nodding, agreeing with his older brother.
"I don't think I'm that good," I say, shrugging my shoulders and grabbing the hot bowl of oatmeal. I place it on the kitchen table, wanting it to cool down before I get it near Copeland. I feel Vic's, Mike's, and Copeland's eyes on me as I try to cool the oatmeal down by blowing on it. "Can you get me a spoon?" I ask Mike. He hands me one of Copeland's plastic spoons and I take a bite of the food I made for her. It's not really hot anymore, so I place it (and the spoon) onto the tray built into Copeland's high chair.
"Don't be so humble, you know you sounded amazing," Vic argues. I roll my eyes and get one of Copeland's bottles out of a cabinet. I get milk poured into it and close it, then put it on Copeland's tray. "Even if you weren't trying that hard, I think you sounded awesome," Vic continues. I glance at him and chuckle at how much he's smiling.
"Thanks, I guess," I say, sitting down at the kitchen table. For the time being I forgot that he told me he loved me last night, but now it's back on my mind. He loves me. But, is it weird how early into our relationship he said that? I thought that some people don't say love until a year into the relationship. Are we doing something wrong?
"You wanna do anything today?" Vic asks, sitting across from me. I see Mike roll his eyes and walk out of the kitchen. I shrug, avoiding his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asks quietly as I continue to stare past him instead of at him. I nod in reply.
"I would do something, but I don't want to leave Mike in charge of Copeland again, that wouldn't be fair," I say simply. Vic grins in that ever so slightly lopsided way he does.
"Who says we can't bring Copeland?"
• • •
"What? Copeland's never said her first word?" Vic asks before taking a sip of his chocolate shake. I shake my head and he furrows his eyebrows. "That's weird, she should have by now. Do you think she has a speech deficit?" My eyes widen and I glance down at the baby sitting on my lap.
"I hope not," I reply. "Maybe it's me, I mean, I might not have encouraged her enough to speak," I say, wiping milk off her cheek with a napkin. Vic shrugs, eating a fry.
"I bet sometimes the babies who wait the longest to speak never shut up," he says, causing me to chuckle. "Then again, you don't seem like the most talkative person. Was Katelynne?" I bite my lip and look down at the food in front of me.
"Talkative with everybody but me after she got pregnant," I answer truthfully. Vic frowns and I shrug it off. "We never hurt Copeland either, so that can't be what's stopping her. I mean, she makes a lot of noise, she's just never said a real word," I say.
Vic dips one of his fries into his milkshake and holds it loosely in his hand. "You have to get her to speak," he says. "I think it'll be easier on her the sooner she starts." I glance at Copeland again and sigh.
"I don't know how to teach a baby to talk," I say simply. Vic laughs and wipes his hair out of his face. "Why are you laughing? You think you could teach her better than me?" He frowns slightly and eats another fry. "Not so confident, are we?"
"All we really need to do is get her to say one word. Like, daddy, or something," he replies. He looks at her and says, "Can you say daddy, Cope?" She gurgles something along the lines of a mixture of saliva and milk, but she doesn't speak. "Daddy," Vic says, pointing to me.
"Oh, that's kinky," I say, laughing. Vic glares at me before shaking his head. "Copeland, say daddy," I attempt to get her to speak. She doesn't do anything. "Daddy," I repeat. "Da-dee."
"Da," Copeland says. I widen my eyes and smile at Vic. He's looking back with a similar expression.
"Daddy," I say. "You can do it, Cope. Daddy."
"Daddy."
And that's the short story of how Copeland said her first word, thanks to Vic.
YOU ARE READING
The Babysitter ✯ Kellic
Fanfiction[Completed] Kellin Quinn is a high school senior with a one year old daughter he's no longer able to take care of. His father and step mother don't support him, the mother of his child left, and it seems as though there's nobody else willing to...
