[COMPLETE] The Boy Next Door - A Luke Brooks FanFic

Chapter 50 - Leaving the Birds Nest

A few weeks had passed since little baby Zachary had entered our lives. It was amazing how much one tiny little human could change your life so dramatically in such a short amount of time. I'll admit, it was a definitely a challenge, going from sleeping a good eight hours a night to being lucky if you got three hours, but Luke and I were managing to deal with it perfectly fine. Nappy changing certainly wasn't Luke's favourite part of being a father, he usually scrambled to find excuses to give that job to me, but he learnt quickly.

Parenting was a lot more difficult than I had initially expected, perhaps it was due to our young ages, or maybe it was due to being so far from our parents, depriving them from regularly seeing their first grandchild. Despite all of the hardships that came with being a parent, it was definitely made a great deal easier by having so many of our amazing, irreplaceable friends living with us, each one of them would jump at the chance to help out whenever they could. Harper was always the first one to offer to bathe Zac, Beau was the one who loved to feed and burp him, Jai loved putting him to sleep in the evenings, Andrea enjoyed picking out his outfits for the day, Daniel always had Zachary in his arms whenever he could get the chance, and James was amazing at playing little games with him.

Since taking the huge step to move from Melbourne to LA, the group and I had grown even closer than we were before, we had literally become a big, tight-knit family. Family, to me, didn't have anything to do with blood or DNA. It was about real love and real bonds. That's what I had learned since moving out there. I knew that each and every one of my friends would be with me until the very end, we had each other's backs, and I couldn't have spent the last few months living in Los Angeles with a better group of people.

————————

The sunrise always looked it's most beautiful in the winter. The way it gradually changed colours the further up the sky went, and how the morning, frosty mist gave it more of a subtle, pastel colour. Sunrises had become one of my favourite things since becoming a mother.

It was now mid February, around 6am, and I had been up with Zac for a few hours now. He was still finding it difficult to sleep all the way through the night, meaning Luke and I didn't get much sleep either, but that was okay, because ultimately, we were a team after all.

I was sitting out on the porch, a thick, jet black faux blanket wrapped tightly around Zac and I, and my free hand gripped a warm cup of coffee. I was analysing the sky as it transformed from burnt orange to powder blue, when I heard Luke creep up behind me and plant a gentle, welcoming kiss on my left cheek, a cup of coffee in his hand also.

"I'm getting used to these early mornings," his voice croaked out, still sounding sleepy.

After a while of admiring the morning sky and sipping our coffee together in silence, I figured that I needed to express what had been playing on my mind since a few days before.

"I think it's our time to leave the birds nest," I declared solemnly, not taking my eyes off of our view. Despite not making eye contact with him, I was able to feel his eyes burning into me almost immediately, however I wasn't sure of what his reaction would be. I attempted desperately to find any indication of emotion on his face, but this time, I was unable to read him.

"So we're just supposed to pack up and leave, leave everyone behind?" he finally spoke. "They've done so much for us these past few months Chrissy, and now we're just leaving them?"

"We can't stay here forever Luke, we aren't kids anymore. We need our own space to raise Zachary."

"Where would we go?" he questioned, his jaw clenching slightly, he was pissed off.

"Look, I'm not saying we should move back to Melbourne. I'm saying that we're growing up, faster than everyone else considering we're raising a child now. All I'm saying is we need our own home now, we can't spend the rest of our lives living with our friends. Eventually they're gonna grow too, have their own families. Unfortunately, it just happens to be us having to make the first move."