The Sidemen Baby

Chapter 16

Ethan's POV:

If you're going to make an important decision without me, I'll make an important decision without you.

Veronica sat in the baby kangaroo pouch on my chest and batted at the bars, gasping and wriggling excitedly. 

Let's take a vote. It has to be unanimous.

I set her down infront of them both. They were grinning excitedly and shuffled forward to see her.

"I'll support you. Either way. I trust you to know what you want."

She stared with an expression of pure joy, looking between the two of them eagerly. The keeper gave them the command, and I watched nervously as they burst forwards towards her.

But she wasn't worried. 

The left one was bouncing around her. It couldn't calm down. It just excited Veronica more.

Would it really matter what I had to say?

The one on the right was calmer. It was eager, still, but it could contain itself. It- He was more focused on checking her out.

She would trust what I had to say. Right? She trusts me. I have to make decisions for her. She's too young. She has to trust me. Does she want to trust me?

She grabbed the left one's nose. It realed back, but after a minute it licked her fingers happily. Happy to be alive. Happy to be with her. To see a human so small that wasn't being loud.

She hasn't had anyone to trust in life. I'm the one she has to trust. She has no option. Especially when her second, the worst, son of a bitch, father doesn't have her best interests at heart. 

She looked at the right one. It licked at her hands and laid down infront of her, paws crossed and tongue hanging out. She patted him like the worker had showed her, and he ended up curled around her. 

Sometimes you have to follow your heart and make sacrifices. But who knows if they are they right ones? If they will hurt others?

"Well Cupcake? Which one do you want?"

Decisions must be made. Preferably never alone. When important decisions are made, they never just affect one person.

She looked back and forth between them. The One from the right, BlackJack, was curled around her with his oversized head in her lap. She was patting him and playing with his ears. The One from the Left, Sulu, was cautiously licking her light up sneakers and nipping at the Velcro.

Left.

Right

She looked up at me with big eyes and gave me a huge grin. She was in puppy heaven.

I got talking with one of the staff there. She brought up a dog fact and I brought up another, and by the time we were done chatting Veronica had fallen asleep ontop of her BlackJack pillow.

"Well. I think they chose each other." The lady laughed. "You'll have to pry them apart."

"We'll take him."

I filled out the application forms and tucked Ver back into the baby front pack. She woke up after I had returned the application in and was getting her into her carseat.

She yawned rubbed her eyes, looking around at me confused. "Pap? Puppa?"

"The puppies had to go to bed Cupcake. Hopefully someday soon they can come home with us. Would you like that? To have your own puppa?"

She nodded and let her eyes droop shut before opening them again.

"Pap? We go Beb bye?"

"You want us to go beddy bye? Night night?"

She nodded again and reached her little arms out to be picked up.

I couldn't help it. I gathered her into my arms and tucked her into my chest before walking her around the block a couple times until she was asleep.

I sat and watched the sun slowly set over the horizon, and I thought back on yesterday.

Why did they all turn against me? I thought I'd made a good enough point. It was Valid too.

Did nobody see that?

It hurt.

Nobody came after me when I'd left. No one thought to go see if I was okay. 

Of course this triggered the part of my brain that overthought everything, and started to believe that they weren't my true friends. But if they weren't, who was? I hung out with them. Just them, mostly.

Could I really leave them?

After a couple minutes I knew what I had to do.

With shaky hands I lifted my phone to my ear and waited for her to answer.

When she finally did, it took everything I had in me not to start crying.

"Veronica and I need a place to stay for a little while. Can we stay with you?"