Lights Out • 1 • Formula One ✔️

Chapter 19

"Teddy! You can't play with that!"

Okay. I might have underestimated how challenging it would be to deal with a young child for more than four hours on my own. Since I came straight back to the hotel after the race with Teddy, I had to look after him on my own for longer. The others weren't planning on returning until about nine or ten this evening, which means I've got at least another four hours.

"Please, Teddy!" The child was slowly getting on my nerves, especially since he was very close to breaking some of the ornaments in the hotel room. "That's not a toy." I grabbed the small shot glass from his tiny hands, placing it up onto a shelf where he couldn't reach.

"But I'm bored." Teddy drawled out, lying down on the floor and pouting. "And I'm hungry."

"You had cake literally an hour ago, how can you possibly be hungry? Besides, dinner isn't for another half an hour." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. Teddy groaned, crossing his arms across his chest. He looked pretty annoyed and honestly I felt the same.

"Can you start dinner now? I'm really hungry." Teddy looked up at me with those big brown eyes, a trick he had obviously been practicing over his short life.

"What's the magic word?"

"Abracadabra!" Teddy cheered. I gave him a stern look before he let out a loud sigh. "Fine, please?"

"Thank you. I'll start it now if you help me."

***

Never trust a three year old with mixing. Ever. I literally gave him the bowl whilst I reached up into the cupboard for more of the ingredients and he managed to spill half of it onto the side. Luckily he didn't get any on his clothes because I only had his pyjamas with me.

It took a while but an edible dinner was eventually made. The process killed an hour of the time, even though it really should've taken only fifteen minutes. After serving, it took another half and hour for Teddy to be finished but at least he was quiet during this time.

It wasn't long after eating that the "I'm bored"s started again.

"We could watch a movie until your mum gets back?" I suggested.

"I have some DVDs in my bag." Teddy announced, running off into the other room to grab his small Spider-Man backpack. He pulled out two different movies, The Lion King and Mulan, before deciding on the first one. "I've seen Mulan too many times already this week" was his reasoning.

Whilst I was waiting for the DVD to load in the player, I had the difficult task of helping Teddy with his pyjamas. Since it was beginning to get to the time where he gets tired, I figured it'll be easier in the long run if he were to get changed now when he's not half asleep.

"Please just sit still." I sighed, gently pulling the shirt over his head. His wriggling and inability to sit still made getting his arms through their respective holes rather difficult. Teddy reluctantly complied, giving me a five second window to get his shirt on properly. The bottoms were surprisingly easier as he wasn't really kicking too much so he was dressed for bed in under five minutes.

Teddy ran back out of the bedroom and launched himself onto the sofa excitedly. "Hurry up!" He impatiently groaned, noticing that the title menu was displayed.

After folding up his clothes neatly, I walked back into the living and sat next to Teddy on the sofa. He immediately sat on my lap, curling up against me as I hit play on the remote. When he's like this, quiet and peaceful, Teddy is an absolute dream. If only he were always like this.

The Lion King is one of my favourite films even to this day - you're never to old for Disney. I was probably more engaged in the film than Teddy was as he looked as if he could fall asleep any moment.